In a still hot morning, the tide went out and didn't come back in. This was not a spectacular event. The sea did not roll up like a scroll, like the sky in Revelations. It quietly withdrew.

The world is full of novels in which characters simply say and do. There are certainly legitimate genres in which this is sufficient. But in real and lasting writing the character is.

You know, Mouse, Tabby said, a brilliant cat like me should have smart friends people who can count to more than four. I can count to more than four, answered Mouse, very offended. And I can do hard sums, and I know geography and history, and I can knit and ...

He who climbs a cliff may die on the cliff, so what? Always a risk-taker by nature, now I became one by intent.

Writing is a passion I have never understood, yet a storyteller is all I have ever wanted to be.