Silence is golden for me. I live in the country and hear only my pets, birds, crickets, and the wind in the trees.

I love using unique names, so I go to a baby names site on the Internet and use the unique names. Sometimes my names have meanings such as 'strong', 'fire', and Phoenix which means dark red and is Greek. It's fun to think of a name meaning and matching it with a name. Even Frances means Victory.

I relish the time I have when there are no interruptions. Most often the best time for writing is late at night.

I'm on Facebook and the Internet EVERY DAY NUMEROUS TIMES A DAY.Sorry about the shouting but I can't help myself. My mother said her dog (a lapdog) never sits on my lap because I always have the laptop on it.

Doing nothing about climate change is still a fairly common affliction, even in this day and age. What to do with those people, who are together threatening everybody's existence on this planet? Clearly we don't really think they should be blown up, that's just a joke for the mini-movie, but maybe a little amputating would be a good place to start?

I always carry a notepad with me, even on vacation. If I'm on the computer when the story 'hits', I open a Word document and start typing until I get it all out. I've got tons of notes that I never throw out. You never know when a story will strike!

I do a lot of research and yes, do know quite a few police officers, friends of mine and my husbands. However, most of my books are researched based on Canadian laws or the laws of each country (ie: Mexico and USA) and I do my best to make them accurate.

I love writing about the military, as I live near an air force base and am inspired by the sacrifices our soldiers make for us. I like to give them a lot of challenges to beat, and show how they live with intrigue and danger.

I have always thought that the role of the film-maker is to present the argument persuasively, emotionally and coherently and then it is over to the viewer, they are either convinced or not convinced, moved or not moved and they decide whether they will take action or not.

I have precognitive dreams such as the year my brother's apartment caught fire and he lost everything. I'd dreamt it two months before. Alas, though I warned him, it still happened. Thankfully no one was harmed. I also read Tarot cards, mostly for fun.

I realised what a powerful position you are in if you own the rights to your film because then you control the distribution and I ended up getting 25 million viewers for McLibel and that's what it's all about for me.

I've always loved J.R.R. Tolkein and recently, Christine Feehan and J.K.Rowling. There are many as I'm an avid reader, but those three come to the fore.

We have got a very short time to turn climate change around otherwise we will all die.

I have my favorite authors, but in reality, my mother did. Though she's never written a book, she paved the way for me to.

I think you just have to turn it around and say we are at this absolute historical moment. No generation has ever been as powerful as us. We have the future of our species in our hands. We could be the generation that people look back on and say, 'They bloody did it!', not 'They didn't bother.'

If you are an intelligent human being then you are interested in climate change because it's the most important issue of our time.

I am a true psychic. In my family it's the norm. My sister and mother are always 'in my head' and say or do the same things I'm doing at the same time.