The hack's equivalent to winning the lottery is to produce a smart, best-selling thriller. Many have tried, myself included, but the best most of us can look forward to is the remainder bin or, if lucky, an advance about the equivalent to dentists' - as opposed to journalists' - money. Is it worth it? Of course, because after the ephemera of newsprint, the vanity appeal of hard covers is obvious, remaindered or not. As to why so many journalists write thrillers, the process is not so different from their normal practice: the story leads, characters are made to fit, locations are frequently those perimeter ones of airports and hotels familiar to travelling journalists and, when in doubt, make it up.