At present I answer about 100 letters a month, and read 300 emails.

I wish my readers took less of my time - about a third of my working time goes to them - but I love and need them all.

People talk-- they sneer at escapism. Well, there are those of us who need it.

If the fiercest conglomerate monsters had souls, with all that implied, who could condemn them as evil?

As for collaboration - I have done a lot, 26 books, and found publishers increasingly resistive to them. It's not that the books are bad; editors won't even read them.

Have a working spouse, because you won't earn a living from writing - not at first, if ever. My wife worked for years to support us.

I did not know at first that it would be a series; I discovered after the first novel that I had more to say about it, so I did another. And another, and then the readers demanded yet more.