Like most novelists, I’m driven to write. Shaping and fleshing out a novel is a creative challenge that I throw myself into. Excitement builds for me when a scene is flowing nicely. When I suddenly think of an idea to pump more energy into my plot, I do a virtual high five with myself. It must be with myself because there’s no one sitting in a cubicle next to me, nobody in the next room. That’s because writing is a solitary art form. There’s no one to joke around with a