The programmers have another saying: 'The question of whether a machine can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.'

No two books come out the same way. Some I write by the seat of my pants; others are planned in minute detail.

For someone who is starting out on developing their critical skills, just being aware of its existence is great: it can make the difference between trying to write a story around a cliche or an original idea, and better still, studying it can eventually clue you in on how to breathe new life into tired tropes.

Christmas: the one time of year when you can’t avoid the nuts in your family muesli.

I'm told that a couple of my Russian translations are just plain terrible, though, and there may be others.

A religious college in Cairo is considering issues of nanotechnology: If replicators are used to prepare a copy of a strip of bacon, right down to the molecular level, but without it ever being part of a pig, how is it to be treated?

Today, we see some "file sharing" sites that rely on fans uploading cracked copies of ebooks, and which then make money off those books by charging for downloads (via cash subscriptions or advertising). Again: I take a dim view of this. They're making money off the back of my work without paying me.