Very few editors worry about heresy - their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness.

Common folk didn't have last names in the 8th and 9th centuries.

I think it is probably more important to attend specialized conventions for a journeyman writer than any other, but it's useful at all stages of a career, if for nothing else, to find out how the industry is working at any given time.

Isn't that an odd philosophy for a vampire?

When you're a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.

If they aren't real enough to surprise me, then they aren't real enough to go on the page.

Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.