I've always relied on producing more material than I need. With each of my published novels I've written around four times the amount of material that's ended up in the book.

When I write new worlds, I work in layers, building and throwing out, and building anew.

I try not to think too much or be too impatient, and let the back of my brain do its mysterious work.

I'm a physical learner. I learn from writing drafts, not reading them.

Depressing thought: my friends were the girls I ate lunch with, all buddies from kindergarten who knew one another so well we weren't sure if we even liked one another anymore.

You had to pick up a landline to make sure your best friend wore a matching outfit to school. I do remember people talking more. Nostalgia is dangerous, though.

And she, the new mother of a daughter, felt a fierceness come over her that seized at her heart, that made her feel as if her bones were turned to steel, as if she could turn herself into a weapon to keep this daughter of hers from having to be hurt by the world outside the ring of her arms.