That's a question I'm often asked, which is why I chose to answer it first. I think it has to be one of the unicorns, Albishadewe or Silvranja, and possibly the latter. But that would mostly be because Silvranja of the Silver Forest was shortlisted for an important New Zealand prize, the Tom Fitzgibbon Memorial Award, in 1998, when a comedy (2MUCH4U) was the winner. Even in 1998 publishers of fiction for young readers preferred comedy to fantasy.

I was born in Auckland (New Zealand) and I clearly remember thinking it an unsuitable place in which to set a story. This was probably partly because all the stories I read came from the other side of the world, which seemed so much more exciting. I think this opinion changed when I read Great Expectations (which you might remember starts off in a cemetery) and realised that the Grafton Cemetery, in central Auckland, could be every bit as spooky as Charles Dickens’s creation. The book I wrote then never saw the light of day (of course) as was the case with others that followed, but I went on to set both The Earthlight trilogy (The Obsidian Quest, Lord of Obsidian and The Third Age of Obsidian) right on my doorstep. The house belonging to Peter’s aunt and uncle, with whom Peter was staying, was the very house in which I lived in 1987 when this series was started. That was also the case in 1992 when I started the Mark Willoughby series. I started Earthlight partly because when I went searching for fantasy books for a fantasy-mad 11-year-old boy I found very little apart from Earthsea and The Dark Is Rising, yet the shelves of books for adults were awash in fantasy titles.

Unfortunately, when I tried to get both series published I came up against editors who insisted fantasy didn’t sell, and as the years passed and Harry Potter came out editors clearly thought I was copying Joanne Rowling, because Mark, “the One Marked by Willow”, gets his “mark” from his enemy, just as Harry Potter does. As I said earlier, the first Mark Willoughby book was started in 1992 and many years were to pass before I heard of Rowling (as Joanne Rowling, not J K Rowling). That was in September 1997, in an announcement that Scholastic's US imprint Arthur Levine had bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

I think I was about 10. But I didn't submit my first novel to a publisher until about 21 and wish I had kept the kind rejection the editor sent. She suggested the book, intended for adults, could be rewritten as a children's title, and I later regretted not following this advice too.

I wanted my fans to be able to read my books (and preferably do so before I died). I also love that I have complete control over how the books look. With traditional publishing an author has no say in what art goes on the cover. Very often the artwork has nothing to do with the story and I clearly remember as a child being bitterly disappointed in a book cover that didn't show something that happened in the book.

They mean the world to me, of course. Where would a writer be without fans? A bit lonely at the least. Writing isn't exactly a sociable way to earn a living. There is nothing more gratifying than receiving a message (or a letter) telling you how much someone has enjoyed your book.

I no longer have it, but I do remember it. It was a school project in which each member of the class had to write a chapter. The basic plot given to us (as I remember it) was a group of children take a boat without permission and land up getting shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. I remember it as being a very Enid Blyton type of story so I was probably reading a lot of her books at the time.

I have an iPad, a third generation one. I chose this rather than a device devoted strictly to reading because it fulfils a lot of other needs, one of which is that, with the addition of a keyboard and stand, I can use it a bit like a laptop when I visit my sister, thus allowing her to have full control over her own machine. And I can read books published in every format, including Amazon's Kindle.

First there's the enormous pleasure of knowing there are young people out there enjoying what I write. Then I love the surprising avenues down which my characters take me. More often than not, the story lands up only partly as originally planned. While it can be frustrating sometimes (throwing out several days' work isn't easy) it's mostly exciting.

Sometimes somebody recommends a title and sometimes I simply go looking. I nearly always download the free chapters and read them before deciding whether to buy. And I still have paper books that I haven't read yet. I have approximately 1,000 books, mostly paperbacks. Many authors have a lot more, but then they have a lot more room than I have. My shelves are all two-deep in books and there is no room for more shelves.

I'm not sure whether The Snow Queen was the first story I ever read but I do remember what a tremendous impact it had on me and how it led me to believe that children have far more imagination than adults do. The images I remember conjuring up don't appear in Andersen's text. I find it sad that for many children the images in their minds when they read Harry Potter have all been created for them by movie-makers, which is especially the case if they don't read the books. Adults, in other words, have manipulated their imaginations.

Quite simply, my books wouldn't be out there without Smashwords. I could almost certainly have got them published with Mundania Press, who have the Earthlight trilogy and two books for adults, but (like most similar publishers) they are swamped with submissions and going with them would mean a long wait before the books come out. I would also have no control over the cover illustrations.