It would be easy to focus merely on Christopher Golden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer work. The novels, the guides, the comics -- and he possibly does the catering, too. It would be easy to identify him only as the prolific and popular author of original Hellmouth-y hijinx, and to dwell lovingly on his fine contributions to the Scooby Gang legend.

But that would be wrong.

In a varied writing career spanning comics, television tie-ins, original novels, reference works and, well, more comics, Christopher Golden has covered almost the full spectrum of modern genre. And if it goes boo, grrr or bump in the night, he has either created it, elaborated upon it or holds a great love for it.

Which is why he started writing those Buffy novels in the first place.

"I wanted to write Buffy, literally, the second the pilot was through," he says earnestly. "Not only does the show combine all of the things that I love: teen angst, and high drama, and very funny characters -- plus vampires, and werewolves, and, and every other monster under the sun -- but it also has something new to television. It has an action hero female character to whom the males unhesitatingly take a backseat. Which I think is pretty cool."

Along with co-author Nancy Holder, Golden has produced seven original Buffy novels -- from the disappointing early effort Halloween Rain to the outstanding hardcover, Immortal, as well as a stellar solo installment, Sins of the Father. Add to these the enormously successful Watcher's Guide and Sunnydale Yearbook, as well as a dizzying array of comic work for the Dark Horse Buffy and Angel lines, and it is evident that the name Christopher Golden is now as entangled in the Buffy phenomenon as are those of the writers whose work appears on screen

But does this give him any unique insights into the Byzantine workings of the Inquisition-class torture-device that is Joss Whedon's mind?

"Joss Whedon doesn't tell anybody anything," Golden denies. "It's all on a need-to-know basis. And as far as he's concerned, until the day they need to be working on it, nobody needs to know."

But surely the series' pre-eminent novelists don't have to wait till the episodes actually air?

"No," he says, "but we get the scripts when they're done. Even the people who work on the series don't know what's going to happen until they have to know. He doesn't tell anybody. Like, a year and a half ago, right after we were reading the script in which Buffy drives the sword through Angel, and he gets sent to Hell..."

We'll take a quick break here to allow for some tortured whimpering noises.

"...I said: 'Next Fall, we need to know for a book we're working on if Buffy and Angel will be together again.' And he said: 'Yes.'" A pause. "But he wouldn't give us any more information. And so our version differed significantly from the beginning of the third season. You just can't avoid that kind of stuff. They have to approve it," Golden continues, referring to the Buffy production company, "so if they've approved it, I have to go on the assumption that they're not gonna contradict it. And if they do," he ends on a rueful laugh, "there's nothing we can do about it."

And there are almost certainly times when Golden would like to return the favour. His excellent work on the Angel comic book -- the debut issue of which set a high standard rarely-seen in TV tie-ins -- necessitated a distasteful duty that Golden may have preferred to avoid.

"I loved Doyle," he says of Angel's late, lamented half-demon sidekick, "I miss him. As soon as I knew he was gonna be gone, I was upset." Still, the transition wasn't too arduous. "We adapted to it in the comic book almost immediately. Doyle dies in issue six -- or, I should say, Doyle's death is accounted for."

Hmm. Something to look forward to.

"Originally it was difficult to write Doyle for the first couple of issues," Golden goes on, "because I hadn't seen the show yet. I knew he had a bit of an Irish accent, but I wasn't sure exactly where that was going to go. I didn't know what his attitude was going to be. Once I saw it, I was very happy to write Doyle, and I really enjoyed writing him -- and then they killed him."

Which begs the question: Does Golden buy the "We planned this all along" line being spouted by Angel's Powers That Be? "Whatever Joss Whedon says," he is quick to state, "as far as I'm concerned, that's the Gospel."