• What was your first book?

“A biographical novel about George Washington, Aspire to the Heavens, based on a radio series I was then writing called ‘Portrait of a Patriot,’ vignettes about presidents. It was a commercial disaster and remaindered as it came off the press. But it showed that I could write a book and get it published.”

• How did you find time to write books while raising five children and holding a job?

“When my children were young, I used to get up at five and write at the kitchen table until seven, when I had to get them ready for school. For me, writing is a need. It’s the degree of yearning that separates the real writer from the ‘would-be’s.’ Those who say ‘I’ll write when I have time, when the kids are grown up or when I have a quiet place to work’ will probably never do it.”

• When do you write now?

“I still love to work early in the morning, but get up a little later, at 6 A.M. I don’t seek seclusion. Having an active, lively family around keeps my ears sharpened.”

• What are your children doing at present?

“My daughter Carol is the author of three suspense novels, Decked, Snagged and Iced, published by Warner Books. My daughter Marilyn is a superior court judge and my daughter Patty is an executive assistant at the Mercantile Exchange. My son Warren, a lawyer, is a municipal court judge; my son David is president of Celebrity Radio, producing syndicated programs. I have six grandchildren.”

• What made you turn to the field of mystery and suspense?

“I decided to write a book that would, hopefully, outsell Aspire to the Heavens. One of the best clues about what to write is what one likes to read. I decided to see if I could write a suspense novel. It was like a prospector stumbling on a vein of gold. I wrote Where Are the Children?-my first bestseller and a turning point in my life and career.”

• Your background is Irish. How did that influence your writing?

“The Irish are, by nature, storytellers. All my grandparents were born in Ireland, as was my father. At family gatherings, my mother, aunts and great-aunts and cousins would sit around the table and stories flowed. Nothing was ever said simply. When one cousin was dating a fellow the family didn’t approve of, one of the old girls sighed, ‘Many a man was lost at sea the night that one was born.’ There were sad stories and glad stories, and I sat at the table, drinking them all in. Many of that clan have been prototypes for characters in my books.”

• Which of your novels have been made into films?

“Two of my novels were feature films: A Stranger Is Watching, produced by MGM, and Where Are the Children?, released by Rastar Films through Columbia Pictures. I was a local extra in Where Are the Children? Blink, and you’ll miss me. Three others were CBS television films: The Cradle Will Fall, Stillwatch and Remember Me, in which I make a brief appearance playing myself. The television film based on my novel, A Cry in the Night, released by Rysher Distribution, starred my daughter Carol Higgins Clark and Perry King. It was produced by Telescene in Canada and I went to the set in Montreal and ended up with a one-line part. I’m the lady coming out of church and greeting the priest; my friends tell me that’s type-casting!”

• How do you feel about film adaptations of your work?

“When you sell a book for television or for a feature film, you are in essence giving up your child for adoption. You wish it well, but lose control. It’s a different medium, and there is no way anyone can take your book and reproduce it exactly as you wrote it. It’s always fun to watch something you have written turned into a film. I can’t spend much time on the sets, but I love to go at least for a few days and be part of it. Now that I am establishing myself as a walk-on like Alfred Hitchcock, it’s even more fun.”

• How do you feel about having your stories on audio cassette?

“The first time I heard one of my own books on audio, I was listening to it on the tape player in my car and I was so absorbed that I went through a stop sign. I enjoy hearing books-not only my own but other authors’-on audio. On my almost-daily drive to and from New Jersey and the five-hour drive to my summer house in Cape Cod, it is wonderful to be able to hear a book I didn’t have a chance to read. Listening to books on audio brings back early memories of listening to the radio. When I was a child, I was asthmatic and would lose as many as forty days a year from school. On those long days, I listened to radio dramas and felt fascinated by the people in them. I am very happy that my work is available on audio, giving people the choice of reading or hearing my books.”

• You introduce us to widely differing worlds in your writings. How do you achieve the sense of authen ticity that characterizes your novels?

“New settings provide a springboard for fresh and different characters. Backgrounds for my novels include social trends, such as the personal ads phenomenon in Loves Music, Loves to Dance, in-vitro fertilization in I’ll Be Seeing You, multiple personality in All Around the Town, plastic surgery in Let Me Call You Sweetheart, financial exploitation of the elderly in Moonlight Becomes You. People leading hidden lives under the government security program will be the subject of my next novel, Pretend You Don’t See Her. For each of my novels, I do extensive research.”

• You are known as “The Queen of Suspense.” What do you consider the essence of your talent?

“Being a storyteller. Isaac Bashevis Singer, who was a dedicated suspense reader, made a simple but profound observation on receiving the Mystery Writers of America award as Mystery Reader of the Year. He said that a writer must think of himself or herself primarily as a storyteller. Every book or story should figuratively begin with the words ‘once upon a time.’ It is true now as it was in the long-ago days of wandering minstrels, that when these words are uttered, the room becomes quiet, everyone draws closer to the fire, and the magic begins.”

• Do you enjoy terrifying people?

“Absolutely. I consider it a compliment when I’m told that someone stopped reading my book because he or she was alone in the house.”

• Could you visualize a life of leisure?

“No-never. Somebody once said, If you want to be happy for a year, win the lottery; if you want to be happy for a lifetime, love what you do. That’s the way it is for me-I love to spin yarns.”