I have to do more close research and fact checking for the science fiction. This is not however to say that writing good fantasy does not involve doing good research.

When I'm not at the keyboard, I'm generally reading, practicing tai chi or middle eastern dance, or cooking.

First and foremost, The Quiet Invasion is a first contact story. What would we do if we actually found evidence of alien life out there? It's also about politics.

I have a better internal and intuitive understanding of folklore and myth than science and technology, so in that way fantasy is easier.

Actually, after while, finding the ideas is the easy part. Sorting them through and turning them into stories, now, that's the hard work.

My joking answer to this question is that I leave a bowl of milk out on the back porch every night for the Idea Fairy. In the morning, the milk is gone and there's a brand-new shiny idea by the bowl.

Becoming a mother cannot help but change things. An author's life is reflected in their writing, whether they want it to be or not, and parenthood is one of the biggest life changes there is.

I graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Communications and left formal education behind.

Fantasy is, of course, booming, and I think it's beginning to stretch its range as well.

Octavia Butler, of course, is brilliant and disturbing.

The Lord of the Rings movie set an entirely new standard for fantasy in the movies.

When you are walking on water it is fear, not sharks, that sinks you.

God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.

We do what we are and we are what we do.

There is no denying that we are suffering from a collective neurosis and the novel which does not face this is not a novel of our time.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood - rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky - they all turn out in one day.

Most fishing rods work better if you grasp them at the thick end. If you grasp a fisherman at the thick end, you may get a thumb bit off.

Life is probably a tangle of love and hate permanently knotted together.

Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one.

In my normal time, I like bacon sarnies, I smoke and I drink coffee. I do look after myself, but sometimes I allow myself to just let go a bit.

for never yet Has lover lived, but longed to wive Like them that are no more alive.