Hello World is the story of a life online.

Part travelogue, part memoir it draws on Sue Thomas' online travels as well as her physical journeys in the USA, Australia, Spain and England.

While the book is non-fiction, it is a direct descendent of Correspondence, Thomas' novel that deals with the synergies between digital and physical worlds.

Like its fictional counterpart, Hello World will trigger feelings in readers of both recognition and irritation and will stimulate debate on the nature of the physical in a wired world for years to come.

We've been speaking to Sue Thomas to find out more...

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When did you first enter the virtual world?
I learned to use computers in 1987, but at that time it was a one person/one computer experience. Then in 1995 I discovered the internet and the way it connects many people via many computers. I've been working online for almost ten years now. The thing that really struck me when I discovered internet community was the generosity of people who freely give their time to teach others how to build websites or provide information and resources free of charge and simply as a labour of love.

How much time do you now spend online?
I'm online all day at work, and when I'm at home I leave the computer logged on because I'm on broadband so it doesn't cost any more no matter how long I leave it connected. And when I travel, I can log in via my PDA and a mobile phone when I want to. So I'm wired pretty much all of the time now. It's not that much different to being contactable by telephone.

What got you interested in the relationship between the physical and wired world?
I was intrigued by the fact that you meet people head-to-head. Body language experts say that when we meet someone in the flesh we make decisions about them in the first 10 seconds. But when you meet them online, there is no body to get in the way, so you encounter their minds direct and people get to know each other very fast that way. Some astonishing bonds and friendships are made. I also like the way that the internet can sometimes leap over boundaries of geography, disability, race, culture, gender and age - in fact, all the aspects of human relationships which attract prejudice in the 'flesh' world can be swept away. But I don't want to sound idealistic - for all the same reasons the internet can also be very anarchic and sometimes dangerous so it's important to approach it cautiously and sensibly. And of course many parts of the world have no electricity, let alone computers, so it's nowhere near universal. But I do believe that life online can teach us some important lessons about how to live together in a different way.

What relationships have you found?
Most of my professional life happens online, since I am the founder and Artistic Director of the trAce Online Writing Centre - the largest online community for writers in the world. I have also made many friendships online, and when I travel I often arrange to meet people I have known on the web for years but not yet met in Real Life. Sometimes it's a surprise, but more often they turn out to be exactly as I had expected! And I can stay in touch with my family, who are scattered around the globe, because we can pass on news and pictures with our own private email list.

Can you give us an example that relates to Nottinghamshire?
Nottingham Trent University is the home of the trAce Online Writing Centre and our office is at the Clifton Campus but many of our team are based in other countries. We teach creative writing online at our Online Writing School http://www.tracewritingschool.com and our tutors and students live all over the place - including Nottinghamshire. This means we work by email a lot, and often have meetings and classes in the chat room. The trAce community is very widespread geographically but very close in a personal sense and every two years we meet up in Nottingham - the next time will be Incubation3, our third Symposium on Writing and the Internet, at Nottingham Trent University this July - see http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/incubation/ That's when you finally find out what people really look like!

What do you predict for the future? What are your worries / hopes?
In the 20th century communities started to break up as people became more mobile, but now the internet is restoring them by keeping families and friendships connected and enabling all kinds of community action to happen. And I don't mean just locally - the net has made community global. For example, it has been shocking recently to see how ignorant the Western and Arab worlds are of each other but as connection grows there is no excuse for not learning about and communicating with other cultures. My fear is that powerful interest groups - media, money, and religion - will increasingly manipulate our knowledge and make it difficult for individuals to communicate with each other directly and honestly. My hope is that we will overcome that pressure so we can use cyberspace as a meeting place to share our similarities and build new kinds of communities with shared goals. It's a fantastic opportunity for a better life both online and offline.

Sue adds...
I'd like to invite BBC readers to visit my blog http://travelsinvirtuality.typepad.com/ and add their own hopes for the future of the web.