The thing I love most about reading a good book is diving in and feeling as if the author has opened a window into another world. I love being transported to a new time and place by characters who have the capacity to teach me something.
I feel the same way when I’m writing. Especially during the first draft of a novel, my characters take me into their world and teach me a little of what it is like to live there. They transport me, as I one day hope to transport my readers. Writing is an adventure in which the book is the boss, and characters show me things I otherwise never would have seen.