It's so difficult, particularly with an antisocial character. It's much easier if he's already a blank page, but once you've written on him, it's hard to keep him that stripped down.

The many magazines, ranging from pulp to slick, that used to serve as both farm teams for writers and lures to readers, with hundreds of short stories every month, don't exist. Most of the doors for new people have been sealed.

In a funny way, the stories keep themselves alive by emerging from one another. I like that.

When Stark isn't off sulking somewhere, or whatever he's doing when he won't return my calls, I alternate between the two. That usually works well, though occasionally an idea for the wrong guy drifts through my mind.

Christmas shows us the ties that bind us together, threads of love and caring, woven in the simplest and strongest way within the family.

I have no known marketable skills.

I make a note, set it aside, and hope it makes sense when the time comes to look at it again.