L-word: Since both Jane and Maura became the central characters how are they evolving from book to book? What do you envision for them?

TG: I don’t always know ahead of time what’s going to happen. I knew that in “The Apprentice” Jane would have a romantic relationship with a man in the course of her investigation. As Jane became more settle, as she fell in love, as she got married and had a child, she, as most people do, became happier. She became happier because her life was better and people were excepting her in her profession. She kind of mellowed down but she’s still that sharp-witted aggressive person she’s always been. I guess to me she just has become deeper. I understand her better.

Maura at first didn’t let me in. Maura’s very protective of herself. From the very first book I thought, “Who are you really? Why aren’t you letting me inside?” As time has gone by I’ve discovered that Maura has a lot of secrets. She has a very troubled family life and even she wasn’t aware of it until she discovered her birth parents. As time has gone by I see the dark side to Maura. The fact that she comes from a family of killers. The fact that she really doesn’t know why she chose such a grim profession, maybe it has had to do with some genetic memory of the dark side of humanity.

L-word: It is interesting that even the show doesn’t really follow the books, they have Maura’s real father as a mobster and she keeps questioning if she has his genes.

TG: You know what’s funny is that it was based on a true case out in the Pacific Northwest about a young man who turned in his father. He said, “I think my father is a serial killer”. And it turned out he was. They found some dead bodies in the father’s backyard. The news reporters looking into it realized that it’s not just the father who was the serial killer. This young man’s grandfather was also a serial killer. How would you feel if your father and your grandfather were killing young girls and burying them in the backyard? So I thought, “What is it like to feel like you have evil in your genes?” Even if you don’t believe that evil goes through your genes it must do something to your own self-image.