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 read stories aloud at every stage. I listen to my writer friends when they kindly offer criticism. I listen to my husband when he tells me something doesn't seem right. I have my mother's boyfriend, Loring Janes, read to make sure I get everything right with the machines and guns.

As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my mind a good portion of most days.

I think by writing about a place with great specificity, you manage to make it universal.

I'm not much interested in my own self when I write. I'm interested in what I observe out there, what's going on around me.

I think back when I was kind of a crappy writer, I really did know my time was better spent working and having adventures and seeing the world.

Writing is so wrapped up in ego, but with math one is just trying to get it right, although you're often wrong. I think math helped me become a good critic of myself, come at writing a little less personally.