When I started out, I didn’t have any writing routine, I had a job. Writing was a hobby I indulged in over the weekends or in the evening when I wasn’t too knackered, watching TV,...

I’ve been an engineer, barman, skip lorry driver, coalman, boat window manufacturer, contract grass cutter and builder.

Gemmell’s name guarantees a satisfying story and a thumping good read. I recommend all his heroic creations – ‘Druss the axeman,’ ‘the Jerusalem man,’ among others – but my favourite has to be ‘Waylander’: Clint...

And, when the revolutionary cries that he is fighting for ‘freedom’, be sure to go running away from him just as fast as you can, for you can be damned certain he’s fighting for the...

I’ve been reading Tanith Lee since I was a teenager, beginning with ‘The Birthgrave’ and ‘The Storm Lord.’ Only recently did I discover, to my delight, how many more of her books I’ve yet to...

Harl whirled round, all his attention … on Skulker. “What is that on your carapace?””What?” Skulker tried to peer back… A tinny voice issued from somewhere… It took Skulker a moment to recognize it as...

Moorcock’s interlinked ‘Eternal Champion’ series is a constant source of enjoyment. Of its tragic hero incarnations, my favourite is ‘Elric of Melnibone,’ and the best book has to be ‘Stormbringer.’ And as for that other...

The greatest admission a human can make is that perhaps he does not have the intelligence, the vision, the grasp to fully understand the universe, and that perhaps no human ever will. To put it...

My favourite place to write is at my desk in my house in the mountains of Crete. I produce more there because one big distraction is missing: the Internet.

If I could time travel into the future, my first port of call would be the point where medical technology is at its best because, like most people on this planet, I have this aversion...

The end of the mid finger on my left hand is wider than normal, the nail distorted and a scar in the end. This was from when I managed to shove it in the path...

It wasn’t until I had been writing on and off for maybe ten years that I started to establish any kind of routine, thought I couldn’t put a finger on an exact date, and this...

When I get started each day, I read through and correct the previous day’s 2,000 words, then start on the next. As I reach that figure, I try to simply stop and not go on...

When you reach the editing stage, it is often the case that you can get too involved with the story to detect errors. You can see words in your head that aren’t actually there on...

With fantasy, one often has to think of a well-loved series before narrowing the selection to a favourite book. So it is with Zelazny. I’ve read his ‘Princes in Amber’ books so often, I know...

For me, the writing process is the same as the reading process. I want to know what happens next.

I have had periods when I’ve overused a word, ‘candent’ being one example, but I’m trying not to do that any more.