Each letter has a shape, she told them, one shape in the world and no other, and it is your responsibility to make it perfect.

That there were other worlds, invisible, unknown, beyond imagination even, was a revelation to him.

Once, this whole world had been hidden beneath a shallow sea.

They turned a distracted gaze on the world, wide-eyed, somehow, and questioning.

Then she had been a fiancee, a young wife, and a mother, and she had discovered that these words were far too small ever to contain the experience.

You can't spend the rest of your life tiptoeing around to try and avert disaster. It won't work. You'll just end up missing the life you have.

The Lake of Dreams grew gradually, over many years, elements and ideas accruing until they gained enough critical mass to become a novel.