Questions and Answers
What are you currently working on?
Righteous Anger, the 2nd book in the main Okal Rel Universe series published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, and written by either myself or myself with Alison Sinclair, depending on the novel. I am also working on the Guide to the Okal Rel Universe for my second publisher, Windstorm Creative, and recruiting stories set in the Okal Rel Universe for an anthology.
Could you give a brief outline of your Okal Rel universe?
Mankind is split into two major cultures, 1,000 years in the future, which reunite after a period of isolation to discover they have come up with very different solutions to the problem of avoiding self-destruction. Sevolites are neo-feudal, but their (forgotten) origins as bioengineered superpilots gives them an advantage as reality skimming pilots which is hugely important. It is reality skimming that poses the big threat to life in a space faring culture, since any single pilot can be a big threat to space stations or even planets.
Okal Rel is a religion (actually a set of them) that helps the Sevolites avoid wars of mass destruction through ritual warfare called Sword Law. Reetions are agnostic egalitarians with a very sophisticated political. Their society is made possible by non-sentient artificial intelligences known as arbiters. Ubiquitous survellience and arbiter screening works in combination with human councils to support a very positive take on the transparent society. ( See http://www.okalrel.org/saga/reference/articles/sti/riresti0.html )
Needless to say, not everyone is happy with their respective culture's solution to the problem of how to prevent human nature from ending life in the universe, nor with the other side's solution, either. But it all makes for great story telling. The main line series is published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy of Calgary, Alberta, and deals with changes that begin when Rire and Sevildom are reunited after a 200 year hiatus. Windstorm Creative of Washington State, USA, publishes novellas that deal with important incidents that fall outside that framework. A visual guide to the first 1,000 years of the Okal Rel Universe can be downloaded in PDF or as a digitbook, from http://www.okalrel.org/saga.html.
You mentioned an anthology. Can anyone submit stories?
Yes. It is a contest, with a Feb 2005 deadline. The stories must be faithful to the setting and steer clear of nihilism, bunker mentality and techno whiz solutions to human problems that ignore the fact such things can be used for good or ill. For more information, visit the contest web page at or e-mail Virginia@OkalRel. If all goes well, we hope to make it a regular event, although we haven't decided whether that will mean annually. Since it is early days for the Okal Rel Universe as a phenomenon, those with a serious interest and decent writing skills have a good chance of getting a story accepted if they work with me and some well-versed friends of the Okal Rel Universe to get up to speed, and are prepared to accept the limitations necessary to maintain the integrity of the larger "saga". We can't have events taking place in the timeline that falsify the "truth" of the ten novel series and other works in progress. But there are still a universe of possibilities.
Who (Fact or Fiction) would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them?
There isn't a book I have read and enjoyed that didn't leave me feeling as if I had, indeed, had a conversation like that. Most recently, I've been reading a biography of Wilfred Laurier, who was Prime Minister of Canada in the early 1900s. I admire how he managed to juggle success and integrity. At the same time, he didn't even acknowledge that Canada's native population might have minority rights even more profound than those of French-speaking peoples, despite his sympathies for the half-native Metis of Manitoba who were a French speaking minority. Maybe it is a case of no one being able to expend themselves in all causes. Maybe it is a case of cultural blinkering that makes it impossible for even exceptional people to transend their own experience and self-interests in more than a few, inspired ways. I think such exceptional people and their times have much to teach us. First and foremost that no one is perfect, and we should value the good in each other as well as object to what we can't accept.
History is such a rich place to learn about human nature. I used to read popular science books for pleasure, now I find myself reading history more. I read fiction, also, but less than I used to now I am producing it. I have read a lot of fiction in my time, of course, and have a long and fluctuating list of "favorite" authors: Alison Sinclair, obviously (Alison and I have been friends since first year university); Marie Jakkober, a fellow Canadian Alison introduced me to; Lois McMaster Bujold is a pleasure to indulge in; Guy Gavriel Kay's great sagas, pulsing with life and pseudo-historical settings; Dave Duncan's trilogy of 7quot;Blades" novels centred around the death of his Henry VIII-like character; and that's just to name a few.
In visual media, I admire Josh Whelan for Firefly and also Buffy The Vmapire Slayer. Disappointed by the ending of Angel. It sort of fell apart and betrayed the hope it nurished like a flickering light, with comedy and pathos intermixed. The older I get, and the grottier the world gets, the more I feel that artists who engage our sympathies owe it to their audience to leave them with hope and a sense of meaning in the world. Making meaning lies at the heart of being human. We've been busy destroying it with wrecking balls for too long, without asking ourselves what we'll replace it with. A high credit card limit? Not very satisfying in the long run, and not very noble by any standard.
Is writing your full time occupation, if not what is?
No. I have written for a living, but not fiction. I was once a newspaper reporter and worked for the B.C. government one summer, to produce a report. By day, I am an educational technologist and parttime instructor at the University of Northern B.C. I don't expect to be able to support myself and my family through writing fiction. But I do look forward to earning enough to expand the enterprise. I tend to re-invest in the Okal Rel Universe whenever possible. It is more than "just a story" to me. It's where I work out my ideas about living. And enjoy myself.
What was your first professional sale? How did it feel when you received the acceptance?
Thrilled, naturally. My first professional sale of fiction was to Circlet Press. I was a bit apprehensive because they are an erotic press, and although my principle character, (He's called Von in Edge's forthcoming novel Courtesan Prince) spends formative years as a courtesan, I didn't want to dwell on the sordid details so much as the psychology and story value.
Sex is something I've been confused about since girlhood. What's good? What's bad? What is just last century repression and what will hurt like hell if you go for it? What's male and what's female, is it nature or nuture, and does it really, really matter as much as everyone seems to make out? Didn't help that I was a tom boy and had a hard time not being interested in dirty jokes. I was a geek too, and into computers in later life, although in many things I am very typically female.
In any case, I felt like I was coming out of the closet a bit by appearing in print at all, and to do so in an erotic press felt awkward. I didn't feel comfortable waving around "S&M Pasts" and saying "Look! I'm in here!" But I didn't use a pseudonym and I have no complaints about Circlet. I was thrilled to make a sale. I remember telling Alison it was ironically appropriate that Amel appeared first in an erotica press.
I was very happy when Cecilia Tan of Circlet asked my permission to include "Bride's Story" -- the short story she bought -- in a "best of" collection called the Erotic Fantastic that also included a story by Catherine Asaro. So that was the first. By the time Alison introduced me to Edge, to discuss Throne Price, I had half-resigned myself to never getting the Okal Rel Universe into print. It was too complex, too long and had too many things going on it. My passion for it could not be reconciled with the advice one gets at writers' conventions, good and useful as most of that may be.
I didn't want to "study the markets" and write accordingly--I wanted to write the saga. And not much else. Every time I tried to cast stories in other settings, it either felt like work or started morphing into something that could fit in the Okal Rel Universe, like the story I placed online with Lunacat in New York City that deals with a time closer to our own than that of the main series (http://www.lunacat.net/books/webpub/writerscall/wc-posterity.htm). I was so happy, when Edge bought Throne Price, that I made the mistake of sort of mentally holding my breath to see the book in print. And discovered that there is a lot of hard work between that first draft and the final product. For everyone.
Brian Hades, at Edge, was a wonderful surprise, though. I have lain awake nights worrying about my work surviving the editorial process, of course, like every other writer, but on the whole I have been blessed in my publishers. I have heard so much from authors, complaining about publishers, that I was almost afraid to sell a piece of the Okal Rel Universe. The thought to being prohibited from self-publishing or publishing on the web, should print remain elusive, was frankly terrifying. This wasn't "just another novel" to me. It was my whole life as a writer. I had been writing stories in the Okal Rel Universe for over twenty years. The idea of a publisher buying a book--or worse, the whole series-- and then sitting on it for an indefinite period of time, was frankly terrifying. So I was deliriously happy, and a nervous wreck, by turns.
And I learned tons as a writer. There is nothing like being published to make you a professional. I have recently started a writer's workshop group (in my home town of Prince George) to see if I can give back, in that regard. Having people read and critique your work is the next best thing.
If you could give one piece of advice to a would-be author, what would it be?
Know why you write. Don't let anyone undermine your real motives by confusing them with their own. You have a right to yours. Find where you belong and start there.
When did you first decide that you wanted to be an author?
I can't remember when I wasn't a story teller. I know I persisted with "make believe" well into my teens. I have an article about those days on my website, in the "Creative History" section. (See http://www.okalrel.org/saga/createhist/making_of/promised.html).
Then, when I met Alison at university, our worlds collided on paper instead of through dolls and play acting. Ever since then, with a few hiatuses here and there, Alison and I have been continuing the dialog by phone or e-mail or in person when that's possible. Alison wrote an article about that called "Collaborating across continents" that is online at http://www.okalrel.org/saga/createhist/wriprice.html.
Are you for or against e-books?
I am for e-books and self-publishing and putting stories online, as well. My husband buys e-books. I have downloaded some to my palm pilot but only public domain ones thus far. I prefer to buy and read books for pleasure. I love the feel of books and I like to have them heaped around me in big jumbled messes. At least I figure I must love that, because that's the way every place I spend time in winds up looking like, eventually. I believe that every writer has the right to seek his or her audience, and should do it any way that he or she finds emotionally satisfying.
I believe that everyone who asks an author whether he has made a million dollars yet, as if that is the only way someone could possibly justify writing, is missing the point in a bad way. Being able to put stories online mattered enough to me that when Windstorm Creative asked me for a first refusal contract on any Okal Rel Universe stories not already committed to Edge, I insisted that stories I gave away on the web (or to non-profit causes) had to be exempt, and they kindly agreed to write that in. There's one I put on the web because it is about being an unpublished writer, in a way. Or someone who wakes up one day to the realization she is not "the top" in whatever field of endeavor is dear to her. If we can't figure out how to live with that situation, then an awful lot of us are going to have to drop dead or shrivel away! So where writing is concerned, in particular, substitute J.K. Rowling for "Sevolite" and read away. The story is online at http://www.okalrel.org/saga/stories/backout.html.
Are you a music fan? If so, what?
I love music. I like making it and I like listening to it, but I suspect the majority of people in the world would consider me a lost cause. I am not a very good musician. I played the flute well enough, at one point, to embarrass myself by getting into a performance I wasn't really competent to cope with. Now I like to mess around with the piano when I get the time, but will probably never get out of the beginner stage. I am Welsh, by ancestry, and so I sing--Whether or not I always should. My eldest daughter, who sings with a very good choir, often sings with me. She handles the high parts. We sing old ballads, things from musicals and Disney songs most often.
When it comes to listening, I like classical. I listen to CBC 2 on the radio, which is 100 per cent classical music programming. I have always liked Stravinsky a lot. Baroque and chambre music is popular with me at the moment. I like obscure things that other people haven't heard about, but then I can't remember the names of the composers. I know lots of lyrics to popular songs from all sorts of eras, but usually can't tell you who wrote them.
Why do you like SF/F/H?
I don't particularly like horror. I do like well thought out fantasy. And of course I like science fiction. Why? I like the size of it. I like to ask the big questions. I like to save the universe. I like to invent religions and think about how a society based on premises different from our own could work, or maybe even people based on modified biology.
Sometimes I just get a kick out of larger than life characters and situations. I like the potential of sf for allegory and metaphor. Maybe I look for hope in it sometimes, when the human race seems too scarily insane to survive its own cleverness. Often I am just looking for some entertainment. I like stretching my imagination. I like getting away from the mundane. And I like ideas about big changes to come dressed up in human behavior to see whether or not they make sense.
What book are you reading at the moment?
I am usually reading at least two books. So here goes: In the bag I carry around with me, I am reading La Diva Nicotinea: The Story of How Tobacco Seduced the World / Iain Gately>. For casual "pick it up and read for two minutes" I am working on Tom Brown's School Days in a cheap, reprinted, and unabridged edition.
Reading period books is a wonderful wake up call for grasping just how different cultural norms are even within "The West"" of the last couple hundred years. The changes in both attitude and style are as interesting as the narratives that have stood the test of time. By my computer, I have a copy of Photoshop 7 Down & Dirty Tricks / Scott Kelby which I am working through bit by bit. I am not a graphic artist, but I like to dabble, and I sometimes find I need to be able to teach techniques to project workers, at work.
Do you have a scientific background?
Yes, but not exclusively. I keep switching back and forth. Studied Chemistry for three years, and have a masters degree in Computer Science. But my undergraduate degree is in Liberal Studies. Lucky to have Alison to advise on the medical science and other things.
Do you get inspiration from recent scientific discoveries and theories?
I get inspiration from Discover Magazine, quite often, but mostly for articles I would like to write for the "Research and Commentary" section of my web site (see: http://www.okalrel.org/saga/reference/commentary/index.html). But no, I think the Okal Rel Universe is more about people working out their problems than it is about the technology that makes or solves the problems. For that, I find more inspiration in history, lately.
But I read a lot of popular science at one time, and studied astronomy, physics and chemistry. Most recently I took one 2nd and one 3rd year Psychology course, out of interest. Always a temptation when one works at a university. Leaning towards social sciences these days. I read 1st year text books in nearly any science, for pleasure. Or at least leaf through them. Finally gave away some statistics books I realized I would never get around to reading.
Do you enjoy collaborating?
Yes, I do. I have always collaborated with someone in my story making. Seems to be how I developed as a writer. For a long time, of course, the Okal Rel Universe was more or less a private preserve of myself and Alison, and other demands allowing, I expect her to be writing many of the books in the main series with me. We have completed two, but the 2nd of those, Far Arena, is book 5 in the series and waiting for me to finish up the 2nd and 3rd novels. I also enjoy writing on my own, and consider myself unreasonably lucky to have a second publisher willing and eager to take novellas from me as they role out, especially as these, too, are set in the Okal Rel Universe. I have always wanted to do an anthology to encourage others to discover if they can tell the story they want to tell in the Okal Rel Universe.
I am not entirely sure why. Partly, it is how I operate. I like to involve other people in a creative way, not just a passive one. I love it when people give me things to use on the website, invite me to discuss Throne Price at a book club, or talk about writing to an English class. My friend Kathy Plett made me Okal Rel Universe buttons. My mother financed T-Shirts with an embroidered rel symbol on them. Alison has done some amazing pictures of characters and scenes, lately, that she has posted on our blog "Reality Skimming", and a couple of friends of the Okal Rel Universe, Virginia O'Dine and Sarah Trick, are collaborating with me on the Guide to the Okal Rel Universe for Windstorm Creative. I'm particularly pleased that my editor at Edge is submitting a story to the first Okal Rel Universe anthology, and was even more surprised when I heard that a well known local writer whom I know and respect as a poet is interested.
I am learning to get a bit tougher, in my "old age", however, about drawing lines. Where there is collaboration there is always the potential for conflict, whether that is over editing anxieties, plot directions or what have you. And I have come to realize that I need the Okal Rel Universe to live in. I cannot afford to let anyone spoil it for me. Characters that are simple transplants, mentally and emotionally, from our world into another world, are one of my pet peeves. People are affected by their culture. If they are going to be unusual, fine, but make them part of their world first.
I've recently decided that I am also uninterested in the three sins of science fiction problem solving that I summarize in the "themes" page for the story guidelines (http://www.okalrel.org/contest/themes.htm): bunker mentality, the arms race solution and nihilism. But growling aside, I think it is a mistake to presume writing is not a collaboration even if the only collaborators are one's readers. By reading a story, I become cast and crew of the drama as it plays out in my head.
That's why, for those of us with receptive heads, books will always be more powerful than movies.
Why do you think SF gets a bad press?
Maybe because so much of it is about adolescent wish full fillment and cheat tricks. The best sf is good literature. And good literature tackles tough questions.
Have you won any awards for your writing?
Throne Price was one of three finalists for the Benjamin Franklin Award, and one of seven for Foremost Magazine's award for science fiction. We didn't win either, but we came close twice. That was wonderful. So many people congratulated me on the article in our local weekly newspaper. That can't help but make your feel good. At the same time, it is perplexing that awards mean so much. We are as obsessed with ranking each other, in every human endeavor, as any Sevolite ever was about getting reborn at a higher birth rank.
Is there something you are particularly proud of?
Just surviving, day by day. Having enough grip to get from dock to dock, from a reality skimmer's perspective. Life is not for whimps.
Plug away - what do you have coming out?
By Christmas 2004, I expect to have three additional works out in print.
Courtesan Prince (http://www.okalrel.org/saga/CourtesanPrince/courtesan_prince.htm) is forthcoming from Edge in the fall. The cover is up on the artist's website at http://www.echo-x.com/subpages/edge.htm.
Novellas Kath and Mekan'stan are expected from Windstorm Creative this summer.
Meanwhile, I have finished a novella called The Lorel Experiment and Windstorm Creative has spoken for it. No slated date of publication, yet, however. That might be because they are finding a spot in their publication schedule for The Guide to The Okal Rel Universe which Virginia, Sarah and I plan to deliver in August. Working on my own, I am about 1/2 way through novel 2 for the Edge series, called Righteous Anger. And it looks like Alison and I might start working on another of the later books together, before too long. Then there will be the first ORU (Okal Rel Universe) anthology to select stories for in Februrary, and I am work shopping the novella House of Em with Northern Speculation, my writers group.
Do I feel tired just thinking about all that? Well, as someone I was saying all this to last night at a Minerva Society social pointed out, all writers should have such problems! It is really miraculous. And I am grateful to each and every person who has given the Okal Rel Universe "play time" in his or her brain, from Alison and my publishers, right down to the least charitable reviewer. So are our characters. It is the interest of people in THIS universe, after all, that is what truly gives them life.
Books in print are listed at http://www.okalrel.org/books.html and news at http://www.okalrel.org/news/latest.html
Many Thanks, Lynda!
Relevant LinksLynda Williams Main Bibliography
Lynda Williams's Website
