Interview

Setting The Pages on Fire

Chris Roberson is interviewed on Yatterings. “Setting the Pages on Fire,” is a comprehensive-Chris interview, talking not only about his previous two Pyr novels, Here, There & Everywhereand Paragaea: A Planetary Romance,but also about his forthcoming Solaris novels Set the Seas on Fireand The Dragon’s Nine Sons,as well as his forthcoming S&S/Firebird young adult Iron Jaw & Hummingbird, and even his not-even-scheduled-yet next Pyr novel, End of the Century.

Although he has written outside of it, the vast majority of Chris’s published and forthcoming work is set in one of two fictional universes. First, there is his stories of the extended Bonaventure-Carmody clan. Comparable to Michael Moorcock’s Beck/Begg dynasty, Chris says, “Along with the von Beck family, the other inspirations for the Bonaventure family (more properly the Bonaventure-Carmody family, though the Carmody side of the clan hasn’t much appeared in print, as yet) are Kim Newman’s Diogenes Club stories, and Philip José Farmer’s Wold-Newton stories. I’ve got a real weakness for stories that mix genres, or at least blend different subgenres, and I’ve always been a sucker for heroes.” Novels in this universe include Here, There & Everywhere, Paragaea, Set the Seas on Fire (forthcoming, but featuring a pre-Paragaea Hieronymus Bonaventure) and End of the Century.

His other major universe is that of the Celestial Empire, an alternate history of a space-faring Chinese empire that diverges from our own timeline sometime in the 15th Century and follows the empire as it sets out to colonize Mars. I published the first of these tales, “O One,” in my anthology Live Without a Net. Several more have appeared in Asimov’s and Postscripts, with the novella The Voyage of Night Shining Whiteout from PS Publishing. Forthcoming is The Dragon’s Nine Sons, which I suspect will rocket these tales to widespread attention. Speaking of the universe, Roberson says, “With a timeline that covers a thousand years, the stories I’ve written in it tend to focus on the quieter moments, on people just a little bit off to the side, right before or right after some larger and louder event has taken place. Not the larger-than-life heroes and villains, but regular people caught in the wake of extraordinary events. Even when I try to write about the more pivotal moments in the history, I find myself gravitating to those at the sidelines, for some reason.” Novels in this universe include The Voyage of Night Shining White (novella), and the forthcoming The Dragon’s Nine Sons and Iron Jaw & Hummingbird.

Check out the interview, and then, if you haven’t already, dive into the universe of your choice. Not that you can’t visit both.

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Justina Robson: Femme Fatale Kung Fu Master

Noted author and blogger John Scalzi interviews Justina Robson on his AOL Ficlets blog, as well as giving a nice plug for her novel, Keeping It Real, on his Whatever blog. Here’s a taste of the interview, in which Robson describes herself to John’s readers, but I encourage you to check out the whole thing:

“I’m one of those lifetime scribblers who started out filling legal pads with Star Wars fiction and stories about ponies and ended up writing for a living. That was my plan since I was at school in about 1983 and I stuck with it. Now I’m a lot older and I’m still sticking with it. I live in English suburbia, with two children and my partner. That wasn’t in my plans when I was younger. I always thought I’d go off to California and be wildly unconventional. Maybe later. I still haven’t quite given up all my other dreams either, which included being some kind of scientist, astronaut, mystical sage, femme fatale, kung fu master or doctor but I don’t see how I’ll fit all that in.”

Also see Musapaloosa, Robson’s LiveJournal.

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Wishing on a Rising Star

Alexis Glynn Latner’s debut novel, Hurricane Moon, is now listing as being in stock on Amazon, and should be in stores in a few weeks. We’ve also recently uploaded the first three chapters online, where you can read them there or download as a PDF.

Meanwhile, I see that the website of Rice University, where alum Alexis serves as Fondren Library Circulation Assistant, has uploaded an article on her exciting debut. As she tells journalist Jessica Stark, “My highest aspiration is that one of my stories inspires someone to think about the universe differently. That kind of thinking can bring hope; hope that can help someone get through a bad night.”

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A Quality of Real Genius: Vandermeer and McDonald

Most stories start with an image–I’m a visual writer, I need to see [it] in memory or imagination before I can translate it into words,” says Ian McDonald, in an interview with author, anthologist, and blogger Jeff Vandermeer, posted on the new Amazon Bookstore’s Blog. “For Brasyl,the image was people picking over a giant trash heap of e-waste–twin peaks of grey beige a glittering cap of discarded I-pods. Then the what-iffery began: we’re pretty aware of the toxic fall-out of conventional garbage, but what kind of existential pollution might you get from quantum computers?”

McDonald goes on to talk about the genesis of all three of Brasyl‘s intertwined narratives, the amount of research that goes into one of his epic works, and a little about his next work, The Dervish House. Of McDonald himself, Jeff Vandermeer says, “Saying Ian McDonald might be the world’s best SF writer seems a little inaccurate to me although many readers think this is true. The fact is, McDonald deserves to be going up against most of the world’s top fiction writers, period. He has proven over a distinguished and varied career that he is a formidable stylist, yes, but in everything he writes, he also demonstrates flexibility, vision, and mastery of good old fashioned storytelling.”

Meanwhile, Jeff’s own work is well-worth checking out, as is his newly-revamped website, Ecstatic Days.

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Keeping It Fun

Justina Robson is interviewed on Sci Fi Wire by John Joseph Adams. They talk about her novel, Keeping It Real, and the forthcoming sequel, Selling Out.

“I decided I needed a different kind of challenge and set out to write the most preposterous story I could think of, at a rate of 3,000 words per day. I didn’t let myself overthink anything: I had a law I had to stick to, which was that whatever came out of my mind first had to go on the page.”

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Pat talks to Ian

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has posted a short but insightful interview with Brasyl author Ian McDonald.

Here, he talks about what inspired him to chose Brazil as the setting for his latest SF:

“Brasil is big, Brasil is sexy, Brasil is cool and scary and powerful and a major player and considers itself a superpower in waiting. Like India (which I used in River of Gods) it also fails to appear on the US mental radar, which endears it to me automatically. It has an alternative black culture to the US’s, one that is as vibrant and significant but expresses itself in a different cultural language. It has an appalling history, yet somehow has built the most ethnically diverse nation on earth…. Brasil charms, Brasil seduces and it creeps under your skin so that months later, impressions and people are still unpacking. For God’s sake, it’s got airports with cinemas in them! What’s not to love?”

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It’s a Small World After All

The wonderful Small World Podcast, which features “interviews with people from all walks of life from all over the planet,” has just uploaded an interview with yours truly. We cover a host of subjects, including:

  • how Pyr began and how Pyr is different from other science fiction/fantasy imprints;
  • Pyr books like Keeping It Real, Crossover, Brasil, and Fast Forward 1
  • publishers that have a following;
  • where the name Pyr came from;
  • the artwork that appears on the covers of Pyr books;
  • the emerging themes in science fiction in the 21st century;
  • how the SciFi channel almost missed the boat with Doctor Who;
  • the escapsim/literature debate;
  • and the subversive nature of science fiction, including how Star Trek addressed racism

You can follow the link above or download an mp3 directly here.

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The Future And You

Mike Resnick is one of several authors podcast on the latest edition of The Future and You. He talks about the condition of present day Africa, the state of science fiction magazines, his experiences as an editor, the lack of respect for comedic SF and many more topics besides. Also in the podcast, Kim Stanley Robinson, Elizabeth Bear, Dave Freer, Paul Levinson and others.

Of course, those wanting a taste of Mike’s fictional Africa can always look here.

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Action Adventure with Depth: Kay Kenyon Podcast

Kay Kenyon talks to Shaun Farrell on this week’s Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast. They discuss her new novel, Bright of the Sky, which she describes as an action adventure novel with depth. They also talk about how the digital divide may lead to an intelligence divide, and whether the blame for the decrease in SF’s readership lies with readers or writers. As Kay says: “If there’s one thing we learn from science fiction, it’s that the future is not going to be like the past and it’s not going to be like the present.”

(Note for those short of time and/or attention:Kay’s interview begins 6 minutes in.)

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