The More Practice You Have,

The More Practice You Have, The Less Stressful Writing Is.

I Remember Reading An Interview With A Writer Who Said That In Nonfiction If You Have One Lie It Sort Of Messes It Up. But In Fiction The Real Details Give You So Much More Credibility, Because People Do So Much Research Just To Write Fiction. In Fiction You're Trying To Recreate Something Lifelike.

In The 1980s, When People Were Just Beginning To Talk About Aids, There Were Just A Few Categories Of Those Who Were At High Risk: Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin Addicts, And Haitians. We Were The Only Ones Identified By Nationality.

The Whole History Between Haiti And The Dominican Republic Is Complicated. We Share The Island Of Hispaniola, And Haiti Occupied The Dominican Republic For Twenty-two Years After 1804 For Fear That The French And Spanish Would Come Back And Reinstitute Slavery. So We Have This Unique Situation Of Being Two Independent Nations On The Same Island, But With Each Community Having Its Own Grievance.

I Don't Know What Will Happen To The Physical Book And What It Will Mean For Authors. I Worry Whether It Will Mean People Can Still Make Their Careers This Way. Will Whatever Comes Next Allow People To Be Able To Own Their Ideas And Be Able To Take Time To Develop Them?