ANSWER:  I don't use outlines at all.  I stopped using outlines with a book called STRANGERS many years ago.  Interestingly, that was my first hard cover bestseller.  I operate only with a hook, an idea, a premise.  Call it what you will.  And from that point, the story begins and I don't have much of an idea of where it is going.  The characters are more crucial to me than the plot.  If the characters interest me in the first couple of chapters, then the plot is going to take care of itself because the characters will drive it places I never saw it coming.

QUESTION:  I've read three of your books and liked each more than the one before it. But there are so many. I need a short reading list, say ten more titles. Which of your books are you totally satisfied with? -- Morgan, New Brunswick

ANSWER:  I am not totally satisfied with any of them. Each time I start a novel, I have a shining vision of it in my mind. By the time that it is finished, the shining vision has become a finished script that simply can't measure up to the book in my head. Any novelist who is--or can be--honest with himself will tell you that every writing project is undertaken in high hope and completed with a humbling sense of inadequacy. When a writer claims to be completely satisfied with his work, he is inevitably one I find unreadable.

ANSWER;  By law, a copyright registration can't be obtained for a book until it has been published. The publisher--a genuine publisher, not a subsidy publisher--will apply for the copyright in your name as part of its standard business practices. Some people will tell you to mail yourself a copy by registered mail, sign for it, and leave it in the sealed package as a form of "common-law copyright," but this is wasted effort and useless in court. Although I have known publishers who tweaked the royalty statements in their favor, I've never heard of one actually stealing a book or a book idea. It doesn't happen because it isn't worth the legal risks. (In Hollywood they steal as a matter of honor, the way gang members have to kill someone as an initiation, and they relish court fights. But publishing isn't like the film business.) Some writers type a copyright notice on their title pages, but this has no legal effect and in fact identifies the author as an amateur. It's interesting that your mom was our neighbor and says I'm a nice guy, yet you appear to be afraid to give me your name or even a vague idea of your whereabouts. If your mom was the neighbor who spent three months in the hospital because of the incident with our pet gorilla, Goober, please tell her that we no longer allow him to drive our car and that, in retrospect, it does seem inexplicable to us that we ever thought it was a good idea to provide him with a pair of semiautomatic pistols.

QUESTION:  My father and I would like to know if the movie based on your book INTENSITY will ever be available on video. I would like to buy it from you if possible. --Robert, Canada

ANSWER: I've received thousands of inquiries like yours. I have no idea why Sony or Lions Gate, or whoever owns video rights to this project, has not issued it on DVD. Because it was a miniseries, it was too long to present on a single videotape; however, it would easily fit uncut on a single disc. I possess a master tape of it, but I do not own the film rights anymore, and cannot sell copies made from my master. But I do have a portfolio of really cute baby pictures of myself for which I am willing to entertain offers.

QUESTION:  My favorite book of all time is THE TAKING, and I was just wondering why I never hear anything about it? Was it not one of your favorites? Please give me the story. --Nick, California

ANSWER:  I'm perfectly happy with THE TAKING, and I receive a great deal of mail from readers who were thrilled by it. However, there's a problem with discussing this book in detail: To do so would be to give away a thumping big twist that comes only at the end. Although several million people have read it, I hope to get it in the hands of the 283 million Americans who have not yet taken a look at it. I do not, of course, think all of those 283 million are reading this column, but I hope to avoid spoiling the book for even the mere 126 million of them currently poring over these words. But if I am asked questions about THE TAKING that I can answer without giving away the game, I will happily do so.

QUESTION:  What are your other interests? Your books are so diverse in their frames of reference that it's hard to identify your key interests other than a love of music, books, and dogs. --Lynda, England

ANSWER:  My wife and I love architecture, art, and antiques, especially all manner of things from the Art Deco period, as well as Japanese Meiji bronzes, screens, and lacquerwork. We have a charitable foundation that focuses on severely disabled people as well as on critically ill kids, which occupies some of our time and energy. Then, of course, we devote hundreds of hours a year to research seeking proof that there was a fourth Stooge brother--Norbert, who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and, thus, was such an embarrassment to the Stooge family that Larry, Curly, and Moe beat him unconscious with salamis, water bladders, and hardened loaves of French bread, then stripped him of all ID, and left him with amnesia in a bazaar in Istanbul.

QUESTION:  I've read that you do not much like cats and that you are allergic to them. I've recently gotten a little 3-month-old male kitten from our local humane society and named him Sir DDK, after my favorite singer (Niel Diamond), favorite actor (Johnny Depp), and favorite author. Does little DDK have your blessing to use your name? --Karen, Illinois

ANSWER:  I like cats. I would love to have a cat. But I am so allergic to them that if I enter a house where a cat resides, the allergic reaction is so immediate that I have to inject myself with epinephrine (which I carry at all times), chug liquid Benedril, and get to a hospital to avoid falling into anaphylactic shock and suffocating as my airway swells shut. Our friend Laura Albano, to whom I dedicated LIFE EXPECTANCY, knows all this and has decided to get me a kitten for Christmas. With friends like this, who needs Satan? (Hi, Laura.) DDK is free to use my name, although actually he is only using my initial. The fee for the use of my initial is only $415 annually.

ANSWER:  I never miss an episode of "Dancing with Dead Celebrities," which is, admittedly, gruesome, but entertaining. William Shatner is terrific hosting "Show Me the Money and I'll Show You What's In My Pants." The new "Survivor," which pits a team of humans, smeared in butter, against a pack of hungry wolves, promises to provide the obnoxious contestants with a suitable fate at last.

ANSWER:  Thanks for your kind words, Rob. There will be a fourth episode in Odd's life, and maybe more. He is on an epic journey, and I have no idea where it will lead him--except that as he deals with the real problems of life and with the supernatural, he will always be Odd, maturing in mind and heart, but always fully aware of the comic and the tragic qualities of life that are entwined in every moment of our existence. I have to finish a very special novel slated for autumn 2007, and of course FRANKENSTEIN #3, but then I will follow Odd to whatever epiphany he leads me.

QUESTION:  Why are the Frankenstein books only published in paperback or Large Print hardback? I am a collector. How could I get copies of the first two books in regular hardback? --Michelle, writing from only God knows where

ANSWER:  The books appeared only in paperback and as co-written ventures because of what, in retrospect, seems to me to be bad agent advice. Through the experience of the first two volumes, I learned that I could not collaborate. That's not the fault of my co-writers. It's a character flaw in me. They did their job; but I found I could not work with other people's material and had to start from scratch. Considering the popularity of these books, if I had never gone down the collaborator route and had published them first in hardcover, they would have done well and would exist in that more permanent form. After the third has been published, a small press may issue them in hardcover editions. Stay tuned to this web site for the full scoop.

ANSWER:  If I had your mom-in-law's address and phone number, I would start gently, diplomatically, with "reminder" calls at 1:00 a.m. and every hour thereafter until dawn. If you didn't have your books back by breakfast, I would politely explain that I intended to break her knees. If you didn't have the books back by lunch, I would arrive on your mom-in-law's front porch, ring the doorbell, and break her knees with a Louisville slugger when she opened the door. For convenience, let's call your mom-in-law Anastasia. If someone other than Anastasia answered the door, I would, of course, be courteous to that person, quietly explain the reason for my call, and request the pleasure of a visit with Anastasia, for the purpose of breaking her knees. If the person answering the door--for convenience, let's call him Burt--refused to summon the book-thieving lady, you might imagine that I would break his knees, but you would be so very wrong. Burt has done nothing to me and has not misappropriated your books. I am not a violent man, only one who cherishes justice. With the Louisville slugger, I would rap Burt on the top of the head just precisely hard enough to render him unconscious for nine and a half minutes, hereafter I would once more ring the doorbell. If Anastasia did not respond, I would step over Burt, into the foyer, and call out, "Yoohoo, is anyone home?"

Perhaps Anastasia keeps a pet parrot. For convenience, let's call the parrot Mr. Feathers. In answer to my neighborly "Yoohoo," Mr. Feathers might be expected to disgorge a shocking stream of four-letter words learned in his youth when he was the pet of a pirate. Alternately, he might request a few crackers or express his fondness for crackers, or he might inform me that Anastasia has gone to the supermarket to purchase crackers. With Anastasia at the market, I would discreetly search the house, locate your books, and retrieve them for you. In the course of the search, it's likely that I would notice that Anastasia's housekeeping does not in every regard meet my high standards. This is not to say that your mom-in-law lives in a sty; I am sure that anyone with a name as pedigreed as Anastasia must have some grace and an abiding appreciation for cleanliness. It's just that my standards are of the highest order. Consequently, I would sit at her kitchen table, assuming that it was not filthy with toast crumbs and smears of butter, to write her a friendly detailed note regarding only the most grotesque examples of filth that I have observed, complete with a cleaning regimen to ensure that the odious squalor and festering slime do not eventually prove to be the breeding ground of an epidemic that might sweep the nation, killing millions. When she discovers this helpful program to make of her a cleaner person, Anastasia will be unspeakably grateful. No doubt, before I have finished composing this valuable guide to a less squalid lifestyle, Burt will have regained consciousness and, following the excited directions of Mr. Feathers, will have stumbled into the kitchen to confront me, as men named Burt are wont to do. Perhaps he will slip on a viscous gob of grape jelly that Anastasia has failed to clean from the floor, and will slam headfirst into the refrigerator, knocking himself unconscious, sparing me the unpleasant task of thumping him again with the baseball bat. Once I have located a small firm pillow and have figured out a way to plump it under Burt's head without touching either his greasy hair or his grime-encrusted skin, I will finish writing my helpful cleaning guide for dear Anastasia, who might never have meant to keep the borrowed books but might simply have misplaced them in the clutching swamp of trash that has overwhelmed her home. Having departed the house with your books, I will have them--and myself--irradiated to kill the legions of dangerous bacteria acquired in that pestilential domicile. Thereupon, I will be ready to return your books to you, Anita. For that, I will need your full address.

ANSWER;  Joanne, forgive me, but I would prefer that you push my books in the cereal aisle or the canned-meat aisle. Your activities in the toilet-paper aisle explain why so many readers tell me that they discovered my books and Charmin on the same day. As for a sequel to BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON: Many readers make this request, but with Odd Thomas ongoing, the third Chris Snow still waiting, and the third Frankenstein still underway, I don't foresee committing to yet another series at this time.

ANSWER:  Denzel Washington. I am a nut for Denzel Washington. MAN ON FIRE, TRAINING DAY, REMEMBER THE TITANS...I've seen MAN ON FIRE maybe four times. The only reason Denzel Washington does not have a dozen Oscars on his mantel is the same reason that Cary Grant never won any at all: He is such a natural, with such born grace, that his performances seem to come too easily to him, as if he's tossing them off--which he is not; he is subtle and cerebral--as opposed to the often strenuous and even exhausting performances of someone like Dustin Hoffman. David Thomson, in his authoritative THE NEW BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM makes a convincing argument that Cary Grant remains the "best and most important actor in the history of cinema." Especially in films that are not primarily--or at all--concerned with racial issues, that are instead about universal human values and about the spiritual core of humankind, Washington is as riveting and convincing as Grant. Unfortunately, at 51, he is too old to play the leads in many of my books, but he would be great as Spencer Grant, the protagonist of DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART, as Ethan Truman in THE FACE, as Travis Cornell in a quality film version of WATCHERS (as opposed to the deeply moronic versions so far made)... But I know enough about the film industry to be sure there is no chance whatsoever that such a blissful intersection of actor and material will ever occur for me, not in my lifetime.

ANSWERS:   I was still finding my way when I wrote WHISPERS. Tony and Hilary's relationship feels planned to me, lacking the spontaneity and the unplumbable mystery of love. Each character still seems real to me in the scenes in which he or she is apart from the other, but when they share the stage, I find them at once less convincing as people. Worse is the problem of carnality. When I wrote this book, I thought it necessary to portray the sexual part of a relationship to make it well-rounded and to lend it "authenticity." My only defense now is that I was a child of my generation and that my generation, as it has abundantly proved, was in its youth witless, graceless, and willfully stupid. Soon after WHISPERS, I reached the conclusion that fully described sex acts in novels, while they may titillate, are fundamentally dishonest for a host of reasons, not least of all because sexual pleasure has an ineffable quality that resists being defined by words; therefore, no description of sex can be wholly accurate and rounded, only mechanical and cold, and therefore false. I've never read an explicit sex scene in any novel that has yet changed my mind. Furthermore, portraying the carnal side of characters in explicit detail diminishes them--not because sex is wrong; I am making an aesthetic, not a moral argument here-- but because it presents the animal side of human nature while distancing us, as readers, from the intellectual and emotional lives of the characters. It is in the multitudinous details of the intellectual and emotional aspects of attraction and passion that the subject of love can inspire genuine art. Consequently, some of my favorite couples in my own work are Mitch and Holly in THE HUSBAND, Odd and Stormy in ODD THOMAS, Jimmy and Lori in LIFE EXPECTANCY, Billy and Barbara in VELOCITY, and Jim and another Holly in COLD FIRE.