I have had a few gentlemen let me know they find my manly beardiness somewhat alluring. Never any ladies though.

I think the best part of being an author is that I get to learn about anything I want and explain it away as research.

He hesitated, then lifted his head and sniffed. “Have you been drinking?” The question was more curious than accusatory. “No,” Bast said. The innkeeper raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been tasting,” Bast said, emphasizing the word. “Tasting comes before drinking.

Do you just want to get by? Or do you want to make me proud?

My bad luck got tangled up with my bad decisions, and I'm paying for it.

The thing that helps me do a good job is that I don't feel the need to explain everything about the world to my reader. I'm not writing a history text on the Four Corners. I'm telling a story that's set there. The setting belongs in the background for the most part, and it's easy for fantasy authors to forget that. That's one of the unfortunate parts of Tolkien's legacy, in my opinion. Read the first hundred pages of the Fellowship of the Ring and you start to get pissed, "Shut up about the Shire's museums! Isn't the world supposed to be in peril or something?"

To be both rich and handsome was bad enough. But to have a voice like honey over warm bread on top of that was simply inexcusable.