Of course, with Papaveria Press, you know the book itself is going to be beautiful.

Read a lot. But read as a writer, to see how other writers are doing it. And make your knowledge of literature in English as deep and broad as you can. In workshops, writers are often told to read what is being written now, but if that is all you read, you are limiting yourself. You need to get a good overall sense of English literary history, so you can write out of that knowledge.

In the Forest of Forgetting do you remember any romances? All the relationships in those stories are dark and twisted - people fall in love, but they really shouldn't have. There's even a story about a marriage, but it focuses on a woman who marries a bear!

So much work went into this book [ "The Thorn & The Blossom"] - you can probably tell from looking at the art and overall design.

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

It happened the way I come up with any story, which is that I took elements of my own life and put them into the story, but in a very mixed-up way.

Learn as much as you can. Take every opportunity to learn about writing, whether it’s through classes, workshops, whatever is available to you. This may be difficult, because things like classes, workshops, writing programs, require time and money. But I say this honestly and somewhat harshly – if you’re not willing to prioritize your writing, perhaps you should do something else?