I think it's a short story writer's duty, as well as writing well about emotions and characters, to write story.

The inspiration to write? Perhaps it's not so much inspiration, as a NEED to write. I get itchy and guilty and dissatisfied when I haven't written for a while. Ideas come to me and need to be written down.

The market for short stories is hard to break into, but a magazine editor isn't always looking for big names with which to sell his magazine - they're more willing to try stories by newcomers, if those tales are good.

Well, to be honest I think I'm a better short story writer than a novelist. Novels I find very hard, hours and hours, weeks and weeks, of conscious thought - whereas short stories slip out painlessly in a few days.

I find it hard to take straight fantasy, as I don't believe in magic or the occult, and hard SF leaves me cold because I don't like reading pages and pages of science or scientific extrapolation at the expense of characters and emotion.

The professionals are going to be joined by the average Joe. Everybody's a publisher.

You usually don't have five (captains), but those five lead the way for us.

The boys are playing pretty well. Our strength is probably our line play and we have some quality backs. It's just a fun group of kids to coach. They seem to know what it takes to win.

I think that to a large extent the reality of instant messaging is AOL and ICQ.