Whether my project is going well or badly, I love writing a novel. I love the moment the idea first hits…I love it the way some people love puzzles or solitaire or Sudoku. I love it because I cannot not solve the puzzle that is made of so many words, so many thoughts, so many ideas and scenes and feelings flowing together and carrying me along for hour after hour…Novels are built for pleasure. I can stop reading whenever I want to, and the writer knows this and so draws me on and on with this twist and that twist…this insight and that insight, this landscape and that landscape.