With my family background - my parents were both activists - writing about culture and politics came naturally.

As writer pay declined and teacher pay also, we all started hanging out online. You could say online social networks cheapen our friendships or you could say we were cheapened by a plutocratic power grab and this is all we can afford.

As I get ready to buy a new computer, I'm stunned at all the many micro drafts, of different chapters and scenes and whatnot, that litter the hard drive.

I was trying to make a novel about something no one wanted to read about into something they couldn't put down or look away from.

Whenever people say a coincidence in a novel is implausible, I think, Do I have a story for you.

I realized that my identity as a novelist was private. Only I knew how much of a novelist I was!

I knew it was a risk but what I was after was a novel that is about the feeling that comes with a coincidence in real life - that you feel as if something divine has intervened and has arrived with a message.