Interview: Elaine Vilar Madruga on “Elsinore Revolution”
Tags: General, Interviews
Tell us a bit about “Elsinore Revolution.”
It’s not one of my most recent stories. I wrote it almost a decade ago. Back then, I was studying for my bachelor’s degree in theater arts, and Shakespeare’s plays had a direct impact on my whole creative process. I had one of those moments of epiphany that light up a specific creative process, an exercise of forces a writer willfully obeys through the birth of writing. I not only wanted to write about Shakespeare and his work in the science fiction mode, but I also wanted to go deeper, down a dark rabbit hole, in an attempt to find a story that spoke of circularity, eternal recurrence, and an eternal wheel that binds writers—and their characters—to the creative machinery. What moves us when we write? What program ties us and conditions our art? Are we really independent as creative entities? These were the questions that at that time obsessed me. Then, I found a point, a character to circumscribe my story: Ophelia, no longer a victim of her circumstances, nor a deranged maiden, nor a suicide victim with flowers around her neck, but a rebel, a revolutionary body, a virus within the power machinery. And all of a sudden everything was written.
What was the inspiration for this story?
My writing examines the anthropological and philosophical reflection that revolves around art and the process of creating it. It’s almost an obsession. Although this word at times has negative, almost pathological, connotations, obsession is the precise dimension that has always catalyzed my work. The writer always works on the basis of obsessive stimuli, which sometimes serve as nightmares, or at least as recurring methods for the beauty of fear. I wanted to write a story about revolution and rebellion, about how a rebel can be a “virus” in society. Also about how the society, the machinery, usually deals with eliminating an anachronistic, discordant, and dissonant element, which presents a danger to the already established natural rhythm. In addition, there was Shakespeare’s imagery. Also, the human in his stories has always seemed concomitant with the notion of the fantastic—as long as we understand the fantastic not as a supernatural element, but one adjacent to the real. At the crossroads, at the moment when I, as a writer, take a step and enter the dark play of references, my principles of creation and, specifically, the engines that surround this story are established.
Do you often write at very short lengths, and what challenges and opportunities does it present to you as a writer?
I consider myself a writer of brief texts who has turned to longer fiction and novels as her main mode of expression. Put another way, I’m a poet who writes narrative and a playwright who writes poetry. Short texts are, for me, particles of beauty and horror the writer must be able to reflect, as a bird in flight, on the purity of the text (and its silent impurity). A short story is always an exercise of forces, which allows to handle such essential notions as synthesis and seeks well-rounded stories—sufficiently stand-alone stories to reach a reader with only a few pages. It’s a method, if so desired, of facilitating dialogue with an imaginary interlocutor. Without a doubt, shorter fiction is a challenge. It demands ease and concretion as well as vivid yet hazy characters, full of the power of words to condense a story that, in addition, sheds light and casts shadows.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
Faulkner and Saramago, Rimbaud and Sartre, China Miéville and Samanta Schweblin.
What are you working on now?
This week I’ll start writing the third volume of my trilogy El trono de Ecbactana, a science fiction series that has occupied much of my time. It’s a story about the beauty and ugliness of being human, about its cancers and its allures. In addition, I’m working on a collection of short stories where the real and the fantastic are mixed, and a science fiction novel with the provisional title Chinatown, whose axes of meaning address human trafficking. I’m trying to combine narrative with poetry and dramaturgy, because I suffer from a certain degree of textual hyperkinesia, which makes me feel dissatisfied with a single genre.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I write from Cuba and Canada, two countries that organize my creative discourse—two countries that are polar opposites and constantly force me to move and change my expressive resources. Somehow I feel this metamorphosis, both spatial and symbolic, is my axis of creation. I believe in the mutable. And what changes and breathes.
“Elsinore Revolution” appears in the January/February 2020 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2001.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
The author’s latest book, Los años del silencio, is available for purchase by clicking on its image.
This interview was conducted in Spanish and translated by Toshiya Kamei, who translated “Elsinore Revolution” into English.
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Interview: Michael Cassutt on “Banshee”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “Banshee.”
“Banshee” is the story of a powerful but shadowy “horse-holder” in the space business who discovers that his ways of manipulating people — at work and at home — are no longer working.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I think there were two…. one being a father’s awareness that his child is living a life he couldn’t predict and cannot understand. The other, outer-directed, was exploring the idea of a charismatic leader — what is it like being in that leader’s orbit. What does one accept? What does one change… if anything?
I also had an independent notion about the evolution of space technology, and it seemed to fit in “Banshee”.
Can you tell us about any of the research you may have done for “Banshee?”
In one sense, absolutely zero. I don’t recall any specific research for the story. But a more comprehensive answer would be… thirty years of learning how NASA and international space programs work, how decisions were made, and by whom.
What was the most difficult aspect of writing this story, and what was the most fun?
Lately I find that my greatest challenge is cutting extraneous material. In an early version of the story I had at least two pages on Nik Salida’s career, and while it was fun for me to write, it was too much inside baseball.
The fun for me is always that moment where I’ve solved the basic questions — where is the story set, who are the characters, how are they hurting or helping each other? And can just write the dialogue.
Can you tell us anything about the differences or similarities between writing for television and writing novels and short stories?
For me, the major difference between screen and prose writing is the ability, in prose, to live in a character’s point of view for as long as you want. You can ignore the passage of time.
The fun of scriptwriting is being able to set a scene or describe action in, say, two lines, something you usually can’t do in prose.
What’s the same is the dialogue, the interplay between characters.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
My earliest SF influence was Heinlein, though I later found Delany, Zelazny, Silverberg, Le Guin, and Malzberg to be shaping my work. I’d like to think I’m still open to learning new things — I’ve enjoyed recent stories by Sarah Pinsker and Ken Liu, and was knocked out by Liu Cixin’s REMEMBRANCE OF EARTH’S PAST trilogy.
What are you working on now?
I’m between TV projects at the moment so am working on a new novel, largely mainstream with an SF/fantasy element….
“Banshee” appears in the January/February 2020 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2001.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
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Interview: Julianna Baggot on “The Key to Composing Human Skin”
Tags: InterviewsTell us a bit about “The Key to Composing Human Skin.”
Propaganda has always existed and yet tech has forced it into a such a furious machine that it’s become a different kind of beast. I think about how governments lie — and, specifically, how President Trump’s relationship with the truth, his own truth, his denials, his motivations, his turns on his colleagues and friends, have been absorbed into our culture, into our children, into our bodies. And yet we all have truths that we hide from others and ourselves. I wanted to talk about propaganda and how governments want to control information. I wanted to show a version of a future America in which there’s surveillance and messaging and mass incarceration for those who disagree. I wanted to tell a mother-son story. I didn’t know that there would also be a love story.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I had this rash as a kid. It started in one spot but would roam. I’d fall asleep with it on my stomach and wake up with it on my back. I also have a huge forehead and there was this joke about renting it like a billboard. But this is what’s happening on Facebook and other places. My personal space, my online persona, is used for advertising. In thinking about that and the memory of the rash and my ideas about propaganda vs. the truth, the idea came to me — as it did to Hertzella — that we could become the vehicles for propaganda ourselves — our bodies as billboard space. We could become vehicles for governmental messaging. And as Facebook has been used for just that purpose — interference with our elections through false narratives — it feels relevant. But what if we could shift that and use the machinery for good? What would combat propaganda? Personal truths?
Was “The Key to Composing Human Skin” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
My mother was intense. She had obsessive compulsive disorder (still does, but is now happily medicated). She worried about my health, she fretted, deeply. And I love her for all of that fretting. The tenderness of the mother-son story here is an expression of the tenderness I feel for my own mother.
Can you tell us about any of the research you may have done for this story?
Taxidermy. I’ve never done the work myself and never would; I don’t like the idea of manipulating dead animals, and yet I’m transfixed by the strangeness of this practice and it required a good bit of research. Not my first time writing about taxidermy.
Can you tell us anything about your writing process for “The Key to Composing Human Skin?”
Once I fell into it, it came to me quickly. Writing stories has become a strange practice. I’ll have an idea for a story but I won’t know how to get at it. And I’ll wait for a long while sometimes until the first line presents itself. Once that happens, the first sentence has made a million authorial decisions for me, and so sometimes, after that, it’s much faster. Though there was a gap between the bulk of the story and its ending. It covers so much ground — the kind of sweep of time more often found in a novel — and so there were leaps to manage at the ending, and then finding a way to drill down to a singular moment.
Why do you write?
I’ve answered this question so many different ways. All of them true, speaking of the truth. I think that writing is the place where my mother’s obsessive compulsive disorder touched down in me, there’s that. It’s become a way I process the world, a coping mechanism. It’s been how I make a living — more during some stretches than others. It’s a marriage, a practice. It’s become part of my identity — for better and for worse. I do imagine not writing. Or try to. And, to be honest, I can’t really imagine the freedom of that possibility. And, likewise, I can’t imagine the suffocation.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
These swing around wildly. Early on, playwrights — Mamet, Wasserstein, Durang… Then magical realists. Then Jean Toomer, Michael Cunningham, Zora Neale Hurston. I admire LeCarre; it took me forever to know that. I really admire Micah Dean Hicks who’s first book came out last year. I’ve been reading Siobahn Carroll, who’s oddness I adore. I love the New Weird, fabulism… My familial traditions of storytelling can’t be overlooked. It’s how we live and breathe. But, these days, I’m most altered by nonfiction — books on seizures, pain, AI, neurology, botany, epidemiology… That’s where many of my ideas come from.
What are you working on now?
I’m supposed to be working on a novel, but I’ve rewritten it so many times that I’ve come to openly despise it. It glares at me. I glare at it. So I turn my back on it from time to time and write stories. Right now, I have three titles of new stories and I’m not quite sure what any of them are about. This happens sometimes. One is about Louis Pasteur, post-stroke.
“The Key to Composing Human Skin” appears in the January/February 2020 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2001.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Julianna Baggott’s website: http://juliannabaggott.com/
Interview: Melissa Marr on “The Nameless”
Tags: InterviewsTell us a bit about “The Nameless.”
“Red Riding Hood with rage and swords” is my personal definition. It’s the story of several women who are tired of the onslaught of “wolves” and the consequences of the predatory nature of “wolves.” It’s one of five “rage stories” I wrote in 2019. It is likely safe to say the political climate of late has evoked some feelings.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I’d been trying to do a short story a year. In this case, I’d re-read Herland for a lecture recently. What if women found a way to form a safe, remote society like Herland but instead of welcoming the invasion of men, as they do in C Perkins-Gilman’s cautionary tale, they were cognizant of the threat that patriarchal relationships posed to their autonomy?
Was “The Nameless” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
I could offer the obvious—rape survivor, feminist, mother—but that is just part of my bones at this point. I suspect you can find one of those in all I write and do. Different here is my love of the sword and a strong tendency toward violence. I am proficient in marksmanship with my handguns, as well as with historical longsword and single-hander. Not SCA. Not choreographed fight. Sword is fought with intent to injure, and I earned my broken bones and blackened bruises as I learned.
My default practice is German historical longsword. I had been training with the most award-winning Historical European Martial Arts coach in the U.S. and a coach in the Netherlands on occasion. I even flew back to work with the U.S. coach after my move to Arizona. Unfortunately, a partially collapsed lung in 2016 and mild stroke in 2018 have limited me. But, I thought I’d use my knowledge on the page since I cannot continue as much in the real world.
What was the most difficult aspect of writing this story, and what was the most fun?
Short fiction is 100% fun for me. I do it for myself. No contract. No plans. I taught shortfic at university, pre-writing-life, so it’s a pleasure outlet I reserve for myself still.
Can you tell us anything about your writing process for “The Nameless?”
My shortfics are always drafted start-to-finish in a day or several days. I tinker for a while, but I line up the bones in one swoop. I wrote this in Dec 2018/January 2019, and on a whim decided to try to submit to F&SF. It was the first time I’d tried since selling that first novel in 2006.
Why do you write?
Valid question. I suppose it’s growing up without television in a rural home with a storytelling family. Aside from Jewish German ancestors, my family is wholly Scots or Irish on both sides. Story is simply what you do. I come from roots poor in most practical ways but rich in of whisky, sweat, and story. There are downsides to that world, but it also means I grew up understanding that story was important, that nature held truths, and that you don’t go back on your word even if it wasn’t in a written contract. I try to hold true to that.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
In terms of my beliefs about writing: Faulkner, Hardy, Kate Chopin. In terms of story, I suspect it’s mostly folklorists. In terms of life, my memory of my grandmother is my guiding light.
What would you want a reader to take away from this story?
Whatever they see fit, I suppose. Ultimately, I’m very much a believer that Faulkner’s Nobel speech is it, why we write, and why writing matters. He noted that people not only have an “inexhaustible voice” but a “spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance” and that a writer’s “duty is to write about these things” (Faulkner). That same logic applies to the highbrow and genre, poetry and prose.
What are you working on now?
Oddly, perhaps, I’m finishing photography for a book on wild horses. I didn’t publicize my photography because, like sword and kayak and baking, I do it to pursue peace. My editor at Penguin saw it and asked about doing a book. So, I’m stalking wild horses with my camera. I’m also finishing final edits on a faux-Victorian fantasy novel for young readers (also for Penguin) and just finished my first adult fantasy novel in years that began as a “coping” mechanism after a rattlesnake bite in September. It was a horrific pain to have fangs jab into me, so I started writing after each nightmare. I ended up turning my fear into a novel.
“The Nameless” appears in the January/February 2020 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2001.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Melissa Marr can be found at http://www.melissamarrbooks.com/ and on Twitter @melissa_marr
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Interview: Charlotte Ashley on “The Joy in Wounding”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “The Joy in Wounding.”
“The Joy in Wounding” is a loose interpretation of the second part of the Classical Greek story, “Cupid and Psyche.” Most people know the part where Cupid falls in love with Psyche and carries her off to marry her, keeping her literally in the dark as to who her important husband is. But the second half, following Psyche after she has been exiled from her husband’s home, is far more colourful: Psyche wanders the earth for years, serving multiple goddesses. She undergoes a series of impossible trials, each of them properly Herculean, including collecting black water from the river Styx, facing down dragons, and entering into the underworld.
I wanted to explore that side of Psyche’s story, bringing to life the sort of woman who comes out of a kidnapping and forced marriage with a Hero’s journey. Of course, my final version ended up pretty angry at Psyche’s treatment in the original. So my Psyche kicks ass, but she (and her sisters) are very much raging at their fates.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
When I saw Bob Eggleton’s artwork for this issue, especially with the green, windswept cliffs in the foreground, my imagination immediately flew to the landscapes of neoclassical artwork and their romantic depictions of Classical mythology. That ended up just being a springboard, since once I had decided to “rescue” Psyche and her sisters from their original story, I found darker themes than frolicking nymphs and cherubic gods would suggest. The real island of Lesbos is actually a lot hotter, dryer, and more yellow than those lush green paintings too, but that didn’t stop the neoclassicists and it didn’t stop me.
Was “The Joy in Wounding” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
I like to think every story about an older woman raging spectacularly against a fate she doesn’t want to be pinned to is fundamentally about me. Yes, a lot of me went into this story. I’m very aware that life isn’t fair, but that has never stopped me from moving heaven and earth
to make things right anyway.
Can you tell us about any research you may have done for this story?
I was already very familiar with the source material. I worked in an independent bookstore for 15 years, and just before they closed their doors, I splurged and bought gorgeous new editions of Mythology by Edith Hamilton, The Book of Greek and Roman Folktales, Legends, and Myths by William F. Hansen, and Apuleius’s The Golden Ass. My head was full of it. So my research mostly focused on Helenistic-period life on the Aegean Sea. I wanted to get the details right insofar as I could to really bring to life the messy business of wandering the earth in that period.
Why do you write?
Mostly, so I can read my own work. Sometimes you get the itch to read a really specific kind of story, and I found long ago that the very best way to scratch that itch and get exactly the story you want is to write it yourself. For every story I publish, I must have twenty more that I
have written just for me. I am slowly but surely coming around to the idea that people other than me have that same itch to scratch, and might actually appreciate “my” stories.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
Alexandre Dumas is the big gimme, right off the bat. I love him, I love his work, and I think everyone should read him. He soothes the soul. Many of my favourite authors cite him as an influence – Umberto Eco, Nick Harkaway, Michael Chabon, Arturo Pérez-Reverte. I think that’s company I’d like to be in. But Dumas’s legacy extends beyond swashbuckling adventure into historical fiction more generally, and I am in awe of what the best literary historical storytellers have written: Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall books, even Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. They are absolute inspirations, all of them.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on one novel (an 18th century dieselpunk ice age novel set on Canada’s east coast) and one accidental novel (a strange thing about cave monsters and romance that was meant to be a writing warm-up but which has stolen a lot of my time and interest.) Those will probably be in the pipe for eons, though. More imminently, I have been doing some RPG writing. That should be published before long!
“The Joy in Wounding” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Clicking on Charlotte Ashley’s picture will take you to her website: http://once-and-future.com/
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Interview: M. Rickert on “Evergreen”
Tags: InterviewsTell us a bit about “Evergreen.”
“Evergreen” is a Christmas ghost story.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
The inspiration for “Evergreen” arose from a trip I took back to Saratoga Spring, New York where I lived many years ago. I went there to spend time with the family I had been a nanny for after the boy I had cared for (grown by then) died. I spent a few mornings in the same coffee shop I had used for a location in another ghost story I wrote, “Journey into the Kingdom,” and the main character from that story makes an appearance in this one. The story is populated by the dead from my life and my imagination.
Was there any aspect of “Evergreen” you found difficult to write?
No.
Why do you write?
Well this is a pretty large question, and I’m not sure I know the answer. I am good at writing, and the lifestyle of solitude suits my disposition very well. I love the work on every level. I love the blank page, I love the arrival, I love the intense engagement with words and meaning and the mystical.
Many of your stories are concerned with ghosts and memory. Why are these such pressing themes in your work?
I’m not sure what it is about ghosts exactly, except that they are rarely frightening in my work but act as conduits of melancholia and, in that regard, probably aspects of memory as well. I am very interested in ideas of perception and suspect this is rooted in my youth as a cross-eyed child. I was younger than six when I began remarking on the pairings I saw in my world, and how strange it was that only one was real while both seemed very present. I think this fascination with existence and reality began then.
What are you working on now?
I finished a novel manuscript this summer and it is currently under submission. We’ll see what happens there. I do suspect I’ll find more to pick at there, but for now I am keeping some distance. Since then I have been enjoying writing short stories, most of which feature an older protagonist. I have an idea for a collection of these, but a ways to go before I’ll have enough material.
“Evergreen” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Interview: Gregor Hartmann on “A Hand at the Service of Darkness”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “A Hand at the Service of Darkness.”
A police detective with a strong sense of ethics is dragged into a nasty political operation. It’s a problem many of us face: the world says do, your conscience says don’t. Is it possible to wiggle out of the dilemma?
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
Pankaj Mishra’s From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia explores the various ways in which Asian intellectuals reacted to the impact of Western modernism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. It’s a fascinating book on many levels. It introduced me to peripatetic agitators who were often forced into exile, so they had to agitate for reform in their home countries while lurking in another. Tensen’s domination of Zephyr is a future example of the colonialism Mishra wrote about.
In fleshing out the world of your Zephyr stories, you’ve written in several different modes: sf, mystery, religious experience, etc. How do you find the experience of trying out these various storytelling templates?
I wouldn’t say I have a template. Writing for me is like assembling a mosaic from kaleidoscopic fragments. I start with an idea. Bits of dialogue and action occur. Sentences grow into paragraphs and scenes. Pieces are rearranged and discarded. I keep an “outtakes” file. One of my metrics for knowing I’ve written enough is that for a 6,000-word story, say, I’ll have at least 6,000 words of discarded text. Eventually the pieces align themselves into something coherent. It’s frustrating because I often start out intending to tell a particular story, but then the characters and the situation take over and drag me in a different direction. Charlie keeps buying these runaway tales, so I guess the process works.
Did you do any special research for this story?
I’m not a gun owner. So to better understand Philippa, I went to a firing range and paid for three hours of instruction in handguns (from a trainer who turned out to be a retired homicide inspector!). We started with a Glock 17 and advanced to a Glock 19, which, despite the larger number, is a compact gun (lighter weight, shorter barrel, more easily hidden) suitable for a detective. Going through a couple of boxes of 9mm rounds did not make me an expert, but I feel now I can write a shooting scene more realistically.
What are you working on now?
Philippa and her detective trainee Jun (“The Unbearable Lightness of Bullets” in the March/April issue) are on another puzzling case.
“A Hand at the Service of Darkness” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
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Interview: Benjamin Rosenbaum on “Rejoice, My Brothers and Sisters”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “Rejoice, My Brothers and Sisters.”
I guess I spend a lot of time thinking about what we, we humans, might become — partly because it reflects on who we are now, but only partly. I’m also just honestly consumed with curiosity.
I have a fascinated skepticism about the Rapture of the Nerds school of science fictional thought (which has probably passed its peak of popularity, but I still think about it). You know the one: we upload ourselves into the cloud and live as pure minds, or build ourselves indestructible robot bodies, and that’s the end of war and disease and death and unhappiness, all of which were just problems of running on an inadequate platform or being insufficiently optimized. Like the brain is a machine and the mind is software and the body is a peripheral you can upgrade, and epistemology is as transparent as glass, and society and culture the passive amalgamation of individual decisions…
What all that gets wrong is in glibly handwaving away our ineluctable embodiedness — which amounts to a kind of philosophical dualism — the body as vehicle. It betrays a kind of dread and discomfort with the messy reality of being a body, and a touching, simplistic naïveté about ethics and ontology. It’s a smooth, appealing lie.
What it gets right, though, is about our malleability. The inverse of the Rapture of the Nerds — which would be, what, the Lassitude of the Jocks? — comfortably imagines us just plugging along as we’ve always been, and that’s equally false. It’s like the Flintsones/Jetsons model of history, in which we project dishwashers, two-car-garages, bosses docking our pay and stay-at-home-mom, bridge-playing wives into the far past and future.
if we stick around and keep fiddling with things like we have been, learning like we have been, we actually are going to change dramatically. And it will be messy, and morally fraught, and ambiguous, and unimaginable. And there will be discontents.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I actually wrote the first draft of this for a contest. It had a very specific prompt, which was basically two set paragraphs, the original first (telephone pole, soggy teddy bears) and twenty-fifth (bullhorn, milk crate) paragraphs of the story.
I like prompts a lot.
The contest seemed to be going for a very realistic-contemporary-literary take on social justice movements, in those paragraphs. We were probably meant to be in Flint or Ferguson or Baltimore, and we were probably meant to apply, to that setting, the genre techniques of literary fiction: restrained prose, closely observed precision in details of contemporary life, muted but immense emotion lurking in the background, an obsession with emotional inner life coupled with a terror of sentimentality. These sorts of techniques animated all those stories of Sad White People at Dinner Parties, all those fortysomething college professors meditating on their affairs with undergraduates, all those weary women staring out of kitchen windows thinking of cancer, who I had to read in creative writing courses at a fancy college in the eighties.
Don’t get me wrong; I like lots of exemplars of that genre. I’m a fan of Anne Tyler; I’m a worshipper of Austen. But as a set of genre expectations, it can quickly grow stifling; if I am asked to restrict myself to those set of techniques for the length of an entire story, I am apt to decide that, like Charlotte Brontë, I can hardly bear “to live with these ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses”.
And surely they are not the only techniques to apply to such a historical moment.
I am, as an American, very concerned — not to say implicated — in the outpourings of long-overdue unrest over our racist carceral state. I also am very far, in social space, from the cracked sidewalk and soggy teddy bears that that contest wanted me to talk about. For me to try to address them head-on, with the techniques of literary fiction? I don’t think I could avoid tourism, appropriation, or mawkishness.
But I thought it would be interesting to flip the telescope around and look through the other end, not with, as Charlotte said of Jane, “a miniature delicacy”, not a close observation — but, rather, to view the agents of historical change as tiny figures, seen at a great distance. To transport the soggy teddy bears very far from the scenes of my country’s daily brutality, to situate them in an exploration of entirely different issues, to render the familiar strange.
Was “Rejoice, My Brothers and Sisters” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
It’s always personal, and I rarely know how. At least at first.
“Start the Clock” (F&SF, Aug 2004) is about a plague that stops aging, and the society that results from it; it’s also very much about the frustrations of househunting with old friends, trying and failing to live next door to each other in Virginia in 2003, and the acute and disappointing gap between the spirit of our childhood vows and the reality of all our adult variables and compromises. But that interpretation wasn’t consciously present when I wrote it.
Okay: I am a dislocated outsider in the place that I live; an immigrant who sometimes feels like a castaway. Like I came here for a specific purpose, little realizing what I was getting myself into. “Here” means Switzerland, mainly, but I think I also mean this universe. I have a body, or I am a body, and that body is a terribly fragile thing, gradually disintegrating, unlikely to last even another century. Somehow I have ended up stuck in this body, in this strange strand of history that often feels unreal, put-on, like a dystopian punchline.
Why do you write?
I like to take the things that are happening in my brain and try to make somehow corresponding things happen in other people’s brains. It makes me feel less alone. I particularly like it when lots of people do this and we all put our ideas in each others’ brains and the ideas go zing-pang-pow back and forth.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
Well my traditional answer to this question was all the people I grew up reading? I mean when I was little, Dr. Suess and Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak, and then Tolkein and Le Guin and Lloyd Alexander and Tove Jannson and T. H. White and Susan Cooper, and also Asimov and Heinlein and Pohl and Hal Clement and Alexei Panshin and Le Guin and Zelazny and Michael Moorcock and David Brin and Larry Niven (some of those have aged so much better than others!), and then when I was a little older, Delany and Tiptree and Le Guin and Russ and Octavia Butler, and Neil Stephenson, and also Kobo Abe and Donald Barthelme and Italo Calvino and Milan Kundera and Borges. That about takes us through high school, for prose fiction? It ignores all the films and comics and nonfiction and poetry and things. I mean, Marvel Comics and Lao Tse and the Talmud and Alan Moore and e. e. cummings too. It was almost impossible to read for fun in college, but I would not have read Gadamer or Geertz or Haraway or Kristeva or Spivak or the Ramayana or Moshe Idel or Gershom Scholem had I not gone, so fair enough. It was only after college that I allowed myself to discover Dostoyevsky and Austen and George Elliot.
This is probably more than you wanted, and I have not actually scratched the surface, because in many ways the biggest influences are actually contemporaries and compatriots, the people I trade manuscripts back and forth with and collaborate with and see excitedly at cons. If I begin to name them I will neglect too many; but you know, Cory Doctorow and Amal El-Mohtar and David Moles and Kelly Link and Ted Chiang and Meghan McCarron and Sofia Samatar and Jed Hartman and Mary Anne Mohanraj and Liz Gorinsky… oh, there are far too many to name. Also your mighty editor Charlie Finlay! Charlie is an amazing story doctor. It probably took me a decade after he started editing F&SF to cure myself of the habit of accidentally sending him stories to critique, forcing him to politely ask if they were submissions.
What are you working on now?
I am about to begin a final(?) round of edits for my forthcoming novel, “The Unraveling”, under the able hand of the brilliant Liz Gorinsky. It is due out from Erewhon Books in July 2020, and you should go preorder it at https://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-Benjamin-Rosenbaum-ebook/dp/B07WJ12KZN if alternate genders and dislocated revolutions and satires of modern parenting and ubiquitous sousveillance and anthropological thought experiments and wrestling with the kind of moral agency we actually have in a large complex world and how utopia doesn’t look like utopia from the inside are your cup of tea.
I am also working on a Jewish historical fantasy interactive fiction game set in 1881 in a shtetl on the border between Poland and Ukraine, and possibly a card game about revolutionaries in the asteroid belt, and maybe an alternate-anthropological story cycle about a matrifocal society with horses and swords, and also a lot of other things.
Also, my little sister, who is an accomplished indie filmmaker, is making a movie of my short story “Night Waking”, and it’s crowdfunding now on Seed & Spark, check it out: https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/night-waking
“Rejoice, My Brothers and Sisters” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-november-december-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Click on Mr. Rosenbaum’s photo ((c) 2015 Karen Rosenbaum) to visit his website.
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Interview: James Morrow on “Bird Thou Never Wert”
Tags: Interviews
What prompted you to write “Bird Thou Never Wert”?
The story—novelette, really—began life as a potential contribution to Ellen Datlow’s avian horror anthology, Black Feathers. But when I sat down at the computer, what came out of my brain was not a horror story at all but a fable about the uses and misuses of magic. So Ellen and I looked at each other and agreed I should let my enchanted eagle fly off on his own.
Was “Bird Thou Never Wert” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
I suppose any piece of fiction about a fiction writer is ipso facto personal for its author. But the dimension of “Bird Thou Never Wert” that means the most to me is the animal rights subtext. During the composition process, the cruelties visited upon my enchanted eagle turned the story into a quasi-parable about humanity’s pathological attitude toward the biosphere, the malignant idea that nature exists essentially for our benefit.
Can you tell us about any research you may have done for this story?
My original outline merely called for a bird whose blood and feathers (employed as ink and writing implements respectively) could turn an amateur scribbler into a master of genre fiction. At some point I decided that my eagle must be an archetype of some sort, so I looked into Hindu mythology and eventually came upon the story of Garuda and Aruna.
What aspect of this story was the most fun to write?
In the earliest drafts, the story was framed as a critical essay, written by my female protagonist, Marsha Waszynski, introducing an omnibus of horror stories by the late, legendary Darko Cromdahl. But I came to realize there was something incoherent about that conceit. What editor in his or her right mind would publish a collection prefaced by an exposé declaring the book a fraud? My fix made me happy. Marsha’s knowledge of Darko’s modus operandi is something she’s been keeping to herself, and she shares that inside dope, privately, only when circumstances force her to come forward. Hence the story’s epistolary form.
Why do you write?
I love the potential of fiction to disorient people with ideas that would otherwise never have occurred to them. If I’m thrilled and unnerved by one of my thought experiments, I figure there’s a chance the reader will have the same response.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
I’m a satirist by trade, and I would have to put Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Sheckley, and Joseph Heller at the top of the list.
What are you working on now?
In the 1980’s I did a cycle of scriptural spoofs under the rubric Bible Stories for Adults. I’ve recently rebooted the series. So far I’ve completed “The Jawbone” (an anti-NRA take on the Samson legend), “The Great Fish” (a theological phantasmagoria riffing on the Book of Jonah), and “The Twin Cities” (narrating what really went down in Sodom and Gomorrah).
“Bird Thou Never Wert” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Click on Mr. Morrow’s photo to visit his website.
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Interview: Rebecca Zahabi on “It Never Snows in Snowtown”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “It Never Snows in Snowtown.”
Our main character decides to take a guided tour of their hometown to learn a bit more about the history of the place. But despite its cotton candy and ice-skating rings, Snowtown turns out to be a lot more sinister than it seems… After all, what is this thing falling from the sky, if not snow?
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I had a dream in which I was the main character walking around Snowtown, and I had an awfully bad feeling about the snow. It kept nagging at the back of my mind that the snow wasn’t right. My guide seemed nice enough at first, but in the strange way dreams have, he started mutating, turning into something monstrous. Then I woke up and wrote the end of the dream.
Was there any aspect of “It Never Snows in Snowtown” that you found difficult to write?
A few days after this dream, I got together with some friends and we decided we would all write a Christmas ghost story. So now I had the theme/genre, and my subconscious had given me most of the plot. The main difficulty lay in making sure the story was subtle enough that it kept that dream-like quality, without becoming confusing. The other difficulty was keeping the main character gender-neutral throughout, so people could project a man or a woman there, as they wished.
The theme of apparent perfection concealing its own moral corruption has a long literary history. What made you wish to engage with this theme, and in what ways did you strive to put your own spin on it?
I find Christmas to be an awkward period of the year. Don’t get me wrong – I love Christmas. But suddenly we’re all rushing out to buy presents and toys for people who don’t always need or want them. We know that a lot of our cheap goods come from people who are paid badly, and treated worse. But we still go out and buy them. With that in mind, I tried to write a story that would work on two levels: as a speculative story by itself, and as a metaphor for what we might discover, should we choose to look more closely at the world we live in. We might not like the answers we find.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a novel inspired by the world of e-sports. To put it simply: it is e-sports, if e-sports were magic. Or maybe it’s Pokémon gone wrong, in which letting semi-conscious creatures fight for entertainment is nastier than it sounds. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about this project at a later date! I’m also working on an online comic with my sister: https://www.narcissa.org/
“It Never Snows in Snowtown” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
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Interview: Matthew Hughes on “A Geas of the Purple School”
Tags: InterviewsWhat was the inspiration for “A Geas of the Purple School” or what prompted you to write it?
Baldemar has been evolving, as my characters tend to do. I wanted to put him in a new situation while at the same time pulling back to show more of the Dying Earthesque world in which he lives. Comments from readers tell me they like visiting Old Earth and I’m happy to give them a new neighborhood to explore.
Although Baldemar is no thief, he does sometimes have need to commit trespass or fight his way out of a jam. How did you learn about the interesting details of roguery that make their way into your Archonate Universe stories?
By being a rogue, myself. I am the white sheep of my family, which is largely populated by persons who have at least some passing familiarity with the criminal half-world. Among close relatives, I can count incidences of arson, theft, fraud, receipt of stolen goods, and burglary. Also, I use my imagination.
What was the most difficult aspect of this story to write, and what was the most fun?
None of it was difficult. I listen to what the guy in the back of my head tells me then write it down. The most fun was writing Baldemar under the power of the geas. I sometimes enjoy treading on my characters’ dignity.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing a final Baldemar novelette, “The Glooms” that deals with what happens when he “retires” after Thelerion gets his just reward in “The Sword of Destiny.” That novelette, which first ran in Gardner Dozois’s anthology, The Book of Swords, is available for a free read on Curious Fictions: https://curiousfictions.com/stories/2431-matthew-hughes-the-sword-of-destiny
I’d also like to plug my magical realism/historical novel, What The Wind Brings (Pulp Literature Press), which will be released in December in trade paperback and ebook editions. It’s my magnum opus, about shipwrecked African slaves allying with indigenous peoples in mid-1500s coastal Ecuador to fight off Spanish colonial forces and win their freedom.
“A Geas of the Purple School” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Click on Mr. Hughes’s photo to visit his website.
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Interview: Marie Vibbert on “Knit Three, Save Four”
Tags: Interviews
What was the inspiration for the story?
“Knit Three, Save Four” was written on something of a dare. I was doing the Clarion Write-a-thon and writing a story every day, and so I was very open to prompts. As I chatted about my writing with a friend, and was busily knitting, she said, “You need to do a story that incorporates knitting. I know! You could knit a spaceship!”
So that was my prompt. “Knit a spaceship.” I quickly came up with the idea of knitting a net around a spaceship to fix a structural problem, and a stowaway as the protagonist. I bugged my friends for ideas on the structural problem and Geoff Landis and Darrin Bright were particularly helpful in suggesting other ways to fix the problem. Heh heh! So handy for that “fail three times then succeed” plot shape!
Was the story personal in any way?
Obviously, I knit. I knit a lot. I use knitting as a way to not feel guilty or like I’m wasting my life when I have to sit still, say on a train or in a lecture. I was knitting when, on a Greyhound from New York City home to Cleveland, I talked to a young woman whose story inspired my main character’s. She worked summers on Lake Michigan, selling snow cones on the beach, then did the same thing in Florida in the winters, and used her money to keep traveling. It sounded like a hard but rewarding life. I’ve always wanted to travel more but never had the ready cash… but of course I decided to spend most of my ready cash on a house, so here was a path untaken.
What was the most difficult part of the story to write? What was the most fun?
The most difficult was actually the knitting. I started out using a mesh pattern my sister had used to make excellent shopping bags, but it was too complicated to convey. I had to rely heavily on my first readers to point out when my explanations were more confusing than helpful.
After my first draft, I decided to go Full Hard SF and make it near-future, no convenient artificial gravity. That was surprisingly fun to do. Constraints make stories more fun, and we forget that sometimes.
The funnest part was coming up with the characters. Years ago, there was a game called Dice Land that had a character named Fat Robot Steve and I was in love with that name and had been daydreaming about writing a story about Fat Robot Steve for decades. I decided the family was Philippine, so I renamed him Fat Robot Chen to have a more Asian feel. “He looks like my buddy, if he were a robot, and fat,” was the explanation I dreamed up for Fat Robot Steve’s name when I first heard it.
What are you working on now?
I’ll be presenting a paper at the 90 Years of Analog conference in New York in December. It’s a statistical analysis of the prevalence of female names in tables of contents over the years. I’m not an academic and so very nervous about it.
I’m putting together a poetry chapbook, tentatively titled “Rustbelt Robots.” I feel all the imposter syndrome, all the time!
Otherwise, I’m shopping around short stories and revising two novels in the hopes that someone, someday might want to see them, and writing another novel because I am Always Writing A Novel. Always. Sorry.
“Knit Three, Save Four” appears in the November/December 2019 issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc2010-19.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Marie Vibbert’s website: http://www.marievibbert.com/
C. C. Finlay interviews Kelly Link on “The White Cat’s Divorce”
Tags: Interviews
“The White Cat’s Divorce” was commissioned by the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, for their 2018 exhibit “Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World” and was published in the catalog for the show. Which is not an ordinary venue for speculative fiction! How did that come about?
Emily Stamey, who conceived of the exhibit and then curated it, contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a fairy tale for the catalog. I went to high school in Greensboro, and then grad school at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, so that was a strong inducement. I went down and met with Emily, and we went through the pieces that she was hoping to include in the exhibit, and then I came home again and wrote the story.
Was your process different for writing this story, just because it might reach a different audience or had a different kind of venue?
Not really! Any audience, whether they are encountering this kind of story in a genre magazine or an art catalogue, will have some familiarity with fairytales. They’re more or less in our DNA. But when I sent it off to her, I didn’t know entirely what she would think since she was a new editor for me. Fortunately it turned to be more or less what she had in mind when she invited me to contribute.
I’ve been working on a new collection of stories, all of which have roots in various fairytales — “The White Cat’s Divorce” is based on Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy’s “The White Cat”. You can find it here: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/whitecat.html
But it’s also based on my working relationship with Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. The three of us (and sometimes other writer friends) work together on a regular basis. We’re engaged in our own novels/stories/etc, but we also spend a fair amount of time talking with each other about our projects. Holly wrote a trilogy of contemporary young adult novels that are loosely connected to the original fairytale (the first novel in Holly’s series is WHITE CAT) and she tells a version of the fairytale that made me reconsider what’s at the heart of that story. It’s also incredibly funny. So I’d had “White Cat” on the brain for a long time.
You and your husband Gavin Grant recently opened a bookstore. How did that happen and where should people go if they want to buy all the books?
Yes! The owner of a small used/new bookstore in Easthampton had been trying to find new owners for quite some time. Thanks to the MacArthur Foundation, Gavin and I were in a position where we could take it over. It’s now called Book Moon and you can find us at bookmoonbooks.com. Physically, we’re located at 86 Cottage Street in Easthampton, next door to the sushi restaurant. There’s a great cocktail bar down the street. Gavin and I originally met working at a new and used bookstore, Avenue Victor Hugo, in Boston. So this is a happy return for us.
We hear you’re working on a novel… but we’re afraid that if we ask about that, it will jinx things. What other kinds of things are you working on right now? (We admit we were pretty chuffed to see GHOST OF THE SHADOW MARKET by Cassandra Clare, you, and some other great writers in our local grocery store this week.)
I now have about 190,000 words of novel. I’m hoping to have a very messy first draft done by the end of the year, so that I can get to the pleasurable part: revising. I’m also about two stories away from having a collection’s worth of short stories. And if Cassie ever wants me to write more short stories with her, I’m down for that. It’s a blast.
Any general advice about zombies?
Don’t lick them.
“The White Cat’s Divorce” appears in the 70th Anniversary Issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc1909.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Visit Kelly Link’s website by clicking on her photo.
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Interview: Michael Moorcock on “Kabul”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “Kabul.”
It’s story in a sequence of stories from the point of view of a Russian agent in London, mostly, leading up to the third world war. The recurring central character, a Jew, describes his experiences of those years until he is called into action with a Cossack division of cavalry in a world ravaged by nuclear strikes.
Was “Kabul” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
All my stories are very personal. I wrote this sequence over forty years.
Can you tell us about any research you may have done for this story?
I have been interested in modern Soviet-Russian history for fifty years.
What would you want a reader to take away from “Kabul?”
The complexity of a world virtually destroyed by simple answers.
Why do you write?
Apart from music, I know no other way to make a living. I’ve been doing it professionally for 65 years!
Who do you consider to be your influences?
In this case Isaac Babel, one of the great Russo-Ukrainian writers of the 20th century.
There are several fb pages where I can be contacted, including Jeremiah Cornelius and The Multiversal Resort. A website, Moorcocks Miscellany, also exists.
“Kabul” appears in the 70th Anniversary Issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc1909.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
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Interview: Y.M. Pang on “Little Inn on the Jianghu”
Tags: Interviews
Tell us a bit about “Little Inn on the Jianghu.“
“Little Inn on the Jianghu” is a parody of wuxia (Chinese martial arts) stories. Instead of starring a hero with inhuman fighting ability, it follows an innkeeper whose inn is constantly being destroyed due to all the fighting.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I’ve watched my share of wuxia TV shows, especially adaptations of Jin Yong’s work. Innkeepers are truly the most unfortunate characters in wuxia–and in historical dramas, which feature similar tropes. Heck, it’ll be a stretch calling innkeepers characters, since they are unnamed and speak 1-2 lines before all hell breaks loose. I’ve always wondered, how on earth could these innkeepers stay in business when their inns are getting smashed 24/7? How deeply must they hate those jianghu “heroes,” who unceasingly choose inns as convenient battlegrounds and leave smashed tables and broken doors in their wake.
Surely some innkeeper somewhere has decided, “That’s enough,” and is looking to hunt down a jianghu hero in return. This is the story of that innkeeper.
My decision to write about “the unfortunate innkeeper” may also have been influenced by more than wuxia, subconsciously. When sharing the story with beta readers, some of them–who had little prior experience with wuxia–still understood the humour, because it reminded them of RPGs or westerns. Wuxia and westerns are basically first cousins. Just switch the swords for guns, and the inns for saloons. Both exist in worlds where lawlessness rules the day and businesses get screwed over either way.
Was “Little Inn on the Jianghu” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
Not particularly. Though I will say: after working in retail for a couple of years, I sympathize with the innkeeper even more.
Can you tell us about any of the research you may have done for this story?
I did some research about food, rations, and bamboo forests. But ultimately, the story is about depicting the world of wuxia, which is notorious for departing from actual history. The clothing and hairstyles, for instance, are likely not an accurate reflection of the historical period, which Innkeep Cheng points out.
What aspect of “Little Inn on the Jianghu” was the most fun to write?
The banter between Innkeep Cheng (poor guy, even I’m calling him Innkeep) and Yifeng. She is fully immersed in their wuxia world, while he sees through its seams but can do little about it.
Oh, and the climax.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
Among modern fantasy writers, Patrick Rothfuss has unrivalled prose, while also being top-notch in crafting plot and character. I really admire Brandon Sanderson for his tight plots, work ethic, and strong endings. And like many writers–nay, people–my age, I grew up reading Harry Potter.
But the author who influenced me most may not be an epic fantasy writer at all. It may be Katherine Paterson. The Great Gilly Hopkins and Bridge to Terabithia blew my mind as a fourth-grader. I’d encountered fictional tragedy before, in the TV adaptation of Water Margin that I watched intermittent episodes of as a child. But Paterson showed me how it can be done in modern literature, and influenced how I thought about plot, resolution, and character development–namely, not all progression needs to be in a positive direction.
What are you working on now?
I am editing a visual novel I wrote a few years ago (think of it like a choose-your-own-adventure book but played on a computer, with images). As usual, I also have a dozen short stories and novels in varying stages of completion. One short story is starting to become a novella, which is a tragically common occurrence for me.
“Little Inn on the Jianghu” appears in the 70th Anniversary Issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc1909.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
Click on the author’s photo to visit her website.
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Interview: Nick Wolven on “The Light on Eldoreth”
Tags: InterviewsTell us a bit about “The Light on Eldoreth.”
“The Light on Eldoreth” is a Swiftian satire with an unsatisfying ending. It’s a stylistic experiment with traditionalist pretensions. It’s a throwback, but I like it that way.
What was the inspiration for this story, or what prompted you to write it?
I wrote it because Facebook stole my birthday wishes. I wrote it because Twitter gave me a case of the howling fantods. I wrote it because I’m too ugly for Instagram. I wrote it because Kevin Kelly’s still wireheading dopamine hits from a utopian mirrorworld that died with the eighties arcade. I wrote it because I bought a Cory Doctorow novel about the future and it turned out to be a paean to the past. I wrote it because I didn’t know what else to do, because the skeptics were right and the prophets were wrong, because we’re living in a cyberpunk world with too much cyber and too few punks and I’m afraid that in fifty years the wasted, bonestrewn remains of the biosphere will be haunted by the uploaded ghost of Tyler Cowen.
I wrote it, in short, because I lost faith in the power of technological progress to save us from our horrible selves. That happened, actually, about ten years ago, but I’m a slow thinker and I’m still learning how to cope.
Was “The Light on Eldoreth” personal to you in any way? If so, how?
No. It’s about as impersonal as a story can get. It’s barely even a story at all, really, just a jumble of half-finished thought experiments that have been strung up on the thinnest possible thread of a plot. But it does touch on one of my personal beliefs, which is that we live in the worst of all possible worlds.
I believe our universe is a giant machine optimally calibrated for the production of suffering. The Second Law gave us chemistry, chemistry gave us life, and life gave us hungers, predations, parasitisms, diseases, deaths, and nameless terrors. Even our smallest pleasures are predicated on pain, exertion of will, destruction, dominance, consumption, control. Nature is a symphony of horrors, history a pageant of atrocities. Life is a panicked, futile flight from dread to disappointment. Our lust for love sharpens the pangs of loneliness. Our hopes are a pitiful prelude to despair. Our search for meaning serves as a garnish to toxic existential angst. Our gods become torturers thirsting for blood, our heroes are exposed as rapacious conquerors, our martyrs sacrifice themselves for the sake of evil fantasies. Our noblest dreams spur the flanks of our worst nightmares. We’re born to watch our parents die, our children suffer, to feel our bodies break and decay, to know that everything we cherish will be mocked and undone by generations to come.
The ultimate destiny of all sentient creatures is to serve the sadistic teleology of the cosmos by spreading pain throughout the stars, awakening the inert material of heaven to awareness of its own innate futility, shaping the stock resources of existence into manifold instances of a single mind screaming in infinite agony. At the end of all things, the last surviving soul will look back on the crumbled relics of negentropy and realize that, like every soul before, it lived for no purpose, suffered for no reason, and is now doomed to die alone.
Our only consolation is that this seemingly purposeless pageant of pain might serve as a source of pleasure to some higher being, a demiurge succored on our suffering, who draws from our tears the sustenance it needs to endure still higher forms of torture–and on and on, through a great chain of torment, to the supreme miseries of a cardinal god.
Can you tell us about any of the research you may have done for this story?
I could, but wouldn’t that spoil the fun?
Why do you write?
Out of habit, mostly.
Who do you consider to be your influences?
The usual folks.
Anything else you’d like to add?
The new Tool album’s a major disappointment. The Dark Crystal has always had an uncanny valley problem. Red Dead Redemption II is the Heaven’s Gate of video games. Octavia Butler’s Dawn is a problematic fave. Chimamanda Adichie is a better defender of the nation state than Jill Lepore. Wesley Morris has a point. Martin Gurri got it right. Send your wrathful comments to the editor.
“The Light on Eldoreth” appears in the 70th Anniversary Issue of F&SF.
You can buy a paper copy of the issue here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/toc1909.htm
You can buy an electronic copy of the issue here: https://weightlessbooks.com/authors/kelly-link-authors/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-september-october-2019/
You can subscribe to the print edition of F&SF here: https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/subscribe.htm
You can subscribe to the electronic edition of F&SF at the following links:
Weightless Books (all formats): https://weightlessbooks.com/format/the-magazine-of-fantasy-and-science-fiction-6-issue-subscription/
Amazon US (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZFZ4O8/
Amazon UK (Kindle edition):http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZFZ4O
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