Math was always my best subject growing up.

A Head Full of Ghosts' was my first full horror novel, and that felt like coming home as a writer.

After my debut didn't go very well with Holt, I needed to be in a healthier head space. I was happy to emerge from there. You will always have those negative thoughts as a writer, but you can't let them take over. If you let them take over, those are the real page killers.

As an adult, I've learned to cope and pull the plug on the worst what-ifs before my mind takes me to a place from which I can't return.

I believe young people from working families should have access to debt-free education because I know from my own experience that a high-school degree is not always enough, and a higher education can change a life.

From Romare Bearden I learned that the fullness and richness of everyday life can be rendered without compromise or sentimentality.

I have a traditional view of the afterlife... heaven, hell and judgments. But the accounts of those places are scant, and I believe it's on purpose. We aren't supposed to try to figure out the architecture of the afterlife, since the big game is here in this life.

I've always told the truth. I've often been wrong - but I've never knowingly lied. Not in public life. Because I don't see the need to.