The story has to flow from an unstructured, felt place, but then I have to bring my analytical brain to bear on issues of craft.

Things, very strange things, happen in folktales and there is never much attention given to the whys and wherefores.

Why did people try to shush trouble away as if it were an unruly child?

Writing, for me, is always a dance between the critical part of my brain and the subconscious.

We grow, we mature, some of us give birth, we age, we die.

The story has to flow from an unstructured, felt place, but then I have to bring my analytical brain to bear on issues of craft.

I never know where I'm headed when I'm working on a book.