More of Mary Higgins Clark’s Secrets to Writing a Bestselling Murder Mystery

You are a living history!

What are some of the funny things, and some of the sad things that have happened during your lifetime? Write it down and the people of the past will then be alive to the future. Look at how today so many people are tracing their ancestors. They would love to know what those people were thinking and doing. Suppose they had all been keeping diaries? I say, write your own story and leave it for posterity. You can even get it printed up for very little. For Christmas, give everyone in your family a copy -- what you remember, what was your parents story and what you remember from your grandparents. It just might be the most wonderful gift you could ever give.

Adapt to technology

I could never write a book on a typewriter today like I used to, not in a million years. The keys are so heavy, they jam. You have to have carbon paper.

One time, I had too many main characters whose names began with the letter J; Jane, Jill, Jack. I said, “What in the name of God was wrong with me?” I was stuck on the “J.” With a computer, you can do a “search and replace.” You can say “find it and change Jill to Linda.”

Without a computer, I could never write a book a year. My first three books were three years apart. With a computer, you can edit on the page. If you have a clumsy sentence, you can edit it out. It used to be that I'd write 20 pages, then I'd have to retype them to see what I had and then I would end up reediting and then retyping again. The computer has changed all that dramatically.

Don’t get discouraged

I didn’t publish anything during my first six years of writing – and it was years before I made any good money. When my first short story was published, I was just expecting my fourth child. I had a historical novel. I called it Like Fire to the Heavens.

It was about George and Martha Washington. And it's absolutely accurate as to what happened that day where they were seated at the lunch table and who was there. I took the liberty of deciding what they said each other. And it went absolutely nowhere. It was published in 1969. And then nobody read it. I mean it got a few good reviews but nobody read it. But then I decided to try a book that would sell.

Since I love to read mysteries, I decided to try a suspense novel and that became 'Where of the children?' the first book about George Washington was republished 10 years ago under the title of 'Mount Vernon love story' and became a bestseller.

Don’t expect God to do all the work

I am a person of prayer, a person of faith, but I didn't say, “God, please make this book a bestseller.” My prayer was always that He would help me write a good book. But you know, God is not going to come down and write it for you. You have to be willing to work. You know, there is a wonderful story about the guy who went to church every week and said, “God I've had a hard life. I've had so many problems. So many problems. I've been sick, my wife's been sick. Help me when the lottery. Please help me win the lottery, just once.” Week after week after week, he asked the same thing. He doesn’t understand why God doesn’t grant his request. Finally a voice from heaven says, “Hey, my son – help me out. Buy a lottery ticket!”

For more on Mary and her new book The Lost Years go to SimonandSchuster.com. Check out Mary Higgins Clark’s latest murder mystery, The Lost Years, a suspense novel built around her “what if …?” of “What if Jesus had written a letter in His own hand? And what if it had survived? What if …”