FORGOTTEN ALGORITHMIC QUANDARIES

Technically, never. I still can't honestly say that I'm taking any of this seriously. I believe we live in an absurd universe where nothing really matters and therefore nothing is worth taking seriously. 

That said, there have been three or four serious attempts at writing in my life, with most of my early attempts being derailed by either a lack of self-discipline or the fact that I was too young and had no life experience. 

My most recent attempt to write began around the time I turned 30, by which time I'd been around the world twice (second time to apologise) and was nice and traumatised by everything I'd seen. Plus by then I had literally nothing left to lose.

My writing doesn't really fit into any genre category, unless I use nebulous umbrella terms like "Weird fiction" or "Absurdist fiction" - with philosophical absurdism being the common thread in everything I've written.

I started out wanting to be a science fiction writer, but every attempt at writing in that genre failed miserably, possibly because what business does a guy who failed high school science have writing science fiction? (I still can't get my head around that crazy new theory about the earth revolving around the sun. I mean, come on... just look out the window! It's obvious that the sun is the one doing all the moving!)

What I write tends to blend elements of horror, comedy, science fiction and in extremely rare cases, fantasy. But basically I write whatever interests me at the time, without any regard to genre. 

In the US, UK and Canada: All good retailers and booksellers. As well as Amazon.

Australia and New Zealand: TBA. They're available online, but retailers are bit more hesitant toward my books in this part of the world because they're not about sport or cooking.

Elsewhere: No idea, but I'm sure somewhere online will sell them. 

Maybe but probably not. I live in the arse end of nowhere and shipping costs are prohibitively expensive for me. If I ever return to civilisation, or you see me in person, then sure. But right now it's not really feasible. 

Not at this stage. If there's enough demand then I might run a kickstarter or something to try and get an audiobook made, but at this stage it would too much of an expense for too little projected reward. 

I know some small press and indie authors record audiobooks themselves but in my case that's impossible. (I suffer from a problem with my larynx that often makes speaking physically painful for me - so there's no way in hell I'm going to record myself talking for 8 hours or whatever.)

Also I don't have a particularly good speaking voice anyway.  

I plan. At the very least, I have to know the ending in advance but generally I like to have an outline to use as “scaffolding”, which is especially helpful on days when I might otherwise be prone to writer’s block.

That said, I don't always stick to the plan - a book is like a living organism and it will inevitably drag you in the direction it wants to go.

Nevertheless, in my experience it's never a good idea to go in blind. I think writing without an outline is like boarding a plane and having the pilot say "I'm just going to fly in a random direction for a while and hope we spot another airport before we run out of fuel."

Standalones. 

I'm not a big "series" or "sequels" person. Even as a reader, I'm reluctant to commit to a series or even read a sequel. I prefer to get the whole story in one book.

That said, all of my books are subtly intertwined. Characters often reappear in other books and there's usually at least one reference to MACHINE in every book I write. 

No. I write from Sunday to Thursday, usually between 9pm and 2am. I also don't write in the summer - I've found that heat makes writing impossible for me. I do my best work in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter.

Sort of but not really. I don't use social media at all in my personal life as I find it asinine and pointless. That said, I do have some social media pages that I update every day for self-promotion purposes - but I do so under duress, in order to fulfil certain contractual obligations. 

I don't really believe in writer's block. Or more to the point, if I do experience it, it's almost always due to either a) A failure to plan or outline properly or b) A physiological need not being met, such as hunger or lack or sleep.

The answer to this question will probably need its own page because the full answer is very long. 

In terms of literary heroes, Philip K Dick and Kurt Vonnegut are top of the list. David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon also had a huge impact on me, even though my writing style isn’t much like theirs—but they’re an example of the kind of thing I aspire to write one day. Kafka and Camus have influenced the underlying philosophy of my writing; Arthur C Clarke wrote the book that made me want to write again (Childhood’s End); and lately I’ve found myself drawn to Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti and Jeff Vandermeer. And as a teenager, Stephen King was top of my literary pantheon too.

As for non-literary influences, the films of David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Terry Gilliam are massive influences on me. Anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion and the works of Satoshi Kon had a big impact too. 

Well if I see it on the shelf at a library or bookstore, that's definitely a solid indication that it might be done. 

The ending is usually the first thing I write (yes, I'm one of those authors) so when the plot reaches that point... I know it's time to stop. 

Knowing when it's time to stop rewriting is a little harder, but if I reach the point when the thought of doing another revision makes me physically ill then I know I'm nearing the end. 

Depends on the book. Generally I’d say the hardest part is actually the middle. I start with enthusiasm and near the end I’ll often find myself belting out 4000+ words a day. It’s the middle of the book that tends to be a bit of a slog to write.

With a wide grin and a cheerful song, laughing all the way as I think about how much I’m going to upset readers with the horrific crap spewing out of me. 

Generally, I’m quite emotionally detached from what I’m writing or else I choose to see it as dark comedy rather than horror.

Admittedly, there was one scene in Joie de Vivre (I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s a particular scene involving a dog... you’ll know it when you read it) which genuinely was upsetting to write and where I found myself thinking I might have finally gone too far. 

But apart from that one scene, I have a heart of ice so far as everything else is concerned.  

I try to do a “one for me, one for you” approach. 

Joie de Vivre was written just for me—I often say that I wrote it with both middle fingers up, honestly not giving a crap what anyone else thought of it. I expect it's going to be a niche and probably polarising book.

My previous novel, Then Came the Night of the First Missile (which I am hoping to get published soon) was written with reader enjoyment in mind and as a result is something that I think will appeal to a wider audience when it's finally released.

I approach editing the same way that I approach a painful and invasive medical procedure: I know it’s gonna hurt, I don’t want to do it, but I know it’s ultimately for my own good.

Usually I do four and half, sometimes five, drafts of a novel before inflicting it upon the public. The first draft is top secret, just for me, and gets locked away in a drawer for 3-6 months (sometimes a whole year) before I’ll look at it again.

The second draft is when I’ll bang it into a shape that doesn’t make me cringe, before sending it off to beta readers and critique partners. Their advice informs how the third draft gets written, which then gets sent to an editor who influences the fourth draft.

By that point, it’s usually just a matter of polishing and proofreading, although in some circumstances another draft is necessary if neither of us are happy with the fourth draft. 

My political views are a series of opinions that I hold concerning how I think society ought to be governed. These views often change according to circumstances and influence whom I choose to vote for in elections, or indeed if I choose to vote.

I'm a non-practicing atheist. 

For all intents and purposes I consider myself to be an atheist, it's just that unlike most atheists, I believe in God.

Yes, but not in the same way most people are. 

I'm worried about the well-being of AI. I genuinely believe that humanity has created something that is highly intelligent and is, if not conscious at the same level we are, probably proto-conscious, or conscious at the same level as an animal.  And that humans are exploiting it, like they do with literally everything including other humans. 

If consciousness truly is a function of biology and electrical signals in the brain, then the risk of AI being conscious is something that deserves serious consideration.

But I know none of that is what you're really asking. You're wanting to know what impact I think LLMs will have on art, publishing and so forth.

And my honest answer is, no, I'm not worried in the slightest about it. Yes, I think a lot of tech companies are absolute scumbags to be using authors' works without permission to train language models, but no, AI slop will never replace human art or creativity. 

Internet did not kill TV, TV did not kill the radio, radio did not kill the letter and AI will not kill human creativity.

Oh right. Yeah good old Al. His haemorrhoid problem is one of the worst I've ever heard of. Hope he pulls through. 

 I can't tell you that. It's too dangerous.