Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.

Alison [McGhee] and I have known each other since the summer of 2001. One evening we were sitting around talking about how we wished we had a good story to work on. Alison said: Why don't we work on a story together? I said: A story about what? And Alison said: A story about a short girl and a tall girl.

Her sister, Holly McGhee, is an agent, and she's my agent in New York. She's Alison's agent too. Even though Alison lives here in Minneapolis, I met Alison through Holly, when Holly came to Minneapolis to visit Alison.

The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.

Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart. (Old Doll)

Rob Horton, the main character of The Tiger Rising, was a secondary character in an adult short story I wrote, and he wouldn't go away after I'd finished the short story. I couldn't figure out what he wanted, so I wrote to find out.

All of God's creatures have names, every last one of them. Of that I am sure: of that I have no doubt at all.