I was loosely aware that most of my characters were fundamentally selfish people, but I didn't intentionally make that a theme.

I am a tragically bad artist.

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

Finally, I found a wonderful agent who wanted to work with me, and she sent it to one billion publishers and received one billion rejections, until I was fortunate enough to be matched up with the Permanent Press.

I was loosely aware that most of my characters were fundamentally selfish people, but I didn't intentionally make that a theme.

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.

At the beginning of the book [The Dissemblers], Ivy [Wilkes] has a long way to go in order to achieve self-sufficiency. Although she is very independent, even somewhat of a loner, she is very affected by other peoples' opinions. At the opening of the book, her ideas of success and achievement are largely defined by the approval of others; over the arc of the story, I think that begins to change a little.