One of my great passions is the collection of historical trivia.

My writing has to support more than my research habit, but I love to curl up with a book about some dusty corner of history.

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.

One of my great passions is the collection of historical trivia.

I think my prose reads as if English were my second language. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I'm dodging bullets and gasping for breath.

Ideas aren't magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

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