The king just sits there, moving one square at a time. The queen can move so freely. I suppose I’d rather lose the game than forfeit her freedom.

I'd studied 16th century science and magic. I thought it was strange that people were interested in the same kinds of things my research was about. The more I thought about it, the more intriguing it became and pretty soon I was writing a novel about a reluctant witch and a 1500-year-old vampire.

I saw the logic that they used, and the death of a thousand cuts as experimental scientists slowly chipped away at the belief that the world was an inexplicably powerful, magical place. Ultimately they failed, though. The magic never really went away. It waited, quietly, for people to return to it when they found the science wanting.

She was like a camera that had been chronically out of focus until someone came by and twisted the lenses into alignment.

Se Souvenir du passe, et qu'il ya un avenir: Remember the past, and that there is a future.

Remember the past - and await the future.

My experiences thus far had me planning to throttle the first Tudor historian I met upon my return for gross dereliction of duty.