Drew Morgan set his iced tea glass on the table at his elbow, picked up his notebook and pen, and leaned forward in his seat on the secluded patio at Kevin Blaine’s beach house. "I want to thank you again for agreeing to this interview."

    Blaine waved a big hand and crossed one hairy leg over the other. "No problem. I was once an up and coming cub reporter myself."

    "Yes, so I understand." Morgan turned his glance away from the famous author to soak up his surroundings. And what surroundings they were! A fragrant tropical garden walled in on three sides with the fourth looking out on the crashing surf, a huge ornately furnished house, several acres of property... Damn, what a place! Now he just had to research the place’s security. He’d burglarized more than a few well-heeled "interviewees" in the past, but none as well-heeled as Blaine. Yes, this could turn into a lucrative piece of writing. Very lucrative.

    Blaine cleared his throat noisily. "So, are you going to ask your questions?"

    Morgan started. "Oh. Sorry. This place of yours – it’s so impressive. Haven’t you any servants?"

    "Ha, ha. Yes, but they’re out right now. I like my privacy, so none of them live on site, just come in to do the cleaning and gardening and such."

    "Hmm. Yes, I see." None of them live on site, Morgan thought gleefully. Perfect. Of course there’d still be burglar alarms to get around, but he’d dealt with those before.

    "Want me to tell you a little about how I got started writing?" Blaine asked.

    "Uh, yes, that would be a fine place to begin," Morgan said. "Background is always important to the reader." And to the burglar as well, Morgan thought. Yes, Mr. Big Time Author, the more information I learn about you the better prepared I’ll be for the big event.

    Morgan scribbled notes as Blaine talked. The big guy certainly had an ego, no doubt about that. He made no secret of how he considered himself a great writer, and went on and on about how morning was his prime writing time.

    "Of course," Blaine said, "I don’t write every morning. Today, for instance, I consented to a morning interview simply because I’m between books. I’ve begun doing the research, but not yet the writing."

    "Interesting," Morgan remarked. "Perhaps after you give me the scoop on your last few bestsellers you’ll tell me a bit about this current research.

    Blaine grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Glad to. However -–" he rattled the ice in his glass – "my glass is empty, and I notice yours is as well. Refill?"

    "Oh. Certainly." Morgan matched the author’s grin. Getting the patio to himself for a few minutes was just what he had hoped for.

    As soon as Blaine had gathered up both glasses and disappeared into the house, Morgan got to work with his own research. First, he studied the two windows. Then, he turned to the glass door. Yes, breaking in from back here would be best. The sliding door would be a chinch to get open, and there’d be no risk of any passerby. In fact--

    Oh, oh, here came Blaine already. Fellow moved fast for a big guy. Morgan scampered back to his chair.

    "Here we go," Blaine said. "Just what the doctor ordered for such a hot morning."

    "Thank you." Morgan took the glass offered him, sipped, and sighed. "Sure hits the spot."

    The author chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "You said you wanted to hear about my last few novels?" he asked.

    "Yes indeed." Morgan flipped to a clean page. "That I do. What really impresses me about each of them is how different they are from one another. Oh, the quality of writing is always top-notch, but each main character is so alive and so very different from those of preceding books. And your plots and settings are unbelievably varied as well."

    Blaine shrugged. "I wouldn’t want to get into a rut, now would I?"

    "That you certainly haven’t," Morgan said. And neither have I, he thought. A good haul here and I’ll be able to take another extended vacation. "Tell me, Mr. Blaine," he continued, once more the reporter, "don’t you ever run out of ideas?"

    "Not if I can help it. That’s why I’m always traveling to new places and trying new things. It sparks creativity. It also provides the necessary verisimilitude."

    "Then your book Hanging In Mid Air - do you mean you actually did some hang gliding yourself?"

    "Of course. Wouldn’t be professional to write like I knew what I was talking about if I really didn’t."

    "You didn’t get scared?"

    Blaine grinned and laced and unlaced his fingers. "Oh sure. At first. But then... What a rush! I love challenges and that was indeed a challenge. I’m of the opinion that an author must become the character, experiencing what the character experiences, to write it well."

    Morgan scribbled furiously. "Interesting. Very interesting." He wondered if someday he could dare write his own novel, a novel about an ingenious burglar.