“I go for long periods of apparent dormancy, when it looks for all the world like I’m just lying on the couch napping, with an open book placed picturesquely on my chest. But, in fact, things are simmering away. Eventually, I sit up and flip the laptop open and start typing. Then, I write every day for several weeks, mostly in the mornings, after I drop the kids off at school, and then again sometimes late at night after they go to bed. It’s fits and starts.”