I wanted to know more about how mania played a part in Stephanie's creative process.  Since she said she wrote the book "during a particularly manic period which I like to call Operation Zyzzybaluba."

I too have been driven creatively by mania and was very curious.  This is what she had to say about mania.

I love mania as long as it doesn't bleed into delusional thinking. I was very close to the cusp when I started writing scarlet begonias.

I'd been doing research on wikipedia like a mad person and have a drawer full of documentation supporting my theories, of which only a few finally became part of my research. So I need to write more to incorporate the other hypotheses.

Prime numbers, dark matter, and vacuums will be the focus of my next book. I think it will be a conspiracy theory mystery that also takes place in the dreamscape.