Questions and Answers What are you currently working on? A commentary on Biblical prophecy; a separate commentary on Genesis and science; a Native American fantasy novel; revision of a fantasy novelette into a space-age setting; a translation of an English hymn into Spanish; a "vampire" novelette set in Peru; and several short stories. Also book reviews, as I finish reading new books. With which of your works are you most/least satisfied and why? I am most satisfied with the book reviews. Like washing dishes, you can tell when you're done. The song translation is also finished, needing only some final touches. The fantasy novel and the Biblical commenatries are frustrating, because I'm not sure I have a market if I ever finish them. Who (Fact or Fiction) would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them? Judas Iscariot. Why didn't you go back when you had the chance? Is there a book or story you wish you had written? In my own material, a ton of them. My greatest ideas (it seems) occur to me on the road, far from a word processor. By the time I organize my hectic life to the point where I might write those stories, they are gone like the frost on the grass. Is writing your full time occupation, if not what is? Priorities to care for my family (wife, son, mother, grandchild) are not an occupation exactly, but their needs come ahead of my writing. I am (finally) retired otherwise. I am a retired teacher, but up until a month ago, i was working in the shipping department of a plastics plant. I might be squeezed back into the work force again, but full time outside work kills my writing time. What was your first professional sale? How did it feel when you received the acceptance? I sold a joke to READER'S DIGEST for $280 that it took me ten minutes to think up and type out. It came as a complete surprise. My first book sale (when it finally arrived) was just as much a surprise, but it was the result of a couple of years of continual work. Who is you favourite author? It's a toss-up: Terry Pratchett; Harry Turtledove; Tom Clancy. If you could give one piece of advice to a would-be author, what would it be? Don't quit your day job. If you're really a writer, you'll find time and a way to write, even if it means using a piece of charcoal on a jail wall. When did you first decide that you wanted to be an author? 1978. At the age of 40 I got tired of whining that I could write stuff better than I was reading. I told myself to either put up or shut up. When did you first feel that you were an author? 1989. somebody else wanted me to write for them. I learned an amazing amount of lessons in professionalism that year, some painful. Are you for or against e-books? If they're buying what I write, I'm selling. If they're selling, I don't have time or money to read more than I do now. I feel that they are perhaps right for a couple of generations younger than me, but not for me. Are you a music fan? If so, what? Old rock'n'roll. Popular music became ill about 1968, caught somethign fatal at Woodstock, and died around 1972. Only a very few good imitators came along after that. I can tolerate many kinds, but that is my preference. Do you have a favourite place to write? Here, at my word processor. I have arthritis in my fingers too badly to hand-write stuff anymore. Do you enjoy book signings/conventions? Yeah. I just can't afford to go. Why do you like SF/F/H? I am complex myself, and I always understood an appreciated the complexities of science. Thus, for fiction, I always liked the mind-stretching qualities of Science Fiction. I was exposed to Tolkien when he first hit the States in 1964. That kind of fantasy can be equally complex, built as it is on rules for a universe unlike our own. I review books. SF books had better not try to slip any bad science past me. Fantasy books had better be well-written and internally consistent in their logic. I don't like Horror. It is too much like the sick realities of our present world. Is there anything more that can be done with Wizards, Elves and Dragons? Absolutely! The ideas are out there, but the new authors with them have been frozen out by the accountants who call themselves editors. Similarly, the editors who know their stuff are being buried alive in carloads of horse manure. Everyone with an idea and a word processor thinks he's an author. You might ask, "Are there any new ideas for spaceships, asteroids, and aliens?" Yes. But the good ones, the diamonds in the horse manure, are getting harder to find, and the people with new ideas are being frozen out of the business. Give me a page and five minutes, and i'll give you a dragon idea, an elf idea, and a dwarf idea that you haven't heard before. As a reader do you prefer Science Ficiton, Fantasy or Horror? I prefer Fantasy. It reaches the edges of the possible more quickly than science, and then stretches them. Good science fiction is so hard to find. Any honest, scientific prediction of the future is so depressing that I can hardly bear to write it. Enjoying Horror has always struck me as a little bit sick. I have trouble even with Dark Fantasy. What influences the names of people and places in your work? Accidental connection. I once had a dot on a "Dungeon and Dragons" game map where the characters went to cash in treasure and buy supplies, named Barrow. It grew into the center of my one published novel. I can now tell you hundreds of thigns about Barrow that no one even suspects. Role-playing types like myself sit around and make up names for characters and places, more by the way they roll off the tongue than anything else. Who knows where they come from, and who can tell what they will grow into. Do you prefer writing about the near future or the far distant future? The distant future. It has almost a fantasy quality to it. The near future scares the pants off me. Short story, single novel or novel series - which do you think is the best medium for Fantasy? What can I say? I have written all three. You go where the story takes you, and you keep going until it plays out. THAT determines how long it should be. A short story that has been stretched to novel length will show the stretch marks. I have reviewed many novels that should have stopped then and there and never become a series. (Monetary considerations and pressure from editors create series more often than the story itself does.) Do you use myths and ancient religions for inspiration? Absolutely. I am currently working on a Native American fantasy novel. Leaving out their myths would kill the story completely. As a Christian, I have some trouble with those who write as if pagan religions had equal credence in the real world as does God, but in fantasy realms, religions cannot be left out of your created societies. Magic is not necessarily religion, by the way. Short Story, Single Novel or Novel Series - which do you think is the best medium for Science Fiction? Short Story or stand-alone novel. SF doesn't lend itself to trilogies as well as Fantasy. What are your thoughts on writing for shared world series such as Dragonlance and Star Trek? Been there; done that. I held the job as a ghost writer for the second book in the Avatar Trilogy for TSR's "Forgotten Realms" series. It taught me professionalism, and I am still bitter to this day over the treatment I received. You won't find my name on that book anywhere, but that is a long, ugly story. Ghost writing or writing on demand in someone else's series is like the old saying: "Experience is a harsh school, but a fool will learn in no other." On the other hand, I was powerfully influenced in my own works by Aspirin's and Abbey's "Sanctuary" (shared world) series. Unlike true ghost writing, the author retains a lot of control. It is the editors who go mad, trying to keep the independent spirits of a gaggle of authors herded together. Do you have a scientific background? Yes. I have a degree in Chemsitry, and a Masters in Science Teaching. I have taught half a dozen science and math subjects during a roughy thirty-year career as a teacher. What book are you reading at the moment? For occasional enjoyment, Harry Turtledove's "King of the North" series. HarperCollins also sent me an advance copy of a storyteller's book from the time of the ancient Alaskan peoples (which is presently where I can't tell you the title). I'm reading that for review, and it's one of the better ones I have been sent. Some have been absolute dogs. Do you get inspiration from recent scientific discoveries and theories? Sure. Inspiration is where you find it. Some of the Quantum Foam ideas ar every useful, and there are dozens of other examples. Do you enjoy collaborating? No. Everybody has ideas. Ideas are NOT writing. Sitting with your butt in front of a word processor, putting words on paper: THAT is writing. All the experience I have had with collaborating has been with amateurs, where I did all the work. Many times, I would have loved to collaborate with the professionals whose work I was reading at the time. I could have helped them; they could have helped me. How does your approach to the editing role differ from that of writing? Show no mercy. If an adjective or adverb feels even slightly wrong, kill it. If a sentence sounds awkward, beat on it until it's right. Writing (especially the first draft) - let it flow. Edit later. Do You Always know a Story's Ending When You Begin Writing? No. I have often known the ending, but a couple of times, stories took a left turn in the middle and ended up where I never envisioned them. Who or what has been a major influence on your writing and why? Terry Pratchett; Harry Turtledove: Lord, I wish I could write like them. One is the master of hilarious. deceptively light fantasy and the other is a master of "alternate history" that really makes sense. You may have heard, "Write what you know." "Write what you read is more like it." Everything I ever read influenced me. If it's good enough to think about when the book isn't in you hand, it has become part of your life. Thinking about what you have read or heard until it fits the context of your own understandable universe turns your own mind into the framework on which any story can be built. Why do you think SF gets a bad press? General ignorance. The average American has a 7th grade science education. The average legislator hasn't had a science course since their first year in college. A lot of what the scientifically literate take for granted is as mystifying to the average adult as conversational Bulgarian is to most people. Next, rightly or wrongly, science has gotten to be SCIENCE, the be-all and end-all of everything. It is (incorrectly) reported as being anti-God. Science has also been used to discover things that frustrate us and make us uncomfortable. Death has come out of the lab as often as life. None of that makes for good press. What's the most memorable thing said in a review of your work? Andrew J. Offutt, former president of SFWA, once wrote to me. "You can write. Now get off the XXXXXX ceiling and do it." Have you won any awards for your writing? Fringe only. I had a story that was Second in the Best of Soft SF of 1993. My novel made B. Dalton's SF best seller list for two weeks. Is there something you are particularly proud of? I worked almost two years revising a commentary on Revelation that my father had written. He was a wonderful "idea" man - one of the best - but he was not a professional writer. I shaped up his book after his death into something both professional and substantive. Plug away - what do you have coming out? I wish. I am just that: plugging away. I will have several book reviews in every issue of ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE MAGAZINE, the fourth biggest SF magazine in the country. I have sold a couple of stories to E-zines, which will show up sometime in the next year or so. I have a bunch of stuff circulating, and (now that I am actually retired) that amount will grow daily. Many Thanks, John! Relevant Links