I am a planner. I like notes and schedules. Office supply stores turn me on, and at this moment, there are twenty-two sticky notes and three spreadsheets taped to the wall above my desk. So it will surprise no one to learn I outline my books ahead of time.

It's possible that outline is color coded and includes a timeline. I neither confirm nor deny it.

There are serious advantages to this. If I'm not feeling a scene, if I'm just not bringing the funny or the scary or the maudlin or whatever it is that's called for, I move on. I write another scene. I know what's coming. No worries.

It gives me the illusion of control.

But then sometimes the cop just handcuffs her.

He wasn't supposed to cuff her. Suzy was pissing him off. He was frustrated. There was some yelling, some threatening. And okay, he hasn't been getting much sleep, what with the bodies that keep turning up. But he was absolutely, positively not supposed to cuff her. He was particularly not supposed to cuff her to his own arm. She has to run off at the end of the scene, go chasing after the bad guy. And now she's got a homicide detective attached to her like a Siamese twin. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

This was not in the outline, people. Not in the outline.

And don't even get me started on the thing with the horse.