When I started as a writer, I knew nothing about publishing-nothing about anything!

I started a version of my French historical novel... I found it utterly fascinating.

The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.

At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said silly things, and I said I wanted to be an actress. So that was what I wanted to be, but what I was, of course, was a writer.

We knew when we started this band that a lot of our appeal was going to be in the teen market. We knew that's who buys records; kids in college burn CDs.

When I first got it, it meant nothing to me because I knew nothing about the mines. But when I looked over it and saw there had been recommendations made.