The biggest gift I'm given by my fans is when they tell me about how I've captured huge chunks of their imagination. They discuss what my characters, my technologies, my universe would look like in certain situations. And they put at least as much thought into it as I do.

That's a huge amount of trust they're placing in me. And I respect that. If they want to write fanfics, there are a few rules I ask them to abide by (credit me for the Universe, disclaim me for the writing, don't sell it for money) and that's it.

Maybe I'll magically become more anal about this once my first book is out, but I kind of doubt it.

--Howard