" People often picture the cover of a book to be a doorway into another world; I’m no different. I also find the first few pages of a novel to be a thicket of branches and leaves hiding what’s inside. Some books start slow, which means I have to struggle through this bramble before I get my first clear glimpse at the landscape, before I can determine if I even want to stay. If the effort is too hard, I might give up and try another door.

I’ve always preferred books that are so inviting as to run downhill from the moment you enter, and have but a tiny bit of foliage to get through. So when I write I don’t want my readers to climb, I want them to step forward and fall in, and get sucked down, unable to escape. "

― Michael J. Sullivan , Behind the Book: Making The Death of Dulgath