1.  DECKED
2.  SNAGGED
3.  ICED
4.  TWANGED
5.  DECK THE HALLS (a Christmas book I co-authored with my mother, Mary Higgins Clark.  Regan Reilly is in it and this is the book in which she meets Jack.)
6.  FLEECED
7.  JINXED
8.  POPPED
9.  THE CHRISTMAS THIEF (another Christmas book I wrote with my mother,  Regan and Jack are in it.)
10.  BURNED
11. HITCHED
12. SANTA CRUISE (The latest Christmas book I wrote with my mother.)
13. LACED

There is one other Christmas book I co-authored with my mother, HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING, but Regan Reilly is not in it. The other three Christmas books also feature my mother's continuing character Alvirah Meehan, a cleaning woman who won $40 million in the lottery!

A Recent Conversation with Carol Higgins Clark

(Q) Reality TV and hot air ballooning are two main themes in your new suspense novel,'Popped.' What gave you the idea to use these as premise for the plot?
(A) My novels are known for their colorful casts of characters and where better to find them than among people who go on reality TV or do hot air ballooning.

(Q) In 'Popped,' you take us to Las Vegas, with the story ranging from fancy Vegas casinos to the run-down hotels off the strip, as well as to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, a unique and amazing spectacle. How do you achieve the sense of authenticity in depicting your locales?
(A) Milieu is a key element of my work; for all my novels, I research the locales and spend time there, to absorb the flavor.

(Q) Have you gone up in a hot air balloon and do you enjoy it?
(A) Yes, I have and it is exhilarating.

(Q) Ballooning has long captured people's imagination. Where and how did it start?
(A) In a kitchen in France, in the 1780's. Two scientists, the brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, discovered that they could float paper bags of hot air over their kitchen fire. They decided to build a larger air bag made out of fabric and paper, hung a small cage on it and sent it up in the sky.

(Q) What was in the cage?
(A) A duck, a rooster and a sheep. The flight lasted eight minutes and the three animals and landed safely.

(Q) How did the tradition develop of having champagne aboard?
(A) Farmers in 18th century France attacked balloonists with pitchforks - they panicked at the sight of people descending from balloons onto their land. To pacify them, balloonists came equipped with champagne.

(Q) You are the daughter of Mary Higgins Clark, America’s “Queen of Suspense” and have followed in her footsteps. What are the similarities and differences between you as writers?
(A) We both do extensive research on the locales and themes of our novels. Where we differ is style – my mother’s thrillers are meant to scare people, while a comic thread runs through my books. As has been said by reviewers: “Mary goes for the jugular and Carol for the funny bone.”

(Q) How did you develop the comic streak in your writing?
(A) One of the best gifts my mother gave me and my four siblings was her sense of humor and ability to see the absurd even in the darkest situations. Seeing the funny side of life was something I learned early on.

(Q) Your novels are known for their eccentric characters. How do you manage to capture people’s idiosyncracies?
(A) A writer has to have the gift of observation – my mother calls it “being on the earie.”

(Q) A major character in Jinxed is 93-year old Lucretia Standish, a former silent film star, undaunted about taking on a sixth husband or taking a spin on a motor bike. Her irrepressible spirit echoes that of Lady Veronica Exner, the jolly British dowager in your first novel, Decked. What drew you to creating these characters?
(A) They are based on my maternal grandmother, Nora Higgins, who never let age interfere with fun. At age 80, she was still going on roller-coaster rides with my siblings and me. Whenever people cautioned her: “remember, you’re not 22,” she’d respond, “but I feel 22.”

(Q) In Jinxed, a major portion of the plot takes place in an old ghost-winery called “Altered States” in Santa Barbara, CA. How did you so effectively capture the atmosphere?
(A) I visited California’s wine country and saw run-down wineries such as “Altered States,” abandoned since they were closed by Prohibition.

Submit your questions to chc4rr@aol.com

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.