Was writing a novel a life-long goal, or an outgrowth of doing comicbook writing? Did you just decide at some point after being established that a novel would be an interesting thing to try?
JB: I started out to be a novelist, really. I could always draw, to one degree or another, and I used my drawings often as not to tell little stories (usually for my own amusement only), but to tell the kinds of stories I found myself wanting to tell, the novel form seemed more efficient, somehow, than the words-and-pictures form. But, somewhere along the way, I found myself gravitating towards comics SOLELY as an artist -- then, only after several years did I start full time writing as well. Eventually, that led me back to the novel writing -- and finally to publication.