Probably I chose immortality because mortality is a universal human obsession.

The ecosystem of our world is a closed system: it would run out of gas, collapse of its own weight.

And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.

The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.

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.

Beyond that, I seem to be compelled to write science fiction, rather than fantasy or mysteries or some other genre more likely to climb onto bestseller lists even though I enjoy reading a wide variety of literature, both fiction and nonfiction.

To be alive was to be disappointed. You tried and failed and kept on trying, never knowing whether you'd ever get what you wanted. But sometimes we get what we need.