The question I get most often when folks see that like the heroine in my mysteries, I was once a reporter, is “are the stories Nichelle covers in the books based on real life?” Yes and no. I covered murders, fires, child abuse, a serial rapist, and tragedies of every shape and color in the seven years I spent as a full-time journalist before I left the newsroom for full-time motherhood. So far, the books have seen the more fun stories: an abandoned casket, a Houdini catburglar, cowboys and church ladies nearly coming to blows in a girly bar parking lot. Playing in Nichelle’s world is a blast. It has everything I miss, minus the 80-hour weeks away from my family. Bonus: fiction forensics labs can work faster and have bigger budgets, and Nichelle isn’t nearly as afraid of fictional jail as I was of the real thing. Fictional bereaved people are at least a little easier to interview, too. My favorite writing moments are those when shiny ideas pop out of nowhere and braid themselves into a plot. I only love them a little less when they come at 2 a.m. One night last week I woke with a…