My earliest professional experience was as a journalist. I wrote two weekly columns and did human interest feature stories for regional publications and other feature stories for national publications. This was back before the Internet and easy access to information, so I did a lot of research at libraries - kudos to all the reference librarians who helped and to those who continue to help people. In addition to that kind of research, I also did a lot of interviews, and I learned early in my career that most experts in one field or another are usually quite open to answering a writer's questions. Since I really enjoyed the interview process, it was easy for me to use interviews for research when I started writing fiction. For Open Season , the first book in my mystery series, I interviewed several police officers to find out what it was like to work in a department that was shrouded in charges of racial discrimination. One officer in particular became the basis for the characte...