Do I really have to name it? I know the author. She might kill me, and I lied and told her it was wonderful. But it was bad… really, really bad…

E. How did this book influence your writing?

I read it and thought…Hey, if that can get published, I’m laughing!!!

E. How do you manage your life and a budding writing career? What is the crappiest part?

I get impatient. I stress over money (something I would not have to deal with if I didn’t spend my entire advance cheque the day I get it). I am insanely jealous that my name is not JK Rowling.

E. Do you think you would ever deliberately write crap just for the money? 

Absolutely! Send me the money and tell me what you want!

E. I hear a new series can be expected, any teasers, please? Oh, and feel free to say crap!

Crap... OK, so I couldn’t resist that bit.

The next series is sort of anti-fantasy. It is set on a world where the hero’s challenge is to prove there is no magic and that it’s all a sham.

I am having a ball writing it. The good guys keep doing bad stuff and the bad guys are really quite nice and I took as many cliché fantasy things as I could and put them in there, just so I can do something completely different with them, or better yet, have the characters tell each other how lame they are. I have even managed to work a goatherder into book 2. I am so proud of that…

Even Hemingway said "the first draft of anything is crap". Crap is good. I do it all the time. I find it easier to fix up the crap than write the good stuff first time round.  The trick is realising that it’s crap and being brave enough to keep working on it until it isn’t crap anymore.

E. Would you say this is the worst interview you have ever had?

A. No. The worst interview I ever had was with a radio DJ whose first question was “So, what was it like writing the movie?

JF: What movie?

DJ: Final Fantasy.

JF: But I didn’t write Final Fantasy.

DJ: Are you sure? I thought I read somewhere that you wrote Final Fantasy.

JF: Sorry. But I didn’t write Final Fantasy.

DJ: Well… what was your involvement with the movie?

JF: (Getting a little peed off) I had nothing to do with the movie.

DJ: Oh…(long drawn out silence)… I’d better change the rest of these questions then.

Q Oh, in closing , if you could create a new character for FarScape what would it be? 

A.. A 40ish, dark-haired, rather voluptious writer who looks human and gets have Crighton whenever she wants him… Hmmm.. that would be me… what a coincidence!