I've always been an inveterate lover of science-fiction and space opera, so it's no surprise that my literary ambitions would first go there, in the form of my still-incomplete novel Laszlo Hadron and the Wargod's Tomb. In all likelihood, whatever shape it ends up taking, this will probably form the foundation of my literary career, such as it may be in the fullness of time.

However, I'm not just a one-note person, and in recent years there's been something on the backburner. Inspired by such fantasy stand-bys as Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, and Elder Scrolls, I've gradually been building up the bones of a sword-and-sorcery universe. At the moment it's just a few preliminary notes on a few races therein, but I may well be able to turn it into something more substantial in due course. I've been playing Oblivion and Skyrim lately and exploring a fantasy realm like Tamriel really makes me want to create one of my own. For the moment though, there's no real centre to build an actual story around - all I think I could do with it would be to make a shallow yet overwrought D&D campaign that no-one would ever play.

To be honest, I do have concerns about the originality of the whole business. Is doing the usual Tolkienian/D&D-esque elves/dwarves/orcs thing too much of a tiresome cliche to even bother with at this point? But on the other hand, am I creative enough to come up with something original, or at least non-derivative?

It's a bit of a moot point at present in any event. I think for now I should probably concentrate on getting Wargod's Tomb finished and published, so I can at least get my stake in the literary world. Maybe it'll be a first step that'll lead me to greater things, be they sci-fi or fantasy, and I can decide how I build on it when the time comes. Though part of me fears it'll be lucky to remain in single-digit readership obscurity forever. We'll see what the future brings, I suppose, if I can ever actually write the damn thing.