Writing in a Comfortable Place

In general, writing is pushing an edge for me – a new technology, a new type of character, an attempt at a new voice.  But sometimes it's more like a hot cocoa by the fire.  I spent years grabbing the newest Mercedes Lackey books from the shelf as soon as they came out.  When I got older, I often handed the Valdemar books to teens who needed a good place to read about.

Valdemar is a fantasy kingdom with real (and usually clear) good and evil, a fairly safe place from which Mercedes Lackey...