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

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

The money can be decent, but I really don't recommend the work-for-hire route as an entry into publishing. Too many things can go wrong.

It took me about 12 years to reach my million-word mark. The challenge now is to continue to challenge myself.

During the many centuries that magic, here on this planet, was presumed to have worked, there were at least as many theories as to how magic worked as there were cultures and religions.

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.

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