I was always writing. I just didn't know if I was any good.

I was always writing. I just didn't know if I was any good.

With each draft, the work gets better, and usually that means tighter. It means getting the precise word, not the approximate word.

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.

Fiction begins with the senses, and the senses go to work in a place.

The regional tags are often pejorative and dismissive. Don't think of place-bound stories, in other words, but of stories with a strong sense of place.

Revision is not the end of the creative process, but a new beginning. It's a chance not just to clean up and edit, but to open up and discover. The energetic prose comes about from all the energy that went into crafting it, I suppose.