I had been eagerly waiting just such a disaster. Storms, wolves, snakebite, floods-these are the occasions to find out how your father sees you, how strong and necessary he thinks you are.

At the end of the block where I used to live in Coconut Grove in Miami, there's a swampy area, a no-name alcove with a little mangrove estuary. It's beautiful.

I really try to write every day. It's hard, but it's my favorite thing to do. So, it's usually not too, too hard.

I spent most of my 20s with these alligator wrestlers in the swamps of South Florida.

Myth continues to be a valuable way to understand parts of our nature that we can't quantify.

Once you figure out what's best for the story, take out the rest.

Hopes were wallflowers. Hopes hugged the perimeter of a dance floor in your brain, tugging at their party lace, all perfume and hems and doomed expectation. They fanned their dance cards, these guests that pressed against the walls of your heart.