I think these days an SF connection would be a boost to other books; I'm sure more people have read my two little detective puzzles because of the SF connection.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

I have a kind of standard explanation why, which goes like this: Science fiction is one way of making sense out of a senseless world.

This is mainly because I spend a lot of time writing and so don't have much time to read; I hate to waste that time reading what may turn out to be junk food for the mind, when there's so much real writing to be read.

Anything can happen in SF. And the fact that nothing ever does happen in SF is only due to the poverty of our imaginations, we who write it or edit it or read it. But SF can in principle deal with anything.

Most publishers seem very reluctant to publish short story collections at all; they bring them out in paperback, often disguised as novels.

I think these days an SF connection would be a boost to other books; I'm sure more people have read my two little detective puzzles because of the SF connection.