SFReader Discussion Forums : Interviews

Interviews : Gary K. Wolf Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:33:55 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Gary K. Wolf Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:33am

An interview with Gary K. Wolf
by Pete Allen

Gary K. Wolf is probably best known for his creation of Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and a whole slough of others in the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? which of course became the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? His newest novel, Space Vulture, cowritten with his friend John J. Myers, Catholic Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, has just been released from Tor books, and is available at finer bookstores everywhere. Interviewer disclaimer – I've had the pleasure of working with Mr. Wolf on stories for Amityville House of Pancakes Volume 3, the forthcoming Grimm and Grimmer anthology, and Tales of Moreauvia #1, and I believe I also owe him dinner and drinks, so this isn't exactly a cold interview. I know via email conversations that he is charming, suave and debonair, and I have it on (very) good authority that he's gracious and charming in person, as well as a hell of a story-teller. With that said...

Pete: Let's talk about the fun big news first – tell me about Space Vulture.

Gary: The process of writing Space Vulture began fifty years ago. That was when my best friend John Myers gave me a book which he had found in our school library. That book was Anthony Gilmore's classic pulp science fiction saga Space Hawk. John had read it and loved it. He told me I should read it, too. It was, he said, a Western in space.

John was absolutely correct. I read it, and I did love it every bit as much as he had. Neither of us had ever read anything like this before. It was science, but it was fiction. It was science fiction! It made such an impression on us that, to this day, John and I can still quote verbatim passages from Space Hawk.

We sought out more of this, to us, new and amazing genre. We discovered and read Isaac Asimov, William Tenn, Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, Harlan Ellison. We were hooked. Both of us still read and enjoy science fiction. When I started to write, I wrote what I loved, science fiction.

A few years ago, I thought it might be fun to re-read the book which had made such an impression on us. I searched the Internet and turned up two copies, one for me, one for John. I gave him his as a Christmas present.

I settled back and started to read, ready to be as enthralled this time as I had been the last.You can probably guess where this is going. Space Hawk was not nearly the same the second time. Oh, it was still an okay action story, but the characters were one-dimensional and the narrative had obviously been pieced together from several short stories. I couldn't believe that this unstructured potboiler was the book that had shaped my life. It's no exaggeration to say that without Space Hawk, there would be no Roger Rabbit.

John had the same reaction I did. One of us, I can't remember which, said that it was a shame we couldn't write a new version more like the book we remembered rather than the one we actually read.

And so we did. We worked on it by telephone, by e-mail, and in person over a five year period. Our story is not a re-telling of Space Hawk but rather a re-imagining of it. I like it much better than the original. I'm hoping science fiction readers will agree.

P: Everybody wants to know about Roger Rabbit of course, and even more so, Jessica. I know I've sent you links to random sightings of either or both, so I'm imagining others do too – how big is your collection of sightings these days, and tell me about a couple unique places you've come across them?

G: I still get several hundred e-mails a month from Roger and Jessica fans. I answer every one personally. I owe it to them. Without my fans, my characters and I would still be down a deep, dark rabbit hole. I'm especially interested in unusual uses of the characters. Of course, there are the tattoos. People regularly send me pictures of their Toontown Tats. I've seen my characters on just about every possible body part. My nephew, a rough, tough Army Sergeant, has Roger tattooed on his leg from ankle to knee. My wife's cousin, a prominent Southern lawmaker, has him tattooed in a location I'm not allowed to divulge. I've been approached many times at conventions and autographing shows, and asked to autograph Roger or Jessica tattoos. The bearer usually goes straight from the show to the nearest tattoo studio and has my signature made permanent. I've signed some pretty intimate body parts. The first time it happened, I thought, "Wow, I'll bet not even Mick Jagger has done this." Then, on reflection, I thought, "No, I'll bet he has."

Here's what I consider probably the most unusual use of Roger. There's a seedy bar on the West coast. When you go into the men's room, you see Roger Rabbit painted on the wall. A cartoon balloon painted on the wall has Roger explaining how to use a urinal.

P: As much as I loved the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, I loved the book it was based on more. What are you thoughts on the changes from book to film in your case, and/or in general?

G: The book was a book, and the movie was a movie. There were certain things I could do in a book that played off a reader's imagination. Those same things were impossible to do in a movie because it's visual. For instance, in the book, Toons speak using word balloons. Instead of hearing them, you read them. When they turn around, their balloons also turn around, so if you want to talk to a Toon, you have to learn to read backwards. That premise can't be done in a movie. It slows down the action too much. It turns the film into a silent movie. That said, I'm quite happy with the way Disney and Spielberg translated my work to the screen. They kept the basic concept and characters, and turned the story into one that's much more filmic. I wasn't the least bit disappointed with the outcome.

P: In the past, you and I have had several discussions about humour and SF – give me a rant.

G: There's a lot of humorous science fiction out there but very few people publishing it. Everybody nowadays seems to want the big, serious stories. I've been told many times by my agent that if I were to write Roger Rabbit today, I'd never get it published. Not because there's no market for I it, but rather because there's no category for that kind of thing on bookstore shelves. Thanks goodness we already have Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, and The Wizard of Oz. They'd never be published today.

P: OK, it's story time – I've heard two stories second hand and I'd love to hear them straight from the source. The first involves a leather flight jacket…

G: Several years ago, my wife arranged for me to watch the fifth game of the World Series at the Yogi Berra Museum with Yogi Berra. I was so enchanted by the experience and by Yogi, that when I went home the next day, I left my Vietnam leather flight jacket in my hotel room. I never got it back.

Assuming that somebody had stolen it and would eventually try to sell it, I vowed that for the next year I would check every flight jacket that came up on eBay. I never did get it back. That's not the story. On the last day of the year, the last time I would be checking eBay, I saw another flight jacket. It was in rotten shape, but it did have the same patch on it as mine. This one had the Fifth Air Force which my unit, the Fifth Air Commandos, had adopted. So I bought it. It was filthy dirty and smelled funny. I sent it to a restorer. She said the dirt was machine gun lubricating oil and the smell was gunpowder. I suspected I was not macho enough to wear this jacket.

Later, the restorer told me that in cleaning the lining, she had found a serial number inside. I checked the serial number on the Internet. That jacket had belonged to a B-17 tail gunner named Edward Wolf from Cicero Illinois. It was my father's jacket. That was later confirmed when the restorer cleaned the grime off the jacket's leather nametag. The name on it was Wolf.

P: Next story has to do with your hobby of collecting carousel horses/animals. I came across a book on the subject, and was and kind of wasn't surprised to find that you'd written the introduction. But that's not the story I was talking about…

G: My most interesting merry go round story concerns an animal, a zebra, I turned up many years ago. The fellow who sold it to me had found it in storage in a Midwestern barn. I traced it and discovered it had been manufactured by The Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The carousel it came from had operated at Riverview Park in Aurora, Illinois. That's about 30 miles from where I grew up. I called my mother and told her I had found an animal from that machine. I didn't tell what it was. She told me that she and my father had gone to that park many times when they were courting. She had ridden that carousel often. Her favorite animal was a zebra. She remembered it because it had monkeys carved behind the saddle. I checked my new acquisition and, you guessed it, there were the monkeys. I had bought my mother's favorite animal. The other animals from that machine, the ones in the barn, disappeared. This is that merry go round's only surviving animal.

P: Finally, I've got my order of Space Vulture placed, and I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival. What's next for you? A sequel? Other works on their way?

G: I'm currently working on a book that's a bit unusual. It's a fictional autobiography. Since my real life is so boring, I decided to enhance the slow parts by making stuff up. More than that, I can't tell you. Well, I could tell you, but it would take up the rest of the magazine. We'll all just have to wait and see (I'm not quite sure myself) how the story turns out.

P: Well, recent events might suggest that a fictional autobiography is becoming the norm. At any rate, thank you Gary for sharing with us, and best of luck with Space Vulture!

Interviews : Steven Shrewsbury Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:33:08 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Steven Shrewsbury Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:33am

Sex Violence, and Sword and Sorcery
An interview with Steven Shrewsbury
by Ray Kane

STEVEN L. SHREWSBURY, the creator of Dack Shannon and the Majestic Universe, is the author of nearly 325 tales published online or in print. His most recent release is "Whore of Jericho" a controversial hardcore sword and sorcery novella release in trade-paperback and electronic form from Pitch-Black Books. A brash, and often combative figure, Shrewsbury laid bare some of his opinions of sword and sorcery fiction and the role of violence in modern fiction in the following interview, conducted just after the official release of "Whore of Jericho."

What's wrong with fantasy fiction these days? Why do you feel hardcore sword and sorcery has been given such a short shrift by the publishing establishment?

SS: Sometimes in these politically correct days, it's easier to go with the flow. Hyper sensitivity has sank down even into the realms of barbaric lust and bloodshed. I also feel many tales are written from a Role Playing Game POV. While this industry has kept interest in the genre, I wonder if certain book series carry on, ad nauseaum, because of a gamer mentality. Oh, it isn't all bad, by any means, but I oft wonder if in the fantasy section of a bookstore if the covers were rearranged on the books, if it'd make a difference.

Counter question: what's right with fantasy these days?

SS: One of the bright spots, Dave Gemmell, just died. I think the fact that folks are still taking a stab at it, putting their hearts and creative minds to it shows that the genre has life in it. There are a variety of forms and tastes. I reckon every things runs in cycles, like history or bad sports. There should be a variety. I suppose it's like any other business. A generation has been spoon fed a certain product so they are accustomed to that safe menu. Read Anne Rice. Read Stephen King. Then go read Clive Barker. Big difference. Same genre. There seems plenty of room in horror for that sort of diversity, yet, fantasy appears lacking.

How important are detailed descriptions of violence to sword and sorcery fiction?

SS: A tale or book rings pretty flaccid without it. One has to be believable, even if a writer has never really cut off a limb or disemboweled a dragon (Or, as in my forthcoming book THRALL, beaten a man to death with a dwarf) too little is not enough. I read stories where men or women "quaff ale" and I wonder if the author has ever really drank a beer in their lives, much less ale... or an Irish Car Bomb. Same with sex. It doesn't have to be something this side of Penthouse Letters, but make it real.

With violence, well, know your art. Understand the body and what it can do and tell your tale.

How do you stay so busy?

SS: The tales & books just stand up and demand to be told. I'm a better story teller than writer. Life teaches one lessons and gives you the push. Experience life, get out amongst people and live. That triggers the muse. Just last night at work we were discussing some crazy story in the news and I got a new idea for a book.

Got any tips for new and aspiring SF writers? Any secrets you feel like sharing?

SS: Write everyday and read as much as you can. When you read, it doesn't have to be SF or fantasy. Read horror or westerns, non-fiction, too. They can make the mind shift and teach you something about storytelling. Keep learning, keep studying the craft of writing. Listen to critics, but don't become obsessed with pleasing them. Some are just jerks and one cannot satisfy everyone.

What gets you up to keep writing?

SS: The spirit of Robert E. Howard grips my shoulders and, like they say in the Mob movies, I got no choice. Seriously, it's like an inborn need to tell stories. Bram Stoker winner Brian Keene said something to the effect of, a real writer writes because they have to... not just financial gain or glory... the need to write. That and some stomp-ass metal music and Johnny Cash gets me going. If someone buys me a beer or a few shots of Protestant whiskey, that helps as well.

What's in your pockets right now?

SS: Knife and a comb. My dad used to say he had whup-ass in his left pocket. My left pocket has a hole in it, which means the whup ass has rang down my leg... so I get it's kick ass now.

Tell me something about yourself that'll surprise everyone.

SS: I love Jesus. I think he's seriously all right. I also like Schnauzers, but not as much as Jesus. They are grumpy pricks like me.

What are you working on now?

SS: Next draft of horror novel TORMENTOR. A barbarian novel with Maurice Broaddus called BLACK SON RISING. Finishing up KING OF THE BASTARDS with Brian Keene. More BEDLAM work with Peter J. Welmerink. A slew of new Rogan short stories. Prepping for release of my DELIRIUM hardback BLACK RIBBON OF JOSEPHINE. Reminding folks to buy WHORE OF JERICHO from PITCH BLACK BOOKS.

Who are good writers to watch?

SS: In fantasy? Angeline Hawkes is an excellent writer and deserves to break out. She will. Peter Welmerink is better than he knows. Christopher Heath is doing great stuff. I do enjoy Nathan Meyer as well as David Wilbanks. Some cross genres folks that are horror as well are Nate Southard, Maurice Broaddus, Christopher Fulbright, Randy Chandler, Tim Curran and Jason Brannon.

Are you a sexist person? Do women write as good of sword and sorcery as men?

SS: I love women. I'm a big fan of them. Some of my best friends are women. I love and respect ladies a great deal. Angeline Hawkes has more balls than several male writers out there. Marion Zimmer Bradley is a great writer. As with most things in life, personal preference should be your guide. I can honestly say I've read as much fiction by women as men in any genre (save for maybe westerns) that I don't care for. If a writer sucks, an alternate set of orifices cannot change their ability.

Are you personally an aggressive person?

SS: Me? I'm a sweet ol' teddy bear (laughs for real). Sure I am. Ya gotta pick your spots, but yes, I'd say so.

What's your favorite medieval weapon?

SS: Tempted to say chastity belt, but I reckon an axe. I grew up on a farm (still live on one) and there wasn't much call for swords. I can use an axe. Many folks who write probably have never (and could never) pick up a real claymore or broadsword, much less use one. Oh, I can do both, but I would say the axe is more personal.

Who's a better writer Robert E. Howard, or Karl Edward Wagner?

SS: Oh, easy, Karl Edward Wagner. Howard is a better storyteller, though. KEW has better chops and has indeed harsher, but if REH had been born later, who knows? I love REH more personally, but I'm a realist.

WHORE OF JERICHO novella from Pitch Black Books.

SHOCKLINES

Interviews : Corie Ralston Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:31:02 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Corie Ralston Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:31am

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
An interview with Corie Ralston
by Daniel E. Blackston

Corie Ralston, Grand Prize winner in SFReader.com’s 2005 fiction contest, is a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab at a facility called the Advanced Light Source. She’s also a Clarion East grad (from 2001) and an editor-at-large at Internet Review of Science Fiction. I enjoyed our recent conversation about writing contests, scientific influences on genre fiction, and how she’s going to spend her prize money! Her website is located at http://www.sff.net/people/cyralston/

Obviously, the first question I have to ask you, given the theme of your Grand Prize winning story, "A Question of Faith," is: do you consider yourself a religious person?

No, I'm not a religious person, although I've often wished I could be. It must be wonderfully comforting to have complete faith in an all-powerful being. I would love to have "proof" the way the characters in my story experience it.

What I find fascinating about religion is that it can elicit such totally different reactions in people. Some people find comfort or learn to be better people through religion, others use it as an excuse to do terrible things, some feel tormented or trapped by it, others freed by it. That's what I wanted to explore in this story: how people's lives can be either enhanced or ruined by religion. It's taken to an extreme in the story, because people have a reason to really believe.

You are a research scientist. Do you feel that being a SF writer allows you to bring any special or unusual perspectives to your scientific work?

It might make me a little more open-minded than other scientists. We are taught that science is a completely rational process and that scientists are impartial observers, but experimental results require interpretation, and scientists are just as influenced by peer pressure as any other group. Funding and publications are contingent on peer-review.

I've actually moved away from doing research these days - I'm in more of a management role at Berkeley Lab -- but I do still help other scientists with their research, and I think that reading science fiction keeps me sympathetic to differing points of view, and more willing to entertain "out there" ideas.

Opposite question: does being a research scientist help you in your creative work, particularly with science-fiction stories? The novel you're presently working on involves bio-tech and "rogue scientists;" I hope we aren't talking about autobiography here!

If I'm writing a "hard science" story it definitely helps. I can draw on my own background, or I know where and how to look things up. But I don't tend to write hard science fiction. I'm more interested in how technology or culture (especially when extrapolated) can affect people and relationships, than I am in the science itself.

My novel is also more about how science can affect people than about science. But it's in no way autobiographical!

Do you tend to approach your creative writing "scientifically," that is, methodically and with linear reasoning?

Yes, generally I have an idea, then come up with an outline, then try to write the story start to finish. However, in the last few years I've really begun to appreciate a more non-linear approach: writing what "feels" right, writing scenes without a context. I had a writing teacher who said that sometimes you just have to write what "resonates", even if you don't understand it. I struggle with trying to understand a story rationally all the time. I'm still learning how to turn that part of my brain off, at least for the first draft.

The short fiction of yours that I've read is interesting in that you address global themes and themes of personal transcendence, but you also wield a biting irony. Stories like "Looking Back" and "Piecemeal" are like two-sides of the transcendental coin, one that seems to represent the hope of an ever-expanding cosmos, while the other seems to refer to a more nihilistic cosmic vision. Are themes of rational response (or submission) to irrational phenomena important to you as a SF writer? If so, why?

I think it's a very human response to search for meaning in the face of irrational phenomena, to constantly try to make sense of the world around us. Humans are obsessed with the question of what it means to be human and about the nature of consciousness. Writing is a great way to explore these questions. I believe that writing itself is an attempt to impose meaning and order on the world, a way to better understand the world. Speculative fiction is particularly well suited to addressing questions of a transcendent nature because you aren't limited to reality and can imagine literally anything. I love the fact that in science fiction, the metaphor can become real. If you want to explore the human experience of alienation, then you can dump your character all alone on an alien planet.

What projects are you working on now; what do you have forthcoming?

I have an essay forthcoming in the "She's Such a Geek" anthology from Seal Press. I have many stories out there in various slush piles, and I'm currently a finalist in last quarter's Writers of the Future Contest. (It was a good year for contests!) I've written a draft of my novel and had it critiqued by my writing group. I've been meaning to get back to it, but I keep having ideas for short stories that won't let me go. Honestly, I don't feel as compelled by the ideas in my novel anymore as I'd like to be. So for now, it's just short stories.

Was "A Question of Faith" a story you wrote specifically for entry in the SFReader.com contest? Do you enter many fiction contests?

I didn't write it originally for SFReader. I did rewrite it, though, for SFReader. I had recently had it critiqued, and I used the deadline of the SFReader contest to spur me to finish it. I try to enter the Writers of the Future contest at least once a year. The deadlines are really good for me. I figure I'll just keep entering until I'm not qualified anymore, ie, either I actually win or I've had too many professionally published stories -- wouldn't that be a sad thing!

How are you going to spend the prize money?

My initial impulse was to go buy as many writing related things as possible: pens, paper, notebooks. Then I realized that even though I love those things, I never use them. I write almost completely on my computer these days. I think I'll probably use it to treat the important people in my life to a nice celebration dinner.

You recently joined the staff at Internet Review of Science Fiction. What's your position there and how has it been going so far?

At the moment I'm an "Editor-At-Large", which means I read some of the incoming submissions and work with writers on their articles. Soon, though, IFOSF is going to have a News section, and I'll be the editor of that section, which means I'll have to start keeping up a lot better with the science fiction community. Feel free to send any science fiction news and gossip my way!

What have you been reading lately?

I recently really enjoyed "The Midnight Disease", which is about the creative impulse and its connection with mental health. I read a lot of short fiction. I try to keep up with F&SF, Asimovs, and Strange Horizons. In the small press area I'm a fan of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and Turbocharged Fortune Cookie. Outside the genre I read Glimmer Train and ZYZZYVA.

Do you have any advice for aspiring SF writers? Any special advice for those looking to enter their fiction in contests? Here are the things that have helped me:

Set a daily date to write.

Find a writing critique group that isn't all praise but isn't mean-spirited, either. Get used to critique.

Set deadlines. I find contest deadlines are a really great way to make me actually finish something.

Finish stories and send those babies down the river.

Try to dissociate from the inevitable rejections. I find having a lot of stories out at once really helps with the rejections, because when I get one I can always say "but I've got three more out there that just might be accepted!"

Just keep writing, no matter what.

Interviews : R.A. Salvatore Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:29:38 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: R.A. Salvatore Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:29am

An Interview with R.A. Salvatore
by Dan Blackston

In the course of my varied and unpredictable career as a SF reviewer and editor, I've had the opportunity to interview a number of SF "luminaries." From amazing writers such as E.E. Knight and Darrell Schweitzer to influential editors Ellen Datlow and John O' Neill, I've consistently found interviews to be a fun and fascinating way to explore SF topics and shed light on the thought-process of some of the more integral figures in the field.

If you are interested in finding out what it takes to become a best-selling, award-winning fantasy author with over 40 published titles, pending movie-deals, legions of fans all around the world, and a classy and professional demeanor to boot, I can think of no better way to gain useful insight than to peruse the conversation I recently conducted with R.A. Salvatore below.

As one of the fantasy genre's most successful authors, R.A. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and tremendously loyal following. His books regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller lists and have sold more than 10,000,000 copies. Salvatore's most recent original hardcover, The Two Swords, Book III of The Hunter's Blade Trilogy (October 2004) debuted at # 1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and at # 4 on The New York Times best-seller list. His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Czech, and French.More info, as well as chapters of R.A. Salvatore's novels can be found at www.RASalvatore.com

When one takes a look at your list of published novels, it seems more like browsing through a bookstore than single author's bibliography. Do you feel you possess any special talents or attributes that enhance your prolificity? Any secrets for staying productive you'd care to share?

There are a few reasons why I think this question is somewhat misleading - well, maybe not misleading, but reflective of a general misunderstanding of what I, and other genre writers, do. First of all, yes, I've written more than forty novels, but half of those are adventure stories about the same group of characters. That's very different than reinventing the wheel each time through, with a whole new cast and new purpose for the story.

My good friend Terry Brooks once wrote of me that I was a "workmanlike" writer. I take that as a very great compliment, and it shows that Terry "gets" me. I'm a blue-collar kid with a blue-collar background. I value my job not just for the art, but as my work. The fantasy genre, in particular, I believe, has a cyclical, often temporary, hold on its fan base. People find fantasy at different times in their lives. Some will stay forever and ever, but others will move on to other things in a few years. A writer who isn't on the shelves regularly will have a very hard time in building and maintaining an audience in this genre.

Honestly, I look at it more as if I'm writing a television series. People want to know what's going to happen next, and it's my job, and my pleasure, to tell them.

I've personally met a lot of younger readers who are tremendously excited about your fiction. How important do you think it is for genre writers to attract younger readers to their work? Are there ways in which you think the genre could attract even more new readers?

I read a review where Harold Bloom was beating the tar out of J.K. Rowling. As much as I remain in awe of Mr. Bloom, I think he simply doesn't get it where Harry Potter is concerned. J.K. Rowling isn't Cormac McCarthy or Jonathan Franzen, and as far as her readers are concerned (for the most part), thank God! That's not her purpose.

To better answer this question, I have to tell you my own story. When I was very young - Kindergarten to second grade - I read all the time. Novels and comic books. I have a collection of first edition "Peanuts" books by Charles Shultz (and the older I get, the more I realize that Sparky Schultz was right about so much in life). I had a deal with my Mom, where she'd let me bag school on occasion as long as I continued getting straight A's. Well, something happened to me in the ensuing years; I believe that school beat the reading out of me. They kept giving me books - Silas Marner or Ethan Fromme, for example - that were wholly uninteresting and irrelevant to me. You might argue that those are great books, but as an eighth-grader, I certainly would never agree with you. It got so bad that by the time I was graduated from high school, the only reading I did was what was required, and the only writing I did was what was needed for a grade. I started college as a Math/Computer Science major. Then, in my freshman year, my sister gave me a copy of Tolkien's foursome. It was the paperback set slip-cased in the white box that was so popular in the 70's. That was Christmas, 1977. Two months later, New England got buried in the great "Blizzard of '78." For an entire week, we couldn't get out of the house. There was no school because there were no roads. It was that bad.

But instead of being bored in a small bedroom in my parents' house, I went away to Middle-Earth with a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. The whole time I was reading that book, I kept thinking,"Why didn't someone give me this to read in Jr. High, instead of Silas Marner? Tolkien reminded me of some dear elements I had lost: the joy of reading; the pleasure of the imagination; the love of adventure. It all came back to me.

So to answer your question more directly, to me it is vital that my books appeal to teenagers, and also that their parents can trust me not to cross certain lines. I don't think every genre author has to do this - one of the good things about the popularity of fantasy is that it allows wider boundaries for speculative fiction authors to explore. But for me? Well, I'd rather get a letter from a kid that begins, "I never read a book before…." Or from a parent saying, "I couldn't get my son (or daughter) to read until I handed him one of your books." Those are the letters that excite me, that make me believe that maybe I'm doing a little bit of good in the world.

Could fantasy attract more young readers? As long as we remember the hope and the joy of imagination and the magic of our genre, we'll be okay.

Your first novel, The Crystal Shard, was published by TSR books. Are you, have you been, an active RPG-er? If so, do you still game?

Sure. I started playing D&D in 1980. It was a great creative outlet for me and I was thrilled when trying to sell my first novel to learn that TSR was advancing its publishing wing. I still play, both D&D (though that's really just a pizza night for the guys these days) and some of the on-line fantasy games. These video games are the future of fantasy, for good or for ill. It's funny, but I was just watching a show the other day where they had a psychologist proclaiming the dangers of video game addiction. It got me to thinking: why is it okay for a kid to be hooked on basketball or golf, or even reading, but somehow a kid who shares his hobby of gaming with friends on-line is "addicted"? I found it rather amusing.

You've sold over 10,000,000 books. Do you ever have a hard time believing the magnitude of your success? Has the impact of success been a positive influence on your creativity?

It's just a number - is that what they're saying now? - and no, it never really registers. I don't really keep track of the bestseller lists or awards or any of that. It's not "real" to me. I'm just having a lot of fun, and I am blessed to have a way of telling a story that many people enjoy. I can't explain it. It's almost as if I'm reporting on someone else when we get into these things. When I see a book of mine in Japanese, or German, when I get a letter from a reader in Bulgaria telling me I won their "fantasy author of the year award," when I get e-mails from people telling me that my books have helped them through a very serious and dark time in their lives, it's unreal to me; it's as if they're talking about someone else.

As for the second part, quite the opposite, I think. I'll admit it: I nearly quit writing a few years ago. I had lost my dearest friend in the world, my brother Gary, to cancer after a brutal 19-month battle. Within weeks of that, my Star Wars' novel, Vector Prime, came out. Well, in that book, I was tasked with killing a beloved character. Even though my Drizzt books had been big sellers before this time, suddenly I had the spotlight on me like never before. Looking back on it now, I realize that I should have sought help - seriously. I would seek out message boards or reviews, purposely gravitating to the messages that savaged me and my work. It was almost as if the pain of criticism was somehow covering the pain of loss that I could not, or would not, face. It was a very strange time, and it got so bad that I could hardly open the computer and type.

Thankfully I'm past that now, and enjoying life and my work again. I simply refuse to play to expectations. I do what I do and I won't apologize for it. It's that simple. I don't write the books for people who don't like my work; I write them for people that do. The success has given me some power to determine what I write and when I write, so in that sense, perhaps it has helped. Other than that, I don't care. I'll just keep on telling stories as long as I'm having fun telling them, and I'll keep publishing those stories as long as people want to read them. And if the success ever fades, I'll keep writing anyway, and with no regrets. I know how fortunate I've been, and I won't take it for granted.

When did you first know that becoming a professional genre writer was going to be your path in life? Did anyone play key role in helping you get established?

I don't think I ever realized it until long after it had happened. I wrote my first book simply to escape a mindless job. I had to do something to work my mind and my imagination. I had run out of fantasy books to read, so I wrote my own. Afterwards, I thought that if I could just get one book published, I'd be happy. Then I did, in 1988, and my editor, Mary Kirchoff, told me from the beginning (regarding genre fiction), "Don't quit your day job."

But TSR wanted another book, and the sequel to The Crystal Shard performed even better than the first. "Don't quit your day job!" Mary reiterated as she asked me to write a third novel. Well, when that novel came out, it hit the New York Times' list and TSR wanted to sign me to do, not one more, but an entire second trilogy. Only then did Mary tell me that maybe it was time for me to think about quitting my day job. That job, by the way, was working as a financial specialist for a high-tech company. Go figure.

As to the second question: Thank you, Mary!

Are genre novels losing their audience to video games and big-budget movies? Or are these new media bringing more potential readers to the genre?

I hope it's the latter, but I fear it might be the former. Video games have become their own medium in a way few could have anticipated ten years ago. The power of the computer is transforming communication. Of that, there is no doubt. And of course, these games are consuming free time in great gulps.

I did an interview with the BBC a number of years ago, before the Peter Jackson movies, and the host asked me and Tom DeHaven, another US writer, why Tolkien wasn't all that popular with the kids over there. Tom explained, quite insightfully, that Tolkien wrote to a different audience, a pre-television audience. I grew up with television. My sensibilities, the way I absorb information, was in no small part tied into that 25-inch tube that filled the back wall of our living room. I remember when I turned in the first draft of my first novel, The Crystal Shard. What I had done in that book, purely on instinct, was break up scenes, particularly battle scenes, with multiple point of view shifts. My editor called me on it and told me that you couldn't do that. Our conversation went something like this:

"Why not?" I asked.
"It will confuse the readers."
"Were you confused?"
"Well, no."
"Then we're okay."
"But I'm a professional editor…"
"And my readers grew up with television, and television is nothing but point of view shifts."

I mean, think about it - close-up on Ross, close-up on Rachel, close-up on Joey. My "television" sensibilities worked with an audience that had been reared with television. Following that logic, the authors who will step in after me and Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan and all the rest will be ones who grew up with computer games, whose sensibilities will translate well to these reared-on-video-game readers.

Do you see and/or enjoy the latest wave of genre based films? How did you like the LoTR movies?

I was very pleased to see a Hollywood director treating a fantasy novel with such respect. I knew after about five minutes of that movie, just by the lighting Jackson used in portraying the Shire, that it was going to be a wonderful experience. I was not disappointed. Not in the least. Kudos to everyone involved in that mammoth project. My biggest fear, though, is that the bar has been set so high, the wave will break quickly. To compete with these newest films means that studios are going to have to spend hundreds of millions on production and I'm not certain that the audience will hold to the necessary levels.

Hopefully, breakthroughs in computer graphics will bring the cost to manageable levels.

All of that said, the most important thing that Peter Jackson did was to treat these outrageous characters, like Gollum and even the hobbits, with respect and tenderness. The audience cared about them, and that is a huge breakthrough in fantasy movies.

What are you working on now? What's forthcoming for your fans?

I've got Promise of the Witch King coming out in October. I'm taking a a short break from Drizzt and the gang to focus on the bad guys, Entreri and Jarlaxle. Right now, I'm writing the sequel, Road of the Patriarch (tentative title, I'm sure), which is scheduled for release in October 2006. This is the first book of my new, five-book deal with Wizards of the Coast, so I'll be back in the Forgotten Realms through 2010 at least.

I've seen an upsurge in interest in my DemonWars world and novels lately, and my wife wants more of those. So I expect I'll be visiting the world of Corona sometime in the near future.

Also, Devil's Due is doing a graphic novel adaptation of my Dark Elf books, starting with Homeland. They're doing a fabulous job so far. I'm about to sign a deal to do my DemonWars' novel, The Highwayman in graphic novel format, as well.

Are any of your series or novels slated for film production? Would you like to see films based on your work?

I keep hearing about near misses, but so far I've got nothing in the works for films. I do believe there will be a Drizzt movie. After eighteen years and going strong, the weight of the series alone demands it. I can't even tell you how many e-mails I've received from people asking about this, and even offers from people wanting to write the script. I would like to see it happen, yes, even though I'm a little scared of what might happen to my beloved characters.

What have you been reading lately?

A lot less than I'd like to be. One of the problems with being a writer is that I read everything the way an editor might. Instead of just sitting back and enjoying what another author is giving to me, I'm constantly thinking of how I would have done it. It takes a lot of the fun out of it, I'll tell you. I was one of the editors on the War of the Spider Queen series, and am still working in that capacity for the Everquest book line, so that's been filling my fantasy needs for the last few years. I also went on a binge of political books, and books on the Middle-East. I think every American owes it to himself to be informed these days.

Other than that, I break out my Dubliners every so often and get humbled.

What goals have you set for yourself that are yet to be achieved?

I haven't lived to be a hundred yet, but I'm sure it will take me many years to accomplish that one. And I will, unless I die.

Other than that, I have few complaints (and no one listens anyway). At this point in time, in my mid-forties, my goal is to simply make my writing a slave of my leisure, and not the other way around. Fewer deadlines will mean more writing, if that makes sense.

And I've still got my eye on a little surf shop in Maui.

Interviews : Tim Powers Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:28:35 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Tim Powers Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:28am

An Interview with Tim Powers
by Ken Rand

Note up front that Tim Powers speaks ironic with the same fluency that he writes fantasy. Note too that, when speaking, he never tells you when he switches from the serious to the not-quite-so (although the occasional laugh might be a hint; listen for it). If you misplace the border between irony and fantasy, you're on you own. You Have Been Warned.

Powers says he knows exactly why he writes--and why not. "Ultimately," he says, "the motivation to write is not to improve people, it's not to educate readers, it's not to change their minds about anything, or call their attention to some oppressed population. I think ultimately the main reason to write is to show off, so that when people come over to your house, you can say, 'Why don't you move that crap so you can sit down? It's copies of my new novel.' At that point, you've accomplished what you became a writer for."

No, you don't clean up for company. "You leave it out," Powers says. "That's the whole point. You're not getting the reward if you're not leaving these things underfoot."

There are other rewards for writing. "They pay you, of course," Powers says, "but the other things, I think they all could be boiled down to showing off. You want people to think you're more intelligent than you actually are, better read than you actually are, funnier than you actually are."

Powers got hooked on writing when he was about six. "I read a book called Timothy Turtle [by Alice V. Davis, Harcourt, 1940]," he recalls, "in which this turtle winds up tipped over on its back and all his animal friends have to tip him back upright again. I remember thinking 'The coolest thing a person could do would be to write these things.' I suppose I've just stuck with that ever since. It would be very cool to be a pope, president, astronaut--but the coolest thing would be to be a writer. And I've done that."

Science fiction hit Powers soon after. "A big thing at age eleven was my mom giving me a copy of Heinlein's Red Planet, and that polarized me for life, really. I'm still polarized from that. By that I mean, rotated forever in pointing in one direction, that direction being science fiction-fantasy. I don't actually read all that much of it anymore, but anything I write inevitably is going to be science fiction-fantasy. It imprinted too hard back then."

Powers attended his first science fiction convention in 1971. "I've been consistently going to conventions ever since," he says. "Even before that, I had poems in Jack Chalker's fanzine Mirage and drawings and limericks in George Scither's Amra. Excellent fanzine. I'm a fanboy myself when it comes to all this stuff."

By the time he was 20, in 1972, Powers was "already totally under the spell" of Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon, Lovecraft, Heinlein, "and I'd already been getting stories rejected for years."

In 1972, while a student at Cal State, Fullerton, he met Philip K. Dick. "Phil Dick was the first working writer I knew," Powers says. "Luckily when I met him, I hadn't read any of his books yet, so I was not speechless with awe as I would have been if I'd read him. So I was able to chat normally; and then gradually, one book at a time, I would start reading his stuff and have to kind of squint sideways at him and think 'Geez, this guy's a genius!' But since it was only one book at a time, it didn't render me mute.

"He was an influence, certainly. Effective scary stuff. Effective characters. The fact that characters have ordinary lives and have to have jobs. These were certainly things I picked up from him."

Dick died in 1982.

That year, Powers also met James Blaylock. "We had a friend in common and she said, 'Let me introduce you to this guy, Blaylock, who is also trying to be a writer.' When I first saw Blaylock, he looked all wrong to me for trying to be a writer because he was obviously some kind of surfer guy, which in fact he was. He didn't come to this through science fiction-fantasy the way I had; he came through Mark Twain, Robert Lewis Stevenson--William Gerhardy, of all the obscure writers. But we both did arrive at the same sort of thing and we were collaborating on stuff real early--and still do."

K.W. Jeter also arrived on the scene in 1972. Powers recalls: "Somebody had sent Phil Dick a copy of Jeter's Doctor Adder and Phil was impressed with it. Very soon, Jeter had sold a novel, which was just dazzling for us. And he told us that it was a brand new company, that they were hungry. They paid very little. There wasn't likely to be dangerous competition as there would be if we tried Ace or Putnam or something.

"So we scrambled and sent portions and outlines to Laser Books. Blaylock got rejected because Roger Elwood said he thought Blaylock was making fun of him, but I managed to sell two novels to Elwood before Laser Books collapsed."

The first novel was The Skies Discrowned (1976). "That was before I figured out that you should have titles that people can understand. People would say 'This Guy's The Ground?'"

The second was Epitaph in Rust (also 1976). "Then Laser Books folded," Powers recalls, "and all of us were thrown right back into the cold pool pretty much in the same state we'd been before we'd sold at Laser Books; Laser was not a real prestigious thing to have on your track record."

Powers says, while Jeter has gone his own way, he and Blaylock are almost a collaborative team to this day. "We've always read each other's stuff and commented on it and collaborated. We have a very similar perspective all together, cumulatively. Jeter has not always lived in comfortable proximity to Blaylock and me so we haven't consistently seen him as much over the years as we see each other.

"I don't know where Jeter's influences are from. He has a kind of a bleak pessimism to his writing that I'm not easily able to track. I don't think Blaylock and I have that."

Perhaps the most significant writer to emerge from that portentous year, 1972--more than Powers or Blaylock or Jeter--maybe more than Dick--is William Ashbless.

"Ashbless will probably outlive us all," Powers says. "It's fun to google William Ashbless; there's just hundreds of things." (I just googled William Ashbless and got 1340 hits.)

Who is William Ashbless? Powers explains: "Blaylock and I decided in college that the poetry that the college paper was printing was so stupid that we could write totally meaningless but kind of heavy-sounding portentous poetry and that they'd publish it. I'd write a line and pass it to Blaylock and he'd write a line below that and pass it back and we'd simply pass the paper back and forth till we got toward the bottom of the page at which point, whoever's turn it was would bring the thing to a heavy close. The paper printed it.

"So ever since then, every time we've needed some kind of crazy, bearded poet in our books, we've always used the name William Ashbless. In fact, now, I just use the name Ashbless like a good luck charm. I just think it would be bad luck at this point to have a book without Ashbless in it somewhere."

While he writes fantasy, Powers asserts that a firm grounding in real science is important, "and it might be some kind of requirement. I don't think being a fantasy writer is an excuse for, for example, not know why there's two high tides a day in spite of the fact that the moon's overhead once a day. I think if you have an invisible man who can see, you should realize you've got a problem there logically.

"And I don't think the mere fact of writing fantasy excuses you from knowing these things, on the one hand. On the other hand, knowing something about science--for me, it's really hardly more than having read all of Asimov's "Fantasy and Science Fiction" columns on science--gives you gorgeous ideas. If you're trying to think up magical effects, then looking at actual, real, truly occurring effects, such as photosynthesis, or what did vacuum tubes do in radios and how do silicon chips do it now--it can give you gorgeous stuff for fantasy. Of course, you don't have to have understood it perfectly, because after all, you're talking about ghosts."

To describe Powers as a research junkie is not an overstatement. "I do have to do a heap of research," he says, "because, if, for example, I decide that this Kim Philby character--who was in British secret service in the '40s and '50s--that he'd be a good figure to hang a book on; well, all right. You'd have to read a bunch of biographies on him, then you've got to read a bunch of books about the secret service then, and England then, and it branches out very rapidly. His father was a noted Arabist and so I had to read about his father and then about Arabs and then about Islam and then the Empty
Quarter in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and airplanes at the time. There's just no end of possible research and there's hardly any end, it seems like, of minimally necessary research.

"I have to stop myself after about a year. You think, 'That's enough. Are you ever going to write a book?' But I need to do it because--say I've read all that stuff. What I'm looking for in all of it is things that are too cool not to use. And obviously, if you read a whole bunch of the stuff, you're bound to find things that are too cool not to use in a book you're intending to write. If I can find 12 or 15 things that are too cool not to use, then by definition, I've got 12 or 15 things that are going to be in my book.

"And therefore, all I've really got to do is arrange them in the right order and connect the dots and I will wind up, God willing, with the outline of a plot and I didn't make anything up; I simply selected and arranged.

"Now, of course, when it gets down to plot details, you find you do have to make some stuff up, but to the biggest extent possible, I try to get all of my stuff from the actual research."

Powers says he spends more time doing research than writing, "because if I get the research all theoretically finished, and then arrange the plot elements, add more to fill it out, make a totally thorough outline which leaves the absolute minimum possible to chance, at that point, writing the book seems like the easy part at the end. You'd think: 'Whew! God, that was hard. I'm glad that all that's left now is just to write the damn thing.'"

Powers also teaches a lot. "I'm teaching at a high school with Blaylock," he says, "which is fascinating. Last semester, I was teaching at the University of Redlands; I may be again next semester--part time, you know. At least it's an entertaining sort of job. I mean, I could be washing cars."

Powers travels some three or four weekends a year. An upcoming trip: Israel, possibly, in October. "Theoretically," he says, "I'm going to be a guest of honor at a convention there; we're still kind of figuring it out. But that would be terrific. It's kind of weird; the book I'm writing right now involves Israel but I'll be done with it before I go to Israel, which is a bad arrangement of things."

Does Powers rewrite a lot? It depends. "If I still have it," he says, "I rewrite it. Once I've sent it off, I don't much. Generally, even after I send it off, a few months later the editor will send it back and say, 'Do you really think these last three chapters are as good as they could be?' and I'll say, "Oh, gee, no. Sorry. Of course not.' And I'll fix them up.

"But that's so consistent in fact that a lot of times, I don't wait for the editor. I'll let a couple of weeks or a month go by, look at those last three chapters unprompted, and find that they need rewriting."

Powers writes to contract-imposed deadlines. He says it helps, but he admits that he's often late delivering the book. "And the editor will yell at you at conventions--actually editors only gently scold. But guilt certainly is a valuable thing. In fact, if it weren't for guilt, I wouldn't get anything done. I don't think I'd get out of bed in the morning if it wasn't for guilt. I like to think I work more from the authority of guilt and fear."

Powers fans, take note: Tachyon Publications is scheduled to publish Strange Itineraries, a collection of his complete short stories, in July.

Of his next novel, Powers says "I have sworn will be finished by the end of this summer--it really, really should be.

"It takes place in 1987, the year of the Harmonic Convergence, and it has to do with consequences of Albert Einstein having lived in Pasadena in the winters in the early 30s. I say that he left stuff there that in '97 becomes important. Several crowds are trying to get his stuff and our poor hero is in the middle of it without knowing what's going on and so forth. And it will involve Israel."

William Ashbless--at least his name--will appear.

The possibility that Hollywood will one day make a movie of one of Powers' books continues. Anubis Gate (Ace, 1984) Last Call (Perennial, 1996) and Declare (HarperTorch, 2002) have been optioned.

"I think they're all lapsed at the moment," Powers says. "But I'm always grateful to those people for the time they keep it on option. I figure they have vast idealism and optimism. They're looking forward to an actual movie occurring and I'm content with simply the option occurring."

Some writers fret over the "Hollywoodization" of their work. Powers doesn't. "I would be happy with whatever they did," he says. "They could tell me, 'Powers, we're going to do Last Call but instead of a 40-year-old male protagonist, it's going to be a nine-year-old girl. Instead of Las Vegas, it's going to be Atlantic City. Instead of poker it's going to be--' I'd say, 'Don't even tell me. I don't care. Do whatever you want. It's yours now. Don't--not that I imagine you're doing this--but don't trouble yourselves worrying about how this will strike Powers.'

"I always think of something James Cain is supposed to have said. Somebody once asked him, 'Mr. Cain, what do you think if what Hollywood has done with your books?' And he pointed at the bookshelf and said, 'They haven't done anything to them. Look.'

"If somebody was to propose making a movie of one of my books, I'd say, 'I have three non-negotiable demands. This is my book. If it wasn't for my creativity, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Therefore I feel free to demand the following three things, which are not negotiable. If you make those jackets for the crew with the logo of the movie on the back, I get six and Serena and I get to have a free lunch at the commissary and, if there's a big crowd scene, Serena and I get to be in it.' After that, I don't care.

"That would be totally fulfilling. And then of course if they happen to make a good movie too, that would just be gravy. But I'd have those jackets."

If you're unacquainted with Powers' body of work, he suggests you consider starting "objectively speaking" with Anubis Gate. "That seems to be the one people like best, cumulatively," he says, "so I would trust them and say probably that's a good place to start. And after that, I'd just say, 'Well, here's one about poker in Las Vegas and tarot cards [Last Call]. Here's one about Soviet and British spies and genies [Declare]. Here's one about pirates and voodoo [On Stranger Tides]. Pick whichever flavor looks like the most fun."

Powers personal favorite is Declare "just because it's the most recent. As my books get older, I look at them and see stuff I should have done differently which I was not able to see at the time I wrote it. And it's been so recent really with Declare that I still am not able to see any things I should have done differently. Five years, ten years from now, I probably will. But right now, I just think--unimprovable. I know that in fact as they recede, you notice some kinks and dents and patches where the wall doesn't meet the ground and things like that."

Still, Powers is fully aware that, for writers, there's always something more to learn. "The one nice thing about all of this is it doesn't hold still," he says. "I think whether we write it or read it, it takes enough sharp curves to kind of keep us awake, keep us from subsiding into senility--at least keep us from doing it as rapidly as we otherwise would."

And the best way to learn what's next? Powers says, write what's next. "It's always the case that you think, 'I should try to do this. Let's see if that is possible.' Because, after all, the previous ones can still be consulted. It's not like we're working live on stage with no cameras where you had to be there. The old stuff is still there, consultable, and so if we kind of try something new over here and it's a total failure, at least those old things are still there."

How would Powers like to be remembered a hundred years from now? "For one thing," he says, "it won't matter to me at all. I'll be dead. But if I could somehow be a ghost haunting bookstores--I suppose it would be nice if people would read my stuff and think, 'I bet he was an interesting guy. It's too bad I can't have a beer with him.' Which is what I think about dead writers whose stuff I read. Such as Lovecraft. Well, of course, Lovecraft wouldn't have wanted to have a beer with me, but I hope he would have been happy to have a coffee with me. Yeah, that would be a nice thing."

Finally, Powers offers these words for SFReader.com readers: "I'd like you to know that if you would like to find the sources where Powers scavenged the good stuff that is in his books--hoping that you'll grant that there's some good stuff in there--I'd say don't miss John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees and Pervan by Keith Roberts [Tim, I couldn't find this. Where did I go wrong?]. These are great books that I'm always afraid are going to get kind of buried under the dust; that people won't go look at them and notice how terrific they are."

Interviews : Lori Anderson Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:13:42 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Lori Anderson Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:13am

SPIRIT OF SURVIVAL

Get up and do it! might well be the rallying cry of many of the "new-wave" P.O.D. and/or self-published authors. On the other hand, it's good advice for anyone looking to make a career in publishing - and especially for novelists who want to bring more readers to their title (s).

Enter Lori Anderson, author of the SF Trilogy: Pledge of Honor, Obligation and Destiny's Hope. With a unique narrative voice, an epic "saga" in both literary and personal senses, and the confidence to pull it all together despite the usual harsh obstacles confronting a SF novelist, Ms. Anderson presents a spirited and studied approach to the new frontiers of alternative publishing - and also to the boundaries and definitions of Speculative Fiction.

Bereft of the usual, lengthy credentials, Lori Anderson's bio and additional information on her fiction, as well as photos of the author may be found at her web site.

Reviews of her books Pledge of Honor and Obligation are available here at SFReader.

We thank Lori for taking time out of her busy schedule for this interview and for her patience in waiting for it to post!

You've got a great attitude and spirit when it comes to both writing and promoting your work. Have you always been an energetic person? Ever have days when you wonder: "why do I bother trying to be a writer?"

First of all, thank you. I believe my attitude and spirit derive from the passion I have for creating magical worlds and mental escapes for anyone who just needs a break from reality. I have noted a positive change in the quality of my writing over the years. And I would never expect anyone to believe in me and my work, if I didn't believe in it completely!

As for having days when I wonder: "why do I bother?" Never. Not even once! I don't "try" being a writer…I am a writer-and from what I'm hearing from my readers, a pretty good one at that. (My sincere gratitude to the readers of my books).

Tell us a little about how you got started writing SF. Were you influenced much by any particular writers in the genre? Out of it?

I started writing in the fourth grade. Having grown up with Star Trek, Time Tunnel, Lost in Space-It had always captured my attention and imagination at a very early age…the "what if" scenario. It was a "no holds barred" place for any writer to expand their own creativity and go beyond the bounds of the conventional writer.

As for any particular writer, anyone who wrote anything about Star Trek was tops in my mind. So I guess Gene Roddenberry would have to be The Man.

One thing I noticed right away about your novel Pledge of Honor was the complex back story for the novel, the intricate plotting. Is this a tale you've been carrying with you for a while or did you create the story more "on the fly?"

I started Pledge of Honor in 1992. I have always worked on several novels at a time, but this one ultimately became a big part of my life. The characters grew into a part of my family-so to speak. Now I've finished the final book of the trilogy: Destiny's Hope that I hope will hit Barnes and Noble and Amazon by late spring-if all goes well.

Like many good writers, your sympathy for your protagonist, Keenu, is quite evident to the reader throughout Pledge. Is character, like so many critics, writers and readers, have insisted, the essence of storytelling? Any advice for writers about getting closer to their characters?

I think that a well-written character is very important to any tale, written or told. If you can relate to the person you're reading about, you can sympathize, and ultimately become part of the struggles they endure throughout the storyline. I'm still learning how to create better characters, more colorful history of who they are and why they're important enough to be part of the story. But I still believe without a good saga the characters won't be enough to keep the readers attention.

Advice for writers about getting close to their characters: Envision them. Become part of them or they a part of you. Give them realism, if they're too off-the-wall your readers may not understand them and lose interest.

You've recently decided to switch publishers for your entire series of novels. What prompted the move? How has this changed your situation personally?

The cost of the books to the reader was the main reason for the move. As they sit today, the hardcover is: $31.99 and the soft: $21.99. That's ridiculous and I can't expect people to chance that much money on an up and coming author-no matter how good I am. I'm not writing to make a million dollars. I'm writing because I love what I do, and love sharing that with others.

Now (or soon) the books will be offered at a far better rate: hardcover will be around $23.00 on Barnes and Noble and the soft cover around $14.00. (I'm so excited about this adjustment). So if you're interested in the books-look for the second editions. (The first publisher isn't in any hurry to remove my books from their listings).

Also, the switch was actually a wonderful opportunity to change a few things I didn't care about in the first editions of both Pledge of Honor and Obligation (book two). The characters are now better defined with a bit more history-a little more "colorful" if you will. And the best advice I could ever pass onto a new author: "Be careful of what you write in your 'about the author' spot!" (Engagements don't always end the way you hope…and life changes constantly!) Trust me on this one!

Unlike many new writers making the rounds, you don't have a lot of short fiction credits under your belt. Did you write short stories before you set out to create your novels? Are you doing any short SF these days?

When I was younger and in Creative Writing class, I did write short stories: Science fiction, fantasy, horror, drama, romance, humor…But now; I'm too long-winded for anything short. There's just too much to tell and short stories just don't fulfill my writing fervor. I want to get into a character and in due course bring the reader with me on my psychosomatic journey. My job is to suck the booklover in and hold their curiosity. If a writer can do that, then their ambition was met.

The kind of SF you write is very interesting in that it seems to focus primarily on relationships between characters, though these relationships feed into a larger sense of cosmic/speculative themes. In effect, you are using the SF genre as a way to show how Fate or cosmic themes impact all of us. A fair statement?

Definitely a fair statement! Like I said earlier-no holds barred. The only thing holding any writer back is their own lack of imagination or the fear of "trying something new"…uncharted territory. Isn't that what Sci-fi and fantasy gives us? Open reign to explore and challenge ourselves (and others) to new ideas? And in the end, giving our readers something new to reflect on? I have received so many e-mails from people that have read Pledge of Honor saying: "You've given me something to think about…" I've heard this from people that spanned from forty to seventy years old. I'm very proud of this fact! I had no idea I had this ability in me!

As far as the relationships go, good or bad, no story is complete without some type of interaction between two or more characters. One person throughout a book would bore me....

I doubt you envision the audience for Pledge of Honor as a typical trekkie type SF fan, nor as an industry insiders, nor as an aficionado of literary SF. Do you think there is an untapped audience for SF? Are readers of romance and mystery novels likely candidates as SF readers if the material is slanted, slightly, toward their interests?

Most definitely! I have had people contact me after reading Pledge and Obligation telling me they would never have normally picked up a science fiction or fantasy book: (they referred to it as "that kind of book") before. But after hearing others talking about my novels they took a chance…Know what? They loved them!

I may just be converting readers one at a time into the real world of Sci-fi and fantasy. If they realize one book isn't all "technical" and there are aliens that can love, hurt, hate, deceive and grow-just like we mere humans, they realize they can still relate to them as "people".

I feel sci-fi and fantasy has become "generalized" by some and they need to understand the way their minds are conditioned to believe isn't necessarily the truth about these genres. There's a whole new world out there-not everything is black and white! Especially in the world of sci-fi and fantasy...

Did you shop your novels to "name" agents and publishers before signing with a POD publisher? If so, what kind of response did you receive?

Yes, I did. But it was years and years ago. Their response was: "Your writing is strong and intriguing, but we're not accepting manuscripts without agents at this time."

Years later, when I became "serious" about publishing again, I found that people like Piers Anthony (a well established author) was publishing with a POD (same one I picked to start with, as a matter of fact). More and more "established" authors are now choosing to publish POD for several important reasons:

1. You keep your copyrights.
2. You have complete control over the publishing of your book.
3. You can-for the most part-choose the price range where you'd like your books to sell.

When my books finally reach a wider audience, I will still be in charge of my copyrights. That was very important to me. And again, to take a chance on yourself is far more courageous than expecting someone else to take a chance on you. If your readers see you putting your own butt on the line-I think that says something about the "character" of the author!

What projects are you presently working on?

Now that the third book of the Pledge of Honor trilogy: Destiny's Hope is with the publisher, I've been working on a few new projects: Hostage of Fate, genre: Fiction. It's about two brothers and the bond they share. But when guarded secrets are exposed and they find their lives were built on nothing more than lies and deception-can they find a way to keep their once unconditional rapport from being destroyed?

I'm also working on a "self-discovery" type of memoir that will allow my readers an inside-look at my life and the trials I had to overcome in order to find the true writer inside myself.

Any advice to writers on how to promote their work?

One word: Perseverance! You have to become your best critic verses your own worst critic. Believe in your work. Promote in any way you can: Flyers, internet, cards, radio, local t.v. news, write articles about yourself in the "third person" and send them to your local papers; many times if the news is interesting, they will print the article for free. Contact local bookstores, or retailers that you may know and set up book signings. One step usually leads to another and before you know it, the word is out and you just keep pushing!

Attend any conventions that relate to your genre. It might cost you a little money, but a single, unexpected contact could mean far more in promotion and sales than what you spent to attend. Plus, you get exposure. Not just for your books, but yourself too. You are the writer. Be friendly and memorable. Introduce yourself, shake hands, and make eye-contact. You sometimes need to sell yourself-figuratively speaking-in order to sell your books. Don't be shy. This is your book and possibly your future…show everyone how proud you are of your accomplishment!

How has becoming a published, aspiring professional writer affected you for the good? Conversely, has it had any negative impacts on your life?

There isn't enough time or paper to explain all the good that has come out of becoming a published writer or how the books have impacted my life. The people I've met alone while promoting-you can't put a price on that. I have seen a side of people that I don't know if I would have seen before, without the books. Once they realized my potential it was like they couldn't do enough to help point me in better directions: Contacts, ideas, sites to check, reviewers to send the books to. It's been phenomenal!

Without my readers and their insights, I doubt I'd be where I am today. And we're just beginning! I'm not doing this alone…and I can't even claim half the credit for the steps I've accomplished. Without the support of all those that have enjoyed my writing-I'd still be at square one.

The only negative I've run into is: there isn't enough time to accomplish everything I would like in twenty-four hours!

Where can we buy your books? Author appearances? Website?

You can buy my books at Barnesandnoble.com, Amazon.com or any on-line bookstore. You can order it from your local bookstores as well. I worked a few panels with authors such as: Gene Wolfe, Rosemary Kirstein, Richard Garfinkle, Jim Hines, Kathryn Sullivan, Deirdre Murphy, Mike Williamson, Mary Anne Mohanraj and several others that were very inspirational to me.

I'm looking forward to several up-coming Science Fiction conventions that my daughter and I may be panelists on; we'll get to work with and learn from some big name authors. I've had appearances on Channel 5 WFRV-TV, Good Day, Wisconsin and 106.1 FM radio. And with the finished trilogy, I'm looking forward to more interviews.

We have a website: www.pledge-of-honor.com where you can e-mail us or read about both our books and what they've accomplished so far.

And my daughter and I are contemplating a: Mother/Daughter author tour in late 2005. We are considering traveling across the United States, promoting and doing as many book signings as we can set up. It's our hope that after our first few states, we might start generating an awareness of what we're doing, as well as getting the names of our books on the lips of thousands. Lesson of the day: Perseverance and believing in yourself. I shouldn't give the advice if I can't take it.

What's the last POD or small press novel you read that deserved a 5 star review?

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this-but I haven't been able to read a book in years! I've been so busy writing and surviving every day life that I have had so little time for the pleasure of just sitting down and reading a good book. But the day will come. And when that happens-I'm going to give a newbie like myself a chance. There are so many good writers out there that just need a single opportunity to prove themselves. All good authors-no matter how big they might be now-started with a single reader!

Thank you for this opportunity, Daniel. I sure appreciate it!

Interviews : Ellen Datlow Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:11:46 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Ellen Datlow Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:11am

An Interview With Ellen Datlow
by Daniel Blackston

Here it is, SFReader fans - an interview with one of the most influential and consistently celebrated editors of short SF on the planet. I've long been a fan of Ellen Datlow's work as an editor, from her days at OMNI magazine right through to the most recent short fiction (new stories updated weekly) published under her editorship at one of the web's best destinations for short fiction, SCIFICTION.

Whether you're into horror, fantasy, science fiction, or slipstream (what Datlow refers to as 'quirky'), it's likely that your literary universe has been influenced in some way by Ellen Datlow's editorial vision. You can learn more about her at her web site or Nightshade Books.

Let's start off on a political note, if you don't mind. How much, if at all, has the current war on terrorism and the post-911 climate influenced the kinds of SF stories you're seeing as submissions to SCIFICTION? Has the current political climate influenced your own thinking about SF in any tangible way?

I've been receiving some excellent political sf concerned with both terrorism itself and its spread, and the encroachment on civil liberties. These stories are well-told and interesting and a lot of the political material is mentioned in the background so they aren't at all pedantic. I hate pedantic fiction. So my choices have not been deliberately political - I just pick the stories that move me in some way - although I am very concerned personally about the direction our country seems heading. Over the last year, I've published stories touching on the political by Suzy McKee Charnas, Daniel Abraham, John Grant, and Susan Palwick. Each of these stories is very different from each other and I think show the range of what's possible in political science fiction.

You say you hate pedantic fiction. I wholeheartedly agree. But don't all writers with a message risk being pedantic? Is the nature of successful fiction, then, based more in emotional than cerebral responses?

Yes, but you asked about political fiction specifically. Expecting the reader to think is not being pedantic. It's only when the message overwhelms the telling of the story that a piece of fiction fails.

I was talking with a buyer for Borders bookstores and he remarked that your anthologies still sell very well, that you are one of the few names in the industry that can really draw readers, even ones that may not be familiar with many of the current short SF authors. This clearly shows that thousands of readers trust your instincts about short fiction, in effect trusting you to deliver the best every time. Do you receive much direct feedback from SF fans?

Ohmigod! That is really comforting to hear. Seriously. As a short story editor I sometimes feel I'm working in a little rarified room that only a few readers are aware of. One always hears how short fiction is dead, anthologies don't sell, blah blah blah. I hope all my editors and publishers read this. My mission in life is to get readers to read what I consider wonderful short fiction, whether it be sf/f/h. Or even mainstream fiction that's quirky. Before Bruce Sterling dubbed it "slipstream" I was reading and enjoying and recommending a rash of oddball novels and stories that were published as mainstream but were clearly (to me) not. Books and stories by Steve Erickson, Ian McEwan, Edward Whittemore, William Kotzwinkle, Patrick McGrath, and T. Coraghessan Boyle.

Sometimes readers do give direct feedback. That's why I check the Nightshade and SCIFI.COM Bulletin Boards regularly - to see what the readers think of what we're publishing. However, I will admit that reader feedback doesn't influence me all that much - I just buy what I enjoy reading and hope that readers will come along with me and enjoy it, too. Advice? Me? Nah. I was just talking to some other editors about being an editor recently. And we agreed that although an editor can hone her skills (and needs to constantly) whether you're a good editor or not is instinctual. It's not something that can be taught. Some people just don't get it and should not be editing. If you don't love what you're editing and buying you should quit the business and get a job that pays really well instead.

With your deep and lasting involvement in speculative fiction, you have seen many sub-genres or modes of short SF come and go. Are there modes or sub-genres of speculative fiction that you feel nostalgic about? Some feel nostalgic for Golden Age SF for instance, others for "pulp" fantasy, etc. Is there a SF story style you miss seeing around?

Nope. I love seeing what's new on the horizon. I love reading great new stories and new treatments of old themes. Everything has to evolve or die. Science fiction has had to as well. I don't like to see current writers and editors throwing out the past but I also see no purpose in looking back nostalgically at what was done early in the age of sf. Some stories are dated, others are not at all. Some work as period pieces. Because I publish a classic (story over 25 years old) every other week, I'm constantly searching for the stories that still work on some level. Fantasy and horror fiction often dates slower than sf.

Certain assumptions were made at that time that didn't pan out. Just as the stories being written today may look dated in twenty years time and then new stories will be written reflecting current fears and hopes.

You remarked in a recent interview with John Joseph Adams (assistant editor for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) that you are "a much better short fiction editor than a novel editor." Care to point out some of the key differences and why you feel you may be less adroit with novel editing?

I'm more comfortable with short fiction because that's what I've been editing for twenty-five years. I have provided editorial feedback on novels to several writer friends over the years and I do edit two authors at Tor in my consulting position but I just feel less skillful at it. Editing a novel means looking at the whole overarching structure of that novel. As a short story editor I don't feel I have enough experience in structure - I don't feel I could take apart a novel and help put it back together.

You are an ardent enthusiast of horror fiction - what new voices have you encountered lately that send a shiver down your spine?

Margo Lanagan, an Australian writer whose first collection,Black Juice, came in Australia in '04 and in the US in '05.Glen Hirshberg, although I guess he isn't new any more as he's been publishing award nominated stories for the past four years already.I liked Simon Bestwick's collection A Hazy Shade of Winter.

Laird Barron, whose story "Old Virginia" I picked from F&SF in 2003 and from whom I've published another chiller - "Bulldozer" - on SCIFICTION a couple of months ago

Jeffrey Ford, certainly not a new voice in sf/f but not known enough for his excellent horror and dark fantasy stories. M. Rickert's dark stories are often horrific.

George Saunders, better known for his mainstream and humorous fantasy fiction has written some chilling horror.

Many readers including myself enjoyed the Periodic Table of Science Fiction, Michael Swanwick's series of short-short SF pieces featured at SCI FICTION. Do you foresee more experimental formats for online SF? Are there formats that interest you that you'd like to pursue? Do you see possibilities for meaningful innovation with Internet technology?

At OMNI I commissioned groups of short-shorts on one theme. From those experiments came Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat" now considered a classic (and made into a radio and a stage play). At OMNI online I started the round-robin story with several authors taking a turn at posting a piece for four rounds. At Event Horizon and SCIFICTION contributors created glossaries with pop-up windows along with the whole glossary at the end of the story for those who didn't want to be interrupted in their reading. In other words, I've been there done that. I may once again commission a few short-shorts either with an overarching theme (like the periodic table) - or not. It's a lot of work for me as well as the author. And to create a successful one you need a writer who can produce quality on time.

"Hard-working" would be an understatement in your case. As an editor you are constantly on the go and always working - but you never seem to busy to answer newcomers who email you or those who post questions to you in online forums. Where does the energy come from? Are there ever times you wish you could turn it all off? Ever think about changing careers?

I'm tired a lot and wonder why - I guess it's because of what you just said above. I love what I do although I'd prefer longer deadlines. An assistant would help although I haven't had one since OMNI. Not just a reader, which I do have - but someone to take care of all the administrative hassles like chasing up payments. Editing short fiction is the only thing I want to do. And I'm not sure I could do anything else.

How deep of an impact do you feel you've had on the short SF industry specifically as a woman editor? By this I mean, prior to your influence, the science-fiction field was largely dominated by male writers, editors, and fans. There are exceptions and nuances, of course, but you are the first female editor to cast as large an influence as, say, Asimov or Ellison.... What do women bring to speculative lit that males may be lacking?

Well first of all, Judith Merril was an enormous influence on me with her Best of the Year anthologies, inclusive and prescient enough to reprint fantasy and sf by Bernard Malamud, Lawrence Block, John Steinbeck. Muriel Spark, Jules Feiffer, Lawrence Durrelll, Conrad Aiken, Howard Fast, and Kingsley Amis in addition to writers more identified with the field. She certainly is a model I've considered throughout the eighteen years of my co-editorship of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series.

If I have any long-term impact at all, I'd like to believe it has nothing to do with my being a female. I'm an editor, pure and simple. My editorial tastes have been crafted by years of reading all sorts of material as a child and as an adult. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time (with hopefully, good taste and editing instincts) after a really lousy run of luck in book publishing for the first six years or so during the beginning of my full-time working life.

I don't feel women bring anything more or less to spec lit. I feel great writers, who use their imaginations to intrigue, provoke, and draw in readers - whatever gender or color - are a boon to spec lit.

What kinds of non-speculative fiction do you like to read? Non-fiction?

Unfortunately I don't have much time to read anything other than short fiction. However, when I DO read novels, I read crime novels or quirky mainstream novels (that have weird and/or dark elements in them.) I guess I don't read what could be considered "non-spec fiction." Nonfiction that's odd and quirky. Over the years I've written mini-reviews of the nonfiction titles I've read for the YBFH. A book on the giant squid. A book on freaks. Books on predators - insects or mammalian. Stuff like that.

What ambitions do you hold? What, if anything, would you like to accomplish that seems elusive?

I love editing short fiction and hope to have the strength and opportunity to continue doing so. The only thing I really would like is the certainty of a job I continue to love from one year to another. But that's an impossibility in the publishing industry, so I do what I can as long as I can.

Interviews : Greg Beatty Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:01:45 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Greg Beatty Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:01am

An Interview With Greg Beatty
by Daniel Blackston

There's something Saturnine about the state of short spec-fiction and all of its related fields, here, in the early twenty-first century. Perhaps, all short fiction writers (many or most of whom are also aspiring novelists) suffer similar hardships: sparse, under-paying markets, a diminished or diminishing readership, the loneliness of creative obscurity, the sting of rejection ... and, once the dream of publication is finally attained, the arrows and slings of hostile critics - or, worse, a complete non-reaction from the world at large.

Greg Beatty's professionalism, eclectic curiosity, and intellectual discipline rate true applause from his fellow freelancers. His intuitively-charged resevoirs of creative energy ensure a prolific and provocative output of works under his byline - in and out of the SF field. I'm quite happy to present the following interview - one of the most interesting I've recently conducted.

What keeps your fire burning? How to you stay productive and sharp as a SF writer?

Oh, it's nice to think that something keeps me sharp!

More seriously, I do a lot to keep myself developing in a range of areas. I attend an occasional workshop; about a month ago I went down to the Oregon coast for a story structure workshop with Dean Wesley Smith.

But workshops only happen once in a while. Mostly, I write every day, and I plan my reading and my non-fiction projects to develop crucial areas, and to keep my mind fresh.

I regularly read in several areas. First, I'm weak in the hard sciences, so I try to work in some study there - either textbooks, or Scientific American, Discover, or some other popular science magazine. Second, I read any book on fiction writing or genre fiction I can find. I recently estimated I'd read five-thousand plus articles on writing. That's a very conservative estimate. Third, my local library has a free magazine area, and I literally read at random. I'll sample parenting magazines, or trade magazines in areas like surveying, window cleaner, erosion control, and so on. Sometimes I get story ideas there; more often, I just get glimpses into other worlds. And finally, I read for my non-fiction projects. I seek out non-fiction projects that fulfill multiple goals. I try to find things where I'll earn some money, learn something, and provide some service to the community (but I'll settle for two out of three).

This summer, I reviewed a book on Harlan Ellison, a collection of essays on Tolkien, and a range of books on tape, and researched longer essays, such as a piece on the relationship between mystery and science fiction.

What drew you in to SF originally? What made you decide to try your hand at writing?

Very different questions!

What drew me to SF was being lonely. My family moved when I was ten, and I didn't fit in at first at the new school. I'd read some SF before that, but I really buried myself in books when we moved. SF let me escape not just my life, but my entire world.

As far as what made me want to try to write, I wanted to from a very early age, because I loved the experience of reading so much. Everything from Curious George to Tolkien left me saying, "Wow!" I thought: if I could do that, I'd be happy.

What was the impact of your Clarion experience on your writing?

Clarion has been fundamental to who I am as a fiction writer. It's likely I wouldn't be a fiction writer if it weren't for Clarion.

You see, I had wanted to write early in my life, and did the whole "fill journal after journal with scribbles" and study books on writing and so on. I had published a handful of short stories in the small presses. Then I tried to write a novel. I got two-hundred forty pages in, and crashed. Complete writer's block. I stopped writing fiction, and considered myself a failure. Seriously - that was all I'd ever wanted to do professionally, and it was over.

I went to graduate school because I didn't write fiction anymore. I was done. I was a complete failure.

However, a funny thing happened along the way. I wrote lots and lots of non-fiction, and developed a lot of good writing habits. Then, near the end of graduate school, the desire to write fiction returned, and I went to Clarion to see if there was any possibility of reviving that dream.

When I went to Clarion, I had written one story in the previous seven years. I wrote three short stories in the first eight days, and never looked back.

As an unexpected but very real bonus, I made some good friends at Clarion. We're scattered around the world, but we chat regularly, critique one another's fiction, and visit when we can. We had a very talented and good-hearted Clarion year, and I predict that at least half our class will make names for themselves in the field, maybe more. The only reason I limit my prediction to half is that for some folks, life has intervened. That's a conservative prediction, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more folks make it.

In your opinion is the short spec fic genre healthy these days, or in decline? Would you agree with the idea that there are better stories being written now and published than ever before? And yet ... less readers.

Again, very different questions, but very good questions.

Short science fiction is in flux these days. It's certainly economically dead, or on life support. The "pro" magazines haven't raised their pay rates in line with inflation, or anything like it. There are a variety of reasons for this: the general shift away from magazine fiction, the growth of television, etc., but the result is that if one wants to make a living as a fiction writer, one writes novels.

The result is that there is a fierce competition for the few comparatively high-paying markets - and a generation of short story writers who accept this, and/or write short stories for artistic reasons, and seek their income elsewhere.

Short stories today are better written on the line by line level than in earlier eras, but there is less energy - for the most part.

What projects are you presently working on?

Hmm. My main project for this summer is self-publishing a children's book. I'm working with a local artist on The Man Who Gave Orders to Cats.

Otherwise, many short stories and some essays and articles. What I'd like to do is finish a relatively small number of stories that are both personally important and technically challenging. What about novel length work (s) under your byline?

I'd love to, but right now, I'm sort of blocked as far as plotting - I can't structure a long work past one-hundred pages, and so stall out.

As an essayist, reviewer, critic, and fiction writer - what would you say is the purpose of short fiction reviews and/or literary critique? Do you think critical essays and reviews exert much of an influence over the industry?

Again, very good questions, but very different questions.

Reviews and criticism exist on a kind of spectrum.

At the most basic end, reviews are essentially a reader response, and function as guides to other readers. These reviews boil down to "Yeah! Read this book," or "This one isn't really worth your time," or sometimes, "Gawd this bites!"

These are valuable, especially if you know the reviewer's tastes. You don't have to share them, but you need to know them. There are a couple folks who regularly rave over stuff I loathe. If they like it, I can safely avoid it. But there are too many books out there to sort on one's own, so even these most basic reviews serve a valuable function for the reader, and therefore for the industry.

This sort of review can be useful for the writer, but works further along the spectrum are more likely to be useful to the ambitious writer.

The further you move along the spectrum from reader response reviews towards criticism, the more you're moving from individual (and usually emotional) response to making sense of the work, and to making critical judgments. We could probably define a number of positions along the way, but that would be splitting hairs. What's crucial is that the critic analyzes and explains the work, and puts it into a larger context, as you did with your recent essay on Jeff Ford's story "The Empire of Ice Cream".

And yes, such critical works serve a number of functions. Sometimes this is indirect, sometimes more direct. I became a judge for the Philip K. Dick Award because David Hartwell suggested me, and he suggested me in part because of the critical reviews I'd written for him. I was one of five judges that year; awards promote sales, and that award carries a cash prize. Critics judge other awards as well, and there are less frequent, but more definable effects; Pat Murphy told me she was using my review of one story as part of her proposal to expand a story into a novel.

But there are other ways that reviews work. I recently read a study of the philosophy of science, and the scholar observed that in science, criticism of a theory produced a revised theory, but in the arts, criticism of a work produced a new work of art.

Ideally, that happens with short fiction criticism. Good criticism should close the gap between creator and reader, and between creator and context, so that the story's writer may even learn from it. But it should also help readers understand the form, and spark new stories in the field.

Much of your creative writing features a tension between the emotional response (or lack thereof) of humanity to technology. Do you view technology as essentially neutral? That is, do you feel the negative aspects of technology are a consequence of human deficiency, moral, intellectual, etc? Or do you see technology as a threat to social order and human emotional response?

To the first observation, yes. Good call. My fiction tends to fall into a few categories, and one of the largest is emotional responses to technology/social change. This is in part because I'm such a melodramatic person anyway, and respond first emotionally. But I also think we live in our emotions, and that they reveal our true values, so I write to them.

I view technology as a multiplier, and therefore potentially dangerous. By that I mean, humans are flawed. We're limited. We're smallish. Technology multiplies our reach. This means we can "reach out and touch someone" via telephone, or via smart bombs.

Therefore, technology is not innately positive or negative, but it is an innate challenge, and it demands growth of its users. Technology makes it easier to survive without good character or emotional health - but to use technology properly, you need both, and ideally spiritual maturity as well. Think of technology as a gift from the gods to people who have forgotten their relationship to the gods, and you'll get a sense of my view.

How important is the element of satire in good SF? Irony?

Good SF can exist without either, so intrinsically, not very.

Now, if you're asking about my own tastes, I love good satirical SF, and wish there was more of it. Some of my favorite SF is political satire and/or commentary.

Is your short SF primarily driven by literary or commercial considerations? Or is there any difference between the two?

This is a good question. I sat with it a long time, and I realized that both literary and commercial considerations affect everything I write, but in a way analogous to physical forces on a traveler. Whether you're a bird or a in a sailboat, if you're on a long trip, you take both gravity and magnetic poles into account. However, you rarely dwell on them, because you're dealing with things closer to hand - gusts of wind, shallow water, etc.

So yes, commerce and literary considerations govern everything I write, but I'm more likely to think about energy, capacity, and learning. Energy = does this excite me? Is it fun? Capacity = can I do this? Learning = what would I learn from writing this?

What work of yours, published or not, makes you feel the most satisfied? Any credit, sale, or creation of which you are particularly proud?

Well, my favorite story hasn't been published yet. Everyone says, "This is really good, but…" and it bounces merrily along. I still tear up when I reread it, but no one wants to publish it. Yet.

The story that has gotten the greatest acclaim from the outside is "Aliens Enter the Conversation," over at Fortean Bureau.

Give us a description of a typical working, writing day for you.

Oh man. They vary so much.

The ideal is to write on the project to which I've assigned highest priority, at least five-hndred words a day, first thing in the morning, until it's done.

I usually do write first thing in the morning (after breakfast and brushing teeth, etc.), but what I write is all over the map. I'm such an intuitive writer that I often sideline my planned projects to work on one with more energy. And here's where commerce and the literary sometimes fuse. I'll read a market listing in Ralan's (thank you, Ralan!), and I'll say, "Sheesh! That's ridiculous. Who could write…oh." That "oh" is the sound of an idea dropping into place. Emily, don't hate me, but that happened when I read the guidelines for Astropoetica. I thought, "Sheesh, talk about specialized! Poems about stars!" Of course, dummy that I am, I didn't realize I'd have, what, seven poems accepted by them in the past year?

So, the planned story might get derailed by a poem, or by a more lively story (the writer's ecosystem), but I always write at least five-hundred words unless there's another really serious obligation. I don't think I missed a day the first three and a half months of the year, but I took a vacation with my dad, and I didn't write then, for example.

Then I work a day job, and then later, I do writing-related things. I might take notes for a review, or block out notes for a new story. Sometimes, the intuition will kick in, and I'll write an entire separate short story late in the day.

What would it take to make you feel like a successful writer? What are your long-term goals?

I have a lot of goals. I have several hundred short stories and twelve to twenty novels I want to write.

My ideal would be to be able to finish a novel, and then to make a larger portion of my living from my writing. Most? All?

Besides that, if my stories get better, I'll call that success.

Interviews : Ed McFadden Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:00:32 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Ed McFadden Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 9:00am

An Interview With Ed McFadden
by Daniel Blackston

Fans of Fantastic Stories of the Imagination have good reason to cheer this Summer - and beyond. If the following interview with that pub's resourceful, philosophical editor is any indication, many bright days (and star-streaked nights) of SF lay ahead for the Fantastic fan, whose quota of McFadden-made speculative manna recently doubled with the advent of a new, free SF ezine, Cosmic SF. In this business, longevity often seems as scarce as innovation - and, as surely as the former virtue fails to ensure the latter, inspiration continues to trump the fiscal fickleness of the short SF marketplace, although editorial dreamers, like McFadden, are often derided by SF's more cynical observers as being overly ambitious, or even naive. It was my distinct pleasure to spend a couple of hours chatting with one of SF's well-recognized "movers and shakers", whose wise and candid responses are more than enough verification, in my regarded opinion, that McFadden is, indeed, at the top of his SF game.

Tell us a little about "Deconstructing Tolkien". How did this "Fundamental Analysis of Lord of the Rings" come about? What's the general drift of the book?

Deconstructing Tolkien is a book of essays and fiction that explore influences on Tolkien and how The Lord of the Rings has influenced genre fiction and looks at many "below the surface" points in the classic story. Examples: Sex, Drugs and Social Stagnation, which looks at smoking, drinking, the lack of sex and social progression in TLotR. When Gandalf Talks, People Listen, which looks at life lessons in TLotR.

DT is a crossover book - a fine, I hope, compromise between often dry academic writings and bad commercial books. It was really a labor of love. I have been a fan of Tolkien since childhood and TLotR has significantly influenced my writing and editing styles. I have done significant research and writing on Tolkien over the years and the book is a compilation of much of that research and writing. DT is perfect for people who love Tolkien, but never really studied the work, but want to know more about where the story came from, how it came to it's end and what influenced Tolkien as he wrote it.

Have you seen, do you like the LOTR movies; are these covered in "Deconstructing Tolkien"?

Yes, I have seen the films and yes they are covered in Deconstructing Tolkien. There is a lengthy chapter called The Death of Tom Bombadil and Fatty Bolger that puts the narrative and films side-by-side. I am particularly harsh in my criticism of the films because when it comes to TLotR I am a purist and I disagree with many of the decisions Peter Jackson made with respect to what he choose to cut...and add. I felt the final film was a disaster.

An example: Jackson choose to cut the confrontations between Saruman and Gandalf as well as Gandalf and the king of the Ringwraiths. Yet he found time to push the absurd plot twist of Frodo and Sam splitting-up because Frodo felt Sam had tried to betray him. All that being said, the films were well done and I enjoyed them greatly. I would have done things differently, but the films were true to Tolkien's words most of the time.

Tolkien represents one aspect of speculative literature "High Fantasy" or even "classic" fantasy, while little of the fiction published under your editorship at Pirate Writings/Fantastic Stories seems to be directed toward this particular sub-genre. Is contemporary High Fantasy passe nowadays? Do you think short fantasy fiction is more difficult to pull off than novel length works in the same genre?

In Fantastic Stories I do occasionally run a Sword & Sorcery story, but I do think High Fantasy has become somewhat passé, and that is due in no small part to Tolkien and TLotR films.

In Deconstructing Tolkien I talk about how hard it was for me to see my literary guidepost, TLotR, on the side of Happy Meal boxes. For that reason I try to stay away from High Fantasy in Fantastic Stories. Fantastic is about pushing the envelope and printing different and innovative stories-yet the occasional classic fantasy or science fiction tale finds its way in-my readers demand it.

I think High Fantasy is harder to accomplish in the short form then in a novel. So much of High Fantasy is scene setting, image building and history. Short stories are all about story and Sword & Sorcery tales don't read particularly well without the history and scene building. However, I have printed some great High Fantasy short stories in Fantastic Stories. In fact, there are several in Deconstructing Tolkien.

You recently launched a new, free-subscription e-zine Cosmic Speculative Fiction. The premier issue featured some very good science fiction stories, with an emphasis on idea, setting and 'traditional' plot. Where do you weigh in on the question of 'literary' SF? Is there a type of style-centered fiction that fascinates you, or is it 'the sense of wonder' of SF?

Clearly I'm story driven. My own writing is this way and most of what I print in Cosmic SF as well as Fantastic is that way as well. The sense of wonder is what brought me to the field and what keeps me here.

I have nothing against literary SF, yet I do not enjoy it. I rarely read Asmov's and the like because so much of what they print fails to please even the most basic SF/F reader-which is why their circulation numbers have been dropping for years while mine have been going-up. I look at SF/F as entertainment-not that we can't learn something as well-but attempts to impress the literary world have no place in F/SF. Reading stories that are different and can't be broken down into the standard cookie-cutter molds is what I'm after. Style plays a secondary role for me.

What else should we know about Cosmic SF? Have you had a good response to the free sub offer?

The response has been tremendous. I have over a thousand names in my database and I estimate more than fifteen hundred people have seen the first issue of Cosmic Speculative Fiction-not bad. Cosmic SF is what Pirate Writings used to be: a venue for new and established writers to appear side-by-side. My hope is I'll have five thousand subscribers by the end of '05. What do you have to lose? My format is easy, accessible, and it's free!

How about the explosion of e-zines, e-publishers, POD's and all the rest? Is this an exciting time to be involved in SF publishing or is there too much 'white noise'?

Well, clearly e-zines are much cheaper to start and run then a traditional print magazine. However, there is allot of 'white noise.' Because it's so easy to set-up a web page and get stories, there is allot of garbage on the web. To me, if you don't pay for fiction you're 'white noise.' Yet that is somewhat of a snobbish view given Pirate Writings started-out as a non-paying market. I guess we'll see. Quality e-zines will survive and all the rest will fade away.

You have two other books forthcoming: Epitaphs, co-edited with Tom Piccirrili, and Catching the Big One -- details, please!

Epitaphs is a horror anthology edited by Tom Piccirilli and myself and contains 20 stories from some of the best horror writers in the field today. The book should be available September 04. Catching the Big One is slightly more complicated. Catching the Big One will be comprised of: Year one: A time of Change which is a short book Tom Piccirilli and I did years ago that didn't get much exposure. Destroy All Brains! by Paul Di Filippo and Under the Lizard Trees by Sue Storm. Those two books were Pirate Writings chapbooks and also did not get much distribution.

The last piece of the book will be Catching the Big One which is a chapbook containing four stories by yours truly. So I guess you could say Catching the Big One is an omnibus collection of early Pirate Writings Publishing books, all of which had very small print runs.

You and your daughter Samantha looked great on the cover of CHRONICLE! Most of the hard-working writers and editors in the SF field that I know have families in addition to their literary careers. Most also have 'day' jobs. How do you achieve a balancing act? Any advice for the rest of us?

It's very hard and involves excellent time management. I'm currently finishing the first draft of my first novel, Echoes of Chaos, and that really required a balancing act. The biggest point, however, is that your family must support your efforts. If your family fights you every step of the way it's next to impossible to be successful in F/SF as your "second job." I would not be able to complete all the projects I take on if my wife, Dawn, didn't support me and understand my late nights and my constant reading while the family is watching TV.

People reading this interview will want submission tips! I know Cosmic SF isn't currently open to submissions. How about Fantastic? Any particular kind of story you're really looking for?

Cosmic SF and Fantastic are both currently closed because I'm WAY overstocked. However, my tips are the same as most other editors:

Know the market. To do this you must read the magazine. You would be surprised to see how many MS I get that are totally inappropriate for Cosmic SF and Fantastic.
Follow the standard MS submissions guidelines: double-space, include a SASE and always send a cover letter unless a particular editor requests that you do not.
Stay away from the well-trodden plots; no Adam and Eve stories, no it's really Earth stories, etc.
Make sure your MS is clean and proofed. There is no faster way to get rejected than to have typos in your MS. If you don't care enough about your story to polish it, then why should I waste my time with it?

I'm one of those pain-in-the-ass editors who never really knows what I want until I read it. Fantastic and Cosmic SF both focus on fantasy and science fiction, but you an see from my definitions of F/SF in Deconstructing Tolkien that what I consider to be F/SF is very broad. I look for stories that entertain and put a new spin on old ideas-because we all know there is nothing new under the sun.

Why do most SF pubs fail?

Most SF/F publications fail for two reasons, and they are the same reason's most businesses fail: (97% of all new businesses fail within their first three years of operation.)

Unrealistic expectations. Most folks who start a F/SF publication overestimate the response to their new venture. F&SF and Asmov's are having a hard time holding on to subscribers, so any new F/SF publication has a tough road today. Under financed. You need to have a years worth of operating capital because magazine cash flow is the worst I've seen in any business, and I've seen most businesses (I used to be a public auditor).

In five years, which will have a bigger circulation -Fantastic or Cosmic SF? Why?

Wow-a very good question. My sense is it will take years ... twenty-plus ... for print media to totally die. That said, there will always be books and magazines, but I don't see fiction magazines weathering the storm. I hope I'm wrong because I love working on Fantastic, but I think as technology makes it easier for people to read on their handhelds and computers get more advanced you'll see the death of print F/SF magazines. So to answer your question, Fantastic will have a larger circulation five years from now, but in fifteen or twenty years all bets are off.

Interviews : Ken Wisman Interview

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 08:59:28 +0000

Author: SFReader
Subject: Ken Wisman Interview
Posted: Mar-10-2015 at 8:59am

An Interview With Ken Wisman
by Bobbi Sinha-Morey

BSM: Your science fiction novel Eden is a futuristic story of bioengineering science and its effects in an imaginary world. Please tell us how your idea for this came about.

KW: The idea of bioengineering living creatures into weapons of war has been with me a long time. Back in '89 DeathRealms magazine published a story of mine called "On the Side of the Road," which had this idea as its main theme. The seed for the short story came in the form if a dream in which I saw a hybrid monster that had the combined features of an alligator and a mosquito. The seed was nurtured by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Reproductions of his work, replete with horrifying and grotesque hybrid creatures, hang on the wall of my writing room. I knew the idea of bioengineering weapons had a bigger potential than a short story, but it took seven years to begin Eden and another seven years to write it--all with the help of a psychedelic substance that fully opened up the gates of my imagination.

BSM: When writing Eden, you connected with your spirituality. What's the experience like?

KW: When I started on my quest using the psychedelic, a journey that I describe in Eden, I was searching for spiritual answers. What I found I would not characterize as spiritual, which has a strong connotative connection with religious values and deity. What I looked for I found deep inside myself--not in a religion or god. The conclusion I came to was that the universe--not an all-powerful being--created life out of a curiosity/need/desire to know itself. The universe experiences itself through every life form, from the most "primitive" unicellular organism, which knows the world through light and magnetism, to humanity, which studies the laws and deepest mysteries of the cosmos.

My experiences led me to the conclusion that our spiritual beliefs--our religions--are archaic. We've outgrown our gods of the past two thousand years; humanity is ready for a new belief system. Jung was an important link in the next phase of humanity's "spiritual" evolution. He put the god archetype squarely in humanity's unconscious. It's just a step more to the realization that we, as a species, have been growing into our god archetypes and surpassing them in different phases of our psychic evolution. Here's just one example: In the bible Job complains to God for tormenting him. God rebukes Job and comes back with proof of superiority by naming areas of knowledge that lie beyond Job's ken: "Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know how God lays his command upon them, and causes the lightning of his clouds to shine? Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?"

If Job was in a present-day high school science class he could easily answer: 1) Clouds get their charges as water and ice particles rub together. As soon as the buildup of charge is great enough, the oppositely charged particles attract and discharge their energy as a bolt of lightning. 2) Humanity has now gone to the deepest ocean depths in the latest submersibles. Of course, if God was referring to space as the "deep," then Job could point to the fact that Voyager 1 is now around 8.4 billion miles from the sun, and has entered interstellar space. 3) The earth has a circumference of 24,900 miles at the equator.

So much for God's omniscience.

While under the influence of the psychedelic, I did experience things that could be characterized as mystical. I felt a deep connection with all humanity. Another time, I felt the connection with all living things, then all things animate and inanimate. I haven't been able to sustain those experiences--they came and went with the chemical that opened the gateways and closed when the chemical receded. But it did leave a profound understanding in its passing, which I tried to capture in Eden.

BSM: In some of your stories like "Canon in D'" and "In the Heart of the Blue Caboose" your love of language comes through; in fact, it's often poetical. When did you discover your talent for words, and who were your mentors?

KW: My discovery came early, in grammar school, when I used to write science fiction stories to entertain my friends.

"Canon in D" and "In the Heart of the Blue Caboose" were written to Classical music. I find that certain pieces release the creative flow--it's almost as though the notes become energy that merges with and channels the psychic stream in the unconscious. "Canon in D" was written to Pachelbel's "Canon," and "Blue Caboose" to Schubert's "Ave Maria." As well as stimulating the creative flow, the music adds rhythm and melody to the words. Many of the sequences in Eden were written to music. I mention one piece, Beethoven's Pastorale, which never fails to inspire me. Also, when I was taking my psychedelic journeys, I would use Classical music to evoke images--much as Thera does in Eden when she visits her world-imagining. From sound comes substance; from beautiful sound comes transcendent images.

My writing mentors include Bradbury and Dunsany, both of which have an obvious love for words--not just their meaning, but the way words weave together, and the pure pleasaure of their sound. I also discovered this joy in words in some of the poetry of Dylan Thomas and the novels of Thomas Wolfe. As I mentioned already, Classical composers have taught me a lot--Vivaldi: how to capture innocence in sound; Beethoven: how to weave opposites like anger and joy into transcendence.

BSM: I've heard that you often write your stories in longhand before keying them in on a computer. You can even do a single story in one sitting. Could you tell us more about your work habits?

KW: I always do my creative work in longhand before entering it on a computer. My day job for the past 25 years has been as a technical writer, which has made me wary of computers. I have a fear of losing everything in one large crash--which actually happened once--so I write it all out on paper first. After I input, I make copies to floppy disk or CD and ensconce the disks in the glove compartment of my car.

I've only written one story in a single sitting. It was the day of my fortieth birthday, and I celebrated by taking the day off from work, going out on my deck and spending the entire day and night until I finished. The result was a short piece called "Hard Rain" that got published in an anthology called October Dreams. Most of my short stories have taken at least two weeks to write a first draft. Eden took seven years to finish.

BSM: You've also done two other science fiction novels called Idylwilde Tales and The Story of Ishtar and Blue. The latter, a futuristic tale, is about the lives of two people who were brought up with conflicting philosophies. Please tell us what you drew on for inspiration.

KW: The fact of the matter is, Idylwilde is enclosed in a box, precisely where it belongs. Someone once said that a writer should burn his/her first novel and quickly move on to the next one. Burning was too good for Idlywilde, so I buried it instead.

Ishtar and Blue I put away years ago. It lacked spark. But I've recently resurrected it as Eros, a sequel to Eden. The re-inspiration for Eros is the same as that for Eden--three years using a psychedelic substance that led tot he most profound experiences of my life, and some unusual extrapolations/speculations regarding humanity's future and evolution.

In Eros I hope to fictionalize and speculate on humanity's destiny once we fulfill one of nature's primary purposes for us: the spread of life. Spreading life is an idea explored in Eden, in the form of Ankh, a philosophical belief that--a few hundred years ago in the future--has spread through the Network-of-Worlds. Ankh believes that nature developed humanity's reasoning power so that we could create science and science would take us and other life to the stars. Ankh views our starships as similar in form and purpose to: 1) the water-filled cells that, a billion years ago, permitted the first creatures to crawl across the earth; 2) the armor that protected the first land dweller from the sun's deadly radiation. Nature developed cells to allow organisms to bring their environment along with them as they left the safety of the sea. Likewise, nature created thick shells to shield organism from ultraviolet rays. Our starships will do much the same. They'll carry oxygen and water and nutrients to sustain life; their shielding will keep out deadly radiation.

Humanity will pass through the harshest of environments--the cold vacuum waste in its impetus to spread life across the galaxy. Once we fulfill this purpose, reasoning may lose its hold on our minds allowing other aspects, other powers to develop in our psyches, abilities disallowed by our science and denied by our present dominant belief system.

BSM: Someone once said that by increasing the depth of meaning we provide greater insights and understanding to events whether they are physical, psychic, or mental. What are your thoughts on this?

KW: Meaning proceeds from the rational, reasoning part of the psyche, and is part of the concious process. Reasoning and rationality both have a tyrannnical hold on our minds at this stage in our evolution. Reason is a harsh master that gives little room to aspects of the deeper mind. Intuition is disparaged and ridiculed; imagination is undervalued. The intuitive and imaginative processes have deep channels into the unconscious, which itself is either ignored or denied entirely because it is the seat of the irrational. And yet it is from the unconscious that inspiration comes, and it is often through the irrational that meaning and understanding are deepened. Anyone who doubts this isn't fully informed of the direction science has been heading since the last century. Einstein came along and in bursts of "irrationality" destroyed the carefully constructed, clockwork universe Newton had devised. And who can doubt the irrationality of quantum physics with its molecules that travel back in time, and the completely unbelievable cosmological theory that everything in the universe began as a point tinier than an atom existing in non-space?

The only way to increase the depth of meaning and expression of knowledge is to open our minds to the unconscious and allow the irrational in.

You can purchase the 1/200 signed and limited hardcover edition from Dark Regions Press