About age forty-five, I went back to college to get a degree in English, thinking it would help my overall writing and attitude. It didn't. The common mantra was "read more to write better". I was so turned off by their attitude and the kiss-ass-for-grades-politics that I quit (college, not writing) before I finished.

It's not that I don't read to see if what I've written fits in with a publisher's editorial bent. But I cannot understand spending an inordinate amount of time reading what other writers have written when I could be writing for myself. Even Arthur C. Clark, in a February 18th interview in The Onion, declared he's "really read no current fiction".

Now, retired and approaching sixty, I write just what appeals to me, with only an occasional peek at the "competition", but I'm not too old to change if needed.

Of course, you - as a writer with many royalties in the fire - may respond with read, read, read. But my questions are writer to writer, concerning science-fiction.

Is reading even necessary, if there are editors and agents hungry for work?

Is reading versus writing a fifty-fifty, seventy-thirty, or some other ratio?

How important do you think it is for writers to read?

It seems that authors have taken far too much of a license to stray away from what could be pure sci-fi. At the same time, even the mainstream book and movie industry has strayed into sci-fi, be it ever so shallow. By the "old" lines drawn in the sands of Mars, not to mention the re-release of older titles, it seems there's been such a blending of genres that even writers, much less readers, are confused.

On the other hand, Mark Oakley (about a third of the way down the page) has taken the position that such an evolution was natural. He sees the attraction to fantasy a reaction to the disappointment that there isn't a skycar in every garage, we don't have a lunar colony, and that readers are so overwhelmed with day-to-day life in a world of gizmos. After all, it's been thirty-two years since we walked on the moon.

What are the best directions that these two genres - science fiction and fantasy - can go to keep growing?

Do you think science journals or places where hard-core science can be examined are valuable? In other words, should our stories be based on scientific fact?

Do you think that fiction (as opposed to non-fiction) might eventually coalesce into a single broad label that includes fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, drama, etc., as sub-labels?

How influential is the movie industry with regard to fiction? Does having a certain genre attached to it, like sci-fi, affect the appeal of a project?

Would you rather write movie scripts, novels, short stories, or something else? Why?

Finally, what genre (or mix thereof) do you see yourself most attracted to, and why?

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.

Enjoy reading this SciScoop story? Here's a thousand more.