Interview w/ Matthew Wayne Selznick
No need for introductions; the interview speaks for itself. Enjoy! Thank you for doing this interview with me. First, tell us a bit about yourself. What got you into writing and podcasting, etc.? A brief bio if you will. Thanks for having me! What got me into writing and podcasting are two different things, but I suppose they have common roots. For as long as I can remember, I have needed to tell stories. The telling can take different forms, from being a child and making up complicated, multi-day adventures acted out between dozens of toy soldiers, dinosaurs and other action figures to writing and performing songs and, of course, writingfiction. I wrote because I read. The earliest things I remember reading are Ray Bradbury’s short stories and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels…and comics. Which is kinda of interesting, because Bradbury’s early influences are Edgar Rice Burroughs and newspaper comic strip serials. Might be why I’ve called Bradbury my “story father.” As far as podcasting goes… I’ve been a DIY (do it yourself) kind of guy since the mid-eighties, when I was in my late teens and early twenties, playing in punk bands. The basic premise of the DIY ethic is this: if you want to make something, make it. If you want to show it to people, put it out there. Don’t wait for someone else to offer you a venue, or a deal — do it yourself. When I first heard about podcasting in October of 2004, it sounded to me like pure DIY: record a “radio” show, throw it on the Internet where you can say anything and do anything and anyone anywhere can hear it. I was sold. I released my first podcast on October 15, 2004… about a week or so after I discovered the medium. Your first published novel is Brave Men Run, a novel about a world in which people with extraordinary powers reveal themselves and demand sovereignty, thus changing the social fabric. What exactly made you want to write this kind of novel? Why a superhero novel that isn’t really about superheroes or clashes between good and evil, but about people–ordinary and otherwise–dealing with a dramatic shift in how the world operates? Largely because, as much as I love comics in general and super-hero comics specifically, I know they’re not a real representation of how the world would really be if people with superpowers existed. Sure, some authors, like Alan Moore in “Watchmen,” for example, have examined the superhero genre in a more realistic setting, but even “Watchmen” is a piece of metafiction — it’s about the genre as much as it is _in_ the genre. I just don’t believe that if a person discovered they could fly, or bend steel in their bare hands, or whatever… I don’t think their first inclination would be to dress up in a costume, put on a mask and fight (or cause) crime. It would take a very unique (read: crazy) personality type, and even in a world where superpowers are common, I just don’t see a superhero / supervillain culture developing. As far as clashes between good and evil… again, the world just isn’t like that. People are driven by their motivations, their needs and desires. That rarely results in anything so black and white as “good” or “evil.” Everyone is a little of both, and just how much of either is in the eye of the beholder. Finally, I like telling stories about people. Folks call “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” a “superhero book” because that’s the easiest way to categorize it, but to me, the Sovereign Era stories are about people, fundamentally just like you and me, trying to make the most of the world they’ve been given… just like you and me. Would you say that it might be more possible to have cape-wearing superheroes in a world like ours where superhero culture is so widespread and popular? Or do you see people who found out they had super abilities keeping such things secret? I think some folks might do it — in fact, some people without super powers actually do dress up and fight crime: http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com/ These people are pretty clearly influenced by comics and comic-book culture, and that gives them a little “out” in terms of their own, um, sanity. If there were people with actual super-powers in our world, would they be influenced by comics or would the comics have been influenced by them? Chicken / egg, I guess. In the Sovereign Era, super-hero comics never had a chance to really be part of western culture, so that archetype doesn’t exist. Brave Men Run is set in the 1980s. What about this era made you want to set a story in it? (Are you secretly into hair bands?) “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” is set in 1985 for two reasons: Number one, that was the most volatile era of recent human history. The Cold War was at its hottest since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States and the Soviet Union fought wars by proxy in the Middle East, Central and South America and elsewhere. If I’m going to introduce the presence of individuals with remarkable, often dangerous abilities, dramatically there’s no better time — it’s one moreburning cigarette to drop in the dry brush of the world stage, a great set-up for global stress and conflict. Number two, “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era” is a coming of age story. I was a teenager, albeit a little older than the main character, Nate Charters, in 1985. I’m pretty sure my experience as a teenager is different from the experiences of being a teenager today… so, I wrote what I knew. Setting the book — and the beginning of the Sovereign Era — in the middle of the eighties also lets me have fun with cultural references and allows me to use the
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
Interview w/ Ginn Hale
Ginn Hale is the author of Wicked Gentlemen, which I reviewed here. And, with that, I’ll leave you with the interview: First, thanks for doing this interview with me. Could you tell us a little about yourself? Where do you hail from, what got you into writing, and why “Wicked Gentlemen”? I currently live in the Pacific Northwest in the small city of Bellingham, which curls between a lovely green bay and the foot of a lively volcano. When I was young, my family didn’t have anything like television or radio or even access to many books, but both my parents were great storytellers. My father loved to create humorous versions of history and he encouraged my brother and me to re-enact the scenes as he narrated. We assassinated President Taft (played and narrated by my father) an absurd number of times. My mother would read aloud from a tattered book of Shakespeare, taking on the voices of each character and when she came across a missing page—as happens with old books—she filled in the story from memory. I wrote Wicked Gentlemen for much the same reason that my parents told stories. I wanted to entertain two friends. At the time that I wrote it I had no intention of publishing. I simply enjoyed building a story for my friends. Who would you say are some of your influences? What about favorite writers past and present? Obviously Shakespeare was a big influence, since his were the first stories I knew. As a child I also loved Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries and J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Once I had access to libraries and bookstores I pretty much devoured books. I was, and still am, strongly interested in science and poetry. I found Richard Siken’s book, Crush, astounding; the way he uses the fluidity of language to alter meaning and reverse assumptions amazes me. I also loved science fiction and fantasy. My teenage memories are filled with evenings spent pouring over books by Anne McCaffery, Larry Niven, and Isaac Asimov. But I think if I had to pick one book that had the most profound influence upon me as a writer, I guess I’d have to say it was The Watchtower, by Elizabeth Lynn. Hers was the first story I read with gay characters— though by today’s standards you’d hardly notice–and after that I became aware of how profoundly absent we gays and lesbians were from the kinds of exciting, adventurous stories that I wanted to read. So I started to write my own little stories and that’s pretty much how I became a writer. What are you currently reading, what have you just finished, and what do you plan to read? Any good book suggestions? Wow I could go on forever with lists of books— I’ll try to control myself. Currently, I’m reading, and very much enjoying, two books: one for research, The London Hanged by Peter Linebaugh, and the other for pleasure, Turnskin by Nicole Kimberling. I just finished reading Barth Anderson’s The Magician and the Fool. Reading it was like watching a talented stage magician perform. I knew that I was being deceived and misdirected but the illusion was so engaging that it still thrilled me. Other recent reads include a charming book called Vintage, by Steve Berman, a beautiful mystery from Josh Lanyon called Snowball In Hell, (I am addicted to his Adrien English mystery series). As far as book suggestions go, there are a few that I love and have read over and over among them are, Dream Boy by Jim Grimsly, The Charioteer by Mary Renault, and James Thurber’s, The thirteen Clocks. And oh, all the books that I’m planning to read… Anything from Kelly Link –she’s just so clever and cool. Astrid Amara’s, The Archer’s Heart, The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, Tales of Judge Dee by Zhu Xiao Di and Crave by Catherine Lundoff. Obviously there’s a certain amount of homosexual content in the novel, since it was nominated, and won, the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. How has that aspect of your work been received? Do you get more negative comments or positive comments, or do people not really care? The vast majority of responses have been wonderful and positive and they’ve cared but in the best possible way. It’s particularly encouraging that most reviewers haven’t singled out the homosexual content for comment as if it were something aberrant or strange. Instead, they’ve responded to the sexuality of the characters as part and parcel of the book, just as they would treat heterosexual content in another novel. The very few bits of hate mail I’ve received have all come from people who haven’t actually read the book. So I’m guessing that these people are simply opposed to gays and lesbians as human beings, never mind literary characters. Additionally, do you receive negative or positive comments regarding your representation of the Church (the Inquisition in “Wicked Gentlemen”)? In writing Wicked Gentlemen I wasn’t setting out to depict any group or institution as purely good or evil, the church included. I tried to balance the brutality of the Inquisition’s treatment of Belimai with depictions of Harper in his role as an Inquisitor protecting and defending people. And so far, I haven’t received any negative comments on my representation of the Inquisition. This might be because the church in the world of Wicked Gentlemen is obviously fictional, or it could be due to the fact that the real Inquisition committed far greater atrocities than I attribute to them in my novel. Speaking of the aspects of religion and sexuality in your book, can you talk about the complicated relationship between Sykes and Harper, particularly the nature of discrimination present due to Sykes being a descendant of demons and Harper being a member of the Inquisition? Well that’s a lot in one question, but let’s see… To Belimai Sykes, Harper appears to be the embodiment of a social ideal. He is what Sykes could never
Interview w/ Israel Del Rio
Israel Del Rio is the author of Honeycomb, a book I reviewed here some time ago. And now I have an interview with him. You can find more information about Israel at his website. Thanks again to Israel for his time and I hope you all enjoy it! Here goes: First, tell us a little about yourself: who you are, etc.I was born in Mexico City and have lived in the US working as a computer engineer and executive since 1983. Essentially empty nesters, my wife, Rita, and I reside in Atlanta. Our daughter, Tania lives in California with her husband, where they both work as graphic designers and comic book artists, our son Derek works as a software programmer, and our youngest son, Alex, has just started college. What got you interested in writing fiction in the first place? Who are some of your influences? Also, who are some of your favorite writers, past and present? Also, what are some of your favorite novels of all time? During my youth I went through a period of reading fiction, but I then took a hiatus when I began college and had to maintain a part time job as well as attend to other hobbies such as girls and playing gigs in a band. Once I allegedly matured, I resumed reading, but my focus then was mostly around physics and history. My interest in fiction was rekindled after I got married and was done with the honeymoon. I have always enjoyed the magical realism found in books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I also like reading David Lodge, and more recently Jose Saramago. Among my favorite novels are “A Hundred Years of Solitude”; and Dostoyesky’s “Brothers Karamasov,” and “Crime & Punishment.” What are you currently reading, what have you just finished, and what do you plan to read next? I’ve just finished reading Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley. Actually this is the first novel written by this author that I have managed to finish. I didn’t particularly care for two of his previous novels, Boomsday and Florence of Arabia (although I did enjoy the movie based on his novel “Thank you for Smoking”). I am also attracted to the field of Artificial Intelligence, and so I do like to read books on linguistics. In this genre, I am particularly appreciative of the books by Steve Pinker. For my next book, I’m reading The Nine, and Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. Do you plot first, then write, or write and come up with the plot as you go? What are some of your writing habits/rituals? First I outline the general idea in my mind, and then I fill in the plot details and twists as I go along with the writing. I tend to be more of a binge writer, writing in frantic bursts and then taking it easy for a day or two until I feel the impulse to once again reach for my keyboard. This style fits my temperament mainly because writing is not my primary occupation (although, I wish it were!). I have also learned that the first draft of a novel usually represents only about 5% of the total effort. I now subscribe to the dictum that “writing is re-writing.” Honeycomb is a novel revolving around a very interesting form of reincarnation. Can you talk a little about this and where you came up with the honeycomb? Actually, the idea emerged as a result of two memories of mine. In one, I recalled being given the choice to select my next life, and in the other memory I was told some details from my previous life. I felt these memories could be presented in book form and used as the anchor for the telling of an interesting story. Since the honeycomb deals with a religious idea–or at least one that is represented heavily in religion. How much did current and past religions–stories and all–influence your presentation of the honeycomb? I realize that the concept of reincarnation is one held by many eastern religions; however my idea was to approach the possibility of life after death, reincarnation, and our global connectedness more from a scientific perspective. Rather than following religious traditional view that God created the Universe, I think recent discoveries in physics and cosmology leave room for the opposite possibility, that it is God who is being created by the evolution of the Universe; and not the other way around. Continuing with religion, I think the one thing you’ve managed to do rather well with honeycomb is bring a little understanding of religion as a whole. It seems like you aren’t trying to paint a picture of any particular religion. True, there are elements that might be seen as part of religions that exist today, but you ground your “world” in the reality of inter-connectivity. Can you talk a little more about religion, not in how it influences your work, but in how it is woven into Honeycomb and perhaps the world around us, and how you are presenting it to the reader? Even though I was born into a Catholic family, I’ve never really subscribed to any particular religion. Respectfully to those who believe otherwise, I am not a big fan of religion and in particular I am especially turned off by those who use religion to espouse extremist worldviews. There seems to be this belief that God has to be connected to some form of religion. I don’t see the two as intertwined. If one defines religion as the observance of certain rituals and the belief in certain religious canons; whether codified in the form of books or chants or other traditional means, then I believe it is possible to believe in the possibility of God without the necessity of following any particular religion. One of the things I found really interesting about Honeycomb is how the narrative moves in a circle. Your main character–who remains a nameless spirit of sorts–begins where he ends up. How
Interview w/ Tobias S. Buckell
Here is my interview with Tobias S. Buckell. After reading three of his novels I think it’s about time. We went off on some interesting tangents, so I hope you enjoy. Here you go:
Interview w/ James C. Glass
Let’s start off with the easiest question, and the most basic: Who are you? A sort of mini-biography of who you are, both in and out of writing, how you came to the genre, etc. Well, let’s see, I wrote off and on for many years, was a Famous Writers School dropout when I was in industry at Rocketdyne, then came grad school and a thirty year academic career teaching physics and being a dean. The writing got serious in the mid 80’s, my first publication was in ABORIGINAL in 1988 and then I won the grand prize of Writers of the Future in 1990. Algis Budrys was my teacher, mentor and friend and, alas, recently passed on. I made my reputation with short stories,over 40 of them, and SHANJI was my first novel published. There have been several books since then, but I still write short stories.Who are some of your favorite authors (past and present)? My early author favorites were Heinlein and Hamilton and Van Vogt. I love the work of people like Greg Bear and Kay Kenyon and Patty Briggs and Jack McDivitt, and I just finished “Bright of the Sky” by Kay Kenyon, which I nominated for a Nebula. Could you tell us a little bit about The Viper of Portello? What’s it about (for those that don’t already know)? VIPER OF PORTELLO was originally called CULEBRA, which is spanish for Viper, and the story came out of the blue like much of my stuff does. I like military sf and spy thrillers,and I read lots outside of sf, so it probably came from that. When you began writing The Viper of Portello, were you inspired by anything in particular? Perhaps a story you read, a news article, or maybe you were just thinking one day and a light bulb turned on in your head? I had a good friend who was Brazilian and I liked his passion about things. Part of the ‘out of the blue’ was a planetary system settled by descendants of Brazilians and Colombians, so Eduardo really goes back to portuguese people. One of the things I really like about The Viper of Portello is that you didn’t make Eduardo a character who does evil things and doesn’t have to accept the consequences of his actions. In fact, you portray Eduardo as having to almost become someone else just to do some of the things he’s ordered to do as, perhaps, a way of maintaining his sanity. Could you talk about this, particularly the “discussion” (for lack of a better word) of one’s actions and their consequences? Eduardo really IS two people initially, a kind of split personality, with two sides in uneasy coexistence which becomes more and more strained as the story goes on. And the gentle artist takes over when the dark side of the personality gets its fill of killing.In VIPER I have a dual personality trying to live two lives, one violent, the other peaceful, creative and loving, a man trying to please a father who basically wants him dead. And in the end, it’s the story of a man who discovers his true father and a long overdue love he has longed for. Yes, the setting is science fiction, the story is military science fiction, but it’s a story that could happen today on planet Earth. Do you hope to write more within the universe you’ve created? Right now I have no plans for a sequel, or any new book about Eduardo’s world, but if VIPER does well I will certainly be tempted. What other projects do you have in the works, if any? An earlier book of mine, called TOTH, will be out in reprint from Wildside Press next year. BRANEGATE is being read by a major house, and SEDONA CONSPIRACY is being read by another. All are military science fiction. Right now I’m working on short stories again. Your novel is being published by Fairwood Press (to be released in August of 2008). What brought you to a small press over a larger press? What do you think are some benefits of working with smaller presses? (Hopefully this question doesn’t sound like I’m bashing on any particular type of press. I don’t mean to. Both small and large presses are great, in my opinion. I’m just curious what brings writers such as yourself to a small press.) I sent the book to several large publishers, but they seemed to think it was a bit ordinary, and it takes forever for the big guys to make a decision. I finally got impatient with the process and tried it on Fairwood Press; Patrick Swenson knows and likes my writing, has published me several times in TALEBONES, and did my short story collection. Big publishers could learn much from Patrick in terms of how he treats his writers and the excellent packages he turns out. (I’ve had a book with a big publisher for seventeen months, and still don’t have an answer!) Since you do write quite a lot of short stories, and mentioned you are focusing on them right now, what advice do you have on writing short stories? Do you prefer one form over the other? I started out writing short stories, and do have a fondness for them. Ashort story can be written in a week with most work schedules, and a completedwork sent out. The response times from magazines range from a couple of weeksto a few months at worst for anthologies. Compare that with novel responsetimes of years. I’ve learned as many lessons about craft from writing shortstories as I have from novels. Maybe even more, since short work MUST be tightand to the point. I think it’s the best way for a new writer to begin, but thenthere are people who are simply long writers. I know accomplished novelists whocan’t write a short story to save their soul. I’ve gone both ways, but much ofmy success, such as it is, is