On the last drafts, I focus on the words themselves, including the rub of vowels and consonants, stressed and unstressed syllables. Yet even at this stage I'm often surprised. A different ending or a new character shows up and I'm back to where I began, letting the story happen, just trying to stay out of the way.

One thing's sure and nothing surer. The rich get richer and the poor get- children

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

We had some good times at school. I didn't know how good those times were until I left, but I guess that's the way of it

I love learning about different dialects and I own all sorts of regional and time-period slang dictionaries. I often browse through relevant ones while writing a story. I also read a lot of diaries and oral histories.

You got one choice at the beginning but if you didn't choose right, things got narrow real quick.

What I've become convinced makes a writer are the days you hate it, the days you'd rather stick those pencils in your eyes. Sometimes I almost punish myself - if I'm not going be able to write, I'm not going be able to do anything else. I just sit there and wait.