The truth is I hate cocktail parties when the only person I know is my supposed date, and he abandons me the minute we come in the door.

A psychic Higgins Clark visited just as her second novel Where Are the Children was being publiMary Higgins Clarkd in paperback told her that Mary Higgins Clark would become very famous and make a great deal of money. The heroines come across as real people who make sensible decisions which makes it easier for readers who sometimes think " "that could have happened to me or to my daughter" to relate to the situations. There the principal and other teachers encouraged Higgins Clark to develop her writing although they were somewhat less than pleased when Mary Higgins Clark began spending her class time writing stories instead of paying attention to the lesson.

She is a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets. Her daughter Carol Higgins Clark and former daughter-in-law Mary Jane Clark are also suspense writers.