MOVE was very supportive through all of that. My wife had a natural childbirth — MOVE coached us through a lot of that.

My assistant, Mike Dunn, helps me with that.

He could do his job teaching, I could do my job writing, and the two of us could do the house and the kids. And it worked out great, but it took full collaboration between him and me.

I love that there is no privileged access to information. I love that we’re able to all contribute to solving a problem.

When it comes to getting to work, my trick is to conjure my inner-nun-with-a-ruler-in-hand and simply force myself to begin. Beginning is about three-quarters of the battle for me. Once I’m into the work, it’s so much more interesting than anything happening on Facebook.

But I’m not okay with dying, just for the record.

My first, most important mentor was Paulette Bates Alden, who taught at the University of Minnesota when I was a junior and senior there. I took my first fiction writing workshop from her. She was teaching in the MFA program and I was an undergrad student and such an upstart that I asked her to let me in the class. She was generous and great.

By the time I was 19, I was saying, “I’m going to be a writer. This is my path.”

So much of what I’ve learned, so much of what’s good in my life, was learned because something bad happened, or from making the wrong decision. Through bad decisions I learned how to find the ways to make the right ones.

The way I often find what I’m going to write next is by writing.