When I was in college, I spent a summer working in London. I'd enjoyed tea before that, but then I got actual, really good tea there and never looked back.

I have a better internal and intuitive understanding of folklore and myth than science and technology, so in that way fantasy is easier.

Becoming a mother cannot help but change things. An author's life is reflected in their writing, whether they want it to be or not, and parenthood is one of the biggest life changes there is.

When I'm not at the keyboard, I'm generally reading, practicing tai chi or middle eastern dance, or cooking.

All of this got me thinking about the history of the westward expansion, and got me to wondering how the exploration of the Solar System would be changed if there were an indigenous presence out there.

Fortunately, many people also enjoy a stand-alone as a sample of something new, like trying the special at a favourite restaurant one night instead of going for the usual.

Now, Venus is an extremely hostile environment, and as such presents a lot of challenges for a science fiction author who wants to create life there. However, as I began to research it more thoroughly, I found myself intrigued by the possibilities the world offers.

Then, I realized that there is an indigenous presence in the Solar System. It's us. So, then, I got to wondering what would happen if a more technologically advanced society moved next door to us, the way we moved next door to the American Indians.

Actually, after while, finding the ideas is the easy part. Sorting them through and turning them into stories, now, that's the hard work.

Fantasy is, of course, booming, and I think it's beginning to stretch its range as well.

I feel SF is going through an experimental phase right now.

I graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Communications and left formal education behind.

I myself was born in Sacramento, California in 1966.

I'm mostly a novelist these days, but I have written short stories in Fantasy, Science Fiction and horror.

Octavia Butler, of course, is brilliant and disturbing.

The Lord of the Rings movie set an entirely new standard for fantasy in the movies.

First and foremost, The Quiet Invasion is a first contact story. What would we do if we actually found evidence of alien life out there? It's also about politics.

I describe my plots as follows; A character is walking down the street when all of a sudden a piano falls on them. They spend the rest of the story digging out from under that piano. How they dig, how long and how well, this all depends entirely on the character.

I did not want to write a story about the invasion of Earth, so I had to create a race capable of living nearby, which meant to either on the Moon, on Mars, or on Venus. I picked Venus.

I have to do more close research and fact checking for the science fiction. This is not however to say that writing good fantasy does not involve doing good research.