Ronan kept staring at Whelk. He was good at staring. There was something about his stare that took something from the other person.

She couldn't make it untrue.

I don't think I'd like to argue with you," I say. "I think it would be a very dissatisfying pastime.

Mum liked to say that some things happen for a reason, that sometimes obstacles were there to stop you from doing something stupid.

The biggest mistake you can make is assuming that creativity will hit you all at once and the muse will carry you to the end of the book on feather wings while Foster the People plays gently in the background. Storytelling is work. Pleasurable work, usually, but it is work.

You leave nothing to assumption," Dory Maud says. "You swallow her with your eyes. I'm surprised there's any of her left for the rest of us to see.

She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.