Dear Mr. Cline,

my name is Goetz Piesbergen and I am an editor for the online-book-magazine splashbooks.de. Before we start the interview, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to ask you some questions.

Let's start with a simple one: What are you currently reading?

"And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life" by Charles J. Shields

Your book is a declaration of love to the 80s. What about the following decades? Are there some things you like about them?

Of course. I love the movies, books, video games, and music of the 90s and 00s, too. That's why I couldn't resist referencing things like Firefly in the book. But I grew up in the 1980s, so that decade holds a special fascination for me.

Your characterization of James Halidays avatar Anorak and of Ogden Morrow and his wife Kira reminded me of some certain figures of the videogame-history. Anorak reminded me of Lord British, the alter ego of Sir Richard Garriott, the producer of the Ultima-games, while Ogden and Kira reminded me of Roberta and Ken Williams, the founders of Sierra Online. Did you plan this? What other characters from real life served you as a model for your characters?

Yes, Halliday's character was sort of a mix of both Richard Garriott and Howard Hughes. Ogden Morrow was party inspired by Steve Wozniak, along with a few other game designers, like John Romero and John Carmack. Wade, Art3mis, Aech and the other hunters in the book were based on me and various gamer geek friends of mine.

You've already announced, that you will be writing the sequels to Ready Player One. Do you already know the rough publication date and can you tell us something about the plot?

I haven't even started writing the sequels yet, so I have no idea when they might be finished or published. As for the storyline the sequels will follow, all of that is still taking shape. All I can say for sure right now is that the sequels will continue to follow the story of Wade and his friends and what happens in their lives following the events in the first novel.

How do you think should a videogame-adaption of your book look like? Should it remind the player of a game of the 80s?

Actually, I'm working on a real Atari 2600 game based on the Atari game that Wade creates in the book. Readers will be able to play it later this year.

I would also love to see someone create a modern MMO game based on the OASIS in the book, but I'm sure that's still a few years off.

While we're talking about sequels: You wrote the sequel to the 80s cult movie "Buckarro The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension". If you were asked to write a screenplay to a movie sequel, which movie would that need to be for you to immediately accept?

The Last Starfighter.

Let us return to videogames: Are you playing current titles? Which ones?

I'm currently addicted to Star Wars: The Old Republic. I also have a vintage Black Tiger arcade game in my garage that I play to unwind.

You are a Spoken Word-Artist and you are offering your album "Ultraman is Airwolf" on your website to download for free. Could you explain a curious person, what the theme of your album is?

It's all about being a geek who loves computers, movies, video games, and pop culture. The same themes run through most of my writing.

Can you describe your daily routine of writing?

I try to treat it like a regular day job. After I drop my daughter off at school, I come back home and write all day until it's time to go pick her up in the evening. I've also learned to turn off the Internet while I write, to avoid getting distracted.

Are the cover artworks of your homepage based on real games? If so, which games?

Yes, they're all based on Atari 2600 games from the 80s. Asteroids. Adventure. Space Invaders, Space War, Basic Programming, and Night Driver.

Thank you for the interview.

Thanks for the wonderful questions! Please let me know if you need anything else.

Best wishes,

Ernie Cline