I can't tell you any more than any other writer can tell you why they write, and I don't know what my influences are.

I have been a reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy for a long time, since I was 11 or 12 I think, so I understand it and I'm not at all surprised that readers of the genre might enjoy my books.

There was a time when the young of many clans joined together to make new clans.

Again Creb grunted. It was the usual noncommittal comment used by men when responding to a woman. It carried only enough meaning to indicate the woman had been understood, without acknowledging too much significance in what she said.

The idea led me into the research, which continues to give me more ideas for the story.

I had an idea for a story about a young woman who was living with people who were different, not just superficially different - such as hair colour, or eye colour, or skin colour - but different in some significant way.

Of the two, I would think of my work as closer to Science Fiction than Fantasy.