Mary Jane Clark

From a Q & A with Mary Jane Clark, bestselling author of Dying for Mercy and other media thrillers:

Q: What inspired you to begin writing?

A: I had written non-fiction for years in the form of news stories for television broadcast. It was only after I became a single mother that I decided to try my hand at fiction. The kids were really little at the time and I'd write early in the morning before they got up, after they went to bed at night and whenever they weren't with me. It took me two years to write the first book, two years to re-write it and then the manuscript sat on a shelf in my closet for another two years before it finally sold.

Q: You work for CBS News; do you draw a lot of inspiration from your work there? What is one of the most exciting stories you worked on? Is fact truly stranger than fiction?

A: Having worked at CBS News for almost three decades, of course, I am influenced by my experience there. It is an exciting world, full of the unexpected. Over the years, I've had the privilege of working on so many things: presidential conventions, papal visits, royal weddings, celebrity funerals, terrorism attacks, executions, fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. The news world never gets boring. Every day brings fresh developments, a different set of unexpected, almost unbelievable circumstances. So many times, a...[read on].

Learn more about the book and author at Mary Jane Clark's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dying for Mercy.

--Marshal Zeringue