Although I skipped about the country in the wake of a frequently relocating father, I mostly grew up in New Hampshire. I spent two years at the University of Virginia majoring in beer-drinking, a discipline for which little academic credit was awarded. Immediately thereafter, in that era of universal conscription, I was subjected to the United States Army's tender mercies, an experience which persuaded me to return to college, but change my major. The yarn is another paranoid thriller. I do because they are fun.
Some writers use index cards, outlines or just let the story take over.
I start with character and situation, and with a vague sense of what's going to occur on the last few pages. What happens in between is as much of a surprise to me as it is to readers. It was as if, he said, his characters had been living in his mind, waiting for a chance to come out and tell stories of which he himself was unaware. I myself have the same experience. I tore the damned thing up a quarter of the way through the book.