A. No. My initial effort at writing was because of a bet – the bet was I couldn’t. I continued with the scientific writing to get my individual work archived, then the stories followed because I always had this creative streak, and having carried out the initial bet, I had caught the bug.

A. The first thing to remember there are some who just can’t help themselves from being cruel, or of being ignorant. Every now and again I get a review wherein the reviewer either did not read the blurb or the book, and criticizes it for what they were warned of. My view is it is better to totally ignore those.

A. By the same token, if you ignore the bad ones, you should ignore the good ones. Obviously, I like to get good reviews, and I like to think that I have made someone feel good about something, or they have been entertained well.

A. No. I feel if you are afraid to put your name on your work, you don’t think it is worthwhile.

A. Each book can be read stand-alone, but the fiction all form a sort of future history. To start with, I tried writing with backgrounds of different governance, thus “Troubles” refers to anarchy, “Ranh” to a theocracy, and so on. The Scaevola sequence is really one very long story, but I hope each book could be read stand-alone.

A. I try to. I devote most afternoons to writing, but that also includes my blog post.

A. I have left my personal life out of it, but I use settings. Thus in “Dreams Defiled” I have a character walk around Santiago, and he goes to places I went to, and I describe one building that is actually where I say it is. The action is purely fictional, though.

A. This is difficult. I write a blog, and try price discounts, and for the scientific books I try answering questions on Quora, but I don’t circulate a newsletter. I would hope that those who might actually read a newsletter would also read my blog posts.

A. I don’t have a favourite, although I do have quite a few copies of Robert Harris, mainly because he writes interesting material.

A. That depends on what you mean by “begin”. I am a plotter, at least to some extent, so my first step is to sketch a plot. I then outline what needs to be researched, but I also usually start writing, to get into the rhythm. The start seldom lasts, but I have committed myself to starting. The time spent on research can be rather long. The time devoted to Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was very extensive.

A. This is an interesting question because my interpretations of G. Julius Caesar (Caligulae) are quite different from the way most see him, but in accord with Josephus, and I had one page that is almost a transcript from the record of Philo of Alexandria, who actually met him and pleaded for something. I think that one has to try to be as accurate as you can, but ultimately your story has to make sense within the story. Most people will be a little surprised at my interpretation of Aulus Plautius during the invasion of Britain. We simply do not know what he was like, but I took some comments of his earlier character, and tried to build on that, but equally he had to put up with my main character, Scaevola, because otherwise the later parts of the story would not make sense.

A. In general, no. They are finished. They don’t need any more fiddling. I have issued a second edition of my “Planetary Formation and Biogenesis” but that is to include a while lot more information that has emerged from many of the space probes. When I originally wrote it there were a handful of planets known. At the second edition there were a bout 5000.

I am also writing a second edition of my “Guidance Waves”. This is largely because, thanks to seeing all the questions on Quora, I sense there is a lot of misunderstanding about quantum mechanics. Also, I hope to explain some things better.

A.ÂNo, I can’t think of anything that would make me better, other than more experience.

A. I am a widower, my wife Claire having died of cancer. I have two children, and two grandchildren. I live alone, with my cat Horatio.

A. I have retired, so I can write whenever I have the time.

A. I started writing largely as a consequence of a bet, when I was a university student. I abandoned that after a while but came back to it later in life.

A. I mainly compose piano music because that is the only thing I can play. However, I have written a string quartet because I thought I could get it played. You can listen to some of my music on my website on the Music page.

As for listening, I am mainly interested in classical music.

A. Messy, paper all over the place.

A. I doubt any of my books would make a movie, but the Gaius Claudius Scaevola sequence would, in my opinion, make an excellent TV series because it changes scope very dramatically. The Mars book might make a good series as well.

A. I write for originality. That, and the science aspects, may not make me a top seller, but at least I’m do sell some.

A. I suppose I am a writer first. Authors tend to go on promotional tours, etc., and I don’t.

A. I do belong to a writer’s group, and that gives useful criticism. The point here is everyone, being a writer, knows some of the problems.

A. I am a plotter, but I am happy to change the script while writing.

A. Never thought of googling myself, but I have a very common name, so maybe all I would do is get confused.

A. I try to write from the perspective of the age of the main character.

A. I self-publish. I found out that agents don’t like to take on someone from another country, and there are no New Zealand agents interested in the sort of stuff I write. I also chose this route because I had lots of ideas, and since it takes years to get a book even available, at my age I thought it better to go it alone.

A. You are your own boss, and you do everything yourself. Consider it as a small business. It is very easy to spend money, and very hard to earn it. Be careful with the expenses. The idea that if you spend enough, you will be successful is wrong; you merely go broke.

A. The danger is that the females start to stop being feminine. I am not sure what that means because if you look at modern films and TV shows, that is happening there too.

A. I try to avoid it.

A. They come out of my imagination, and are moulded in part so they will be adequate for the plot.

A. They are chosen to fit the plot, or the theme. Some of them become rather minor characters. As an example, in Spoliation, the minor character Lawler was a nit-picker because that was needed for him to discover his problem, and then he was ultra-nervous, which led to his downfall.

A. Nothing at the finish, although while writing large sections were discarded because they were not going anywhere desirable.