Week of Joy (Day Six): Heart of Fire by J. Damask (A Mini Interview)
J. Damask (a.k.a. Joyce Chng) was kind enough to answer a few questions about her new book, Heart of Fire, which hits digital shelves in September. The book comes from Masque Books, a digital-only division of Prime Books, a notable small press genre publisher (notable most recently for releasing the absolutely amazing Yoon Ha Lee collection, Conservation of Shadows — check out the Skiffy and Fanty interview here). In other words, Heart of Fire is sure to be damned good! Though you’ll have to wait for a little while, you should bookmark this page and remember to buy it in a couple months! Now for the mini interview: If you had to describe your novel to someone who doesn’t read a lot of genre fiction, how would you describe it? It is set in Singapore, has a lot of mythological animals and creatures and Singapore food. And oh yes, it has werewolves. What do you think makes fantasy such a compelling genre for so many readers? I think it’s compelling, because it allows readers to slip into other worlds. You know, make-believe world. It’s like Narnia! How would you say Heart of Fire fits in with the rest of your work? Does it share certain sensibilities or thematic concerns? It does, come to think of it. I tend to examine tropes of transformation and transfiguration, as well as motifs like family ties and relationships. To me, the family is central and it does appear in many of my stories. I often wonder if this is an Asian thing, to feature the family as an important motif/theme. As a Singaporean author writing in English, what would you say are your greatest challenges in terms of reaching audiences abroad (particularly in other English-speaking parts of the world — not just “the West,” mind you)? Authenticity? (Then again, what is authenticity?) I am Singaporean Chinese. So, I sometimes feel that people would want me to write in Mandarin Chinese (no, I couldn’t – and my last (and only) Mandarin spec fic story was written when I was a kid as a school composition). I think people want to see an “authentic” voice, so to speak. I think there are no such things as authentic voices. What one thing that you know now do you wish you’d known when you first started treating writing as a professional endeavor? That it couldn’t be a full-time job. That it won’t be easy for people from Southeast Asia? (Wait, that’s two things…) And, last, for a silly question: If you had to choose an animal to write your next book for you, which animal would you choose and why? A wolf. Because it’s cool. (But hey, it doesn’t have opposable thumbs…) —————————————————— About the Book: Jan Xu, wolf and pack leader, faces more dangers when she saves a foreign male wolf in love with one of her ancient enemies, a jiang shi, a Chinese vampire. Throw in a love-struck drake—and Jan finds her situation suddenly precarious, with her reputation and health at stake. How much is a wolf going to take when everything is out of control again and her world thrown into disarray? How is she going to navigate the complexities of Myriad politics while keeping her pack and family intact without losing her mind? The third book of the Jan Xu Adventures will see Jan Xu’s continual fight as pack leader, her clan’s Eye (seer) and mother of three young children. Her mettle, courage and love for her family will be tested to her utmost limits.
8 SF/F Writers Who Changed My Life (#WeekofJoy)
Books change lives, right? Well, they certainly changed mine. Books have been a part of my life since I was a kid, though I honestly didn’t understand their true value until much later in life. They were entertainment in my younger years. I read Goosebumps and Hardy Boys because they provided quick, fun narratives (and some of the former were actually kinda scary at times — they seem ridiculous today, of course). I even read comic books as a kid, for the same reasons everyone read comics in their youth: fun! But I wasn’t a literature nut in my younger years. I wanted to play video games or do stupid things on my bike — I honestly don’t know how I survived childhood, because I used to do some monumentally stupid things on my bike. Despite all of that, books eventually smacked me upside the head and changed the way I viewed them and the way I viewed life in general. I read or discovered these books during what I would consider to be pivotal moments of my life. Some of those moments were dark times; others were quite happy and exciting. But none of them were exactly same. In chronological order, here are the eight science fiction and fantasy writers who changed my life: Richard A. Knaak The first adult fantasy book I ever read was Richard A. Knaak’s Dragonlance novel, The Legend of Huma. I won’t pretend it’s a great work of art, or a great piece of fantasy (well, it’s a fun piece of fantasy, but Dragonlance isn’t exactly known for the best writing in the universe). I would later go on to read his DragonRealm series — a much more interesting and well-written set of relatively short fantasy novels. I think it’s fair to say that I was always a reader or viewer of genre fiction, having watched Star Wars so many times as a child that I eventually had to justify owning three different VHS copies to prevent ruining my really good copy (the Leonard Maltin versions, which I still own). But I had never really grown fond of SF/F literature. That was until someone introduced me to Dragonlance. The Legend of Huma introduced me to a whole new sea of stories, and reading that particular book would one day give me fuel for an interest in writing genre fiction (I’ve never wanted to write anything else, really). Without that book, I don’t know what I would be like today. A genre fan? Probably. A scholar in the field and a wannabe writer of SF/F? Probably not. (This is a familiar narrative, no?) George Orwell I also discovered the wonders of science fiction in high school. However, rather than having George Orwell’s incredible and canonical novel 1984 thrust at me by my friends, I had the novel thrust on me by a teacher (duh). And lucky me. I attended two high schools as a teenager: one in Oak Harbor, Washington, and another in Placerville, California. Of all the English classes I took while in Oak Harbor, only one managed to make reading interesting. That class had us reading things like Watership Down by Richard Adams, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, and, of course, 1984. And since that class, I’ve re-read Orwell’s novel at least six times. The book made me realized that literature could have depth, that re-reading a work could actually change your experience of it. That book also helped turn me into a science fiction nut. And every time I re-read the book (less frequently now than when I was in my early 20s), I discover something new. That’s the mark of a good book, if you ask me! I think it’s safe to say that my interest in literature as an academic subject began here. The Person Who Wrote Beowulf The short version of the story goes like this: during my senior year of high school, my English teacher assigned Beowulf, as often happens in high school. Instead of having us write straight literary analysis, however, she asked us to take the core themes of the story and come up with our own poetic versions. Thus began a month-long journey to rewrite Beowulf (with a friend). The weird part? We actually took it quite seriously, while others in our class sort of dilly daddled the way a lot people do when it comes to these kinds of assignments. We went to the library and looked up British history (the place where we intended to set our version of the story), dug up maps of the pre-Norman-invasion British Isles, and tried our best to fit our re-worked version into that new world (Grendel’s lair ended up on the Isle of Man). We plotted the entire story, developed all of the characters, and then I started writing. And then came the all-nighters. After a weekend of intense writing (in what I then thought was proper “Old English” style — heh), I strolled into class on Monday with a 31-page epic poem in tow. I still have a vivid memory of my teacher’s eyes opening wider than should have been humanly possible at the sight of our work. She had expected something like 5-10 pages, not 31. And we got an A. You might be wondering how this changed my life. Throughout my youth, I recall writing a lot of stories. For the most part, these were horror stories (I still think that movie with the evil severed hand somehow stole my ideas); they weren’t very good. But it wasn’t until that Beowulf assignment that I realized I really had the writing bug. From that point on, I started writing with more fervor. Clearly that bug never truly left, because I still write fiction as often as I can (not as much right now due to PhD work, though). Without Beowulf, I’m not sure I’d be where I am right now: an English major and a published writer. Alan Garner I’ve written about my experiences with cancer here,
Week of Joy (Day Five): Neil Clarke and Upgraded: A Cyborg Anthology (Mini Interview) @kickstarter
Neil Clarke, editor-in-chief at Clarkesworld, is currently running a wonderful Kickstarter campaign for an anthology called Upgraded. Folks like Yoon Ha Lee, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and so on will contribute stories to the collection, and there will be an call for submissions to fill the remaining slots. In short, this anthology will be wicked awesome! Support the campaign if you can (stretch goals = awesome). I asked Neil if he would be so kind as to answer a few questions about the anthology, science fiction, and other related topics. He was kind enough to oblige. Here is my mini interview with him: As a long time reader and editor of genre fiction, what would you say continues to inspire you to read the stuff? What keeps you coming back? For me, it’s a combination of the ideas and the escape. Science fiction and fantasy have made me think about things like no other genre has. I find that fascinating. Cyborgs, cybernetics, and other “cyberpunk” elements have been a huge part of science fiction for almost as long as the genre has existed. Why do you think we are still fascinated by these things today? Do you imagine that we will live in a fully transhuman world one day? I don’t know that we’ll see a fully transhuman world for some time, but it doesn’t take much of a stretch to believe that most of us will live to see some heavy-duty advances in cybernetics. While the technology in my device is fairly common, there are some incredible advances being made in brain-machine interfaces that make mine look like a primitive toy. One of the reasons cyborgs and cybernetics have endured is that they are a believable future that makes an amazing framework for a lot of social issues. Listen to some of the privacy concerns people have about Google Glass. Now, imagine the cybernetic equivalent built into your eyes and completely hidden. It just ramps it up to another level. What kind of privacy do you have with a device that connects to your mind? At what point do you cease to be human? Who will receive the benefits of this new technology? What if this was the only way you could regain your sight? How far are you willing to go? You suggest on your Kickstarter page that your recent health complications inspired you to put together this anthology, in part because, as you say, you’ve become cyborg yourself. Aside from the obvious impact a health issue can have, how would you say your new cyborg nature, however small, has impacted your view of the world (however minutely)? Has it made you think about fiction in different ways? I’m a cyborg by necessity, so it is hard to separate the health issues from my new status as a cyborg. The combined effect has given me a new perspective on life. A lot of things that used to bother me seem trivial and unimportant now. It’s a lot easier for me to let go of thing and overall, I think my quality of life has greatly improved. The only cyborg-related change is a newfound respect for magnetic fields… they can damage the box and the box is my friend. As for fiction, it’s made me realize what an important part of my life it has been. Professionally, it’s pushed me to try to make this a job that pays a living wage. Why shouldn’t we love what we do? I see a future in this. What are some of your favorite stories featuring cyborgs (in any media form)? After my defibrillator surgery, I asked friends on Facebook and Twitter to recommend some cyborg stories to help me pass the time. I read a lot of cyberpunk books in college, so I was already familiar with a lot of stories people suggested. I still have a fondness for Neuromancer by William Gibson and Mirrorshades edited by Bruce Sterling. As for TV, the Borg were always good for an interesting story and I have to give some credit to Neil Gaiman for breathing new life into the Cybermen. It’s about time they learned from the Borg and grew up. Nothing, however, will replace the first cyborg I encountered, The Six Million Dollar Man. Cheezy show, but doesn’t that make them perfect for kids and so much fun? And now for a silly question: If you could replace one external part of your body with a cybernetic part (a toe, an arm, nose, etc.), what would you replace and why? I’m quite happy with what I have, but if I had to, I’d have to go with my hands. Just think of all the improvements you could get as upgrades: faster typing, nut-cracker, paper airplane folding, speed dial, juggling, paper cuts prevention, chef-style vegetable cutting, not needing hot mitts… My wife tells me she would object. No deal, I guess. —————————————————– To find out more about Neil, check out his webpage. You can also find him at Wyrm Publishing and Clarkesworld. Support Upgraded!
Week of Joy (Day Two): Rainbow Lights by Polenth Blake (A Mini Interview)
The lovely Polenth Blake was kind enough to join me during this Week of Joy to briefly talk about her writing and her collection, Rainbow Lights. Synopsis: A deep-sea robot tells stories in every colour, but no shade can describe meeting a giant squid. Rainbow Lights is the first collection by science fiction and fantasy author Polenth Blake. Alien scorpions, vampire ice cream sellers and clockwork flies, try to find their place in worlds where being human is optional. These thirty-five stories and poems are a mixture of new pieces and work published in venues like Nature, Strange Horizons and ChiZine. What first inspired you to write genre fiction? And why do you think genre fiction is such a potent form for storytelling? I grew up in a family of geeks, so science fiction and fantasy were my bedtime stories. Reality is subjective, but realistic fiction often doesn’t acknowledge that. It’s written as though what’s real and what isn’t is a concrete division. Speculative fiction has room for playing for those perceptions. Who are some of your biggest literary influences? Anne McCaffrey and Isaac Asimov were among the first authors I read. The stories that particularly stood out to me were McCaffrey’s brain ship series and Asimov’s robot stories. I recognise the problems with the stories now that I’m older, but the general themes still interest me. The whimsy of E. Nesbit and Lewis Carroll’s work always appealed to me. Whimsical stories are often dismissed as not being serious enough, as though everything in the world is completely serious all the time. In my world, sometimes life is whimsical, and my stories reflect that too. More recent influences are Nnedi Okorafor and Shweta Narayan. Their stories have a lot of layers, which is something I hope to improve on in my own work. What is the weirdest story in your collection? How did you come up with the idea behind it? It’s always hard to judge what’s weird to other people, but even my family thought “Incident in Aisle Five” was odd. It’s set in a giant supermarket, which the people inside think is the whole world. Their culture revolves around the different departments and the division between shoppers and shelfstackers. My family doesn’t have a car, so I spend a lot of time in the local supermarket. It isn’t my whole world, but sometimes it seems like everything revolves around when I have to go shopping next. I noticed on your website that the title for your book appears to originate from a Word Cloud. Can you talk about how you structured your collection along color lines and how you decided the name? The word cloud came after the book, but I had noticed a lot of my stories mentioned colour. I’m sensitive to colours, and often differentiate between colours others see as the same shade, so colour is important to me. It meant splitting the stories into colours was remarkably easy, as the divisions were there waiting to be found. Rainbow Lights comes from the first story in the collection, as the robot has a fascination with the colour of her own lights. As well as tying the colour theme together, rainbows have other symbolism, such as representing diversity. I write about the people around me, and there are all sorts of people around me. If there is one thing about writing that you wish you’d known when you first started taking it seriously, what would it be? I did quite a bit of research before I started, so I generally had a good feel for things. What delayed me from starting in the first place was the idea that writers start out with natural talent. I’d always struggled with writing and I’m dyslexic, so I wasn’t winning writing contests as a child. I didn’t think it’d ever be a career option. So I wish I’d known that being a child prodigy wasn’t required. And lastly, a silly question: Do you really own pet cockroaches? If so, why? After the family cat died, I missed having a pet. I’ve always loved invertebrates, and when I saw hissing cockroaches, I was taken with them. Hissers are clean, easy to look after, don’t bite and don’t mind the fact my room is in perpetual darkness. My current cockroach is Gem, though I plan on getting a few more soon (they’re relatively short-lived, so I’ve taken to keeping my bio in the plural, as numbers change faster than the stories come out). Gem is adventurous and is the only cockroach I’ve had escape. She travelled across my room, climbed the curtain, and fell off (falling a few meters). She survived all this with only slight damage to one antenna. Cockroaches are fun. ——————————————————— To learn about Polenth Blake and her fiction, head on over to her website!
Week of Joy (Day Three): “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey (Myan and Shane52 Remix)
I’ve been jamming to this tune something fierce. It has a really simple melodic background, but there’s something that just feels so good about it. And now I’m sharing it with you!
It Happened (or, Yeah, I’ve Given Up My Life to the Joy of Comic Books) #WeekofJoy
I officially have a pull list with my local comic book retailer. Stranger yet: the guy who owns the place now recognizes me when I walk through the door. Clearly I buy a lot of comics… And, well, this is actually kind of awesome. Most of my comics are coming from a local place called All Star Sportscards & Comics. It’s probably the best place in Gainesville to get comic books. Though it’s not as big as the other major comic shop in town — MegaComics — the prices are better, the staff seems friendlier and more helpful, and every time I go there, I spend money (which is great for the owner, but not always so good for my bank account — oh, hell, who am I kidding? I love comics). In a way, I’m fortunate to live in a town that even has a comic book shop. Short of buying hardback or trade paperback collections, without a shop, I’d have almost no way to rebirth my interest in the form. And that, I think, would be a horrible thing for me, as one of the things sustaining me through what is one of the toughest years I’ve had in a while (in terms of work and intellectual requirement) is this rediscovered passion for comics. I’m having those little kid moments again. You know the sort. You open a book, movie, comic, or pack of collectible cards and you experience some variation of the following: tingling skin, goose bumps, elevated heart rate, an uncontrollable desire to smile or jump up and down, and just an overall feeling of excited euphoria. I had those moments when I was a kid only a few times, really. Video games and movies were part of what helped me survive what I would describe as a relatively shitty childhood. Comics were part of that, too, though I certainly moved away from them when I hit my teens (RPGs and video games filled that gap). In a way, I’ve always been a geek, so there’s something nostalgic and generally pleasurable about rediscovering something that made you happy when you were younger. That’s what it’s been like the last few weeks. With all the things going on in my life at the moment — most of them stressful, but not necessarily “bad” — I need something to help me decompress. Comics are doing just that right now. And I’m loving every minute! Anywho. You may wonder what I put on my pull list. Well, here you go: Superman Unchained Superman & Batman Justice League of America Cable & X-Force Uncanny X-Force X-Men (Vol. 4) Nova Secret Avengers New Avengers Iron Man The Wake I also have subscriptions to Batman, Justice League of America (through a donation I made, which is cool), Uncanny X-Men and Uncanny Avengers. I may switch the last two to the regular pull list when the subscriptions are up; apparently the comics are not properly bagged and boarded when shipped, which means they get a little beat up through the mail. I’m a bit of a collector now, so I’m not a big fan of slightly-mangled comics. That list will probably change over time, depending on how the stories progress. Right now, I am pretty much obsessed with Batman, Uncanny X-Men, and Cable & X-Force, though I’m sure Superman Unchained will join the obsessions list soon (Scott Snyder is writing it, which means I am almost guaranteed to love it). Needless to say, comics are one of the many things I am grateful for right now. If ever there was something to discuss during my Week of Joy, comics would be it! What about you? What are you reading, watching, or just straight up loving right now? Let me know in the comments.