I write sets of books, but I've also written a lot of orphans.

A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.

I've read short stories that are as dense as a 19th century novel and novels that really are short stories filled with a lot of helium.

If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, if you write, you know how pointless a question this is and how difficult it is to answer.

When I have an idea, it goes from vague, cloudy notion to 100,000 words in a heartbeat.

Neophyte writers tend to believe that there is something magical about ideas and that if they can just get a hold of a good one, then their futures are ensured.

Editors of open anthologies actively seek submissions from all comers, established and unknown. They are willing to read whatever the tide washes up at their feet.