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

I tend to only write productively for one to two hours per day, so there is plenty of time left over for me to work a day job!

The motivation to paint seems more pure, or at least more personal, when the artist is doing it for herself.

I knew the basic outline of the novel [The Dissemblers] and would write whatever scene of the book I felt particularly excited about at the time.

Ivy [Wilkes] does exhibit a certain impatience at the beginning of the book [The Dissemblers]. She doesn't want to wait through years of hard work and insignificance to make her mark on the art world. Part of her growth is in realizing - even embracing - that the process of art is more important than the product or the recognition.

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

At the end, I cobbled scenes all together and smoothed out the transitions as much as possible. Incidentally, I would not recommend this approach to writing a book, and will probably not write that way again!