After all, you put a lot into creating a universe and everything that goes with it, and it seems a shame to use it only once.

I haven't made up my mind about doing anymore Landover books.

Writing fantasy lets me imagine a great deal more than, say, writing about alligators, and lets me write about places more distant than Florida, but I can tell you things about Florida and alligators, let you make the connection all on your own.

A world in which elves exist and magic works offers greater opportunities to digress and explore.

I think I make better use of language and imagery than when I started out.

I remember one winter, when I was about five or six, I spent three days with another boy, tracking a bobcat that had been sighted in another county fifty miles away, but which I was sure had come into our neighborhood.

What we have in life that we can count on is who we are and where we come from, she thought absently. For better or worse, that's what we have to sustain us in our endeavors, to buttress us in our darker moments, and to remind us of our identity. Without those things, we are adrift.