But that’s something to begin with, and then I’ve got so many drafts on top of that one, and the novel grows on a lot of levels.

Then that’s subject to change - beginning, middle and end can all be changed. I do have a basic draft, or one emerges pretty quickly. You’re learning how to do it all over again. I know that sounds a little strange, but in every book you’re presented with new possibilities, new environment, different people, new story lines. You’re learning to write a book every time you sit down to do it. They have to work really hard, and if there’s a problem with something being out of character, that’s massive re-writes or get rid of the character.”Ī: “Basically, every book is different.

I need people to do the work that I need done to get this book from cover to cover. Do you just put them together, set your characters loose and see what happens?Ī: “I’ve seen all those author interviews where the author will say to the interviewer, ‘oh, my characters have lives of their own, I just let them.’ If I had characters like that, I’d fire them immediately. Q: So you have these, and then you have your characters. I’m going to be the last person to explain the creative process to anyone, but I think the only people who really examine it are people with writer’s block, and I never seem to have that.” Q: Do you get inspiration from bits and pieces like that a lot, putting them together and letting them grow?Ī: “I think things kind of simmer in the back of your mind, and then at some point they’re going to kind of come together. The soft-spoken O’Connell talked about her book, which she said was inspired partly by a newspaper story on William’s Syndrome, a genetic condition, and Central Park’s notorious Ramble, a wooded area once the lair of muggers and addicts. Mallory is being punished with desk duty after an extended leave when rats start falling from the sky in New York’s Central Park and a mysterious red-haired child appears in a t-shirt with blood on her shoulders, leading Mallory into a labyrinth of crimes and murders stretching back years. Mallory, the star of a series of bestselling novels, now returns in “The Chalk Girl,” her ninth adventure, after a multi-year wait. TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Green-eyed, blonde and tall, Kathy Mallory is respected and feared by the cops who work with her, described sometimes as a cat playing with a mouse and nicknamed “Mallory the Machine.”Įven her creator, author Carol O’Connell, says she’s not entirely sure how much she might actually like her own heroine in real life.

My Secret by Mallory West