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

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

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 different word, changing the syntax, putting that clause over there, you know that sort of thing.

Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.

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 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 the genre might enjoy my books.

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

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 - but different in some significant way.

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

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 science of prehistory - palaeontology and archaeology - rather than astronomy or physics.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

No, my publisher has always done the marketing.

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.

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.

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.

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 probably continue to do it.

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

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

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

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

I really fell in love with Africa.

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

Pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure.

Real religion is no religion at all.

Everything in Formula 1 has been sterilised now, the whole thing is controlled too much.

Once you're put out there in the public eye, people feel a certain ownership over you.

I've been acting since I was 10. At age 14, 15 and 16, it's difficult to find roles and to find yourself, even, and when everyone's eyes are on you, it's difficult.

We live in a dark time. Books are as dark as what is available to teenagers through the media every day.

Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat.

Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about jazz and blues.

His acting remains forever fixed in a time that never dates.

Every relationship is just so tenuous and precarious.

In our society, the women who break down barriers are those who ignore limits.

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.

Be real. Embrace that you have weakness. Because everyone does. Embrace that your body is not perfect. Because nobody's is. Embrace that you have things you can't control. We all have a list of them.

Two actors who have different motivations and skill sets can work together and be magic. Charles Grodin and Robert DeNiro technically couldn't work more differently, and yet they made 'Midnight Run,' which is a genius comedy.

The reason why I started the clothing line Licious is because I had trouble finding clothes for my body type. I figured if I'm having trouble finding clothes for me, being curvy, I know girls with my body type are probably facing the same issue. And so with the help of my designer, I came up with the idea of creating my own clothing line.

Alabama farmers want a chance to complete fairly in Japan, but they can't if the Japanese won't let us in.

The group who really could benefit from more protein is not fit young gym-goers but older people, who seem to be at much greater risk of protein deficiency.

The government will see that human spaceflight is useful - for science and the economy - and inspirational.

The message of women's liberation is that women can love each other and ourselves against our degrading education.

It was just the greatest feeling to see a kid with your shoes on.

There's nowhere like home for me, but there has been something so interesting about most of the places I've visited. One that sticks out in my mind is traveling around South America. It's a huge continent, and I only got to see a small portion of it, but I've always liked going there.

Suffrage is the pivotal right.

Raising a child, whether or not it is yours, is like Nautilus of the heart and soul.