Many thanks to those of you were able to attend my Reddit AMA live. For those who were unable to attend, I’ll be sharing a selection of questions and answers over the next couple of weeks. To view the entire AMA, please click the above link. 

Q. How do you get started with writing a book?

A. I come from a family in which everyone was writing books. And I grew up knowing a lot of successful writers. And that was like a magic wand in that it showed me that there was nothing special in writing books, no mystery, just grind. Do the grind and the book gets written. Write 3000 words a day, every day, for 30 days and you’ll have a 300-page book. It’s a fail-proof method. Plan it though.

To answer your question – I went on a load of random travels and then sewed them later into a rather weak narrative, when I was 22 years old. It’s called BEYOND THE DEVIL’S TEETH. I’m not so pleased with it, but I am pleased that I did it — as it led to other stuff.

Q. I am finding it difficult to market this work and write new stuff. How do you juggle your time – you are so prolific?

A. Time juggling: I find that I’m good at doing total-focus, a kind of deep immersion. That’s how I blot everything else out and that works for me. But at the same time I drown everyday in emails and stuff. There’s too much of it and it’s crazy. We all drown in it — especially because email is so immediate. I just counted my outgoing emails today. i have already written 85 outgoing today. Some of them are long; others shorter. And I’ve had 290 incoming. I miss letters and the days when time was less compressed.