Humans may be the only creatures on Earth who spend significant time thinking about the fact that someday their lives will end.

As for the historical inspirations I drew on in writing The Snow Queen, I suppose I would call them more cross-cultural inspirations, though they frequently involve past societies as well as present day ones.

What I do not want to write is didactic political tracts.

Fear of the unknown is a terrible fear.

But our society does not grant nontraditional forms of intelligence equal recognition, no matter how much it would help us get along or truly enrich our lives.

Archaeology is the anthropology of the past, and science fiction is the anthropology of the future.

The mers were also designed to reproduce only at long intervals, in order to maintain the natural balance of the environment in which they were placed.