I find that time constraints actually make me more productive, and "real world" experiences provide a lot of inspiration to write.

Publishing requires a lot of persistence and a fair amount of luck.

When Ivy [Wilkes] begins her work in forgery, she doesn't yet know the toll that it will take on her own original work. She even thinks it might be a way to find inspiration. By the time she realizes that she has lost her own voice, she is thoroughly entangled in the forgery mess.

I do think that it is one of the eternal questions about art, though - is all art intrinsically selfish?

From beginning to end, the novel [Dissemblers] took about three and a half years to write. I didn't write it chronologically.

Writing a book set in New Mexico was partially a way to express my own love for the state, and partially a way to prudently follow the advice to write what you know.

Yet [Georgia O'Keeffe ] always stayed true to her vision, and was at times uncompromising in following the path she saw for herself.