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 One of the questions people ask Lisa the most is where she gets her ideas. They laugh when she tells them she prays a lot (although it is the truth), but most times her prayers are answered in the simplest, most unexpected ways. She can get an idea while spotting an interaction between people at the supermarket, reading one line from a magazine, or even from the most insignificant to the most significant of her personal experiences.
DADDY'S GIRL
SPOILER ALERT! ONLY FOR AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK!
What follows is a complete and total spoiler and will reveal a PLOT TWIST, so please don't read it unless you have read the book because it will ruin the surprise.
The idea for Daddy's Girl came from a long standing fascination Lisa has had with the Underground Railroad, which was very active in Chester County, Pennsylvania, found just over the Mason-Dixon Line. The "central route" or "Eastern Line" of the Underground Railroad began in Maryland and Delaware ran north through Chester County, and traveled farther to Norristown and then Philadelphia.
As way of background, the term "Underground Railroad" was supposedly coined by a slavecatcher, who failing to find his prey, said, "There must be an underground railroad somewhere." The term is misleading because there is no actual railroad under the ground, with rails, train cars, and such. Instead, the Underground Railroad was a series of people willing to hide the fleeing slaves in their homes. Those who hid the slaves were called "station masters" and their homes were "stations" or "stops." The stations tended to be no more than eight to fifteen miles apart, the length of travel on foot in one terrifying night. There are no reliable estimates of how many slaves escaped freedom, because records were not kept for fear of being used as evidence. Estimates have ranged from 30,000 to 100,000.
Chester County residents helped many former slaves escape northward and was home to a committed and courageous network of free African Americans and abolitionist Quakers. Quakers of the Progressive Meeting in Longwood and the Marlborough Friends Meeting in Pocopson hid the slaves in their homes, at great personal risk. Many of the homes still stand, and interestingly, surround what would later become Chester County Prison.
For those who want to read more about the Underground Railroad, there are several books which informed this novel, and many of them contain original source material, which make for fascinating reading. Do take a look at: William Still, The Underground Railroad (1872) and R.C. Smedley, History of The Underground Railroad in Chester and the Neighboring Counties of Pennsylvania (1883). Both of these works bring history to life, and William Still's is a wide-ranging must-read. Mr. Still was an African American who was chairman of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society's Vigilance Committee and he interviewed fugitives whom he helped hide, creating a first-hand account of the life of slaves, including which farms and plantations they worked, who "owned" them, and how they escaped. More recently, you can read Fergus Bordewich, Bound for Cannan (2005); David Blight, ed., Passages to Freedom (2004); William Kashatus, Justice Over the Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad (2002); and William Switala, Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania (2001).
DIRTY BLONDE
The idea for Dirty Blonde grew from an unforgettable day years ago, when Lisa happened upon Centralia, a coal-mining town in northeastern Pennsylvania, which is the real-life site of a horrendous underground mine fire — that has burned for sixty years and burns even today! She didn't know anything about the fire until fifteen years ago, when she drove through its smoky ruins and found herself engulfed in sulfurous steam. It was an impossibly eerie experience, and she always wanted to write about it. Last year she began to do the research, revisiting the town and reading everything she could about it.
 By way of background, Centralia and the surrounding Appalachian towns were one of the few places in the country that anthracite coal, which is especially hard, could be found. Anthracite began being mined in Centralia in the 1800s, so that by the 1900s, the town sat atop a beehive of mines, exploited by different companies and poachers. The mine fire that would eventually ruin Centralia started in 1962, in the landfill near St. Ignatius church, school, and cemetery. The Borough Council cleaned up for Memorial Day by burning the trash in the landfill, but unfortunately, a coal mine lay beneath. Flames must have fallen into the mine and set fire to the coal, and over the next several decades, state and federal governments lost chance after chance to put out the fire when it was still possible to do so. It rages out of control, even today, leading Centralia to be called "the poor man's Dante's Inferno."
Her research started with an excellent book, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire (1986), by David DeKok. This nonfiction account reads like a great detective story, owing to David's skilled reporting and writing. However, nothing could compare to actually walking amongst the ruins of the town, seeing the sulfurous steam rising from cracks in the ground, and feeling the heat of the pavement despite the fact she visited in the middle of the winter. Lisa has included some pictures of her visit to Centralia, and some of David DeKok's haunting before and after pictures of the once thriving mining town. It is a place you won't soon forget.
DEVIL'S CORNER
The idea for Devil's Corner came as Lisa was watching a trial at the federal courthouse, where, in her ex-life, she worked as a lawyer. (This is what she does for fun along with eating saturated fats, and riding Buddy the Pony.) Not long ago, she wandered into a courtroom and found herself watching a jury trial for crack-cocaine trafficking against members of one of the most violent gangs in Philadelphia history. She had seen only five minutes of the testimony before ideas and characters started to flow, and she knew she had a novel. In fact, the next morning she woke up with the first line of Devil's Corner:
"Vicki Allegretti always wondered what it would feel like to look into the barrel of a loaded gun, and now she knew."
Along with the first sentence, Lisa imagined a brand new character, Vicki Allegretti, a tough-minded, gutsy and justice-inspired young assistant U.S. attorney, and the perfect fit for this wild ride through the grittier streets of Philadelphia. Devil's Corner has as many twists, turns and surprises as the court case Lisa observed, and she hopes that you will learn as much about our American cities as she did that day in court.
KILLER SMILE And Beyond
For Lisa, her eleventh book, Killer Smile, is truly personal. As she says, many times she need not look past her own family, "The Flying Scottolines" for inspiration. The idea for Killer Smile came as she was looking through some of her father's things. She stumbled across the alien registration cards you see here, which belonged to her very own grandparents, Giuseppe and Mary Scottoline. Prior to finding these cards, Lisa had no idea that Italian-Americans were even interned during World War II, no less that it was part of her own personal family history. This sent Lisa on a fascinating research mission. What she learned was truly eye-opening, and it provided lots of great material for her new book. Lisa could only use a portion of her research in her book, but wanted to provide additional information to anyone who was interested. If you would like to read more about the Italian-American internment during World War II click here.
Although she adores her brother, growing up Lisa always thought it would be nice to have a sister too. Imagine her surprise when Lisa answered a knock at her door one day, only to find herself standing face-to-face with a nearly mirror image of herself. Practically the same age, and definitely similar in looks and personality, Lisa learned mid-life that she had a half-sister. Once she recovered from the shock, and celebrated her newly found sibling, Lisa knew she had the makings of a great book. Thus, Mistaken Identity was born. Alice Connolly, Bennie Rosato's evil twin sister, was such a big hit (Lisa received more mail about this book than any other), that Lisa decided to bring her back in Dead Ringer.
The idea to introduce the world of pigeon racing in The Vendetta Defense came, believe it or not, from someone she hired to paint her office. Lisa watched him as he worked, and was amazed at how patient the painter was even during the most tedious parts of the job. She finally couldn't take it anymore, and just asked him where he got his self control. He told her that he has been raising and racing homing pigeons for years, and required an exceptional amount of patience. Fascinated by the painter's passionate description of the sport, Lisa was hooked. In the end, Lisa was very surprised by how many of her readers connected in some way with this part of the story.
 Some Stuff You Just Can't Make Up!
Lisa is flexible with many things, but not the accuracy of her books. She does tons of research for her novels, and works hard to make things as correct and realistic as possible. So, whether something is going to enhance her entire plot, or add one descriptive sentence, Lisa is relentless in trying to get it just right. Besides, she knows that she has lots of very careful readers with all sorts of various expertise, and if she makes a mistake they will let her know. Which, by the way, Lisa totally appreciates!
Lisa's research usually starts with reading books (surprised?), searching the internet, and talking to experts. However, many times, second-hand experiences are just not good enough for her. Lisa likes to see, feel, hear and experience the same things her characters will. That has led her down some very interesting paths. She has taken boxing lessons, visited a convent, driven up the front steps of the Art Museum in Philadelphia (the famous Rocky stairs) just to make sure it could be done, stood on the roof of her car in a parking garage to figure out a real-life escape route for one of her characters, visited junkyards, participated in weekly poker games, but her very favorite research by far would have to be the shoe shopping expeditions for Courting Trouble. Of course, she doesn't have to leave home to write about all the animals that appear in her books. They are usually surrounding her for every strike of the keyboard.
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