On your website (http://carlaneggers.com) you mention that you "learn about your characters by interacting with them."  Can you explain this technique?

I've discovered that I'm not very good at writing up character analyses before I dive into a story. I can do a bit--the basics, maybe--but I "see" a character much better after he or she has shown up on the page. I wrote the scene where Sean Cameron follows Hannah Shay up the mountain. Sean, a smoke jumper and businessman in Southern California, is back in the cold and snow of Vermont. He's at the old cellar hole where his father was murdered. Hannah's brother almost died there, and she has her own suspicions about the violence that's struck their small hometown. Putting these two characters together in such an isolated place where both their emotions run strong, in the cold and snow, helped me understand them more than I ever would have sitting in front of a list of questions about them. But writers need to do what works for them. This is what works for me.

Although you've used such far-flung settings as Ireland, Cold River takes place in your home state of Vermont.  How much does setting matter to you, or could you have placed this story elsewhere?  How do you try to give the reader a sense of place?

For me, setting is almost another character. Cold River not only takes place in Vermont, but it takes place in late December and early January -- the dead of winter. With the snow-covered mountains and open vistas that winter offers, there's a sense of incredible beauty. At the same time, the cold weather, the storms and the short days provide a sense of danger and urgency. The "interior" scenes are influenced, too, by the setting. Seven o'clock at night in late December in a small northern New England village is very different than it would be a few hours down the road in Boston, or in the same place, at the same time, in June. Seeing these details through the characters' eyes is key. A secondary character, Grit Taylor, reacts to Black Falls not only as someone who grew up in the Florida Panhandle but also a Navy SEAL coming to grips with a serious disability. What he "sees" is quite different from what Hannah, who has never lived anywhere else, does.

You describe yourself as a morning person.  Any other preferences or habits when you write?

Well, I never eat at the computer! I take breaks to stretch and move around, and I try to pay attention to ergonomics. I'm more likely to get up at 5 AM to write than I am to go to bed at 5 AM after a night of writing, but generally I like to get to work around 7 or 8 AM. I'm lucky in that I can write anytime, anywhere. This was my excuse when I took off to Ireland in September for two weeks. Every day I'd write and I'd walk 8 to 10 miles a day in the Irish hills. It was a wonderful experience.

With other bestelling authors, you share a blog called, interestingly, "Running With Quills."  Any advice for readers or authors considering blogging?

I'm thrilled to be a part of Running with Quills! I blog every other Wednesday. I also have a "photo blog" on my website, which is a bit different. I'm more likely to seek advice on blogging than to give it. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to resize pictures so they don't show up "stretched." It's not so bad when it's an Irish rainbow, but I put one up of me on the road this summer. Yikes. I looked like I was in one of those fun house mirrors. I took it right down!

What is your current or next project?

I just finished The Whisper, which is due out next summer. MIRA Books is reissuing On Fire in February with a great new cover, and the paperback edition of The Mist (which came out in hardcover in July) goes on sale on March 30. I'm writing Cold Dawn now, the next book in my Black Falls series. I've timed the writing perfectly: winter is upon us in Vermont, and I can look out my window in my hilltop office in Vermont for inspiration. I also love to strap on my snowshoes and cross-country skis and get out into the woods. It's a nice break from the computer, as well as "research."

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Karen Harper has been published for 25 years.  She is the winner of the 2006 Mary Higgins Clark Award.  A former college and high school English instructor, Harper currently writes contemporary suspense for Mira Books and historical novels for Putnam.  She and her husband divide their time between Columbus, Ohio and Naples, Florida.