Weakness is a guise. Wear it when they need to know you're human, but never when you feel it.

Oh, and the easiest way to make someone furious is to tell her to calm down.

I had spared the stag's life. The power of that life belonged to me as surely as it belonged to the man who had taken it.

I'm perfectly capable of being stupid on my own.

And there's nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.

My stories usually begin with the characters and some elements of how power (personal, political, magical) functions in the world. The rest develops as I write, and research helps a great deal with that. If you're going to write about an agrarian economy, research agrarian economies. If your main character is starving, then you should know what it means for a malnourished body to break down.

Don't wish for bricks when you can build from stone.