As a child, I mostly wrote rhymes about animals and nature. During my teenage years I wrote poetry, from haiku to long narrative poems, and short stories, including one about a vampire butterfly whose wings gradually changed from white to blood-red. (I was a big Dracula fan.) As an adult, I still write poems and short stories, but my focus is on novels. Sometimes I start what I think will be a poem or story, only to find the project evolving into a novel. Characters, scenes, and plots show up as I write and soon spread out and get comfortable, inviting others to join them. The word count grows, and after a while I realize a novel has taken up residence.