If they aren’t real enough to surprise me, then they aren’t real enough to go on the page.

To Trazada’s surprise the Generalissimo laughed, a great subterranean rumbling that shook his gigantic frame like an earthquake. ‘Remedios, mia pobre Remedios, they are ignorant. They are afraid. They are stupid and superstitious. Why, most...

Isn’t that an odd philosophy for a vampire?

Art goes into the world unarmed, vulnerable to every quirk of fate, and it must survive only by its power to move men not to destroy it.

I ride horseback – arthritic knees permitting – or listen to opera. Sometimes I cook. I used to do needlework, but it’s hard on my hands now, so I only do it occasionally, but I...

When it was cooler, Trazada made a simple meal of sausage, cheese, and bread. She had schooled herself to wait dinner until hunger urged her to eat; it gave seasoning to poor food that no...

I think it is probably more important to attend specialized conventions for a journeyman writer than any other, but it’s useful at all stages of a career, if for nothing else, to find out how...

Common folk didn’t have last names in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Providing a writer isn’t put off by conventions – and some are – attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing.

Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.

Very few editors worry about heresy – their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness.

When you’re a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.

I outline fairly extensively because I’m usually dealing with real events. I don’t need to give myself as much information as I used to, but I still like to have two pages of outline for...

I’m not a good collaborator in general.