I was very much a child of the Cold War.

It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.

It's different being afraid when there's the hope it will amount to something.

Miles away from everthing and everyone I've ever known or loved. I feel as if I've entered a new era of my life. What strange places our lives carry us to.

I came to Houston for a job, the reason most people move halfway across the country with a first grader and a five-week-old. I came here to teach at Rice.

You learn to write by reading, and my experiences and tastes as a reader are pretty wide.

I grew up during the Cold War, when everything seemed very tenuous. For many years, right up until the fall of the Berlin Wall, I had vivid nightmares of nuclear apocalypse.