Bestselling author Robert Dugoni discusses when and how to use backstory and flashbacks to keep readers engaged--by ensuring that they portray a character in action--in both standalone novels and series. He discusses the dangers of equating ambiguity with tension, and the importance of listening to what your story has to tell you.

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thrillers, as well as several standalone novels, including THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF SAM HELL, Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni's narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. He is also the author of the nonfiction exposé THE CYANIDE CANARY, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year.

Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a two-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He is also a two- time finalist for the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.