Why are your email messages so short?

I get this question a lot, both from friends and from fans. The basic answer is, because I'm insanely busy.

I read and respond to all my email--work, fan, personal, etc. Not counting spam, I get something on the order of a hundred messages on an insanely quiet holiday, and on a typical work day I receive around 400 or 500 messages. I'm a quick reader and a quick typist, but plowing through all that text still takes a lot of time. So, if my answers to you are short, please understand that it's not that I don't consider your message important; I do, and I appreciate each person who takes the time to write. I simply respond with very brief messages to everyone, including family, extended family, and close friends.

I'll keep on answering my own email, but time will continue to be precious, and I will continue to have a lot to do, so my answers are going to stay short.

One of those tasks is writing Children No More, to which I return now.