Writing across genres has made me more prolific. When one is fighting me or simply not cutting it, I turn to another.

Sometimes the only way to fix a mistake- is to make it twice.

Genres are just bottles for the various boats. The boats matter to me.

You learn to exploit genre for the more important things - to my mind - like story, character, image, language.

I'm a writer of faith who worries about the intolerance of religion. I look at the past and fear we haven't learned from it. I believe that humanity is capable of evil as well as great acts of courage and goodness. I have hope. Deep down, I believe in the human spirit, although sometimes that belief is shaken.

I didn't start writing so that I could more deeply know myself. I was bored of myself, my life, my childhood, my hometown. I started writing as a way to know others, to get away from myself.

It's not that I bounce ideas off of my children as much as it is that having children has had a profound effect on the way I see the world. They have mined my soul. They've made me a better person and therefore a more empathetic writer.