Writing about women's sexuality is very scary for me because I'm always afraid I'll get it wrong.

Writing about women's sexuality is very scary for me because I'm always afraid I'll get it wrong.

Writing short stories was kind of like I was cheating the whole time, in some way. I went back and forth between writing the novels and sort of sneaking out to work on stories occasionally. These stories were written over the last 10 years or so, as I was taking breaks from the novels I've written.

Fiction is fun because you get to steal an identity and try to make it authentic.

I think that the way that I write stories is by instinct. You have some basic ideas - a character, or an image, or a situation that sounds compelling - and then you just feel your way around until you find the edges of your story. It's like going into a dark room... you stumble around until you find the walls and then inch your way to the light switch.

Writing a short story is a little like walking into a dark room, finding a light and turning it on. The light is the end of the story.

One of the things I rarely do is write about sex.