Last evening I recorded a podcast with Erin Campbell. She interviews members of the Magic-card community. I’ve enjoyed playing Magic cards for over twenty years, in part because of the powerful words on the cards: Stifle, Smother, Snuff-Out, Scald, Slaughter, and Scour, to name a bare few. The game even has Annihilate and Implode. What more could a word-hoarding writer want out of a game?

On the podcast I also discuss my early inspirations as a writer, the closely kept secret of my true name,...