The Illustrated Hen - Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How did you come up with the idea for the book? A: I play a lot of Scrabble and Bananagrams, and I used to read science fiction when I was a kid. I remember having a vivid imagination, and I did a lot of daydreaming. I really enjoyed old movies too (in those days they weren’t really all that “old” – now they’re “classic”). As an adult I began to read more books about science, particularly quantum physics, and books or articles about consciousness. So I decided I wanted to put all of those experiences into a novel. Q: Why did you write it in a short-story style? A: I’ve been reading short stories most of my life; short stories were my first introduction to reading – O. Henry for example. I progressed to reading novels, and it did seem like those were two very different formats. But I also read serialized works like Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes , Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar and the John Carter of Mars series, which...