Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do.
Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.
You’d think a sociopath assassin wouldn’t have a fan following but he does.
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.
There had to be a circle of Hell where you were eternally fourteen, eternally in junior high. One of the lower circles.
If people would write exactly what I wanted to read I wouldn’t feel so compelled to write myself.
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.
I was shaking all over, and it wasn’t from the vampire. Memories have teeth, too.
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.
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.
I’m more influenced by my own interests than anyone else’s. Writers have to entertain themselves, or they can’t entertain anyone else.
For me the Anita series is built like a mystery series, which means that as much as possible each book stands alone, so you have a mystery to solve from the beginning to the end of the book.
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.
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 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.
If I’d been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit wonder.
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.
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.
Fear will keep you alive; indifference won’t.
Nothing turns to hate so bitter as what once was love.