Authority Magazine Interview

What follows is the text version of an interview that I did (with the direct assistance of my publicist, Tony Cutillo of Rize-n-React Media, without whom this would never have happened) for Authority Magazine.

The purpose of Authority Magazine, according to their About page, is to follow current trends in popular culture and mass media, and also to help connect content creators with influencers, agents, and other persons of importance.

Among the reasons I have for sharing this is that I would like to further discuss my rationale behind the book, explain some of my philosophical underpinnings, and also just for the fun of it, because talking about ideas I'm working with makes me feel happy.

The major reasons that Authority's questions were asked seem to be because they want to drive home the continuing importance of actual books, even in this present day, and also because they would like to discuss some of the nuts and bolts surrounding the business of writing. My reasons and theirs do differ a bit, but I think we reach a reasonable accord all the same.

So, without further ado, here is the interview transcript, with Authority's voice in bold text, my responses in standard text:

Authority Magazine Feature

How to Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories

Can you share a story about what first drew you to writing over other forms of storytelling?

            Storytelling is a tradition that has deep roots.  That’s a trite phrase, but it’s true for me.  Honestly, my first encounter with the deeper arts of storytelling comes from the oral forms inherent to tabletop roleplaying games.  Deeply connected to these games, however, are ample stores of written fiction, such as the Dragonlance series by Weiss and Hickman, and so the two forms, oral and written, and fundamentally bound together in my imagination.  At the same time, I was also drawn to the fiction of persons who wrote about their lives, such as James Herriot, imbuing the acts of the everyday with the glory of the heroic cycle.  This is why I write pretty much the same way that I talk, and I talk pretty much the same way that I write: attach the imagined sense of my voice, take the time to read what is there out loud, and immediately you can discern the intended texture of the words on the page.

You are a successful author. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each? 

            Inspiration; perspiration; determination.  For me, the most brutal test of these elements was when I went through a nervous breakdown.  The event took place shortly after I had graduated with my Master’s degree, right at the start of the Great Recession, with nobody hiring newly fledged academics (or at least not me).  At the same time, an online game world I had spent years developing went desperately sour, the friends and gamers who were playing there demanding more of me emotionally and intellectually than I was able to give.  Also at the same time, I was getting close to taking my relationship with a wonderful and sensitive woman to the next level, marriage, with all the incumbent stresses.  And, as the final catalytic moment, no job, no prospects, no place for emotional release, and the need for all of the above hitting their height, my cat died.

            The next day, I discovered I couldn’t get out of bed.  Quite literally: all strength had been robbed from my body.

            From that experience, I could have given up.  Could have simply let the weight of the world take me.  But I didn’t.  Past the point of hope, past the point of despair, I pressed on, I overcame, and I did not surrender.  Instead, I went to work, physically rehabilitated myself (it took months!), and set to the task of writing as part of the process of my emotional recovery.  From this ever and ongoing task, I discovered the joy of writing fiction, of exploring worlds crafted in my mind.  Thus came into being The Man from Rock Bottom, as part of my work toward the great effort of becoming a better person.

Can you tell us a bit about the interesting or exciting projects you are working on or wish to create? What are your goals for these projects?

            Right now I’m working on three significant projects.  Probably because I simply cannot focus on just one, but must have a few waiting constantly in the wings.  The first is a sequel to The Man from Rock Bottom, tentatively titled The Wasted Lands of Earth, intended to further explore the setting and the events that led to the downfall of human society before, and the menace from that past which threatens its recovery and salvation in the present.  The second is operating under the working title New Rat City: Angel @ the End of the World, a cyberpunk and biopunk supernatural thriller about a world on the edge of disintegration, and a cyborg former space pirate turned future-modern yojimbo doing his best to protect an angel from the dark forces that would consume her.  The third is Trench Dungeon, a fantasy version of the interval right after our Earth’s World War I, set in the no-man’s land that remains of the middle country where a terrible magical conflict took place, and the unsung heroes who will brave the dangers of the trench dungeons in order to save their world from the Total War being planned.

How do you define sci-fi or fantasy? How is it different from speculative fiction?

            For me, “speculative fiction” implies any sort of fiction that includes the question “What if…?” as a part of its originating thought.  Typically that means taking what already is, then pushing the limits just a little bit further, to stretch into the boundaries of what is not.  Some science fiction and fantasy works are certainly a part of speculative fiction.

            Terry Pratchett’s masterful Discworld series, for instance, starts with the assumptions underlying traditional fantasy, then starts asking questions, pushing boundaries, pointing out inconsistencies, and rearranging the metaphorical furniture however it must in the process of making proper sense of the deconstruction and reconstruction work in progress.  Works, on the other hand, like Tolkien’s Middle Earth creations aren’t really speculative, by my definition: they’re intended to tell grand mythic stories, to explore the heights and the depths of experience, heroism, and villainy, but they’re not really there to ask questions.  A reader might bring their own questions to the table – and should! – but it’s not required as part of enjoying the work.

It seems that despite countless changes in media and communication technologies, novels and written fiction always survive, and as the rate of change increases with technology, written sci-fi becomes more popular. Why do you think that is?

            There really is nothing in the world quite like a good book.  That’s not just a trite saying, either: we really do use different parts of our brains to encompass different forms of media.  As I’ve been discovering with my explorations into the study of pedagogy – the academic study of teaching – and especially into works like How People Learn, put out by the National Academies (and, incidentally, a free download for those with an interest in the subject, since it was paid for by education tax money), the written word, both the reading of it and most especially the writing of it, is a way to quite literally change the way that we think, to adjust the biochemistry and physical structures of our brain.  And the best part is: we can choose how and in what ways we will be changed.  Personally, I hope that we choose to become better, whatever that might mean for an individual.

In your opinion, what are the benefits to reading sci-fi, and how do they compare to watching sci-fi on film and television?

            With the “advanced” forms of media, the more visual styles of film and television and games and…well, everything, really, for there are so many of them now, each of these styles of presentation establishes a deeper level of control on you, the consumer.  This is very deliberate, as the creators of such content are able to construct their worlds with visual art, audio Foleys, background music, inspirational scores, lighting, makeup, and more – so much more!  With games the encompassment is potentially even greater, as the player/consumer becomes the living component that drives the actions contained within the presented plot.

            By contrast, reading a work is just you and the page.  You aren’t having any additional stimuli forced upon you (at least not with most works: House of Leaves is most definitely an exception!), you aren’t being made to experience emotions by audio cues.  Whatever you experience, you experience because of your own imagination, your own act of filling in the gaps, of allowing yourself to be lost in the glory of the moment, in the freedom to feel in pure honesty.

What authors and artists, dead or alive, inspired you to write?

            Er, well, I’ve kind of been name-dropping this whole time.

            Oh!  A few more names of interest!  Richard Adams’ Watership Down is one of my all-time favorite mythic journey-epics (and all accomplished by a bunch of bunnies!).  A prime example of discovering the wonder in the everyday.  Spider Robinson is, well…he’s Spider Robinson!  But I love his works, especially his Callahan’s stories, because of how they remind us that, in the midst of all the wonders of the infinite universe, there is still a desperate need for empathy and for kindness and forgiveness.  And he got his start by guarding a hole in the ground (seriously: but it’s his story to tell, so I’ll let you look it up on your own).  And while I don’t like to jump on any bandwagons, seriously, Stephen King and J. K. Rowling (to put them in chronological order) started from pretty much nothing, demonstrating that there is always hope for otherwise normal nobodies, always a chance to beat the odds.

If you could ask your favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy author a question, what would it be? 

            Honestly, I think it would be a disservice to go bothering the dead like that, as busy as I’m sure they are.  After all, that was part of the whole point of them doing all that writing: to answer the questions they were never asked. 

We’d like to learn more about your writing. How would you describe yourself as an author? Can you please share a specific passage that you think exemplifies your style?  

            To describe my style, here’s a bit taken from the very end of the book The Man from Rock Bottom, hopefully without too much by way of spoilers, coming from the internal monologue of the titular character himself:

            That’s about the time that I finally decided: maybe things weren’t so bad after all. Because, well, it’s an infinite universe expanding infinitely into infinity. What that means is there’s just got to be room for all of us: nerdy bat-moths; silly mantis medics; gorgeous green-and-gold space dragons; empathic fox people; pangolin curmudgeons; superheroes and bounty hunters and every child they saved and every last animal in the Sanctuary.

            And maybe even room for me.

            As for my self-description, I am a grim-faced, dark-hearted, bloody-minded optimist.  I am perfectly well aware that things aren’t as bad as they seem: they’re worse.  And yet I am going to push on regardless.  All I hope is that what I write can provide a little help to others along the way.  Because don’t we all need a little nudge in the right direction every once in a while?  This is my approach to writing as well as to life – the two overlap far more frequently than not, another reason why my writing and my speaking styles are very close.

Based on your own experience and success, what are the “Five Things You Need To Write Compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories?” If you can, please share a story or example for each.

            First, I need experience.  Material.  Events and occurrences and conversations and observations.  These are a part of daily life, the news I see on television or read on the internet; the people around me and their interests; the amount of litter in the streets in different neighborhoods; the way people act when they think nobody else is watching.

            Once I have some grist for the mill, then I need time in which to digest what I’ve experienced.  To think.  To reflect.  This is the place of silence.  Sometimes that silence has to be internalized.  Often I use this period to write things down with pen and paper, giving physical reality to my thoughts to order and organize them and make sense of what I want to do with them.

            When I come to conclusions and decide to act, it has to pass the anatomical gates: mind, heart, and gut.  If one of my assorted body parts doesn’t like a decision, then it’s time to reevaluate.  To explain a little more: the mind in my personal cosmology is the seat of thought bereft of emotional attachments; the heart is the seat of higher feelings, romantic notions, ideals, and passions both dark and light; and the guts are where all the stuff that keeps me grounded in the needs of reality and (un)common sense goes.

            Questions.  What are the missing bits, the lacunae that I think are important, but haven’t received what I think is an appropriate level of attention by the world at large?  What can I bring to the ongoing conversation?  What is the exigence that requires that this work be completed?

            Courage.  The business of writing is not for the faint of heart.  If you’re doing it right, you’re going to open your whole soul to the merciless gaze of your introspective eye, re-writing yourself even as you write your castles in the sky onto the page before you.  I spoke earlier of how writing and reading are processes by which we can reshape ourselves: this is the negative side of it, the price that must be paid.  By writing, we change ourselves, and change hurts.  And then there’s the critics…

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Entertainment, Business, VC funding, and Sports read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

            Hmm, I suppose it’s best to stick to the living in this instance, since we’re dealing with realities now rather than speculative fictions.

            Heh, all right, so maybe a bit of speculative fiction: Dwayne Douglas Johnson.  Because my observations of his behaviors in film and in interviews and in snapped moments of personal interactions seems to indicate that he’d be a fun person to talk to, that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and since I like most of his works (some of which I admit are guilty pleasures) besides having an interest in the subjects of martial arts and physical fitness, there probably wouldn’t be all that many awkward pauses.  Well, after the initial icebreaker stage, that is: I’m very bad at those.

            On the other hand, the thought of someone actually taking time out of their busy life just to spend a private meal with me…?  Suddenly, the notion loses its appeal: I don’t like the thought of being that self-important.

How can our readers further follow your work online? :

https://www.amanfromrockbottom.com/general-9  is my authorial website, and also where I post an (at present) weekly blog, though I think I might slow it down to biweekly as my work on my dissertation demands steadily more of my time and effort.  Updates and announcements about my work are also there, in the appropriate area, very helpfully updated at this time by my publicist, Tony Cutillo, of Rize & React Media, who is hardworking, patient, and a source of useful advice in navigating the world of what happens after the book is finally finished and the real work begins.