Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series also shows the potential of lighter fantastic fiction. I read the first, and listened to a tape of a later one, and it's fun.

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.

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.

But I don't read or listen for pleasure. I have too much else to do.

At the time I wrote Xone I had never been on the Internet.

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