"I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma [in 1950], where I have lived most of my life. There is nothing to do there, but it is a pleasant place to live if you don't want to do anything....

"I started reading about the same time everyone else did, and began to write a short time later. The major influence on my writing has been my reading. I read everything, including Comet cans and coffee labels. Reading taught me sentence structure, paragraphing, how to build a chapter. Strangely enough, it never taught me spelling.

"I've always written about things that interest me, so my first years of writing (grade three through grade ten) I wrote about cowboys and horses. I wanted to be a cowboy and have a horse. I was strange for my era, but feel quite comfortable in this one, when everyone wants to be a cowboy and I...