More often than not, piracy is a symptom of an under-provisioned market.

I don't like Amazon (wearing my author hat, not my customer hat).

I have a CS degree and a history that includes working as a software developer and being a computer magazine columnist back during the 1990s. I guess I simply paid attention to the social effects of the IT revolution as I lived through it.

If I write too much of anything for too long, I burn out on it. So it helps to vary my output from year to year.

The Magician's Land is a triumphant climax to the best fantasy trilogy of the decade.

For a sampler, you could try my short story collection "Wireless". Which contains one novella that scooped a Locus award, and one that won a Hugo, and covers a range of different styles.

I was raised thinking that moral and ethical standards are universals that apply equally to everyone. And these values aren't easily compatible with the kind of religion that posits a Creator. To my way of thinking, an omnipotent being who sets up a universe in which thinking beings proliferate, grow old, and die (usually in agony, alone, and in fear) is a cosmic sadist.