BF:  I read that you were a wilderness survival instructor at one point so 
it seems your writing career didn't necessarily take a completely linear 
path.

PDC: Well, I never got paid to be a wilderness survival instructor.  That 
was something I did in college.  I've had a lot of different jobs. I was a 
preschool teacher and den mother ... I know, scary, isn't it?  I've worked 
in a publishing house, and once told people "Where to Go and How to Get 
There" (as a Touring Guide for theNational Automobile Corp.).  The bottom 
line is:  Even when I tried my best to fit into a "normal" occupation, I was 
only happy when writing.  I feel fortunate now to be able to do that, just 
write ... and I hope I'll continue to do JUST that for a while longer.

BF:  It seems you've had some pretty nurturing careers that might be 
unexpected from a horror writer.

PDC:  You do what you have to do. Seriously, I love being around children 
... they are the true dreamers of the world.  I have two sons, ages 20 and 
15, and, although they both show signs of "creative dreaming" neither of 
them has any great desire to read my work.  You know how it is:  Hey, this 
is ONLY Mom.  Their friends, on the other hand, think it's cool to know "a 
real writer."  To be honest, I did almost give up being a writer -- I'd been 
trying to get published since age 19 (I know, but I _thought_ I had talent 
back then) and was less than a month from my 40th birthday --AUGH! I 
figured, and said out loud, that if I hadn't sold ANYTHING by the time I hit 
that mark, I'd give up writing and devote myself to my kids and whatever 
"normal" job I could find.  Days passed.  Then, at age 39 3/4s I received an 
acceptance letter! Who says the Powers That Be don't have a sense of humor?

BF:  I've just read Night Prayers and I know you've lived in Hollywood and I 
was wondering if it was inspired by things you've witnessed there or 
characters you knew there?

PDC:   I lived in Hollywood very close to where Night Prayers takes place.  
Actually, I lived in Central Los Angeles, but a friend of my mother's agreed 
to let me use her address in order to go to Hollywood High.  The "Old Lady" 
in Night Prayers is sort of a take off on my mother's friend ... minus the 
fangs, of course.  I was just out visiting my parents and went over to see 
the "setting" on Cherokee Avenue.  Unfortunately, it's now a parking lot, 
but that's California for you ... no respect for culture.  The novel was 
actually written a number years ago in response to a challenge from another 
writer Ron Dee who wrote Christian vampire novels and said you must be 
touched by god towrite a vampire novel. Well, you've definitely got to be 
touched. So I said let me see if I can do one and I wrote Night Prayers long 
hand in a month and he became the character of Mica. He's deifinely not the 
only friend I "put"  in the book, but hopefully they won't sue me.  It just 
kinda felt right to set it in Hollywood because that was where I "came of 
age".