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

And I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction, especially apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction.

What strange places our lives can carry us to, what dark passages.

I was a 'Planet of the Apes'-obsessed kid.

I have any number of completely dark obsessions and fascinations, and none of this was present in my profile or my growing profile as a writer.

When you write, you take the ball and you hold it up to the light and you turn it slowly, and let people draw their own conclusions. And try to bring empathy to all sides of the equation.

Here she was, a women who could bolt-load a crossbow in under a second, put half a dozen long arrows in the air in fewer than five, blade a target dead through the sweet spot at six meters, on the run, on an off day; and yet knitting a pair of baby booties seemed completely beyond her power.