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.

I'm writinng my first full-length novel, which is based on a novella I wrote called "The Mad Scientist's Daughter." I'm having a wonderful time with it, but of course it's presenting challenges as well. Stories always do, no matter what they are.

I see so many talented writers who have difficulties with that. And if you don't believe it's important, you won't put in the work you need to.

It's very difficult to put in the work unless you believe that what you're doing is significant in some way.

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

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.

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.