My training and my inclination is to invent.
When you write fiction, you have an ideal reader in your mind who's sort of you but smarter.
My first book is about twins who are attached two people who are joined and can't escape each other.
I'm really wary of self-help books.
Society isn't good at dealing with people who have something concrete to feel guilty about or who are dealing with a loss.
The starkest rejection letter might be followed by a million-dollar advance. Don't let rejection start to look the same as failure.
Write what you think is good, is the whole of the law.
I've had menial jobs, and 'professional writer' isn't one of them.
Characters stretching their legs in some calm haven generally don't make for interesting protagonists.
A subplot is a distinguishing characteristic of the novel; the short story, for example, does not need subplots.
It's good training for a novelist to try to discern the truth about a place after only a few glimpses of it.
What's Denver's feel? I know there're mountains, and people in western hats, but I never got a good sense of the city.
Often it's the people who know a place least well who write about it best because they see it fresh.
Even the best novels have their share of stinker lines.
I guess when you write a personal story, people feel compelled to share their own stories.
All writers have their own pet commandments.
I suppose that, for most of us, the fascination of conjoined twins is that such people can serve as symbols.
