I've been very happy with Orbit and am thrilled that they're giving me more chances to explore my creative visions.

Any writer kind of who knows what they're doing goes forth and grabs a copy of an issue of something that they want to be published in, or they skim it online. They read what that market has been doing. They see a particular flavor of fiction.

It takes practice to do anything unique within this field, period, in writing, practice doing anything unique in writing.

There's a thriving field of self-published stuff in, particularly, black fiction. I don't know that other groups of people of color have that same recourse.

I think the people who believe that works can and always should be divorced from the context are people who have the privilege to do so.

Knowing about authors' beliefs helps you understand how those beliefs influence their writing, and things you thought meant one thing, once you've got enough information about that writer, you suddenly realize mean an entirely different thing. That makes a difference.

I was raised to be very wary of the police. I was raised to stay away from them unless you absolutely have to. Because they're dangerous.

I would love to just write and not have everything I say or do turn into a political battle.

I write for myself - but it is nice when other people like it, too!

When I start a new novel, I often write 'test chapters' in different tenses and from different points of view in order to figure out which is best to tell the tale.