Each genre has something to teach me about the others. Not all the lessons are transferable, but many of the most important ones are.

No matter what losses happen in a given season, the Red Sox always have next year.

Some of the best work done to combat the Republicans has been wit and humor.

The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again - without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.

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

Basically if you burst into my office the walls themselves will flutter as if alive - maybe that's the reason for all the wings in 'Pure.

As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately.