Do Some Damage discussion

OK. So you're sitting at a Bouchercon bar with Tom Piccirilli and you say you liked this book and he says thanks and you say that you had one question about it.

What's the question for the author?

Preferably, "What would you like to drink?"

How much did you think about where/how you would begin the novel? I ask this because Terrier begins the novel as being fairly docile, and you don't actually see how bad ass he can be until he meets up w/ the mobster. This is when he became much more interesting to me, and I would've liked to see this aspect of his character from the very beginning, but that might've been at odds w/ the heart of the story, which was less about crime and more about family ties. Did you wrestle w/ this at all or was it clear from the start where you wanted to begin?

Well, the beginning was the start. Meaning, that opening line and the opening confrontation with Collie was the basis for the entire book. I think I purposefully showed him as being a little "tough" early on when he creeps the house of the guard who made him say his full name. That occurs at the end of chap 1, if I recall correctly. But showing him in all his glory as a cat burglar willing to stand in a sleeping prison guard's bedroom and watch him sleeping showed that Terry had nerve and a fairly significant rage.