how books are born

Sometimes new books are like a case of food poisoning. You have no idea they're coming. Then, bam! They're just there, upon you, and you have to get them out of your system as soon as possible. Luckily, unlike food poisoning, the so-called "purging" process is pretty pleasant.

Other times, new books are like vultures circling a wildebeest being lazily taken apart by a pride of lions, waiting for the lions to tire of their kill and decamp so the vultures can descend (and having been on a...