Claudia Gray: Balthazar was the kind of guy who used totally correct s...

I'd rather be wrong to set you free than be right to do you harm (162).

Claudia Gray

harm

Good Soldiers don't sacrifice the cause for love - Lucas If the cause isn't love then it isn't worth the sacrifice

Claudia Gray

sacrifice causes soldier

You’re going to tell me that last night shouldn’t have happened.” No. I’m glad it happened. For too long, I’ve been telling myself that I could spend all this time with yo and flirt with you and not have it mean anything. It does mean something. You mean something to me. But I’m not in love with you.

Claudia Gray

flirting love-you mean

Recent small reductions in headcount reflect the need to balance our workforce growth with the current needs of our business.

Claudia Gray

money

It's not the things you don't know that trip you up. It's the things you think you know, but you don't. You fail to ask a certain question because you believe you know the answer. Separating your information from your assumptions can be very tricky business.

Claudia Gray

think you business believe

I've loved Leia and Han since I was seven years old. Getting a chance to tell some of their adventures? Mind-blowing on every level. I wish I could go back in time and high-five my baby self.

Claudia Gray

loved self time baby

I literally cannot remember a time when I was not asking myself what events in 'Star Wars' were like for Princess Leia. The good side of all this is that what looked like 'goofing off' or 'daydreaming' these many years has all turned out to be valuable career preparation.

Claudia Gray

good myself time remember

If you at any point forget that Wookiees aren't real, it's time to come up for air.

Claudia Gray

you real time forget

Honestly, I've been asking myself how it would feel to be Princess Leia since I was seven years old.

Claudia Gray

old feel myself princess

'Star Wars' is very black and white, and honestly, I like it that way. But fantastical settings like that work best when the characters within them feel real. Real people have conflicts and make mistakes and get it wrong sometimes.

Claudia Gray

best black-and-white black work

At the end of 'Afterlife' - hmm, how do I do this without spoilers - Skye took a very strange journey that crossed the boundary between life and death. And now, for her, that boundary is permanently blurred.

Claudia Gray

end journey life death

Basically, I always wanted to be an author but went through all these other jobs while getting up the nerve to finally go for it with my writing! Thank goodness it worked; who knows what I might have done next?

Claudia Gray

go always done writing

I love the romance in Kimberly Derting's 'The Body Finder.' 'Cold Kiss' by Amy Garvey is unbelievably touching - and about so much more than just romantic love.

Claudia Gray

kiss body love romantic

'Balthazar' is very much about the title hero having to choose between his past and his future. For the first time in a long time, he has a chance to be happy - with Skye. But he has this terrible tendency to set himself up for heartbreak, in part because he punishes himself for his past.

Claudia Gray

be-happy future hero time

I'm from New Orleans, and we have a Mardi Gras group called the Chewbacchus. It's celebrating all things geeky: science fiction, fantasy, 'Star Wars,' 'Doctor Who,' 'Men in Black,' 'Ghostbusters,' everything.

Claudia Gray

doctor black men science

The great thing about a parallel-dimensions story is that you can literally never run out of plot.

Claudia Gray

story never great you

I always create book soundtracks to capture the overall mood I'm going for and listen to them as I write. Those songs and scores really fuse with the scenes in my mind.

Claudia Gray

capture mood mind book

The main song I listened to with the 'Firebird' books was 'Breath of Life' by Florence + the Machine.

Claudia Gray

breath books song life

Napoleon might have understood Dwight D. Eisenhower, who fought not even a hundred and fifty years after Waterloo. But I don't think Eisenhower could even begin to wrap his mind around drone warfare, spy satellites, or any of the technology that now defines the security of our world.

Claudia Gray

think technology mind world

Balthazar was the kind of guy who used totally correct spelling and punctuation even when he was texting, which was sort of bizarrely hot. She was in serious trouble if commas could get her going.