Elizabeth Bear, a prolific author with several book series coming out from Ace and Bantam Spectra. You can find her website at http://www.elizabethbear.com and her livejournal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/matociquala/ which she updates frequently. Tobias S. Buckell is a Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer who grew up in Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He now lives in Ohio. He has published stories in various magazines and anthologies. He is a Clarion graduate, Writers of The Future winner, and Campbell Award for Best New SF Writer Finalist. His work has received Honorable Mentions in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and Year's Best Science Fiction. Questions and Answers TB: Who is Elizabeth Bear, really? Elizabeth Bear is a squad of trained monkeys with keyboards, and a semi-redhead who performs at conventions for bananas and bourbon. Alternately, Elizabeth Bear is a little girl who wrote her first science fiction story in first grade. It had dinosaurs in it. And rocketships. TB: Why write? Videogames and TV are much more fun, aren't they? Actually, I'm a reasonably avisual person. The television I prefer is about thirty or forty years old, generally, from before they learned to exploit the medium with any kind of efficiency, and it revolves around witty people saying snarky things to each other on what are essentially stage sets, in front of mostly static cameras. And spies. I do like spies. The videogames I like are the buildy type ones, like Sim City and Civilization and so forth, but I always get bored once the stuff that's supposed to be interesting–the barbarians and the Japanese monsters–show up. It's such a damned hassle to clean up after! Real life requires enough maintenance that I don't want it from my computer games. Give me pinball. Or Joust. I was very good at Joust when I was in junior high! TB: Why genre? Because it’s where the plot is. And where my heart is. I know it’s trite, but I really do write the books I write because I love them. TB: If you had to do it all over again, what would you do? All of it? Can I test out of high school? That would be okay. TB: What warps your writing the most? Warps it? What an interesting word. I actually feel that my writing could be more warped. I very much wish I had cooler ideas. It’s the thing I struggle with–to come up with shinier stuff. That’s one thing I find kind of ironic about the mundane SF movement. In particular, here I am trying to un-mundane my writing, and remind myself to think bigger and sprawlier and press things further… sort of the exact opposite. I’m mundane by nature. I’m trying to escape making things too plausible. TB: Do you have a favorite place to write? I usually write at my desk, but I’m not picky. I’m also not picky about format–I do longhand or computer or whatever is handy. TB: What's the most challenging aspect of writing? The fine, fine line between under-writing (my natural mode) and explaining things in such painful detail that the reader falls over in an exposition coma. Insulin is no help in these cases. TB: What's the most whacked-out thing said in a review of your work? <G> I really liked the Amazon reviewer who made some comment about the unlikelihood of a Mohawk from Quebec also having some French-Canadian blood. Although that wasn’t so much whack as just simply ignorant, I think. In general, I’ve been pretty lucky in my reviews, so far. TB: Okay, you're going to get marooned on an island by a bunch of angry editors, what one book do you take and why? The Riverside Shakespeare, for self-defense and because it will keep me busy for a good long time. TB: Is there a book or story you wish you could go back in time and kill the author of so you could submit their manuscript as your own? Not really. There are certainly some stories that blow me away… but the thing is, if they were mine, they wouldn’t blow me away the same way. Because they wouldn’t provide that enlightenment, what I heard Tim Powers call "vertigo" of stepping outside yourself. TB: When I interview you again in 10 years, what will you hope to be talking to us about? I’d like to be dripping false modesty over an international best-seller. <G> TB: What are your current plans for literary world domination? Today the club scene, tomorrow the world. Honestly, I dunno if world domination is within my grasp, but I have got four contracted books to deliver in the next eighteen months or so. Which I think is pretty good on the world domination front. Maybe someday I’ll even get a book in hardback! TB: Last, but not least, if zombies were spreading throughout the land by infectious bite what would be your 5 point response? Zombie contingency plans! Well, realistically, here in Vegas we’d be the first city to go. And who’d notice a few zombies? Especially if they played the slots? 1) An anti-shark suit. They’re made of chain mail. Kevlar is not good against pointed weapons such as zombie teeth 2) A case of green glow in the dark makeup, for camouflage 3) Anti-tank weapons. So much more effective than mere fire. And I live down the street from Nellis Air Force Base. I figure I fall back to the barbecue joint across the street from the base and let the airmen defend me. They’ll die to protect their barbecue! Who needs five!? TB: Thank you very much, Elizabeth, for talking to us! Relevant Links Elizabeth Bear's Main Listing Elizabeth Bear Website Tobias S. Buckell's Main Listing Tobias S. Buckell Website