Tell us a little about yourself and your background? 
I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Although I’ve lived most of my life in Arizona and Texas, you can take the girl out of the City but you can’t quite take the City out of the girl. I’ve been fortunate to be able to spend most of my working life writing. I’ve done technical and promotional writing, have been a community-newspaper columnist, and written magazine articles. Of them all, I’d say fiction writing is the hardest.

What would you say is your more iconic novel and why?
That’s almost like asking which of your children is your favorite. My stories grow out of the questions that I find myself asking and the issues that are important to me. You’ll find that in Naked Came the Sharks, Murder and Mayhem in the Texas Coastal Bend. Also, Detour, A Big Rig Thriller, was inspired by an actual experience of mine.

Which writers and genres inspire you? 
I’ve been a mystery fan since childhood. I read the books that my mom brought home from the library. Mom was an avid Ellery Queen fan. She would try to figure out the mystery, but I usually didn’t want to work that hard and just went along for the ride. Recently I’ve branched out into reading thrillers, police procedurals, cozies, and legal thrillers.

What do you find more interesting when writing thrillers?
It would be fair to say that my stories are more about the characters than the crime. I do tend to get invested in my main character. So do my books’ fans. For each thriller, readers have asked for more stories featuring those characters. And yes, I have sequels in progress with cozy-mystery heroine Candy Wadsen, Zen police detective Will Mansion, and amateur sleuth Archie Harlanson.

When did you decide to become a writer?
I’ve always been a writer. My entire family enjoyed reading so I grew up with my nose in a book. Many writers explain that they wrote their novel because they couldn’t find the book that they wanted to read, so they wrote it. That was the case for me.

Do you write full-time or part-time? 
I work full time and write in my “spare” time.” (Cue hysterical laughter here.)

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you? 
I start with an outline. Honest, I do. I do have a plot in mind; I do think that I know where I want to go with the story. Then the characters decide that they have better ideas, and all I can do at that point is try to keep up with them.

Do you have a strategy for finding reviewers?
Lately I have discovered reviewers on Goodreads. I’ve also participated in blog tours where the blog hosts are interested in reviewing the book. I greatly appreciate the time reviewers spend reading and sharing their comments.

What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
Let’s disregard the one-star reviews left by trolls for the sole purpose of getting a rise out of people. Other than requesting that it be taken down, there’s not much to be done about those except get angry and throw darts. That only scratches the screen, so that’s probably not a good idea. As for critical reviews, I do try to buck up and give the comments serious consideration. I remind myself that not every book will appeal to all readers and everyone is entitled to an opinion. Sometimes the critical points are well taken and good to keep in mind to apply to the next work.
Good reviews often get my attention as much as ones that are critical. More than once I’ve been surprised at what a reader got out of the book, because I wasn’t aware of having put that in there.

How can readers discover more about you and you work?
I’m all over the Internet:
email: devorahfox@aol.com
Website: http://devorahfox.com
Twitter: @devorah_fox http://twitter.com/devorah_fox
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/DevorahFoxAu…
amazon author page: amazon.com/author/devorahfox(http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006L9BJAO)
smashwords profile page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi…
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+DevorahFox
Barnes & Noble author page: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/devo…
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/devorahfox
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/devorahfox
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/…
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