I used to do jacket design, and I'm very conscious of covers, and probably meddle more than other authors would.

Being with a small publisher has been huge. They bat for me for everything.

A story is built on characters and reasons.

The better we are at accepting the limits of our world, the more easily we can embrace what we have.

I'm never going to write a whole paragraph describing what a living room looks like.

Fiction demands structures and recognizable shapes. Big surprises only draw attention to the writer's hand.

Nursing demands vigilance about people. The sights and smells that a patient offers, their movements and their offhand comments all contribute crucial information to understanding what they need. Training and experience heighten one's ability to see what needs to be seen.