Questions and Answers Hertzan Chimera is the pen-name of UK author Mike Philbin. What are you currently working on? Short story-wise (as well as working on my own short fiction) I have just finished a batch of collaborations with Wrath James White, Alex Severin, Mike Korn and Dave Mathews. Novel wise, I am currently working on novel three, YOROPPA. SZMONHFU (out right now on Eraserhead Press - http://www.eraserheadpress.com/) is book one; a 104,000 word psycho-sexual retelling of the Pinnochio story in many ways. UNITED STATES is book two; this nasty, twisted, dare I say evil piece of work has been locked away for fourteen years - now is the time to reveal the horror. Two 40,000 word novels broughts together in the same volume. YOROPPA is a brand new style of Hertzan Chimera novel. I am aiming for a totally 'diary' approach but I cannot say anything more about the structure, this is will be my mass market success. Is writing your full time occupation, if not what is? I am currently senior 3D artist on the PS2 and PC game Ghost Master here in Oxford. I have also worked on the Bafta Award Winning Medievil 2 for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Who is you favourite author? My favourite authors change regularly. William Gibson, William Burroughs, Octavia Butler; now it is Haruki Murakami - he is a Japanese author who writes about odd things in a strangely quiet style. I recommend SOUTH OF THE BORDER WEST OF THE SUN, THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES, NORWEGIAN WOOD & DANCE DANCE DANCE. If you could give one piece of advice to a would-be author, what would it be? Write. In life there are those people who say "I would love to be a musician, I would love to be a dancer, I would love to write," let's say. Well, write. Are you a music fan? If so, what? Marilyn Manson, Bauhaus, Rai, Mozart, Michael Nyman, Bjork, Benjamin Britten. I like all sorts of music from "all over this bee-atch". I am of the opinion that everyone has at least one good story in them, similarly most bands, composers, singers have one good song in them. I am ecclectic in the extreme. Do you have a favourite place to write? I am a keyboard writer. I would like to eliminate the process of longhand, copying in and re-editing from the writing process. It is choking literature to death. Writers should make mistakes, you will then feel a part of the writer as you read his work. I once wrote, submitted & sold a story to Urbanite in three hours - a difficult market Urbanite. What book are you reading at the moment? Hannibal by Thomas Harris. This is a re-read - and I have seen the Ridley Scott movie (both are great in their own right) Is there anything else that can be done with Alien Invasion, Time Travel or Robots? Alien Invasion? In SZMONHFU - there is a destructive race of aliens that are 'alien' in the non-human sense. Very abstract-artistic aliens - ie not what you would expect from my usually surreal human anatomy based artwork. Do you prefer writing about the near future or the far distant future? I prefer writing about impossible futures. A future where you can go in and examine a Hiroshima-style bomb blast at the atomic level in superslow motion as the atomic structure rips apart like a fertilization bow wave coursing across an ovum, jetting jets out its alpha particle ray of death. Then to pan right back to a geostationary orbit in X-ray view mode to see the wonderful mushroom bloom a rainbow of death across the flattening scenery, brick by shadowed brick. As a reader do you prefer Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror? All three. I will not read murder-mysteries - it annoys me that these things are structured in reverse so that the reader can seem like a fool for not working out the impossible narrative twist. This is not enjoyable reading for me. Do you enjoy collaborating? I love collaborating - that is where real narrative develops, via the response fromanother writer. I have written collaborations with other writers like DF Lewis and Mike Korn and Wrath James White and many others. I have written in groups of three. As a very active experimenter and member of Wordhunger I have collaborated with groups exceeding ten writers. I love collaborating. Do You Always know a Story's Ending When You Begin Writing? No. But (with short stories) I always know its current title. This transitory title is important to me as a writer, it helps 'flavour' the coming narrative until the story outgrows its title, then a more appropriate one helps the story on further. I have also taken two or three stories and linked them together to make a totally unified narrative. Have you won any awards for your writing? I don't write to formula, so I don't tend to market my work towards 'themed' anthologies or contests. Only time will tell if I wrote anything of worth. As a friend of mine said, "writing is for dead people". Many Thanks, Mike! Relevant Links Hertzan Chimera (Mike Philbin) Main Bibliography Hertzan Chimera (Mike Philbin)'s Web Site