First published in Amazing Science Fiction Storiesin September 1981, Melissa Mia Hall's interview follows the publication of Gene Wolfe's Book of Days (1981), his second short story collection, but predates the publication of The Claw of the Conciliator, volume two of The Book of the New Sun. Like Joan Gordon, she cannot resist asking for ‘hints’ to the contents of the rest of the tetralogy. Wolfe obliges – with further hints.

Boston, the second day of the 1980 World Science Fiction Convention and I'm going to meet Gene Wolfe and interview him. First, I have to make contact. I'm wandering past the cavernous huckster's room with a friend. I glimpse a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, and an amiable air about him, almost childlike, eyes glancing around brightly. I know it's Gene Wolfe although I've never seen him before. I nudge my friend. ‘Is that Gene Wolfe?’ He says he thinks so and I rush forward just as he starts moving away. ‘Gene! Gene Wolfe!’ I yell, knowing I must look frantic. He pauses politely, extends a hand. I introduce myself clumsily and compliment him so profusely that he must think I'm lying or insane.

We meet several times during the convention, mostly for short conversations, enough to get to the point about where the big interview set for Sunday noon will take place, but not enough for me to know who he is. He is still the Man who wrote the currently enfolding Book of the New Sun, The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Storiesand Gene Wolfe's Book of Days.

When the hour arrives for the session with Gene, I am therefore a little scared, very much excited and tired. Like most convention goers, I stay up too late and consequently appear a bit bedraggled. Gene, on the other hand, although he was up late, too, appears wide awake and ready for anything. We sit down and soon the interview begins in earnest. I begin to know Gene Wolfe – a comfortable sort of man, deliberately thoughtful and wryly humorous, just as much a paradox as one of his stories.

MMH: You're noted for your elegantly crafted writing and you've been writing for sixteen years.