Nature or nurture? With Sue Grafton, we may never know. Her father was mystery writer C. W. Grafton; Ross Macdonald is her spiritual uncle (she sets her mysteries in his fictional Santa Theresa). After some publishing success in the late 60s, Sue went to Hollywood to write for movies and television.
She says she wrote the first of her Kinsey Milhoney books to channel her energies away from killing her (now ex-) husband. Kinsey is a bit of a nonconformist, not always comfortable with authority, which explains why she is a private eye instead of a cop. She's a charmer, she's witty, she's raffish, and although she's not as tough as Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski, she's willing to get down and dirty when she has to.
Links SueGrafton.com - The author's official web site. Interview - The Washington Post interviews Sue Grafton. Essay - Sue Grafton's essay on "How I Wrote That Story" at Amazon.com. Profile - January Magazine profiles Sue Grafton. Interview - BookPage.com interviews Sue Grafton. Interview - WritersWrite.com interviews Sue Grafton. Chat Transcript - iVillage.com chat transcript. Profile - Dr. William Marling profiles Sue Grafton. Interview - Barnes & Noble interviews Sue Grafton.