Interview w/ Chris Howard
I recently reviewed Chris Howard’s Seaborn and asked him for an interview, which he graciously agreed to. Here is the result: First, thank you for doing this interview. Could you tell us a little about yourself (a bio, if you will)? I write science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories, and I also paint and illustrate in watercolors, ink, and digital. Seaborn is my first published novel–it came out last July from Juno Books, and I’ve completed two more in the same setting, Saltwater Witch and Sea Throne. In terms of time, I’ve been writing for years, but it’s only in the last five years that things have taken off, and 2007 is when it all came together. I got my first book contract, got an agent, won the Heinlein Centennial Short Fiction Contest (amateur division). I also love technology. I’m software engineer–have been for a long time–but as an author, I love the use of technology to get the word out. I love Twitter, Facebook, blogging, podcasting, web comics, all the ways technology can help readers–entire communities of them–find and interact with an author or illustrator. Do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to talk about (new books, comics, etc.)? Can you tell us a bit about them? Quite a few. I have pen and ink work in the next issue of Shimmer Magazine. After completing three novels around Seaborn, I’ve moved inland with a whole new set of characters, actually a new setting, new world, new time, new everything. I’m about twelve chapters into this one, expecting to finish around April. I spent the last couple months of 2008 writing short stories, mostly SF, and I’m submitting and trying to get them sold. There’s also my weekly web comic Saltwater Witch (linked from http://www.SaltwaterWitch.com), which allows me to move on to new stories, but keep my feet in what’s probably my favorite world and set of characters–Kassandra and all the others. Who are some of your favorite writers from the past and present? Were there any writers that had a significant influence on your writing? If so, why? Also, what are some of your favorite books? I have a lot, but to pull a few out and make a list: Frank Herbert, Lois Bujold, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Richard Morgan, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Neil Gaiman. Growing up, Frank Herbert’s Dune–and I’d include the next three, Messiah, Children, God Emperor–just blew me away. I wore out copies of the books. (Dune’s influence on the world building in Seaborn has been pointed out, and sort of stealing from one Seaborn reviewer, I’ve been using “Dune meets The Little Mermaid” as the high concept for the book). Favorite books–most of these are on my re-read every few years list: Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age, Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog and Passage, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s Murder of Angels, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse of Chalion, William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. What are you currently reading, what did you just finish reading, and what do you plan to read in the near future? I’m currently reading a couple books, Paul Melko’s Walls of the Universe, Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, and I ‘m about to start a couple more: Marie Brennan’s Warrior, and Caine Black Knife by Matthew Stover. I just finished re-reading Dan Simmons’ Hyperion and Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains, which was outstanding (I’m also a Takeshi Kovacs fan). You’re published with Juno Books, which, until recently, was a relatively small publishing venue (or still is). Did you always intend to send your work to a smaller press? What are some advantages you think come with being published by a smaller press? (What was your experience like with Juno?) Right off, I’ll say–so far–Juno Books is the best thing that ever happened to my writing career. For those who haven’t heard, Juno Books is now an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books division, still focusing entirely on fantasy novels with strong female protagonists. (http://www.juno-books.com). I didn’t really think of Juno as a small pub as much as I thought of it as a serious publisher, a publisher who would get my books on store shelves, who took the business seriously, who made room for new authors, room for something different, room for chance–taking good kinds of risks. I liked the books Juno Books editor Paula Guran was releasing. I bought them, I read them, and what I was writing seemed to fit. Juno’s part of Wildside Press, and I’ll add that everyone at Wildside, Prime Books, Fantasy Magazine–Sean Wallace, Stephen Segal, Cat Rambo, Tempest Bradford, and everyone else that I’ve met or worked with over the last couple years is passionate about books, publishing, storytelling, art, and there are a bunch of small and medium-sized publishers with the same passion, releasing great books, short stories, anthologies, and magazines. I think it’s really about the passion, the ability to push the edge, and the ability to get books into readers’ hands, not necessarily about the size of the publisher. As far as differences–and with my limited publishing experience, here’s what I think: with smaller pubs there are some clear advantages and disadvantages. Bigger publishers are just going to have more money, manpower, and clout in the industry, and that influences where and how books are reviewed, picked up by bookstores–indies to chain stores. A bigger pub in most cases means a bigger advance on royalties. With a smaller pub you may get more of your editor’s time. With a smaller pub you’re probably going to get from contract signed to the shelves faster, in my case a little over a year, in an industry where the norm is eighteen months and sometimes two years. There are outstanding editors in the smaller publishers, but there are more of them at the large pubs, with assistants, and publicists and contract copyeditors, and marketing channels wide enough to float barges of books down. Seaborn seems to take quite a lot of inspiration from