Writers aren't born, they're made — from practice, reading, and a lot of caffeine. And sometimes tutelage. - Alexander Chee

My first novel was not the first one I started. It was the first one I finished.

I was now both the secret and the keeper of it, but the idea that I could not know what is was I served, nor why, nor who, became nearly unendurable all at once

I took in her shoes, the dark leather and bright red laces, the toes of the shoes like smirks and the high heels like stems or talons. They were cancan shoes. I’d never seen them before and so I stared at them. I’d