I've been writing nonfiction since 1977, in different professional and activist contexts and three languages, and moved on to fiction in 2014.

Listed by order of encounter, not relevance: Douglas Adams, Margaret Atwood, Terry Pratchett, Michael Crichton, Patrick Ness and Jasper Fforde. All of them send me off to very different worlds while still touching fundamental questions. Very much admire them and despair about not writing at that level. Except writing badly is still more fun than reading authors that fail to entertain me.

I started writing "Plugger Site One" in a rare daredevil moment: If I'm forever longing for more of a different type of science fiction, how about trying to write it myself? Didn't really expect to get into this and was surprised to have fun. Got myself a website and registered the copyright for what has by now become a Plugger trilogy, just in case. As described on my blog, I'm now starting to explore marketing strategies and publishing channels. But working on my current project is more entertaining...

Without the invention of the iPad, I wouldn't be writing fiction for fun. Spending the major part of my real name, bread-and-butter-earning professional life in front of a conventional screen, escaping this setting became a prerequisite for fun. I exclusively write on a tablet, both in couch potato mode at home and on (business) trips, e.g. on the train or in a café. As long as it's at least one hour, it's worth it, if only to rework sentences or entire passages.

Yes indeed, as anyone sampling my writing will quickly find out. English is my third language. I needed to acquire a certain level of fluency for my intensely globalized day job and happen to like it better than my first two languages. It's also the language of transnational exchanges. My particular type of science fiction does happen in the here and now. In real life, the characters would converse in (mostly bad and heavily accented) English, except for the few native speakers.