When we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we’ve taken as reality.

What occurs after revelation and paralysis?

Position yourself to succeed by doing the other things in your life that rejuvenate you. You can create little islands of time away from your novel that will help preserve your balance. Exhaustion will affect both your writing’s quality and your productivity.

When they give you things, ask yourself why. When you're grateful to them for giving you the things you should have anyway, ask yourself why.

You can either waste time worrying about a death that might not come or concentrate on what’s left to you.

I don't believe that climate-change fiction will change the mind of a denier because most of the deniers I've met are basically in a cult situation. It's a faith issue. It's not a rational issue. There's no fact that's going to change their mind. They simply believe in the cult of climate-change denial and it somehow feeds into the rest of the mythos of their own life story.

Imbuing fiction with a life that extends beyond the last word is in some ways the goal: the ending that goes beyond the ending in the reader's mind, so invested are they in the story.