I listen to instrumental jazz and bluegrass, but aside from my AM workout, I have no rituals.

The best writing advice I ever got was "Keep moving forward, don't retreat into rewrites." The worst came from a book that said "Writing fiction is like telling lies," which just seems stupid to me.

Before writing, I start with a series of questions, specific things I need to know before I can write the book... That list grows and changes as I do more and more research. But when I've answered the bulk of the questions, I begin to write.

The closer you can get to your setting and to primary sources, the more authentic your history is going to be.

I listen to instrumental jazz and bluegrass, but aside from my AM workout, I have no rituals.

Writing about craft has forced me to think more about my own writing technique, and to break down my process in ways that have been enormously helpful to me.

In teaching writing, I'm learning new things about writing.