CARL HIAASEN: People say, "Are you a crime novelist? Are you a mystery novelist?" All novels are about crime, some kind of crime, whether it's a crime of the heart, a crime of passion. Whether it's crime of betrayal, a crime of rape, or whether it's a homicide or whether it's an arson, or whether it's crime in the traditional sense of we think of it. But it's all about crime, crime and a conflict that's going on with someone. So I don't buy the idea that you're either a crime writer or a traditional novelist. I just don't buy it. War is a crime, and I don't think anyone would call Catch-22 a crime novel. It's a satire about the most hideous of all crimes, and that's war. But it's also a hilariously funny, devastating book. And that's the trick with satire, the kind of writing I do is to bring that kind of an eye and make people laugh about something that can be pretty wretched. In this case, in the case of the last book I wrote, Stormy Weather, you had a hurricane, devastating hurricane, but in a way the satire and what you write about the unsavory elements who come to Florida after a hurricane, the predators-- the carpet baggers who moved in after Hurricane Andrew, for example-- the satire becomes a weapon of outrage. It all comes from anger. It all comes from a certain amount of outrage over what was happening. And in rendering it, if you make people laugh, you're also making the point that this is serious stuff and this is how we deal with it. Laughter is a great defense mechanism. The alternative is to go stark raving mad.