Questions and Answers Shawn P. Madison lives with his wife of twelve years in Virginia Beach, Virginia where their proximity to the Atlantic Ocean acts as an almost therapeutic agent. He has written in the genres of action, childrens, contemporary, fantasy, horror, mystery, non-fiction and science fiction. Along with two cats and a dog, he and his wife hope to make Virginia their permanent home. What are you currently working on? I am currently finishing up the second Guarder novel, "The Guarder Factor: Crisis On Shining," which is not actually a sequel to "Guarder Lore" but does take place immediately after the events of that first book. The initial writing is completed (originally done in pencil in a notebook) and I am in the process of transferring the novel into the computer, rewriting where necessary as I go along. I hope to have it completed and to the publisher within the next month or so. Who or what has been a major influence on your writing and why? I believe the largest influence on my writing were several authors--Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury when I was younger. They were the ones who inspired me to write originally (and still do to this day). As I entered my late teens, I was avidly reading everything I could by both Alan Dean Foster and Piers Anthony, two authors who have proven that they can write about virtually anything and that cross-genre writing can be done with success. Other than those four authors who stand out in my memory, I am inspired mostly by science fiction and sports. Most of my work is in the science fiction genre, and will continue to be, but I have several sports-related projects slated in the future. I also greatly enjoy writing non-fiction articles, mostly of the memoir-type. With which of your works are you most/least satisfied and why? Although I really can't choose just one of my short stories that I am least satisfied with, there are several that I feel are too short to tell the story that I really wanted to tell. I have been thinking about expanding several of them, a horror story titled "Bones" stands out the most, but I have to finish the several projects I am currently working on first. As for a work that I am most satisfied with, I think the first book in the New Conflict Saga, "Shades Of Red," really sets the tone for the universe that most of my sci/fi work takes place in--The United Earthian Nations. Although "Shades Of Red" was written first (along with a detailed time-line that I have used extensively to keep other short stories in line), the novel needs to be re-written before actually being submitted to a publisher. Once that novel is finished and in the hands of a publisher, I hope it will be the first of what I plan to be a trilogy of books on The New Conflict and I won't be complaining if there's a fourth or a fifth. There's a lot to tell and I am looking forward to writing the rest of the series, whenever that may be. Who (Fact or Fiction) would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them? From a writing standpoint, I have already met the man who I most wanted to meet--the father of "modern" science fiction, Isaac Asimov. I was lucky enough to attend a lecture he gave in New York City one evening about 13 years ago, "An Evening With Isaac." At the end of the lecture, I was able to shake his hand and get his autograph on my hardcover copy of "Robots And Empire." Unfortunately, I never did ask him a question that night despite the fact that he did include a Q & A session. If I had, I would probably have asked him how it felt to have such a major influence on an entire genre of writing and what it meant to him to spark inspiration in so many other authors who had sat in wonder as children as they read his books? If you take writing out of the picture, the man I would most like to meet is Reggie Jackson. Growing up on the Jersey side of the Hudson River, New York sports have played a major role in my life and I have been a Yankee fan for more than 25 years. My favorite baseball player of all time remains Reggie Jackson--he is a living legend in sports and I would love to have the chance to meet him and discuss his career. Is there a book or story you wish you had written? Like everyone who grew up on science fiction and fantasy, there are three books I wish I had written--the Lord Of The Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. What else is there to say? He was the master, he wrote a saga that remains as powerful today as it was when it first appeared all of those decades ago. His tales of Middle Earth are so sweeping and heroic, he basically sparked the beginnings of the fantasy sub-genre. Everyone who came after tried to come as close as they could to his mastery, all the while knowing that it was truly impossible. Is writing your full-time occupation, if not what is? Unfortunately, at this time the answer is NO, although I hope it will be some day. For now, I am a District Manager for a storage company called U-Store-It, based out of Cleveland, OH. I help to supervise several storage sites in North Carolina and am trying to assist their efforts in expanding into the state of Virginia. If there ever is a day that I can put forth all of my time and energy into writing as a full-time career, I will finally have the time to devote to the many novels and short stories that are now only ideas scribbled on notebook pages and stuck in a folder on my desk. Needless to say, I can not wait for that day to arrive... What was your first professional sale? How did it feel when you received the acceptance? Actually this is a difficult question for me. I guess my answer depends on how you define "professional sale." I have recently signed with NovelBooks, Inc. for the publishing of my first novel, "Guarder Lore." If all goes according to plan, I will receive some royalties from the sales of that book once it is released on 3/4/02. As for short stories, I have recently been accepted by a short story anthology that will also be paying royalties on sales and, of course, will receive payment for the short stories that will soon appear on THE ETERNAL NIGHT. Other than that, I have been paid in contributors copies before for short stories, but have not received any monetary payment as of yet. I can say with all certainty that the feeling I had when I opened up my mailbox and saw a magazine which contained my work for the first time was the most incredible experience of my life. After so many years of trying, it was an amazing feeling to see that all of my efforts had finally paid off. That was in June of 1999 and I have had more than 30 short stories published since then, both in print and on the internet. Each time I receive an acceptance of any kind, a thrill passes through my body. This feeling of utter joy confirms for me that I want to make a career out of writing. Who is your favorite author? Another toughy...overall, considering all genres and all types of writing, I would have to say that my favorite author is Robert B. Parker. I have read every single novel this man has put out and still think that Spenser is the best written PI in the business. I have read Chandler and Spillane so I am well versed in Marlowe and Hammer but I still think that Robert B. Parker's easy style and the way that his words literally flow off the pages, makes him an author that I go back to time and time again. He commands a style of writing that no one comes close to and his characters leap from the story in vivid color. I know that it's strange for a writer of mostly sci/fi and horror to have a mystery author as his favorite but there it is. If you could give one piece of advice to a would-be author, what would it be? That's easy--be persistent. Persistence is the key to success in writing. If you really want to write, keep at it. Learn not to allow rejections to bother you or stop you in your writing efforts. I should know, I have more than 80 rejections and the stack in my REJECTIONS Binder continues to grow. It is a normal part of the business, at least for me, but you need to keep at it and keep at it and keep at it if writing is what you really want to do. Persistence... When did you first decide that you wanted to be an author? When I was in high school and began reading through the annual NOEMA magazine. This work was put out by the Student Council and contained everything from poems to pictures to illustrations to fiction. It was the fiction part that inspired me to try my hand at writing. One piece of fantasy, sword and sorcery, made me think that I could produce something better. I had been reading voraciously for quite some time by then and I had a pretty good grasp on what was good and what wasn't. It was that magazine that first made me put pencil to paper and pull a story from my mind. I plan on re-writing that story one of these days. Although it is amateurish to the point of belly-laughing, the basic plot is solid and can be re-worked into something better. When did you first feel that you were an author? I don't think that there was any single moment where I sat back and said to myself that I was an author. I think that feeling grew slowly inside me as the acceptances started to outnumber the rejections for the first time in my life. This happened from September through December of last year and I started to get feedback from fans on my stories. At one time in my life I thought I would be lucky if I could ever get 10 stories published. Now that I have 34 original stories published and 9 of them reprinted and have a novel coming out next year and write a monthly book review for an internet magazine called THE OUTER RIM, I think in my mind that I am an author and it's good to have that feeling these days. Are you for or against e-books? Since my first book is coming out both as an e-book and as a trade paperback, I guess that makes me an automatic fan of e-books. Actually, I spend a lot of time reading fiction, both on the web and on my couch and I feel comfortable reading both types: electronic and paper-printed. It took me a while to get used to reading online but, just like anything else, once you get used to something it becomes second nature. I think that e-books are the wave of the future as more and more households get computers. Students in Kindergarten are now learning computers and will feel as comfortable reading from computers by the time they are adults as we all are now with a piece of paper in our hands. The future will rely heavily on electronic publishing, I think that the amount of it that is available right now is a testament to that. Why do you like SF/F/H? I think that the genres of SF/F/H are so much fun because of the knowledge and sometimes fear that anything can happen. When you are reading a piece of mainstream or contemporary fiction, there are only so many things that can happen because those types of stories usually stick to reality. With SF/F/H, literally anything can happen at any time. These types of stories present concepts that are not consistent with reality, they are alternate places where the rules of our universe do not apply. Never knowing what is going to happen next or what is or isn't possible within a story makes it that much more fun to read. For those who like to be scared, horror stories can be extremely satisfying. From subtle horror to gore-filled blood-fests, the reader is never fully certain just where the author is taking them and that always makes for a good read. I think that the element of unreality or the full departure from what is normal and acceptable in everyday life is what makes the stories in those genres as fun as they are to read. What book are you reading at this moment? OMERTA by the late, great Mario Puzo. What can I say, I'm a sucker for mafia stories. Do you always know a story's ending when you begin writing? I can not say for sure EXACTLY how the story will end but I never begin writing a story until I know for certain the basic aspects of the ending. I have not used outlines much as a writer and stories usually come to me in full flash and color in total or they have to simmer around inside my head until all of the major components are there but, as a rule, the writing never starts until I have a good idea of the ending firmly implanted in my mind. Of course, from the time a story is started to the time that it is finished, the ending in my head at the beginning may not be the ending that the story ends up with but they are usually pretty close. What's your main ambition? For the better part of my life my main ambition has been to be a writer. Now that I have been writing for a while and have seen some success, I think that ambition has grown into something larger. I don't just want to be a writer, I want to be a writer who puts out quality work, who leaves the reader thinking afterwards, who leaves readers wanting more and who can continue to provide these things to readers on a consistent basis. Hopefully, the consistency thing will last for years and years... Is there something you are particularly proud of? Yes--writing a book. It's not easy to keep an idea running successfully for as long as it takes to turn a story into a book. It's not easy to keep your plot lines consistent, to keep sub-plots running successfully throughout the scope of the larger work, to keep characters in character and to keep the pacing exciting for hundreds of pages. At least these things are not easy for me, they take a lot of work. The manuscript needs to be constantly re-read and re-read to catch inconsistencies, to catch characters acting out of character, to make sure that it is still daylight out when it is supposed to be daylight out and that night time hasn't snuck in all by itself in the middle of the day. Things like this, the details, and keeping the story moving along briskly and mounting the tension so that your heart is beating faster while reading something that you just wrote--that's the key to writing a story in novel-length. Without those things, the story goes flat or becomes confusing and the reader will have to work at continuing to read. As we all know, that doesn't always happen. I am very proud of the fact that I have been able to write a novel. Plug away - what do you have coming out? Well, as has already been told, my first novel, a science fiction adventure titled, "Guarder Lore," will be released next March by NovelBooks, Inc. in both electronic and trade paperback formats. It will be available for download from Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com and the other large internet book sellers and will be available in both formats from the NovelBooks website: www.novelbooksinc.com. I also have several short stories coming out soon in internet magazines like ShadowKeep (www.shadowkeepzine.com), The Murder Hole (www.themurderhole.com) and here at THE ETERNAL NIGHT. I also have a childrens story titled, "A Tale For The Doubters," which will soon appear in an upcoming issue of the print magazine THE LAMP POST. Hopefully, I will be getting some good news from several editors at other magazines soon as well. There might be more to report at that time. Many Thanks, Shawn Relevant Links Shawn P. Madison Main Bibliography Shawn P. Madison Short Story Guide