In a related question, what are the challenges that come with writing category-length romantic suspense?  Is it hard to pack a powerful story into 55-60K words?  I'll bet it's harder than it looks!

It's very hard to write short.  You have to limit POVs to two, maybe three, for one thing, which can make it harder to properly develop the villain's motivations and machinations from his perspective.  So you have to find other ways to cue the reader about what drives him.  In series romantic suspense such as I write, you also have to create a compelling mystery with twists while simultaneously developing a believable romance that the reader can believe will sustain itself past the end of the last page.  And you have to get all that done within 60K words.  Like juggling porcupines, if you ask me.  But I love doing it.  I look at it as a wonderful puzzle to put together, and when the final piece goes into place and completes the picture, the satisfaction level is off the charts.

I notice one of the links on your website it a Harry Potter Lexicon link. Are you a big fan?  If so, is there anything you've taken away from those books and applied to your own writing?

My niece was a huge Harry Potter fan first, having borrowed the books from school friends until I bought her the full set for Christmas.  Finally, after finishing a book just before Thanksgiving a couple of years ago, I decided to celebrate by reading all seven of her Harry Potter books over the long weekend.  Total immersion.  I enjoyed them immensely--and was glad I didn't have to wait between books to see what happened next.  Odd that you ask whether I'd taken anything from those books, actually, since I loosely based the Cooper Justice series on the Weasley family.  Really, the only thing that matches is that there are six brothers and one sister in a large, close family--no wands or Quidditch in Gossamer Ridge--but the Weasleys did give me a place to start in plotting the new series.

On your website you mention being a Southerner, and have some interesting observations about  Southern literature.  How do you think being a Southerner informs your own writing?

I think Southerners generally have a strong sense of place. We tend to love the land with a fierceness you don't see in other places.  We also have a strong sense of family, no matter how dysfunctional.  The South tends to be conservative, but that's not always a bad thing.  One of the things we conserve is a real appreciation for our history, good and bad.  We are also great connosieurs of a good story, whether it's a tale of ghosts around a campfire or a country song that tears your heart out.

I love the header on one of your blog web page:  Spinsters and Lunatics.  Did you come up with that, and if so, is it a comment on the characters who populate your books?

My best friend Jenn came up with the name of the blog.  She's a big fan of the Bridget Jones's Diary movie, and that was something Bridget wrote in her diary at one point in the movie.  Since Jenn and I are both single--and both a little off our rockers at times--it was an apt blog name.  And yes, I think at least one or two of my characters could be called spinsters or lunatics.  Or both.

Tell me more about being a Cat Whisperer.  Can cats really learn and respond to humans in a way similar to dogs?

Oh, tough question.  I think they do respond to humans--perhaps not as well as dogs, but they do interact in their own ways.  But you really have to know how to read their body language, which is even more nuanced than that of dogs.  Every twitch of the tail or perk of the ears means something.  Their vocalizations also mean something if you know how to read them.  I joke about being the Cat Whisperer mostly because I have tamed a number of feral kittens over the years.  I seem to be a stray cat magnet.

In Case File: Canyon Creek, Wyoming, the Coopers' home town of Gossamer Ridge, Alabama, is a crucial part of their pasts and their future.  Thought it's a fictional place, I understand it's set your home state.  What are the challenges and rewards of writing so "close to home," as it were?

One of the challenges is making sure you get it right, because believe me, family and friends will let you know if you mess up, and you don't have the excuse of writing about something unfamiliar to you.  But the rewards are worth it.  I love Alabama, but I know it has a pretty bad reputation thanks to our troubled past and chronic struggle with poverty and illiteracy.  But it's also a place full of warm, smart, wonderful people doing exciting and interesting things.  I love to showcase the beauty and the complexity of the state in my writing.  I hope people who read my books see a whole new side of Alabama that they're not getting from the news and history books.

C.E. Lawrence's debut thriller, Silent Screams, coming out in December, recounts NYPD criminal profiler Lee' Campbell's dark journey into the mind of a serial killer.  (Kensington Press).  She has just completed the sequel, Scorned, to be released in 2010.