Writer

My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people.

It was just you had to be strong, and if you weren't strong you're a victim and you're not going to make it. That was the reality when I was growing up.

You either mellow at 30, or your head explodes - take your choice.

If I'd been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit wonder.

Nothing wrong with making money or doing what you need to do to sell, but I think it shows when you're writing something to pay the bills and when you're writing something because it's really your version of the world.

Like most creative people I don't fit well into boxes.

What we prefer to read is sort of like sexual preference, you like what you like. Most of the time you have no clue why.

If you're open to it, New Orleans will teach you about yourself, but if you want to hide from who you really are, the city will help you do that, too.

If people would write exactly what I wanted to read I wouldn't feel so compelled to write myself.

Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.

Here's the secret to finishing that first book. Don't rewrite as you go.

I guess, what I'm saying is that when I've been this surprised by my own characters and world, all bets are off.

One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane.

Readers respond to every genre intensely, if it's a genre that appeals to them. Again, who can say why anyone enjoys horror and dark fantasy? If I can't answer the question for myself, I wouldn't dream of trying to answer it for others.

I'm not terribly fond of soapboxes.

You'd think a sociopath assassin wouldn't have a fan following but he does.

My writing style is very sensual, as in sensory detail.

I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn't write or read horror or fantasy, other than children's fantasy, until I was in my teens.

I think like a detective.

By 17, I was submitting to publications and collecting my first rejection slips.