Southerners have this love of embellishment. Even when you read a police report, there's some backstory.
Visual storytelling is at once immediate and subversive.
Most of my books begin with a nap on my couch here, when I dream up characters and story lines, and then I write on my laptop in the recliner and handle the business side of email at my desk, which is sagging in the middle - maybe from so many words?
When I was growing up, my stepmother's sister was the chief detective in one of the adjoining towns, so she piqued my interest in crime.
Being a Southerner, I'm interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.
As a Southerner, I love obstacles for my characters.