The truth is I tried to write for years and I wasn't very good.

I enjoy shooting. Around where I live, it's something you do for entertainment once in a while, you go out and shoot targets.

I have a second-degree black belt in Okinawan kobudo weapons training.

In a regular class I don't focus on the form, but I think that focus is helpful for brainstorming and coming up with ideas quickly, especially with autobiographical material.

I've worked behind counters serving food, and I've lived on the circus train, and I've led bicycle tours in Eastern Europe and the Balkans and Russia. I've been a key liner for a newspaper, I've done typesetting. Oh, all sorts of things.

I like living near my family, and near the people I understand the best. The landscape of Michigan speaks to me, and the humility and humor of the people here makes sense. It just feels right to live here, in a place where I don't dare put on airs.

Eighty percent of all novels are bought by women, or so I've heard.