As writers, we don't just need to write about poverty or war or the immigrant experience.

History releases me from my own experience and jogs my fictional imagination.

I feel sometimes like a book tour is a slow series of humiliations and that if you're strong you'll come out of it OK.

The process of open adoption is not discussed in the way it should be. Everyone I know who has adopted domestically has at least one tragic story. It was important to me to be able to describe those situations.

As writers, we don't just need to write about poverty or war or the immigrant experience.

My first two novels were set in the past, and that freed me up in a lot of ways; it allowed me to find my way into my story and my characters through research.

I want to say that, in general, when it works, open adoption is great.