What made you write this novel, Mr. Charles Tonderai Mudede? "Actually, I wanted to make a blockbuster film, with lots of visual effects: laser beams, moonbeams, and spaceships. But when I came to America, from Africa, I made this discovery: Hollywood doesn't give black people money to make those kinds of films. So I turned to writing."

Is your book a science-fiction novel? "No, not at all. It fact, it takes place in prehistory. Before time... in the land before time! Imagine that! Humans before they have recognized themselves as such. Humans who have toothaches and can do nothing but die from the infection. This is the setting of my novel."

Is your novel a way of getting back at Hollywood? I mean, to write a book that takes place in the deep past instead of the far future--which is where your film would have been set had Hollywood given you 100 million dollars? "Rubbish! The novel actually takes place in the near future, but because the events unfold on a remote island in the middle of nowhere it occurs in prehistory--like I said, it is the land (or island) before time. If this makes no sense to you, I understand, because the book is that complex! Which, by the way, is exactly why the fuckers in New York--and Seattle, for that matter--have rejected it. But I won't get into that. I was brought up to be a gentleman. I went to the right schools, that sort of thing."

If this book is not published, what are you going to do? "Now that is a loaded question. What are you implying, sir, that I might shoot someone? A literary agent, perhaps? What do you mean by that?"

Would you continue to write another novel? Jack Kerouac wrote four novels before he was published. "Best thing that ever happened to old Jack is the 10,000 Maniacs song 'Hey Jack Kerouac,' and it's a bad, bad song. But seriously, why should I write another novel when I have already written a masterpiece?"