Once you have been touched by magic, you are forever changed. You leave a trail.

But magic, like everything else, follows certain natural laws. Magic needs energy wherever it can find it. If no other source of energy is available, it will take the life force of the magician who created it. That is why every use of magic weakens the magician.

I am thrilled when I read about fans using my stories as springboards to read about either the historical characters or the myths and legends in the books.

I published my first book in 1982 - a collection of Irish folklore called Irish Folk & Fairy Tales. It is still in print today. My first young adult book was published a couple of years later, and I've been writing in both genres ever since.

Negotiations are about controlling things, about being in the driver's seat and make one tiny mistake; you're dead. I made one tiny mistake, I wore women's clothes

Adults, Sophie has decided a long time before, were really bad at making up good excuses.

My mom always used to say that average people are the most special people in the world. And that's why God made so many.