At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book.

Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.

But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible.

People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?

I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write.

I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.

I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime.

I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway.

I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom.

I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept.

I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens.

I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage.

But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end.

Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims.

Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.