1. When did you first begin reading SF? Was there a particular instance that triggered your interest?

I began at age 8, and yes, there was an instance. I was reading an EC horror comic, and in truth it was pretty gruesome. My mother happened to pass by, saw some of the pictures, and took it away from me. I complained that this was censorship, which she was theoretically against. She replied that it was ok to censor frightening pictures, but I could read any horror -books- I wanted to. I'm sure she thought I'd go right out and pick up FRANKENSTEIN, which was (and remains) all but unreadable. Instead, the first title I found was Groff Conklin's SCIENCE FICTION TERROR TALES, and I bought it for 25 cents. The first three stories were by Ray Bradbury, Fred Brown and Bob Sheckley, and I had become a lifetime addict by the time I got home.

2. Would you consider yourself more of an artist or a craftsperson?

I unabashedly consider myself both.

3. You've been remarkably prolific. Are you able to organize material in your head or do you do extensive outlining or rewriting?

I make very brief outlines for novels...very informal, nothing I'd ever want to show anyone. I don't outline any of my shorter stuff.

4. You've mentioned your wife as your uncredited collaborator. How do you work together? How does working affect your relationship? How do you separate your personal and professional lives? What role does writing play in your personal and professional lives?

For screenplays, we sit at the computer together, discuss every word, and I do the typing. For everything else: I write at nights, usually from about 10:00 PM to 4:00 AM. Carol is usually asleep by the time I'm done, and wakes up ahead of me. I leave my pages, however many there are, on the breakfast table, and she goes over them, line-editing and making extensive notes and suggestions. She's usually done by the time I get up. I never move on to the next chapter until she has no further comments/suggestions on the current one. I don't separate my personal and professional life. I'm a writer; when I'm not working, I'm thinking about what I'm going to write that night, or looking for ideas for future stories. It's been that way for a third of a century. One more thing about Carol, who does half the plotting and comes up with at least half the characters. Long ago she learned how to come up with ideas and characters that play to -my- strengths, rather than suggest stories -she- would like to write. I'd be lost without her, personally and professionally. We've been apart for maybe 30 days in 35 years; they were the 30 dullest days of my life.

5. You've edited bazillions of anthologies. Do you think there's a future for short science fiction? Where do you see that market going?

There's always been a market for short science fiction, and there still is. The anthology market is undergoing one of its periodic contractions, but there are lots of magazines out there: Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, Science Fiction Age, Century, Realms of Fantasy, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, Omni Online, Aboriginal, Crank, and a host of others.

6. You had a large collection of pulps at one time. Are there any noteworthy pulp SF writers who deserve to be read today?

Of course. I assume you mean pre-John-Campbell, since all of his better writers (Heinlein, Asimov, Sturgeon, etc) remain in print. I'd start with Burroughs and Howard (who also remain in print), as well as Merritt, Weinbaum, C. L. Moore, Lovecraft; even Doc Smith can be fun, and so can some of Walter Gibson's better Shadow novels. Lots of great old stuff out there for anyone who's willing take the trouble to find it.

7. Are there any SF writers from the 60s and 70s who have been mostly forgotten in this age of media SF?

Yeah...almost all of 'em. Especially: Phil Klass (who wrote as William Tenn), Bob Sheckley, Alfie Bester (who was the best of them all), Cyril Kornbluth, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, Thomas Burnett Swann, Daniel Keyes, Walter Miller Jr...just tons of them, all of whom are well worth reading -- certainly moreso than reading Trekbook #304 or Wookiebook #87.

8. What authors do you read regularly? Who has influenced you most in your writing?

In science fiction, Barry Malzberg, Catherine L. Moore, Ray Lafferty, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, James White, Bob Sheckley, Alfie Bester, Ray Bradbury, Cyril Kornbluth. In mainstream, Nikos Kazantzakis, Edward Whittemore, Joseph Conrad, Joe Heller, a few others. In mysteries, Chandler and Hammett -- especially Chandler. In non-fiction, I have a huge library of Africana (and I've edited a couple of series of African adventure reprints); the authors I most admire are Alexander Lake, John Boyes, Karamojo Bell, F. C. Selous, Pondoro Taylor, and John Alfred Jordan. I don't know that any of them influenced me much as a writer. I sold about 8 million words as an anonymous hack in the 1960s and 1970s, and had pretty much found my own voice and style by the time I started doing my serious writing.

9. What sparked your interest in Africa? When was your first trip there?

Alexander Lake's books were the first things to spark what became a lifetime interest in Africa, back when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, and I'm thrilled to have brought them back into print in the Resnick Library of African Adventure last year. My first trip to Africa was in 1986. Over the years we've been to Kenya 4 times, as well as to Tanzania, Uganda, Egypt, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana. We're planning on visiting South Africa this autumn.

10. What place do the Kirinyaga stories have in your career? Is there another Kirinyaga-type series in the works?

They made my reputation, plain and simple. They're the most-honored story-cycle in science fiction history, with 55 major and minor awards and nominations, and they're still eligible for a few more. Yes, now that the Kirinyaga stories are done (and were sold as a book last month), I'll be doing another series of stories that I hope will be as controversial and as well-received. (I'm already in the middle of a pair of short-story series about Teddy Roosevelt and my fantasy detective, John Justin Mallory, but they're not remotely the same kind of thing.) The general title for the new series will be The Miracle Brigade; we've been discussing the stories and making notes (not outlining) for the past few years. It was always intended that the Miracle Brigade would follow Kirinyaga, rather than compete with it.

11. Is there a type of story you haven't written that you'd like to do?

Sure. Right now there are a couple of mainstream novels I'm gathering material for, and I expect I'll write them both before the year 2000.

12. You and your wife, Carol have won prizes for your costumes at Worldcon. What is your relationship with SF fandom? Is there something you would most like to communicate to your fans?

I -am- a fan. Most of my friends are fans (and that includes a lot of pros who came up through fandom, as I did). There's hardly a major fanzine I haven't contributed to, and there are none that I don't subscribe to. We belong to the CFG (Cincinnati Fantasy Group, which has been meeting every 2 weeks since 1947), and before that we worked on the first few Windycons back when we lived in the Chicago area. I know my fannish history, too. I know who sawed Courtnoy's boat, and where the Ten of Spades was, and all about the X Document, and what goes into Crottled Greeps. Lined up on a shelf on the wall opposite my computer are THE IMMORTAL STORM, ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, AH, SWEET IDIOCY!, A SENSA OF FAPA, UP TO NOW, A WEALTH OF FABLE, FANDOM HARVEST, THE EIGHTH STAGE OF FANDOM, FANCYCLOPEDIA II, WARHOON 28, THE ENCHANTED DUPLICATOR, and a number of even more obscure fannish treasures.

12 + 1. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Real writers -write-; they don't sit around talking about how and what they're going to write.