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.

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

The fey in this country keep to themselves, and are a separate nation, much like the American Indians, but with even more autonomy.

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

I wasn't like most girls.

I've lost track of the number of people who want to be writers but never actually write anything. Talking about writing, dreaming about writing, can be very fun, but it won't get a book written. You've got to write.

Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do.

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.

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

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

Now that I'm being very successful, publishers are trying to mainstream me, but I'm unabashedly genre. It's what I like to read, what I like to write.

Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction. It is fiction; it ain't true, folks.

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.

I try not to worry about rewriting books that worked well the first time. I'm too busy writing new books to worry about things that are already in print.

I like conventions. I like meeting and greeting. I'm perched on that edge where I'm getting more attention than I quite know what to do with, though.

I love animals, always have, and it seemed natural to help the ASPCA. Animals have no voice of their own, so we have to be that voice.

When sex is necessary for the plot of a book, or a character development, then I don't shy away from it. Why should I?

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

I'm not terribly fond of soapboxes.

I always treated writing as a profession, never as a hobby. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.

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.

I want a kiss to be so believable it give the reader shivers.

I am not a morning person.

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'm more influenced by my own interests than anyone else's. Writers have to entertain themselves, or they can't entertain anyone else.

Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book.

I feel that if you are blessed, or lucky enough, to be doing well, you should help others.

I think that my vampires in general were influenced by my being allowed to watch the Hammer vampire films. Vampire Circus, also shown as Circus of Fear, was one of those movies.

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

Most of the monsters... are based on some sort of mythology. Every culture and even some geographical areas have monsters and mythology that is their own.

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

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 think like a detective.

I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people's writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people's fiction. Just don't.

I am a very linear thinker, so I write beginning to end. I write hundreds of pages per book that never make it into print.

Two things I do well in books are sex and violence, but I don't want gratuitous sex or violence. The sex and violence are only as graphic as need be. And never included unless it furthers the plot or character development.

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

I want a kiss to be so believable it gives the reader shivers.

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.

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.

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

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you.

You give the reader a sense of a full meal.

No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise.

Never trust people who smile constantly. They're either selling something or not very bright.

Nothing is more appealing than a handsome man who is also uncertain of himself.

Never argue when you're winning.

There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.

Friends dont count the cost of favors.