Thanks! I've always loved reading what they used to call "Juvenile" literature in my high school library— when Harry Potter became such a big deal, I was over the moon because I knew it meant that so much of the other fiction I loved (Diana Wynne Jones, Tamora Pierce, Patricia McKillip, etc.) would get a boost. But…

I haven't read everything Octavia Butler wrote, but what I have read definitely inspired me. I read Kindred when I was in eighth grade, and it was a huge influence. I was overwhelmed with the way she manipulated time and used the history of slavery to comment on modern race relations. I still think no one has written…

Heh, actually it is pretty close to what I was imagining. I definitely meant for the lights to be fully under her skin and glowing, not sticking out. But I think the designer went for a more geometric, modular design that what was in my head. People thought that June's body art was odd and outre, but not completely…

Oh boy! The short answer is: I hope! The longer answer is: I have a truly epic conclusion planned, and every intention of writing and publishing it some day. Let's just say that the great crash is involved, and there are literal zombie bank runs.

I didn't visit Brazil while I was working on the novel, but I did visit it a few years before. I went with my sister and my cousin to Sao Paulo and Rio. My sister was in college, doing her senior thesis on the geography of Japanese-Brazilians living in the Liberdade neighborhood of Sao Paulo. She and I both speak some…

Thanks for the question! I've always wanted to write a novel that focused on the artistic process. I am actually a terrible visual artist. I can hardly draw stick figures, honestly. But I am fascinated by the way visual artistry differs from my own (literary artistry, I guess), and one of the amazing things about…