Tolkien's work had a *profound* effect on me in college; as I later read
all of the background material, the reams and reams of "history" that he wrote
to background his novels, I began to realize that *that's* the way to do it.
So I tried to take that kind of approach, filling out as much as humanly
possible about the universe, characters and history. It's the only really
sensible way to tackle something this large.

jms