This leads into my most important advice: make sure you have some other source of money while you’re trying to write, such as a working spouse, so that you don’t starve. My wife worked for several years before and after I made my first sale; otherwise I could not have done it. Even so, it was a narrow squeak. Talent, if you have it, is only one of a number of requirements for eventual success; you have to be ready to absorb a fair amount of grief along the way.
Another typical question: will I autograph thirty-five copies of my books if they are sent to me? Sigh; I’d really rather not. Even one book is a chore to handle and reship and costs me more in working time than the book is worth. I prefer to have my readers understand what I’m saying, rather than to dote on a confounded signature scrawl. I’ll sign copies at conventions (Lots of luck; as a rule, I don’t attend conventions) and bookstores; otherwise, please leave me alone.
Will I dedicate a book to a fan? No; There are simply too many fans. But I am dedicating this paragraph to Alan Carpenter and his sister Karen.
And finally: Will there be another Xanth novel, and what’s it all about? Yes, there will be; more puns are already piling in for it, the pesky things. It’s titled Golem in the Gears, and it’s about Grundy the Golem, who rides the monster under the bed on his quest to find the little lost dragon for Ivy, and how he finds true love and laughter with the lovely, lonely, long-locked Rapunzel, the distant descendant of Jordan the Barbarian and Bluebell Elf. Stop! Stop! I’ll never get the thing written if sanity doesn’t return soon!
Books by Piers Anthony
THE MAGIC OF XANTH
A Spell for Chameleon
The Source of Magic
Castle Roogna
Centaur Aisle
Ogre, Ogre
Night Mare
Dragon on a Pedestal
Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn
Golem in the Gears
Book One: Split Infinity
Book Two: Blue Adept
Book Three: Juxtaposition
INCARNATIONS OF IMMORTALITY
Book One: On a Pale Horse
Book Two: Bearning an Hourglass
Book Three: With a Tangled Skein
Book Four: Wielding a Red Sword
Book Five: Being a Green Mother
Piers Anthony is one of the world’s most popular fantasy authors and a New York Times bestseller twenty-one times over. He lives in Inverness, Florida.