I think of my books as mainstream and that’s were most people who read them look for them in book stores.

Art was as much in the activity as in the results. Works of art were not just the finished product, but the thought, the action, the process that created them.

My fiction is reviewed by the mainstream press, by science fiction periodicals, romance magazines, small press publications and various other journals, including some usually devoted to archaeological and other science material.

I’m just writing a story that I want to read.

In a world so empty of human life, there was comfort in the thought that an invisible realm of spirits was aware of their existence, cared about their actions, and perhaps directed their steps. Even...

Though my books are written from a historical perspective, I have goon so far back that I am in the realm of prehistorical speculation rather than simple historical fact to weave my stories around.

Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.

You weren’t being punished. You were waiting for me.

I don’t write for publishers, certainly not for critics, and not for readers, But I am delighted that so many people have found my books enjoyable and want to continue to read them.

No, my publisher has always done the marketing.

They stared at each other, wanting each other, drawn to each other, but their silent shout of love went unheard in the roar of misunderstanding, and the clatter of culturally ingrained beliefs.

I have heard Science Fiction and Fantasy referred to as the fiction of ideas, and I like that definition, but it’s the mainstream public that chooses my books for the most part.

Of the two, I would think of my work as closer to Science Fiction than Fantasy.

Aside from sales, the letters from readers have been primarily positive.

From the beginning, the series has been story driven – I began with a story idea – but research feeds it.

I had an idea for a story about a young woman who was living with people who were different, not just superficially different – such as hair colour, or eye colour, or skin colour –...

Science Fiction is not just about the future of space ships travelling to other planets, it is fiction based on science and I am using science as my basis for my fiction, but it’s the...

From the beginning, when I first got an idea for a story and wondered if I could write it, it has always been the story that has driven me.

Life is neither static nor unchanging. With no individuality, there can be no change, no adaptation and, in an inherently changing world, any species unable to adapt is also doomed.

I have been a reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy for a long time, since I was 11 or 12 I think, so I understand it and I’m not at all surprised that readers of...

Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write.

I can move my characters through it easily, because I understand the background; I’ve really studied it.

You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories. If you are not a reader, don’t even think about being a writer.

It took some time to gather the research and develop it into the storyline, and to finally finish an origin myth poem that I had been working on for twenty years.

I started writing to please myself, a story I would like to read, and that is still true.

I can’t tell you any more than any other writer can tell you why they write, and I don’t know what my influences are.

The other mammoths were as protective of the dying as they were of newborns, and they gathered around tying to make the fallen one get up. When all was over, they buried the dead ancestor...

You are strong, self-reliant, entirely able to take care of yourself and of me… You are fearless, courageous; you saved my life, nursed me back to health, hunted for my food, provided for my comfort....

The idea led me into the research, which continues to give me more ideas for the story.

I probably read 100 times more than I write, but that way when I move my characters through it, I know.

Again Creb grunted. It was the usual noncommittal comment used by men when responding to a woman. It carried only enough meaning to indicate the woman had been understood, without acknowledging too much significance in...

A person could resist popular belief and stand up for personal principles, and though there may be consequences, not everything would necessarily be lost. In fact, something important might be gained, if only within oneself.

And that’s how I start myself. I usually go back a couple of pages, maybe to the beginning of the chapter, and I start reading. And as I’m reading, I’m tweaking – putting in a...

I really fell in love with Africa.

She loved him, more than she could ever find words for, but this love he felt for her was not quite the same. It wasn’t so much stronger, as more demanding, more insistent. As though...

I could write historical fiction, or science fiction, or a mystery but since I find it fascinating to research the clues of some little know period and develop a story based on that, I will...