Kathe Koja

I knew that change was coming, the way you know things you can't see, by feeling them; by instinct. The way the bees know everything they know.

'Under the Poppy' is the love story of Istvan and Rupert, lovers and friends from childhood, who've been parted by jealousy - and a secret betrayal by Istvan's sister, Decca, who also loves Rupert, with whom she runs the brothel called Under the Poppy, where the floozies cater to every taste from saucy to peculiar.

I used to send my characters into a fire that necessarily consumed them, but I have learned, a little, how to send them through the fire to a new place. The characters who do not change _ most notably Nakota in Cipher, Bibi in Skin, and Lena in Kink _ are motivated by an essential selfishness or self-centeredness, an unwillingness to relinquish control to the process, a refusal to become.