Tasha Alexander attended the University of Notre Dame, where she signed on as an English major in order to have a legitimate excuse for spending all her time reading. She lived in Amsterdam, London, Wyoming, Vermont, Connecticut and Tennessee before settling in Chicago. When not reading, she can be found hard at work on her next book.

I’m just putting the finishing touches on the next book in the series. Called TEARS OF PEARL, it takes Emily to Constantinople where she’s embroiled in an investigation that takes her into the Seraglio.

I had no idea I was writing suspense—all I’d done was write a book I thought I’d like to read. I hadn’t thought about genre until my agent was sending my first manuscript out on submission. I picked the Victorian period because it’s a time in which I’ve always been interested. On the one hand you’ve got this restrictive society whose rules beg to be broken (and were broken, time and again). But on the other, you have women finally starting to gain measures of independence. The Married Women’s Property Law, which passed in 1882, allowed wives to maintain control of property separately from their husbands, and by the end of the nineteenth century, the Suffragette movement was gaining support in England. It’s a fascinating period. I’m also taken with the idea that the aristocracy was in its waning days, blissfully unaware that it would soon be devastated by the First World War.

Getting to work in pajamas. What could be better???

I write about two thousand words a day. In theory, I start after I wake up in the morning, brew a pot of tea, and answer emails. In fact, often I put in more time late at night, when my mind is much more clear. Never was a morning person. Regardless of time, it’s essential to remember that writing is a job—and I absolutely have to do it every day. Sometimes it’s easier than others, but one way or another I need words on paper.

I am categorically incapable of writing an outline. I typically start by deciding where I want to set the book (this is often influenced by careful consideration of where I would like to travel....). Next comes the crime: I need to know who did it and why. The why is particularly important. Once I’ve figured that out, I can start the book. My first sentences have all come to me when I’m in bed about to fall asleep. I don’t write them down—instead I have what is undoubtedly a terrible theory that if a sentence is really that good I’ll remember it in the morning. So far it’s worked, but I’m afraid I’m tempting fate.

Jane Austen, Michael Cunningham, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pauline Gedge, David Lodge, David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Elizabeth Peters, Arthur Phillips, Anthony Trollope, Jeanette Winterson

CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell. It is utterly and completely brilliant and rhapsodic.

Oh now that’s just impossible. Completely depends upon my mood. I love Joss Whedon’s series, FIREFLY and HBO’s ROME. Lately have been watching LOVE ACTUALLY (gotta love the arrivals scene in Heathrow) and other assorted romantic girl movies. What can I say? It’s that time of year. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY has some of the best dialogue ever and I’m completely addicted to THE WIRE. Yes, my taste is eclectic....

Ha! Believe me, my steps are far from exalted! There are two things every aspiring writer should do: read and write. Reading is essential—it’s how you learn what works and what doesn’t and what you love and what you hate. But nothing is ever, ever going to happen if you don’t sit down, put hands on the keyboard and actually write the book.

I’m an absolute book junkie—will read anything that appeals to me without the slightest shame or apology. Never have exactly figured out what makes me choose one book over another. The whole process of deciding what to read next has always seemed magical to me; there’s not much I like better.

Hmmmmm.....I’m feeling awfully left out that no one’s ever named a southern hemisphere farm animal after Emily.......

I just want to keep doing what I’m doing. It’s taken a long time to get my life where I want it—now I’d like to stay!