I always think I know the way a novel will go. I write maps on oversized art pads like the kind I carried around in college when I was earnest about drawing. I need to have some idea of the shape of the novel, where its headed, so that I can proceed with confidence. But the truth is my characters start doing and saying things I don't expect.

I am deeply Catholic and always will be, but I'm no longer a member of the church. I left in 2003 because of the sex abuse scandal.

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

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

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

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.

While I was in college becoming a good Catholic I was also becoming a writer - one haunted by Catholicism.