One of the reasons I write in different genres is that I get to have the feeling - even fleetingly - that I'm not just writing like Baggott again. I can escape myself.

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

I try not to divide plot and character. I get to know a character by what they want and fear and how those internal forces play out in their lives.

The basic rule of storytelling is 'show, don't tell.

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.

The truth is that for those 86 long years when the Red Sox went without a World Series win, fans were not only in a recession, but trapped in a longstanding, deeply entrenched sports depression.

I'm about to start something new. I'm waiting to be whelmed. The whelming as you start something new is quite something.