In those days I was new to covers merely felt pleased that a story of mine had been honored. I later met Rogers who did some of my early covers and I was impressed with him.

I figure that that has a ten year cycle. At the end of that ten years I began to get worried that I would run into what is known as the writers block the feeling of not being able to do these things.

Chum was a British boys weekly which at the end of the year was bound into a single huge book and the following Christmas parents bought it as Christmas presents for male children.

Well first of all going off with dianetics was based upon a thought of mine.

Recruiting Station was a story that came as the result of many anxious awakenings during many nights.

But somewhere in there I did have the thought that this really fits in with my thinking about what I wanted to do with what has to be done by a writer in order to stay alive as a writer.

I dont recall having any self-awareness about the intricacy of my stories.

The encouragement I got from Campbell was a quick check and praise. Once the Space Beagle was launched on its mission it seemed natural for it to breed additional thoughts.

Its difficult for me to feel that a solid page without the breakups of paragraphs can be interesting. I break mine up perhaps sooner than I should in terms of the usage of the English language.

I had casually rented an apartment that cost $75 a month because I expected my writing to pay my way.

In a sense theres a great truth to that but also I was a great reader.

It came about as follows: over the years when I was involved in dianetics I wrote the beginnings of many stories. I would get an idea and then write the beginning and then never touch it again.

I first read science fiction in the old British Chum annual when I was about 12 years old.

You have to remember that I was a bright but simple fellow from Canada who seldom if ever met another writer and then only a so-called literary type that occasionally sold a story and meanwhile worked in an office for a living.

My theory was that what I had to do was make a study of human behavior.