Sometimes you have to follow your uncommon sense.

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

My uncommon sense told me to write this book [Turn and blossom], even though I was in the middle of making final revisions to my dissertation! Common sense would have said, finish the dissertation and get a good, solid academic position. But instead, I got to do something that no one else has done, because I don't think anyone has written a book quite like this one. And look at how beautiful it is!

I've heard some readers saying they wished the story was longer, and I completely understand that desire - we all like to sink into a nice, long novel.

Art inspires me. Looking at art in a museum, listening to music, reading the works of other writers.

Now that The Thorn and the Blossom has come out and I'm done with my doctoral degree (yes, I'm finally Dr. Goss), I'm turning to longer projects.

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.