So these stories are "essential"--not in the sense that they're important or necessary or definitive, but in the sense that they distill story-telling down to its essence. They're written the way most people actually tell stories, without the flourishes and embellishments that are generally associated with well-written fiction. (There's an analogy to 20th century modern architecture here. It's pretty obvious, but I wasn't conscious of it when I was writing the stories. I'll talk more about this somewhere else.)

I had an agent for a few years, and she liked most of these stories, but she wasn't able to get anyone to publish them. I got a lot of very flattering rejection letters though, often peppered with words like "imaginative" and "inventive" and "unique." (In the publishing world, I think those terms are euphemisms for "unsellable.")

Of course, not everyone was so kind. For example, a few publishers thought that a lot of the stories were too much alike. For that matter, my agent thought so too. And it's true--they are, but that was deliberate. Sometimes when I have an idea, I like to explore it from different angles, and sometimes I like to explore it from the same angle over and over again. So some people might think the stories are monotonous and repetitive, but I like to think of them as variations on a theme.

The last short story I wrote was in late 1999, and I think I've matured as a writer in the years since then. But every now and then, I'll read some of these old stories and I'll surprise myself at how much I still like them. If I ever get around to publishing them, you'll probably like them too.

But assuming I publish two separate volumes, if you read volume 1 and you enjoy it, you'll probably like the stories in volume 2 as well. That's because they're a lot alike--they've got the same subject matter, the same comic fascination with the unlikely and bizarre, and the same overall tone. There's an element of fantasy in most of the stories, but the fantasies are usually sexual in nature, so there aren't any wizards or witches or ogres--just a lot of beautiful women who want to make love to me. There's another kind of fantasy as well, but I don't really know how to describe it. It's a little like science fiction, but that's probably misleading. For one thing, there isn't any science involved. So if you're a science fiction fan, these stories might not seem like science fiction to you--they'll probably seem more like love stories.

Anyway, like I said, the stories in both volumes are pretty much the same, so if you didn't like the stories in volume 1, you probably won't waste your time reading volume 2.

Okay, now back to the modern architecture analogy: One of the fundamental precepts of the modernist movement of the early 20th century was that a building shouldn't have any unnecessary flourishes that distract the viewer from the lines of the building. In the same way, my short stories don't have any flowery prose or unnecessary ornamentation that distract the reader from the story line. The analogy can be extended even further, because a lot of people think that modern architecture is too stark, too cold and impersonal. That's probably true of a lot of my stories as well, but they make up for it by being wildly imaginative and exceptionally funny.

My writing style has changed over the years, by the way, so the novels aren't as "bare-bones" as the stories are. I really liked the stripped-down minimalist style of writing when I was younger, but now I write in a more "semi-nude" style: I don't avoid descriptive prose or character development, but I only use them when they're consequential to the story.

There's a little less focus on the bizarre in this novel than there is in my short stories. Parts of this book are just as strange as any story I've ever written, but that isn't what the emphasis is on. As to where the emphasis actually is, I suppose this is a character study as much as anything else. Parts of this book are laugh-out-loud funny, or so I've been told. Other parts are less funny. Other parts aren't funny at all, and some people might even find them sort of disgusting.

I wrote the first draft in just under a year, and soon after I sent it to my agent, she wrote back and told me she was going to retire. I'd like to think maybe that was just a coincidence, but in all honesty, the first draft probably wasn't that good. I've rewritten the book so many times since then that I don't even know what it's about anymore, but I also think it gets better with each revision, so I'm happy with the result. Of course, whether or not you like it is pretty much up to you.

One agent told me it was too "surreal" for his tastes, but I don't think it's surreal at all. If I had to categorize it, I'd probably say it was more like classical mythology, although that's such a huge exaggeration that it's practically a lie. Like a lot of what I write, this novel can be considered a fantasy, at least in the sense that no matter how bad things get, everything usually ends up turning out for the best. Like At The Arms, some parts are funny and other parts are grotesque. Some parts manage to be both at the same time, just like in real life.

When I started writing this book, I thought it was going to be an adventure story. At the most superficial level, it probably still is, but parts of it are more like a fairy tale and other parts are more like a linguistics textbook or an anthropological field guide. It's even got a few recipes in it, so it also qualifies as a sort of cookbook (although if you're planning on using any of the recipes, you'll probably want to substitute at least one of the ingredients). This book is many other things as well, but at its heart, it's a love story. Sometimes I think it's one of the best things I've written.

I don't know how close the result is to an actual mystery or detective story, because I don't think I've ever actually read one. I don't know how commercial it is either, but my guess is that it's every bit as unmarketable as everything else I've ever written. I never bothered sending the manuscript to any literary agents--before I wrote it, I decided I was either going to publish it myself or not publish it at all. Right now I'm leaning more toward publishing it myself, but first I want to rewrite parts of it.

In a way, this book is the polar opposite of the previous book. Vacationing with Jel takes place all over the world and introduces all sorts of people from different cultures, but The Useless Detective is about a small group of people, most of whom have known each other for years. The setting doesn't change a lot either--most of the story takes place inside a big house in the middle of nowhere.

This book is probably more cynical than anything I've written before, but that's because the protagonist is a jaded hard-boiled detective, or at least that's how he thinks of himself. This book is also more personal than anything else I've written, which means that I drew upon some of the experiences from my past and exaggerated them to the point that they might seem interesting to someone. I think this book is emotionally richer as well, but that's mostly because everything else I've written tends to be distant and detached.

It's probably going to be a slight departure from the sort of thing I usually write. For example, I don't think it's going to be particularly funny, and it'll be pretty much devoid of any kind of fantasy. The basic idea at this point is to tell the intertwining stories of two people who have never met each other and who don't really have anything to do with each other, but what I have so far reads more like a polemic on architecture than a work of fiction. Don't worry, though--by the time I'm finished with it, I'm sure it'll be just as entertaining and engaging as everything else I've ever written.

Or maybe it won't, but however it turns out, it'll still have my quirky and distinctive stamp on it. I think that's a good thing, but others may disagree.