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I am often asked who gets to read my finished manuscripts first.   My mother and my husband are first in line.  My mother is a tough lady and does not hesitate to point out the weaknesses in my prose.  My husband, on the other hand, is invariably complimentary.  He values a quiet life and is a clever man.

I also receive feedback from my brother.  Deep breath here.   My brother is my mother's clever child (Ph.D in Physics) and my mother swears his first word as a baby was "quark".  Mathematically gifted, he despairs of his sister's "fuzzy thinking." Even though he is seven years younger than I am, he has succeeded in intimidating me since the crib.  

In my new thriller, Keeper of Light and Dust, I dip a toe into the realm of quantum physics - courageously I thought - but my brother used a different word.   When he gave me his feedback, I took his comments on the chin and rewrote those passages, which caused him such distress.  I won't say he was one hundred percent happy with the finished product but at least he stopped talking to me through clenched teeth.   For some reason he took it personally that I had criticized Einstein.

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Writing "what you know" is simplest, truest, because hey, it's somewhat about you, right? And who knows you best?  But it becomes more difficult when your "what you know" is a not-so-pleasant past.

I wrote this novel based on my own childhood with a dysfunctional family from all angles.  The beginning poems of Because I Am Furniture are for the most part taken directly from my own history, true experiences.  In the first months of writing, when I read these poems out loud at a Critiquenic, the sheer visceral ick of that childhood flooded through and my voice trembled.

As I continued writing, however, the fifteen years or so of what was my real history had to be condensed and gathered as a novel. Many have asked me how much of the book is "true."  I tell them that situations and conversations are true, maybe up to 50% of the book, but everything has been altered, and therefore much more than 50% of the book is fiction.  An actual situation from my childhood might have been presented with a different character, a trait diminished, words given to someone new, ages altered (my real brother and sister were finished with high school years before I even got there, for instance.)  I had to show cohesion, not just put my true jumbled life on the page;  the actions, words, thoughts need to propel the story.

I can tell I have succeeded with this when a total stranger tells me how they feel about Because I Am Furniture;  they talk with their hands, clutching the space in front of their chests to show the grip the words have, how solidly they take in Anke's story.

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"Admit it," whispers Julia Roberts into the ear of Clive Owen, in the new caper movie Duplicity. "You don't trust me, either." The rule in this wonderful movie is simple: Doubt everyone, including the director. I think I grinned from the opening sequence through the song that accompanies the closing credits-"Being Bad Never Felt So Good."

I was happily back in the (admittedly weird) place in my mind where I think of great thieves as elegant, attractive, witty, intelligent-and creative. After all, we call them con artists. And talented cat burglars have a certain cachet in my mind, too. Just think of Cary Grant in Hitchcock's lightweight mid-50s movie To Catch a Thief.

I have limited enthusiasm for thrillers, whether book or film; I already find real life suspenseful enough, thanks. Also, like everyone else, I'm not fond of real-life thieves, who are too often of the Bernie Madoff stripe. And I think all political con artists should be placed in the same leaky boat and set adrift. But I can't resist a caper. I love to watch the characters tricking each other and I like knowing that the author or director is tricking me as well. It's the same reason I love magicians. Conjuring and confidence games are both feats of imagination. I expect to be tricked. I paid good money to be tricked and I damn well better be tricked.

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Long Lost Debuts at #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List

Long Lost by Harlan Coben debuted at #1 on The New York Times hardcover fiction list for the week of April 19th. Coben’s latest book from Dutton was published in conjunction with a major national publicity campaign and hugely successful events. Coben appeared on the “Today” show, “Glenn Beck Radio,” and “Hannity TV” live on March 31st. In addition, a profile of him ran in the New Jersey section of The New York Times this past Sunday, April 5th. Still to come, Coben will appear on “Glenn Beck TV” and NPR’s “All things Considered.”

His first event in New York was at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center, where over 200 people attended, and over 130 copies of the book were sold. At his second event, at Borders in Sacramento where Long Lost is a “book of the month” club pick, Coben greeted a standing-room-only crowd. He then embarked on a 5-city tour with Australian song writer Missy Higgins. In tandem, Coben and Higgins both speak, Higgins sings, and they talk about the creative process of writing books and songs. All the events so far have been huge successes.

View the video trailer for Long Lost here.