Loves Music, Loves to Dance Page 26
What was your first hook?
My first radio series was called “Portrait of a Patriot,” vignettes about presidents. It became the premise for my first book, a biographical novel about George Washington, Aspire to the Heavens. It was a commercial disaster and remaindered as it came off the press. But it showed that I could write a book and get it published.
What made you turn to the field of mystery and suspense?
I had two children in law school, two in college and one in a private girls’ school. I decided to write a book that would, hopefully, outsell Aspire to the Heavens. One of the best clues about what to write is what one likes to read. I decided to see if I could write a suspense novel. It was like a prospector stumbling on a vein of gold. I wrote Where Are The Children?, my first bestseller and now in its seventy-first printing.
How did you find the time to write books while raising five children and holding a job?
When my children were young, I used to get up at five and write at the kitchen table until seven, when I had to get them ready for school. For me, writing is a need. It’s the degree of yearning that separates the real writer from the would-be’s. Those who say “I’ll write when I have time, when the kids are grown up or I have a quiet place to work,” will probably never do it.
When do you write now?
I still love to work in the early morning, but I get up a little later, at 6 A.M. I don’t seek seclusion. Having an active, lively family around keeps my ear sharpened. I know how three-year-olds talk to each other, how young marrieds share responsibilities. When I write about the young generation, it has the ring of truth.
What are your children doing at present?
My actress-daughter, Carol, is the author of a suspense novel, Decked, published in 1992. My daughter Marilyn is a judge and my daughter Patty an executive assistant at the Mercantile Exchange. My son Warren is a lawyer, and my son David is president of “Celebrity Radio,” producing syndicated programs. I have five grandchildren.
Do you have active contact with other writers in your field?
Yes, I consider that essential. I am a board member of Mystery Writers of America, of which I was president in 1987. I also belong to the American Society of Journalists and Authors. I have a writers’ workshop that meets in my apartment every other week and am a member of the Adams Round Table. The Adams Round Table consists of twelve professional writers who meet for dinner once a month, to talk about the craft of writing.
You speak frequently at fundraisers for libraries, and you are active for the Literacy Volunteers. Why do you make these special efforts?
I think that writers have an obligation to plough back into the field that has nurtured them; without readers there would be no writers.
Could you visualize a life of leisure?
No—never. Somebody once said: If you want to be happy for a year, win the lottery; if you want to be happy for a lifetime, love what you do. That’s the way it is for me—I love to spin yarns.
Do you enjoy terrifying people?
Absolutely. I consider it a compliment when I’m told that someone stopped reading my book because he or she was alone in the house.
Your newest novel, All Around the Town, a psychological thriller, is coming out in hardcover in 1992. What inspired it?
I became intrigued by a psychological problem due to childhood trauma, a major element of All Around the Town.
Laurie Kenyon, 21 years old, is a senior at a New Jersey college. Obsessed with her English professor, Alan Grant, a married man, she had been hiding outside his home, watching him through the sliding glass door of his study and writing him passionate love letters. When he is found stabbed to death, Laurie’s fingerprints are everywhere—on the door, on his desk, on the knife. Laurie is arraigned on a murder charge, but has no memory of the crime.
Attorney Sarah Kenyon, Laurie’s older sister, believes that the key to Laurie’s defense lies in the trauma caused by her abduction at age four, an experience she cannot recall. Sarah brings in Dr. Justin Donnelly, a prominent psychiatrist, to help Laurie break through to these two lost years.
What Sarah does not know is that Bic Hawkins, a fundamentalist preacher and his wife Opal, Laurie’s abductors, are now famous television evangelists. Before releasing her, Bic had threatened Laurie with death if she ever talked about him and Opal. If Laurie does remember what transpired during the two years she was with them, Bic and Opal will be ruined. They have too much at stake to take that chance.
In controversial court cases, similar psychological factors have influenced judgments of defendants’ culpability.
Photograph by Bernard Vidal
MARY HIGGINS CLARK is the author of twenty-seven suspense novels; three collections of short stories; a historical novel, Mount Vernon Love Story; a memoir, Kitchen Privileges; and a children’s book, Ghost Ship, illustrated by Wendell Minor.
She is also the coauthor with Carol Higgins Clark of four holiday suspense novels: Deck the Halls, He Sees You When You’re Sleeping, The Christmas Thief, and Santa Cruise. More than ninety million copies of her books are in print in the United States alone, and her books are worldwide bestsellers.
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BY MARY HIGGINS CLARK
The Second Time Around
Kitchen Privileges
Mount Vernon Love Story
Daddy’s Little Girl
On the Street Where You Live
Before I Say Good-Bye
We’ll Meet Again
All Through the Night
You Belong to Me
Pretend You Don’t See Her
My Gal Sunday
Moonlight Becomes You
Silent Night
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
The Lottery Winner
Remember Me
I’ll Be Seeing You
All Around the Town
Loves Music, Loves to Dance
The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories
While My Pretty One Sleeps
Weep No More, My Lady
Stillwatch
A Cry in the Night
The Cradle Will Fall
A Stranger Is Watching
Where Are the Children?
BY MARY HIGGINS CLARK AND CAROL HIGGINS CLARK
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping
Deck the Halls
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
“Shall we Dance?” copyright © 1951 by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright renewed. Williamson Music Co. owner of publications and allied rights. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Come Dance with Me” by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen. Copyright © 1958 by Cahn Music Co. & Marville Music Corp. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 1991 by Mary Higgins Clark Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
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ISBN: 0-671-75889-6
ISBN: 978-0-7432-0618-1(eBook)
Front cover illustration
by Tom Hallman