I'm sure scientists would point to specific brain chemicals, but I think love is actually a kind of magic. It's what allows things to happen, people to be creative, the world to change. Great things come out of love - for other people, for art, for beauty.

That sort of effort has to come not only from the writer but also from a really innovative publisher like Quirk.

Accept criticism. If you do not offer your work for criticism and accept that criticism, meaning give it serious thought and attention, then you will never improve.

Believe in the importance of your art.

I would tell myself to get more sleep! Believe it or not, I wrote the book while finishing my PhD in English literature. It was wonderful to get away from doing literary scholarship by writing this mythical love story. I think so much of my own love for books and scholarship comes through in The Thorn and the Blossom.

If you look at the natural world, really look at it, it's always magical.

What writers do - everything comes from inside, from experiences of the world that we have digested. And then we turn it into silk, or stories.