Stolen follows a brilliant, tough, and resourceful private investigator with a powerful AI who helps a woman being stalked for her new EV battery, when it snowballs out of control into blackmail, espionage, and an underground crime ring aided by a rival AI. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

This question goes to the heart of how I write. Sometimes I start a chapter with only a vague idea of what I want to accomplish. When it’s done, more than I expected ends up on the page. For example, in Stolen, a deadly international assassin targets the protagonist and her client. Until the moment I started writing that chapter, there was no assassin, not even the concept of one. My creative process is fluid and more creative as I go. I never outline my stories or rely on pages of story notes. I start with a loose story framework, define the characters, and then let them loose. I’m sometimes surprised when a twist I hadn’t intended to write suddenly appears. If I like the twist and think it enhances the story, I leave it in and make whatever adjustments are necessary to accommodate it. For my book, Stolen, I didn’t have a distinct element of inspiration; I just had a general idea. However, as this is the third book in the series, the characters were already well-known to me. This familiarity made it easier to tell the story.

The supporting characters in this novel, I thought, were intriguing and well-developed. Who was your favorite character to write for?

Molly, with her massive AI brain, is always fun to write for. In this book, I explore why Molly is motivated to work with humans, rather than trying to wipe out humanity, as some people fear the technology may one day do.

How did you balance the action scenes with the story elements and still keep a fast pace in the story?

I intentionally write all of my books with pace in mind. My favorite line in a review is this: “…I couldn’t put the book down,” or “It kept me up late into the night.” As a reader myself, I enjoy propulsive stories. I want my readers to experience that sensation.

Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Riley Callen and the direction of the next book?

I’m taking a break from this series, but I’ll definitely return to it in the future. These great characters have many more stories to tell. When I do return to the series, the next book already has a title: Quantum. If you think AI’s potential is scary, wait until you see an AI installed on a quantum computer. It’s not hyperbole to say the tech could break the world.

Author Links: Amazon