Tell us about the next book, The Twain Maxim.

The Twain Maxim is the second book in the series and in it I wanted to tell the story of mining fraud and how phony companies listed on the world's stock exchanges are often frauds created to fleece speculators. It's a bit of an investment class hidden in a thriller. Anyone about to buy stock in a speculative mine should definitely read the book first.

It's set in probably the most terrible place on earth, the Congo side of the DRC/Rwandan border. You really only need to list the awfulness there and you have your plot. Genocidal militias, child soldiers, Ebola, three of the most evil volcanoes that explode every 2 years, vast mineral wealth fought over by armies, AIDS, a lake threatening 2 million people with instant death by asphyxiation, mass rape, mountain gorilla extinction, the list just goes on and on.

To create this kind of securities fraud you first pick a site so far away no one will come to look at the mine. Hence the location, which Jim, the hero of the series is compelled to visit.

Think of The Twain Maxim as "a mine is a hole in the ground with a crook at the top and a fool at the bottom." I should add, "surrounded by big trouble."

Who is 'The Alchemist' and why should people be listening to what he has to say?

I was given this title by The Business, a UK newspaper, when I wrote a column for them for many years. I run a site called ADVFN which is the leading stocks and shares website in the UK and Brazil. We also do rather well in other parts of Europe and have 'InvestorsHub' in the US which is 4th largest stock chat site in North America. Because of this I'm rather well plugged into the markets and am happy to write up what I think is on the horizon. I used to have a column in Wired during the dotcom where a lot of the tech ideas for Armageddon Trade spun out from.

The Alchemist is meant to suggest someone who turns lead into gold, where in fact Alchemists were actually medieval fraudsters running what is pretty close to the mining scam in The Twain Maxim. However I think the former reason is what they had in mind when they called me "The Alchemist." I write a similar column for Forbes these days and have been lucky enough to call the Credit Crunch before and after.

How has your extensive work as a journalist with CNBC, etc., prepared you for writing thrillers like The Armageddon Trade and The Twain Maxim?

The main thing it has given me is speed and discipline. Writing for periodicals means my writing muscles are all pumped up and ready to grind out the text once I have my story.

I've been doing a lot of TV work during the credit crunch, mainly because I don't mind slamming powerful people on air. A lot of people in financial services would be fired if they dared to do that, so I'm handy for the media if they are in a pinch.

I write like I broadcast as if I have the idea strongly in my head, the words just pour out. This did lead me to use the phrase "quivering sphincter" on prime time BBC 1 TV but no one seemed to mind. I was of course describing the catastrophic collapse of a British bank on the stock market one morning and most people agreed it was an apt description of how most people in the City felt at the time.

It's been said that the best thrillers are cautionary tales for smart people.  Agree or disagree?

I can't say I agree there. That sounds like a remake of the description of a tragedy. Thrillers are normally sparked by an outrage followed by a heroic attempt to regain justice and order. I think horror might fit the above idea better. I agree that the more plausible the hero's dilemma is, the better, but I don't think Thriller's hold much of a practical warning except perhaps "don't mess with the opus dei." I'm not trying to cloth a metaphor when I write, just tell a story that surprises and thrills. You know how your teeth feel when someone describes a teacher scratching their nails down a chalk board, well I'm not trying to write a book like that. Was that thrilling or horrifying?

The publishing industry had been rocked by the economy. What will save it?

E-readers are going to devastate the physical book publishing business as we know it. Bricks and mortar bookstores, are in the main, going away. There is a fair chance part works will make a comeback, but this will be online. With e-readers, piracy will tear down the temple. The paper book will go the way of the 78, except in formats that needs high resolution graphics. It's going to be very ugly.

You spend most of your time writing no-nonsense nonfiction.  What draws you to fiction?

I really enjoy the process of story writing. It's a joy to get a story down in black and white. The story is already written somewhere in my subconscious, so it takes on flesh before me as I write it down. While the story is in my head and even in outline, it's a ghostly thing, and then as I type it out, it goes Technicolor. That's a lot of the fun right there. I must also admit to being a 'target fixated' work-a-holic too and writing a book is a perfect outlet for that too.

You were one of the first to come out with a multi-player online game back in the 80s.  Any chance we'll see game versions of your novels?

I started out in computer games in '82 and there were only a tiny handful of people in the business and then I got involved with multiplayer games and was responsible for injecting the "massively" in to MPOG to make MMPOG.

Books don't make good computer games because one format doesn't offer much to the other. Computer games are all about movement, controls, obstacles and goals in a kinetic sense, plot dynamics don't transfer well. Fiction plot and games mechanics are not isomorphic.

At a character licensing level it all makes sense, but that's part of the media monster that's about monetization rather than origination. I'm not snooty of course, I'll take the money if someone wants a license. However I think a book has to go via Hollywood to hit a subsidiary rights bonanza.

What keeps writing fun for you?

I really enjoy the process, so I think it's going to take a lot of books to jade me. As long as I've got a plot waiting to get out of my head, it's going to be fun.

Jonathan Maberry is a multiple Bram Stoker Award winning author and Marvel Comics writer.  His novels include PATIENT ZERO (optioned for TV by Sony), GHOST ROAD BLUES, THE DRAGON FACTORY and THE WOLFMAN.  His nonfiction books include VAMPIRE UNIVERSE, THEY BITE and ZOMBIE CSU.  He writes DOOMWAR and BLACK PANTHER for Marvel Comics.  Check out his publishing industry blog at www.jonathanmaberry.com