Nope, I'm succumbing to gradual bit rot. Tech is a young guy's game, and my next birthday will be my 50th: I don't have the energy or the spare time to spend on anything much other than doing one thing, and doing it well — namely, writing SF.

Nothing, unfortunately. See: Books I will not write, #4: Space Pirates of KPMG. (And note that the ideas I could still recycle got recycled in Neptune's Brood.)

I'm not a very good salesman. Here's the FAQ on what I've written; anyone else want to take a stab at answering this?

Funny you should mention that: I passed the one-third point in "Black Sky", book 2 of the new Merchant Princes: The Next Generation trilogy, earlier today :)

Coincidence. (If I do any more novels in that universe I'll try to find a new twist.)

Everything.

A chunk is down to experience, and another chunk is down to hanging out with bureaucrats down the pub when they're venting.

I wouldn't call it fun, exactly. But it's an important subject: like the civil engineering of sewage plants, it's something that we need, but you might want to hold your nose when inspecting the minutiae. In the case of Neptune's Brood I just felt the need to scratch an itch: it's all very well talking about space…

Next in the Laundry series is "The Rhesus Chart", coming in July next year.

Test.