I was looking through some files this morning on my hard drive, trying to find the template for the labels in the filing cabinets...

You don't really care about the details, do you?

Anyway, I came across an interview I did back in 2000 and thought I'd post it again. Can't even remember who it was for, but I would hazard a guess, given the tone of my answers, that it wasn't the New York Times Literary Supplement...hehehe

What inspired you to start writing? My mother wanted to be a writer and used to write children stories. She inspired my love (obsession?) and it has not waned since I was 14 years old…

Who is your role model/mentor? Hmmm… hard question. Don’t really have one. Any volunteers?

Which writers do you most admire? All the writers who make more than me… Oh, you mean whose writing do I admire? JV Jones, Sherri Tepper, Robin Hobb, Melanie Rawn, Tolkien, Leon Uris, Patrick Tilley and anybody else who captures my imagination.   

Which of your books do you like the best? Why? Treason Keep. Firstly, because it is the middle part of a trilogy, so I’d done all the hard work creating my world. Second, because I have characters in it that were simply fun to write, and thirdly, it took a fraction of the time Medalon took to write because it was the first book I wrote where I actually wrote a synopsis first

Which of your characters do you most hate and why? I don’t hate any of my characters and if I do find myself leaning in that direction, they soon die a slow and painful death…  

Which do you find more interesting to write about: good or evil characters? Why? I like writing best the characters that I refer to as “bad good guys”. These are the reluctant minor characters that help the more noble (and invariably more boring) main characters to get the job done. They get all the smart-alec comments, all the good one-liners, all the pithy observations and they rarely loose any sleep over making life or death decisions that the main characters tend to agonise over.   

How do you overcome writers block? I don’t get writer’s block. If I can’t think of anything intelligent to write, then I go and do something else, confident that somewhere in the back of my mind the problem is working itself out. If it still doesn’t solve itself, then I go back and try to work out where I went wrong, because not being able to following the story through in my own heads invariably means I have, quite literally, lost the plot.   

What's the most adventurous thing you've ever done? Drive in Melbourne peak hour traffic with MR BIG as my number plate…  

What five books (or items) would you want to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island? Brad Pitt, David Boreanaz, Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, a large bottle of anything red and Brown Brothers, and a satellite phone…  

If the world was to end tomorrow, how would you spend your last 24 hours? With my luck, I’d end up spending it babysitting, while everyone else went out partying...

Which animal do you consider your "totem"? A dragon.   

What's your favourite quote (or joke)? Q: What’s the one event that would have changed the course of history?  A: Dingoes in Bethlehem*

 *I have a new fave joke... What's the difference between a terrorist and a rock star?  Well, you can negotiate with a terrorist...:)

What imaginary friends did you have as a child? I used to watch way too much television so any character on TV was fair game.   

What would be the first thing you'd do if an alien spaceship landed in your backyard? Call a large magazine franchise and sell the story for zillions of dollars.

If you could go back in time to change any event in history, what would it be and why? I’d arrange for certain people not to meet, so that other certain people were never born. Hilter’s parents spring to mind, along with a few others closer to home

What major scientific advancement do you think will be made this century? I think they will finally discover what really happens to the light in the fridge when you shut the door.

If you could possess any psychic/supernatural talent, what would it be? I would be a telepath. I would truly love to know what really goes on inside other people’s heads.

What food could you not survive without? (or simply: What could you not survive without?) Chocolate

Describe your Utopia All the credit card companies send out letters every month telling me I don’t really have to pay back all that money.

Make a prediction about how you think the world will end. I will pay off all my credit cards*

If you were granted three wishes by a genie, what would you wish for? Amex, Visa and a Mastercard. No limit, no interest and no repayments. I could pretty much do whatever I want from there...  

*This interview was done at a time when I was particulalry broke. I have, in fact, paid off all the credit cards, and a few more other things besides. And lo, the world did not end. Clearly, I might be making a profit, but I'll never be a prophet:)

lol, I remember seeing an ad years ago that showed one awful historical figure after another, Pol Pot, Ghengis Khan, Hitler, Jack the Ripper etc, etc, and at the end a voice over simply said "If only their parents had used X brand of condoms that night..."

^^ What an amazing ad!