And it can be a way of healing.

My first novel is loaded with food references largely because my cupboards were bare, and I was writing hungry.

As long as you have any floor space at all, you have room for books! Just make two stacks of books the same height, place them three or four feet apart, lay a board across them, and repeat. Viola! Bookshelves!

In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After 'Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder.

I've put everything I had and I've given my readers 120 percent, and that's the truth.

I made real sacrifices and took big risks. But living, it seems to me, is largely about risk.

There are so many people who don't know small towns exist. When I write, I want to give my readers two things: one is a sense of consolation, and two, I want to make them laugh.