When did you first know you wanted to be a writer, and who was your biggest influence at the time?

Almost as far back as I can remember I harbored at least the vague notion that I wanted to write. I've loved reading since childhood, and the progression from reading to writing seemed as natural as from crawling to walking. I was influenced a great deal by Ray Bradbury, who demonstrated to me that words could be used for a lot more than simply conveying information. This is not to say that I try to write like Bradbury, who is forever unique.

Who are your favorite writers now?

I know too many of my contemporaries personally to give you a complete answer. I might inadvertently leave someone out, and these people can be dangerous. So I'll limit my answer to those who've passed on: Eric Ambler, Lawrence Sanders, Patricia Highsmith, Geoffrey Household, Cornell Woolrich, Gerald Kersh, Stanley Ellin, Flannery O'Connor, Ernest Hemingway... I also much admired the work of the late Donald Westlake.

Better not go back any further than that, and I have left some writers out. In the beginning (for me) there were Conrad, Doyle, Saki, London, Fitzgerald, D. Parker, Chandler, among many others famous and not so famous.

As for living writers, there are some wonderfully talented people out there, especially in our field. More than I can recall at any period during my lifetime. They know who they are.

You've been unbelievably prolific--about 40 books by my count--what keeps you going?

Creditors, irregular exercise. As well as the fact that I genuinely enjoy the process of writing.

You've written in many different genres as well. Do you have a different approach, depending on the type on novel you're writing?

Other than the obvious, no. I think we should first of all concentrate on writing a good novel with solid character, situation, setting, and theme. That requirement transcends where the book will fit into a publisher's catalog or on a bookstore or library shelf.

Do you do a lot of research while preparing to write?

Quite a bit, mostly by osmosis. If I'm going to set a novel in a city, I will visit it to absorb the architecture, people, speech patterns, local foods, landmarks, etc. Then I will do a first draft and return to check details. I think research should be more for making sure you haven't gotten something wrong than for learning a lot of facts that you're going to work into the text.

Then there's the Internet for research. Wow!  What a boon for writers. Until it puts us out of business. Don't get me started about the Internet.

You've written for the screen, adapting your own work--was it difficult to translate your novel to a different medium?

I'm sure that having written the book makes writing the screenplay easier. But books and films are so different from each other that it might not be as advantageous as some people think.

Let's talk about your latest novel, Urge to Kill. Tell us a little about the book.

Like the others in the run of books I'm writing, Urge to Kill is a serial killer novel set in New York City. It's difficult to say much about it without revealing more than is wise. There is a point in the book where the detectives wonder whether they are seeking one killer or two. One thing actual serial killers have in common is that almost without exception they experienced horrible childhoods. The book explores that aspect of the crimes, the twig being bent.

What was the spark for the novel?

I wrote a short story long ago featuring an idea that I'd always wanted to use in a novel. I suppose something finally told me this was the time, this was the novel.

Without giving too much away, do you have a favorite scene?

One of the things Hitchcock taught us is that suspense doesn't ascend in a straight line. It heightens by stages and needs to plateau and take a breather now and then so it can regain momentum and move into its next and higher phase. One of my favorite Urge to Kill scenes, the first five pages of Chapter Thirteen, serves that purpose.  My detective, Pearl, has a mother who lives in an assisted living home and has a knack for calling Pearl's cell phone to discuss mundane matters at the most inopportune times, like maybe in the middle of a car chase. Pearl usually avoids her mother's calls but gets snagged in Chapter Thirteen.

Which is more important, in your opinion--the characters, or the story?

With rare exception, the characters. Almost every great piece of writing I can think of is character driven.

What's next for you?

More writing. I've already delivered the manuscript of another novel featuring Quinn, Pearl, and Fedderman, who appear in Urge to Kill, and am in the planning stages of a book beyond that one.

Nate Kenyon is a two-time Bram Stoker Award finalist, P&E Horror Novel of the Year Award winner, and author of BLOODSTONE and THE REACH. He has a trade paperback science fiction novella, PRIME, coming in July 2009. Kenyon lives in the Boston area, where he is at work on his next novel.