About the current book: I had this whole plot started, and I just kept looking at it thinking, I can't do this. I can't make this work for more than about ten thousand words, and for sure I can't make it good beyond about five. I still have the notes and the beginnings of the bad novel so that I can cold knock out that story, but I just started writing and what came out has been really good. I'm happy. I'm excited by the prospect of making people read it, at knifepoint as necessary, he said with his tongue firmly in cheek, as it were.