With your background...why romance?

I love writing technical things, but when I decided to take a serious stab at writing fiction, I never thought about writing anything other than romance. It's the ultimate escape. I can forget, temporarily, about software tests and orbital trajectories, grocery stores and drycleaners, runny noses and wet mittens, a traveling husband and encroaching deadlines, a white carpet that has always has that recycled-paper fleck look to it and kitchen counters I haven't seen in years. I can focus instead on making my heroines torture the heroes into shape. Heavens, did I say torture? I meant inspire....

What made you want to be a writer?

I didn't have any choice in the matter. Someone extremely famous and wickedly smart once said that that writers are born, not made, and when I read that I realized that I'd been doomed from the start. Luckily, the itch to scribble is a genetic misfire I can deal with. I simply love to write. Back when I thought I wanted to be a college professor, one of my mentors said, “Imagine having a job that involves getting up every day and getting paid for doing what you would rather do more than anything else.” Well, I nixed the professor idea after watching a tenure battle from the sidelines, but his words stayed with me, and now I'm getting paid to do what I love to do. If we could launch a labor union for wives and mothers, life would be sweet indeed.

Is it true that all first novels are autobiographical?

Probably. But My Hero not only isn't autobiographical, it isn't my first novel. My first (unpublished and entirely too autobiographical) novel is serving as ballast in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet.

What sort of research do you do for your books?

More than I have to, less than I want to. I enjoy doing research but really have to be disciplined because I know there will always be one more thing I'd like to investigate before I hit the brakes.

For My Hero, I interviewed four police officers (supervisory, SWAT, traffic, and patrol) in different cities. I also talked to—mostly listened to, actually—romance writers. For Big Trouble, I picked the brains of four digital security wizards and three software super-geeks (I say that affectionately), and read tons of material on espionage and industrial espionage (yes, there's a difference).

Eventually I have to force myself to stop researching and start writing pretty lies.....

Do you base your characters on real people?

Yes, but they're not each based on only one person. I use the Mr. Potato-Head method of creating characters—that person's nose and that one's nervous habit, this one's taste in clothing and that one's taste in food. But then I get to throw in some of my own creative mental wanderings, and that's when I really start to have some fun.

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