I love meeting booksellers and readers and hearing how they've read and received my stories. Often I'm surprised by which characters they've loved best, what scenes have stayed with them, what connections they've felt between my characters' lives and theirs.

I love meeting booksellers and readers and hearing how they've read and received my stories. Often I'm surprised by which characters they've loved best, what scenes have stayed with them, what connections they've felt between my characters' lives and theirs.

Knowing and understanding the people we love most is a process that continues well beyond their deaths... and is never complete.

Here we are - despite the delays, the confusion, and the shadows en route - at last, or for the moment, where we always intended to be.

When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be.

When most of us talk to our dogs, we tend to forget that they're not people.

Nothing teaches great writing like the very best books do. Yet, good teachers often help students cross that bridge, and I have to say that I had a few extraordinary English teachers in high school whom I still credit for their guidance.