Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school.Karin Slaughter
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Crafting a piece of gripping, narrative true crime that engages the world is not that different from crafting a piece of crime fiction.Karin Slaughter
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As voters and taxpayers, we must demand that our local governments properly prioritize libraries. As citizens, we must invest in our library down the street so that the generations served by that library grow up to be adults who contribute not just to their local communities but to the world.Karin Slaughter
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Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.Karin Slaughter
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It's just my goal to deliver the best story I can, and I want to make sure each book is better than the last, and in order to do that, I have to take chances.Karin Slaughter
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Though he was not a reader himself, my father understood that reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.Karin Slaughter
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Growing up in Georgia in the southeastern United States, I was always reading and always kept to myself. I never felt isolated, though; I just liked being alone.Karin Slaughter
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When you grow up starving, you cannot point with pride to a book you've just spent six hours reading. Picking cotton, sewing flour bags into clothes - those were the skills my father grew up appreciating.Karin Slaughter
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I think some people are good at being alone, and some people aren't, and as a child, I really liked it.Karin Slaughter
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My books are never about the crimes. They are about how the characters react to the crimes.Karin Slaughter
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I taped the autopsy photos from Marilyn Monroe's death to my lunch box in fifth grade, and I would write stories in which someone inevitably died.Karin Slaughter
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People forget that writers start off being readers. We all love it when we find a terrific read, and we want to let people know about it.Karin Slaughter
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We make assumptions: nurses should be nice, teachers should be good. But everyone has a dark side, some darker than others.Karin Slaughter
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I love puns. I've been known to turn the car around just to take advantage of a good pun situation. It really is the highest form of humor.Karin Slaughter
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When I was little, my grandmother would take me to church with her, and she would introduce me to people.Karin Slaughter
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I never felt isolated; I just liked being alone. I think that some people are good at being alone, and some people aren't, and as a child, I really liked it.Karin Slaughter
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Flannery O'Connor was a revelation for me. When I read her, I was very young, and I didn't understand what she was doing. I didn't see any of the Catholicism or any of the social stuff.Karin Slaughter
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My job isn't to preach to people, it's to entertain them. I like letting the characters speak for themselves.Karin Slaughter
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Graphic novels let you take risks that just wouldn't fly in the conventional book form.Karin Slaughter
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My typical morning involves some time on the treadmill, but obviously I skip that a lot. Mostly, I wake up, check my email, then get to work on the various interviews and questions and phone calls that come with being an author.Karin Slaughter
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My father and his eight siblings grew up in the kind of poverty that Americans don't like to talk about unless a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina strikes, and then the conversation only lasts as long as the news cycle. His family squatted in shacks. The children scavenged for food.Karin Slaughter
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Men are more particular, and they're not going to grab something with a bodice-ripper cover on it.Karin Slaughter
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I've always been drawn to dark stories. I enjoy reading Flannery O'Connor, Patricia Highsmith, and Margaret Mitchell.Karin Slaughter
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Everybody had something horrible happen to them at one time or another in their life.Karin Slaughter
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What I know is the characters in a Southern town. I know the cadence of the language and the voice of Atlanta because I've lived here for so long. And I know the neighborhoods, and I hopefully know the people, and I feel a connection to them. And I also feel like I'm honoring them when I talk about them.Karin Slaughter
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It sounds pretentious to say I 'divide' my time, but when I am home, that usually means my house in Atlanta or my cabin in the North Georgia Mountains. The latter is where I do the majority of my writing.Karin Slaughter
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I read extensively about serial killers and all sorts of things people get up to.Karin Slaughter
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I'm really boring. I get up early. I go to bed early. I don't smoke or drink. I mean, I'll eat a cupcake. I'm just not a crazy, stay-out-all-night sort of person. I love writing.Karin Slaughter
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Most of my books begin with a nap on my couch here, when I dream up characters and story lines, and then I write on my laptop in the recliner and handle the business side of email at my desk, which is sagging in the middle - maybe from so many words?Karin Slaughter
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When you read a book, you are letting another person distract your thoughts and work your emotions. If they are adept, there's nothing better than turning off and getting lost.Karin Slaughter
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I always try to block out an hour or so a day to read. Being a writer is a job, and reading helps train my brain in the right direction.Karin Slaughter
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My dad believed in scaring us as we were growing up. Scaring the boys who wanted to date us more.Karin Slaughter
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I have a lot of men who will say to me, 'I don't read books by women, but I like you.'Karin Slaughter
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I want to be a better writer. I want to learn and grow, to know how to tell stories in a different and more challenging way. I've learned it doesn't get easier each time. It actually gets harder.Karin Slaughter
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'Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case,' 'The Secret of the Old Clock,' 'Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret,' 'Flowers in the Attic,' 'Gone With the Wind' - these are the books that defined my childhood. They thrilled me. They made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world.Karin Slaughter
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I didn't want to spend the next thirty years writing about bad things happening in the same small town - not least of all because people would begin to wonder why anyone still lives there!Karin Slaughter
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I'm extremely introverted. I used to think it was shyness, but I got over that, so it must be door No. 2. It's still hard for me to be away from home much, and I have to make sure I get lots of time alone in my room when I'm touring.Karin Slaughter
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I know the cadence of the language and the voice of Atlanta because I've lived here for so long.Karin Slaughter
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I could type in a closet and be fine. It's just a matter of cocooning myself. Just me and the story.Karin Slaughter
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