I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until 'The End.

I have a kind of old-fashioned, artisan approach.

A calm environment is for after I finish work.

I have three desks. One empty for paperwork, one for the internet and email, and one for the writing computer.

He had fallen out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch.

For me the end of a book is just as exciting as it is for a reader.

My mother still calls me Jim and that is about it. Everyone else calls me Lee. My wife calls me whatever.