My road to publishing actually came through a colleague who connected me to my agent, and the faculty at Cornell was very supportive.

I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young.

In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.

My grandfather and I were very close.

When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.

I am very interested in place, and the influences of place on characters.