We're all capable of climbing so much higher than we usually permit ourselves to suppose.

I lost an arm on my last trip home.

I have this theory that anything that happens to you that leaves you alive and intact can be used somewhere in your writing.

It's when people begin using their religion as just a way of getting power over other people that scares me. I'm afraid that's what's going on in a lot of cases right now. When people deliberately tell lies, Creationism for instance, and pretend, "Oh, it's not really religion." I mean they know they're lying, and yet they're the religious people. There's something wrong there.

Most of us don't have to worry about being shot of we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.

But my problem with fantasy, and horror, and related genres, is that sometimes the problems are illogical.