it's pretty unavoidable, when you spend months and months totally, intensely immersed in the lives of your characters, that the process starts seeping into your pores and taking over your life. It's one of the occupational hazards of writing -- there is no factory whistle to set you free at the end of a day's work. You're on duty 24/7. I very often find myself dwelling on Ben and his variable fortunes over dinner, all through the evening and into the night when thoughts of plots and subplots and twists and all kinds of maddening details can start to invade my dreams. I sometimes wonder whether this is partly why writers have traditionally been more prone to depression and suicide than most normal folks -- maybe carrying a headful of characters and storylines around with you all the time is enough to drive you completely around the bend! These days I'm careful to take more time out for myself, to unwind and detach my mind from it all. Ironically, that's often when the best ideas strike me, and I find myself getting drawn right back in again... Ben Hope has been the main protagonist of your novels for several years now, The Sacred Sword being his seventh outing. How much would you say the character has developed over the years? Do you see him any differently now than when the series began? Yes, Ben's been part of my life for a while now. Even though I can't quite visualise him