Who are your favorite writers? My favorite writers include Megan Abbott, Craig Clevenger, Noria Jablonski, Ken Foster, Charlie Huston, Charles Portis, Raymond Chandler, Andrew Vachss, V. C. Andrews, Shirley Jackson, Robert Anton Wilson, Maggie Estep, Grant Morrison, Rex Stout, Annie Rogers, and many more. My all-time favorite book is probably Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye.

What are your favorite movies? My favorite filmmakers include David Lynch, the Cohen Brothers, early Roman Polanski, 1950s Alfred Hitchcock, David O. Russell, Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson, and Mark Levine. My all-time favorite movie is probably Sunset Boulevard.

How/why did you become a writer? I have no idea. Seriously. I have no idea why this happened to me. It's a strange life and, while in many ways wonderful, I don't think it's one anyone would choose.

How can I become a writer? Write. That's pretty much it. I sold my first book a mere ten years ago with no agent and no help. Small publishers are the way to start.

Will you help me? Probably not, no. That's unlikely. Unless you want to pay me--I am available for editorial consulting and story consulting for writers, film projects, and anything else involving a narrative, but due to limited time I am very selective and charge a lot of money. Still interested? Read more.

I want to make one of your books into a movie. That's great. Please contact my agent, Dan Conaway at Writer's House.

Where you do get your ideas? Pretty much everywhere. There's nothing that isn't worth writing about. If you look closely at your life you'll find plenty to write about there, too.

What are you working on now? As of February 2010, I am: working on the second Claire DeWitt book (due to Houghton August 2011), consulting on a film project based on the Gap novels by Stephen Donaldson (a highly recommended read), writing a young-adult novel in collaboration with another novelist, and my first original screenplay.

What's your day job? Writing novels.