I do like the research part of writing, I must admit.

Seems like people always want to think they're doomed. It brings them some kind of black comfort, I guess.

Nate

As a reader, I'm often put off by authors and story-lines without families or children and all of the angst and joy they bring with them.

I really think more fledgling novelists - and many current and even established novelists - should get out into the real world and cover local politics, sports, culture, and crime and write it up on deadline.

I love to feature children and young adults as real people - flawed, naive, virtuous, venal - but real. I think it adds nuance and depth to the stories that wouldn't exist without them.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.