Why do I write? I think I owe it all to my mother, an immigrant from China. Although her command of English was shaky, she did enjoy American horror films, and I spent many happy hours as a child, screaming my head off in movie theaters. I thought the height of entertainment was to scare your audience, and I began to see the world as a place where the strange and unexpected happens. Once you start looking for the darkness in the world, you begin to see disturbing stories everywhere. The mother who vanishes. The house with the thick curtains. The man who lingers on your street. These stories intrigue me and scare me, and writing them is a way I deal with my own fears — by sharing them with others.

http://www.tessgerritsen.com/