Interviews

Another interview! Thanks to Zoran for taking the time out of his day to answer my questions. Enjoy! SD: Could you please introduce yourself to the audience and talk a little about your history in the writing/publishing world? ZZ: I was born in Belgrade, the form Yugoslavia, in 1948. In 1973 I graduated from the Department of General Literature with the theory of literature. I received my master’s degree in 1979 and my doctorate in 1982. I am now professor of creative writing at Belgrade University.I started to write prose in 1993, when I was 45. In the next decade and a half I wrote sixteen books of fiction: The Fourth Circle (1993), Time Gifts (1997), The Writer (1998), The Book (1999), Impossible Encounters (2000), Seven Touches of Music (2001), The Library (2002), Steps Through the Mist (2003), Hidden Camera (2003), Compartments (2004), The Bridge (2006), Miss Tamara, the Reader (2006), Amarcord (2007), and The Last Book (2007).I am about to finish my new novel Escher’s Loops. SD: What are you currently reading, what do you plan to read, and what have you just finished reading? ZZ: I am currently re-reading Erasmus Roterdamus’ masterpiece In Praise of Folly. Prior to that I read with great pleasure Peter Woit’s excellent study Not Even Wrong. In early February I always read the same book: Jaroslaw Hasek’s The Good Soldier Svejk, one of the greatest novels of all times. SD: What are some of your writing influences? Who is your favorite author and/or what is your favorite book? ZZ: Any book by Mikhail Bulgakov, Milan Kundera, Jose Saramago, Tamar Yellin, Umberto Eco, Kazuo Ishiguro, Orhan Pamuk, Haruku Murakami… SD: What were some hurdles you faced when you first began taking your writing seriously? ZZ: I wrote extensively about my initial hurdles in the afterward of the US edition of my first novel The Fourth Circle (The Ministry of Whimsy Press, 2004). Here is an excerpt: When apparently there were no more publishers to whom my agent could submit The Fourth Circle, he stepped forward with an ingenious proposal. I should change my name. What do you mean, I asked incredulously. He meant I should choose a pen name, preferably something that would sound English. Like what? Well, we could try to find an analogous version of your original name. What would that be? After a brief etymological consideration, he boldly suggested: Donald Livingston. Why would I be Donal Livingston instead of Zoran Zivkovic? Can you really imagine, he asked, that anyone called Zoran Zivkovic would ever be able to publish anything in the USA? I could. He couldn’t. So, inevitably, we went our separate ways. SD: Do you have any strange writing habits? ZZ: My only writing habit is that I am a morning writer. I write only between 9 AM and about noon. SD: Since you write both science fiction and fantasy, what do you like about both genres? What do you think are some problems, if any, within each genre, given that you write and presumably read SF and fantasy? Did you have any difficulty crossing over? ZZ: I write neither science fiction nor fantasy. These are mere labels invented by the publishing industry. I consider myself a writer without any prefixes. Quite simply, a writer. A humble practitioner of the ancient and noble art of prose. SD: You write what would be called by a lot of people ‘magical realism’. This is very clear in “Seven Touches of Music” as many of the stories ‘flirt’ with the lines between the real and the imagined. What about this type of fantasy writing is appealing to you and why do you write such stories? ZZ: The term ‘magical realism’ was invented to gather under a single umbrella a number of Hispano-American authors active mostly in the second part of the 20th century. Although I have the greatest possible admiration for their invaluable contribution to world literature, I don’t consider myself a part of that tradition. My literary roots are predominantly Middle-European. I am an unworthy successor of such prose giants as Hoffmann, Kafka, and Bulgakov. SD: “Seven Touches of Music” is a collection of short stories that each use music as a common theme. When you began this collection did you intend for every story to use music in some way or did it just happen that way? Basically, how did this collection come together? ZZ: It came together basically just as any other book of mine. I woke up one sunny April morning back in 2001 and it was there, in my head. The entire book. All I had to do was to sit down at my desk and start typing. As simple as that. In my prose writing there are never any preparations. That would be fundamentally wrong in my case. SD: Tiffany, of Aio, told me in an email that she envisioned “The Violinist” as a story about Albert Einstein in his last days. After I thought about that idea it occurred to me that there could actually be some validity to such a thought. Is there any truth to Tiffany’s idea or is it intended to be somewhat mysterious? ZZ: There are plenty of clues for an attentive reader. The “Violinist” opens in a Princeton hospital. Einstein died in a Princeton hospital on April 18, 1955. His last physician was Dr. Dean, mentioned in my story. There is also his last nurse, Mrs. Roszel. I only left the dying professor unnamed. With a good reason… SD: This novel is an English translation from Serbian. As a literature student I have an interest in translated works and the world of translation. Since you speak both English and Serbian, could you talk a little about some complications of translating your work? ZZ: I was extremely fortunate to have on my side Mrs. Alice Copple-Tosic, an excellent translator. She has translated from my native Serbian to English all but two books of mine. So far she has received nothing but

Here is another interview for all of you. Thanks to Karen Miller for taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions. I look forward to finishing The Awakened Mage. Here it is: SD: Thanks for doing this interview with me. I was very glad to receive a response back from you. First, would you tell us a little bit about yourself, such as the basic history of how you came to be a writer, what you’ve written in the past and recently (fiction or non-fiction), and the like. This is sort of the typical first question just to introduce you to people reading the blog. KM: And many thanks for asking!Like a great many writers, I’ve been scribbling stories for years. Ever since I was a child. My favourite classes in school were English, Composition, Creative Writing. All that stuff. When I left high school I went to university and did a communications degree. One of my majors was Creative Writing. I also majored in Literary Studies and FilmStudies, basically wrapping up my three favourite past times — reading, writing and watching film/tv drama.I always always always wanted to be a writer, but it took me a long time to grow into the person I needed to be in order to achieve that goal. While that process was happening I did a lot of different things — I worked in the public service, the insurance industry, thetelecommunications industry, the publishing industry, I was a PR officer in local government, I worked professionally with horses, I was a college lecturer and I owned/managed by own sf/fantasy/mystery bookshop for several years. That was the last ‘regular’ job I had before making the leap to professional writing. And while it wasunnerving, not being able to settle, I did gain a lot of useful experiences over those years that have in turn helped my writing. My favourite mantra is: Nothing learned is ever wasted. Or, Who cares if you’re bleeding? It’s all good copy!My first professionally published work was in Australia. I wrote three YA light romances. Then I started working on my first fantasy novel, The Innocent Mage. In 2005/6 Innocent Mage and its sequel were published in Australia as the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology, and then went on to be published in the US and UK in 2007. They were followed by my first Stargate novel, Alliances, and my current fantasy trilogy –Godspeaker. Bks 1 and 2 are out in Australia, and they’ll be published this year in the US/UK. Bk 3 comes out in Australia in June, and in the US/UK next year.I’ve got a new series starting to release in Australia this April, under a pen name. That’s also been sold to Orbit, but I don’t have any firm release information yet. I’ve just finished my next Stargate novel, Do No Harm, which is due out in a few months. Once I’ve completed Godspeaker bk 3 I move on to the next in the pen-name series, and in December I’ll deliver the first volume of the sequel duology to the first Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books.On the whole, it’s a good thing I don’t mind my own company. *g*SD: Speaking of Stargate, what is it like writing for shared-worlds? For others out there that don’t know what that term means, a shared-world is basically one in which people other than the original creator are allowed to write stories within the world, provided some rules are adhered to. Prime examples would be Dragonlance and Star Wars. So, for you, what were some problems or issues you had in writing for Stargate? Was it hard? How much research did you have to do? KM: In terms of working with MGM, the parent company who licences the franchise, or with the editors at Fanedomonium — no troubles at all. My experiences to date have been wonderful. As far as the work being hard is concerned, yes. It’s hard work. There’s a school of thought in the genre community that says media tie-ins are by definition low-brow crap written by talentless hacks who are too pathetic to write ‘real books’. To which I say: really? Honestly — if you’re going to accuse someone of being a talentless hack because they write about worlds and characters they didn’t personally create then almost every single tv scriptwriter on the planet is a talentless hack. For the record? Not so much.I take the Stargate novels I write very seriously because I’m a fan of the show, and before ever I was a professional writer I was a fan. I try to the very best of my ability to get it ‘right’ in terms of characterisation and dialogue, because I feel my job is to give the reading fans an authentic ‘Stargate’ experience.Having said that, though, the single biggest problem with writing fiction based on a tv how is that while all us fans are watching the same show, none of us is ‘seeing’ the same show. We bring individual biases and beliefs and interpretations to the source material. Which means that for some people, I will never get it right. And I need to make my peace with that. I pretty much have. I’m sad if someone’s disappointed with what I’ve written, but I know I’ve been true to the show I see to the best of my ability. Whatever I do I make sure I can point to aired material in support of my story — and boy, I watch and I watch and I watch and then I watch again. I have the show on dvd and it’s my constant reference source. SD: Your biography on your website talks about your various moves in life. Could you talk about what the transition was like when you moved from Canada to Australia and then to England, etc.? What sort of cultural challenges did you face? Was it difficult to adjust? How did this part of your life affect your writing, if at all? KM:

Yeah, another one! This one is really cool though. It’s sort of a bizarre interview conducted by Jennifer Rahn. It’s strange, it’s neat, and it’s just plain awesome. Check it out! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

Well, here is my review with Jennifer Rahn. Enjoy! SMD: Thanks for doing this interview with me! For the audience, could you please introduce yourself and perhaps give a little brief history about who you are, etc.? JR: Hello! I’m Jennifer Rahn, author of The Longevity Thesis. I am a first generation Canadian, born in Saskatchewan and raised in Alberta , to immigrant parents from Germany and Malaysia. Of course, with a background like that I only speak English and a smattering of French. I’ve visited family around the world, but otherwise, my life has been uneventful. I’ve basically gone to school for a very long time, and I’m pretty much still there, graduated or not. I currently work in the cancer research field, studying mechanisms of metastasis. I did a short stint in the biotech industry, but ultimately I’ve found that academia suits me much better.What initially sparked your curiosity in writing fiction? Who influenced you in your writing?Probably all the books I read as a kid. I don’t remember learning to read, but I’m told my brother taught me when I was three. On Saturdays I was usually left to my own devices in a library while my parents shopped. Endless books, full of illustrations and stories. As many as I wanted. My Mum influenced me the most. She trained as an Early Childhood Development specialist, and basically fed me books, crayons and plastic alphabet letters ever since I can remember. The only other person I remember leaving a strong impression on me in terms of my ability to write stories was Mr. Pezim, my grade 11 English teacher, mainly because he introduced me to Edgar Allan Poe. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the support or publication opportunities given to me by my other Language Arts teachers (Ms. Baldwin and Mr. Shields for ETC Magazine and Stepping Stones), but as always, the good stories drew me in the most.SMD: If you wouldn’t mind, could you perhaps explain in idiot terms what sort of research you are doing in the cancer field? What you’re working towards, etc. I’m a cancer survivor, so I have somewhat of a vested interest in any cancer research by default. JR: I trained extensively in experimental breast cancer pathology, focusing on the mechanisms behind the spread of the tumour cells. My supervisor was a clinical pathologist, so she taught me all about the clinical features of breast cancer cells, how to recognise them, stage them, etc., and my supervisory committee made sure I was up to speed on all the current experimental techniques in molecular and cell biology. To sum it up, I was able to study how cancer-specific proteins contribute to cancer spread in both artificial model systems (cells in a culture dish) and in samples from actual patients. The goal, as always, was to understand how cancer cells moved so that we could identify ways of preventing this movement therapeutically. Graduates are always strongly encouraged to leave town and broaden their horizons, so I moved 300 km south and took up a project on how proteins unique to brain cancer can assist in the migration of these cells throughout the brain. Hopefully I will find ways to block this movement, which would give the surgeons and radiologists a better chance of eradicating the tumour at its primary site. SMD: What are you currently reading (fiction or nonfiction)? Who are your favorite writers past or present and why? JR: I am currently reading Tesseracts Eleven (signed copy!) which I picked up at the EDGE/Dragon Moon Press Hot Off the Press Party last November, and will shortly resume reading Darwin’s Paradox by Nina Munteanu (not signed, but I’ll hunt her down). After that, I want to see what The Golden Compass is all about.As a child, I particularly remember Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm and Maurice Sendak. Later on, Zilpha Keatley Snyder and E.B. White. Now I live in perpetual angst, hoping that Joan D. Vinge will publish something new. Honestly, the woman writes literary crack. I think I was covalently bound to my copy of Catspaw for about three months, and I’m thoroughly addicted to her Snow Queen series. I also enjoy Barbara Hambly, J.K. Rowling, Alexandre Dumas, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Oscar Wilde, John Marston, Sarah Monette and Dean Koontz, and I get a huge kick out of the weirdness of Tanith Lee. I also spend way too much time/money reading manga (Bleach, Saiyuki, Hellsing). As for why, it’s because I get completely immersed in the stories, to the point where I really don’t care if the world is exploding so long as I can finish the book, and I love the characters that are tinged with neuroses. Please do not ask me to read Joseph Conrad. Ever. Or I may harm myself.SMD: What were your influences for The Longevity Thesis, if any? JR: Hmm. Possibly a combo of Joan D. Vinge and Tanith Lee, but I doubt very much that anyone other than me sees it that way. SMD: The Longevity Thesis is set in a world where medical technology is somewhat similar to today, minus the technology. Medical knowledge seems to be on par with what we might expect of the field today if things like CT scanners didn’t exist. Did your medical background have a significant affect on the creation of this world? Did you always envision that your world would be this highly scientific underground that merged aspects of the medieval with the world of today? JR: I actually wanted to write a story that examined frustrated anger, self esteem, personal development, spiritual development and finding inner peace. The setting came about because having spent most of my adult life in medical academia, it was easy and natural for me to write it that way. I think I always envisioned the Desert and the underground tunnels, as they could represent a repressed person (crusty, confused and boring on the outside, vibrant, confused and complex on

Susan Beth Pfeffer has graciously allowed me to interview her after reading her recent book Life As We Knew It. So, without further adieu, here it is! SD: First, tell us a little about yourself. A brief history if you will of why you started writing and why you continue today. SBP: I wrote my first book, Just Morgan, my last semester of college (NYU). It was published when I was 22, and I never looked back. Since then I’ve written over 70 books, all for children and teenagers, and can actually claim to never having had a day job.I’d always wanted to be a writer, and have been incredibly fortunate to live my dream. SD: What are you currently reading? What’s your favorite book?SBP: Right now, I’m between books (I finished one on Friday and spent Saturday reading newspapers). I’ll probably read a fairly junky novel next, and then I think I’ll read a book about Alan Freed and the radio payola scandal. I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction. I don’t really have a favorite book, but Long Day’s Journey Into Night is probably the twork of art that’s had the greatest influence on me (not that I’ll ever write anything that good). SD: When you see people reading one of your many books, what do you think?SBP: I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone reading one of my books. But thanks to the Internet, I get to read people’s comments about Life As We Knew It. As long as the comments are favorable, I love it! SD: What exactly sparked you to write Life As We Knew It?SBP: I’m embarrassed to admit it was watching the movie Meteor one Saturday afternoon. It got me thinking about what an end of the world story would be like from a kid’s point of view. SD: Life As We Knew It is a science fiction book, but at the same time it is a very real book. Unlike a lot of science fictio ntoday, though, it doesn’t need the presence of science in order to work. There is the whole problem with the moon forced into a different orbit and screwing up practically everything normal about earth, and then you have the physical effects on your characters–starvation, illness, etc. Did you have to do a lot of research before writing it?SBP: Not a lot. Some of the things I put in the book, I knew before, from a casual interest in astronomy and world catastrophe. My brother supplied me with a few details–the off shore oil rigs going down and the communication satellites, and the dormant volcano in Montreal (he lived there for a while).A lot of it was just common sense. If there’s not enough oil, then trucks can’t run. If trucks can’t run, food can’t be moved. If food can’t be moved, people’ll be weak and more susceptible to illness. SD: Was there any point in which your characters did something you hadn’t expected?SBP: I don’t think so. I do a lot of pre-writing before I ever start a book, and even though I don’t know all the stuff that’s going to go into the middle of the book (I’d be too bored if I did), I keep a day or two ahead of the book at all times. There may have been some small things (and dialogue almost always happens spontaneously), but nothing major. SD: Do you intend to write more books in the science fiction genre? Why or why not?SBP: My next book, The Dead & the Gone, is a companion volume to Life As We Knew It. It starts at the exact time the asteroid hits the moon, and follows a teenage boy in New York City and what he and his family go through as a result. So I guess that qualities as another sci fi book.The Dead & the Gone will be published by Harcourt spring 2008. SD: This is probably a rather generic question that you’ve probably been asked before, but seeing how I am part of TeenageWriters, a forum for young writers, what advice would you give to other writers out there, young and old, about their own writing?SBP: I can only suggest what has worked for me. Find the themes that resonate most within you, and never lose sight of them. For me, the themes that are most important are families and consequences. Life As We Knew It focuses on both and was a joy to write.The great thing about themes that resonate is you can use them in any genre or any story. A western can be about a father who’s a gunfighter and the effect on his son. Or it can be about the consequence of a gunfight, which starts the story, and then the plot moves from there.Those are my themes. But everyone has one or more. SD: And for a rather random sort of question, what is one phrase you would like to be quoted by?SBP: Well, it’s not original with me, but I am very fond of Impeach Bush. Thanks so very much to Susan for doing this interview and I hope you all enjoy it very much!