What is your method for overcoming writer’s block?
There's a great method spelled out in Break Writers Block Now!, a book by my friend Jerrold Mundis. Nowadays, after all these years and all these books, if I have trouble writing I just say the hell with it and go do something else.
What are your favorite or most helpful writing prompts?
When I pause at the keyboard, I play a few hands of solitaire. Been doing this for ages.
What is the most valuable advice you received as a young writer?
Fifty-plus years ago, Henry Morrison read an early crime novel of mine in manuscript and suggested I put the second chapter first. The lesson—don't begin at the beginning—has served me well.
