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I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.

It was relatively easy to write 'The Cave of Lost Souls', though, because it came to me one night in a dream. I remember waking up and having this idea for a complete story - from start to finish - in my head, so I jotted it down, then later began writing the thing.

From the beginning, when I first got an idea for a story and wondered if I could write it, it has always been the story that has driven me.

I didn't finish the stories until we went to the Philippines and I got malaria. I couldn't work and I didn't have any money, but I had seven stories. So I wrote three or four more.

One of the reasons I began to write was because I wanted stories for my children where the characters spoke as they did and had similar life experiences.

In 'A Likely Story,' I wanted to recreate the events, the mood, and the imagery of my life as a teenager. I was thirty-seven when I wrote it.

I started writing stories in my spare time.

I really wanted to write an adventure story, a murder-mystery that was set during the gold-rush years in New Zealand.

I do think that short story writing is often a matter of luck.

I loved all ghost stories. So I guess it was only a matter of time before I wrote one.