Watching teething babies is like watching over a thermonuclear reactor-it is best done in shifts, by well-rested people.

Watching teething babies is like watching over a thermonuclear reactor-it is best done in shifts, by well-rested people.

It took me about three years to write About Grace. I wasn't teaching two of those years, so I was working eight-hour days, five days a week. And it would include research and reading - it wasn't just a blank page, laying down words.

I do fish. I think there is a connection between thinking and fishing mostly because you spend a lot of time up to your waist in water without a whole lot to keep your mind busy.

To say a person is a happy person or an unhappy person is ridiculous. We are a thousand different kinds of people every hour.

I found my first novel difficult. I don't want to make it sound like it's any more difficult than driving a cab or going to any other job, but there are so many opportunities for self-doubt, that you just kind of need to soldier on.

For me, writing historical fiction is all about finding a balance between reading, traveling, looking, imagining, and dreaming.