I wrote speculative fiction because I loved to read it, and thought I could do better than some of the people who were getting published.

I started writing seriously about 1960, at the fairly advanced age of 30.

Fred Saberhagen was alive when born. He means to continue.

I finally decided one day, reading science fiction magazines of the time, I could do at least as well as some of these people are doing. So I finally made a serious effort.

The Swords were still interesting but by then a cast of characters had started to appear and go on from book to book, and other things about the world began to feel constricting. And there were other things I wanted to do, so I closed the series up and stopped it.

I had immediate success in the sense that I sold something right off the bat. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake and it really wasn't. I have drawers full of - or I did have - drawers full of rejection slips.

The Berserkers have been with me for about forty years, and we're not done yet.