As of 02/07/08, there will be five books in the series.

It was never a trilogy. I knew from the start the story would take more than three books to tell. The confusion came when the publishers bought the first three books and marketed them as a trilogy.

It will be finished in 2008. The earliest it will be published is 2009. It doesn’t have a title yet.

There are no plans to publish SWORD in German.

Write, read and write again. There are no easy answers. You just have to write and be prepared that it’s going to be bad at first (and maybe for a while afterwards). I regularly update the On Writing page with advice and encouragement for beginning writers.

For me it’s a case of when--when I’m working, at the keyboard, banging the keys.

Slowly. I’m not a writer who can reel off a first draft quickly. Unless a chapter’s good I can’t go on and write the next one. I also can’t write for a character unless I know his/her name, and I can spend days, sometimes weeks, searching for that name. Most often I find writing difficult and draining. In my mind I have this perfect vision of a scene and it’s hard, very hard, to translate that vision into words. However, there are times when the clouds clear and writing is suddenly effortless. It’s all there: the perfect words, the right details, the most accurately rendered emotions. Those are the moments I write for, those seconds of pure grace.

Parents don’t have favorites--or if they do, they don’t tell.

Now that would be telling also.

I usually only do book signings when there’s a new book out so I won’t be touring in 2008.

I read all emails, and enjoy receiving them. Sometimes it takes a while to reply.

No. I don’t have time.

No.