I've always felt that the best whips and chains are in the mind. With a little creativity, the physical ones are hardly necessary.

Knight takes Knight,” I called into the cloudy night air. “Check.

I know it's not thematically in tune with my new job and all, but I find it effective. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day," I say. "But set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. Tao of Pratchett. I live by it.

Sometimes I think that's where most of us are. Fighting off the crazy as best we can. Trying to become something better than we were. It's that second bit that's important.

Oh, I forgot to mention it: My brother is the kind of man whom women stalk. In cooperative packs.

Seedy wasn't a fair description for the place, because seeds imply eventual regrowth and renewal.

When I finally got tired of arguing with her and decided to write a novel as if I was some kind of formulaic, genre writing drone, just to prove to her how awful it would be, I wrote the first book of the Dresden Files.