By The Usual Reckoning, The

He Knew All The Answers. Everybody Did. Everybody Knew Everything And Everybody Knew All The Answers. It Was Just That The Enemy Seemed To Know Better Ones.

It Looks Perverted And Wasteful To Us, But Then One Thing That Empires Are Not About Is The Efficient Use Of Resources And The Spread Of Happiness; Both Are Typically Accomplished Despite The Economic Short-circuiting - Corruption And Favoritism, Mostly- Endemic To The System.

As A Writer, You Get To Play, You Get Alter Time, You Get To Come Up With The Smart Lines And The Clever Comebacks You Wish You'd Thought Of.

You Have To Have Something Worth Saying And Then The Ability To Say It- Writing's A Double Skill, Really.

In Theory, I Work An Eight-hour Day And A Five-day Week Which Means I Can Socialise With My Pals Who Mostly Have Normal Jobs Like Teaching And Computer Programming.