One of my goals is to allow readers to see my characters and the world they inhabit as vividly as possible.

Others can make us vulnerable and the sooner such vulnerabilities are dealt with the better

I usually do at least a dozen drafts and progressively make more-conscious decisions. Because I've always believed stories are closer to poems than novels, I spend a lot of time on the story's larger rhythms, such as sentence and paragraph length, placement of flashbacks and dialogue.

As I get older I find myself thinking it all begins with Shakespeare.

Faulkner came from my region and taught me how you could write about a place.

It's a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming in to it. Tears from the start

But nothing is solid and permanent. Our lives are raised on the shakiest foundations. You don't need to read history books to know that. You only have to know the history of your own life.