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The SFFWRTCHT Interview: Author N. M. Singel

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

N.M Singel is a Rhodes Scholar nominee and an honors graduate of the theater program at Purdue University. She studied Shakespeare and English literature at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England and was the recipient of the Irene Ryan acting scholarship for her performance at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She has written two plays and several short stories. The Wicked Passage is her first novel.

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SFFWRTCHT: When did you decide to start writing? How did you begin?
N. M. Singel: I’m an only child and discovered at a very early age the power of creating new worlds. Writing was my way to discover different places and meet new people.

SFFWRTCHT: Did you study writing in school? How did you learn your craft?
N. M. Singel: I studied writing in school, although the route I took to get there was via the theatrical stage. At Purdue University and the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, I studied English and theater. I wrote several plays and always included a backstory in the program. Audience members always asked me for more of the narrative. So, needless to say, I approach my writing much like a director approaches a production…cast the actors, build the set, light the stage and yell “action”! One play I wrote called The Shill turned into a full length manuscript. Someday I may dust it off.

SFFWRTCHT: How long did you write until your first sale? What was that?
N. M. Singel: Wow. That’s a question loaded with determination. A theater professor once told the class, “Don’t become an actor because you want to…become and actor because you have to.” Excellent advice because it forces you to really think about your passion. I knew I had to write. The Wicked Passage was several years in the making before my first sale. Thankfully, readers are already anticipating book two of the series.

SFFWRTCHT: What aspect of Wicked Passage came first? Characters? Plot? Setting?
N. M. Singel: I’m a plot junkie. I tend to see the whole picture first and work backwards. The Wicked Passage, and the rest of the series, evolved from a story that was constantly nagging to be written.

SFFWRTCHT: What sort of pre-writing did you do for Wicked Passage? Did you outline?
N. M. Singel: Pre-writing? I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I have a shoebox full of little scraps of paper with story details written on them. As the narrative unfolds in my mind, I jot down my thoughts on whatever is available. I have written some pretty important plot points on the back of napkins. Of course when it’s time to construct the story, I use more of a formal outline, although I keep the structure very loose.

SFFWRTCHT: What’s your writing time look like? Planned time? Grab it when you can?
N. M. Singel: Mornings are the most creative time for me so I’m pretty selfish with my early hours. By the time the sun begins getting higher in the sky, I’m ready to do a bit of research or editing.

SFFWRTCHT: Do you use any special software or music playlist?
N. M. Singel: Music is extremely important to my writing routine. I always listen to classical arrangements and film soundtracks. The movie is already playing in my head, and the epic sound of strings and brass help to move the story along.

SFFWRTCHT: How do you deal with writer’s block?
N. M. Singel: Writer’s block? What’s that? All kidding aside…I don’t let creative brain drain get the best of me. I just keep writing. I might have to throw out ninety-nine percent of my work, but it’s that one percent of clarity that is often the beginning of something exciting.

SFFWRTCHT: What role do beta readers play, if any, in your process as a professional author?
N. M. Singel: Beta-reader…my husband. He’s my first editor and truth mirror. I’m very fortunate to have such a wonderful sounding board.

SFFWRTCHT: What advice would you give an up and coming writer?
N. M. Singel: I think I’m going to refer back to the words of my theater professor…become a writer because you have to and not because you want to. It’s going to be a long and bumpy road so you’re going to need that undying desire to keep typing and tell a good story when times get tough.

SFFWRTCHT: Are you involved with cons and fandom? Cosplay?
N. M. Singel: I’m not currently involved in any of the cons or fandom, however I’m looking forward to participating. What a wonderful opportunity to connect to the people that are turning the pages of your work.

SFFWRTCHT: Where did your love of specfic and science fiction in particular begin?
N. M. Singel: Well, I’m an astronaut wannabe. One of my favorite pastimes is to power up my telescope, look at distant stars and feel the wonder of our universe. Science fiction is like putting the stories of those far off galaxies in my hands.

SFFWRTCHT: Who were some of your favorite authors/books growing up?
N. M. Singel: So many authors fill the bill, but I fell in love with Tolkien. Of course films were important to me, too. I am a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise. Yep…I was one of those kids who saw the movies dozens of times at the theater.

SFFWRTCHT: How do you define science fiction? Bizarro fiction?
N. M. Singel: I think science fiction and bizarro fiction are branches of the same tree. Science fiction is the offspring of science fact. When an author begins to weave a story, the facts begin to warp. I believe when fact and fiction really morph, bizzaro fiction is the result.

SFFWRTCHT: What future projects are you working on that we can look forward to?
N. M. Singel: The Wicked Passage is vol I of the Rellium series. I’m working on the second book so I’m knee deep in research about a very interesting man that tinkered with some amazing equations in the Spring of 1905, but I love spending my day with Albert Einstein.

 

To read our review of Wicked Passage, click here.

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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

 

 

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YA Report: “Fighting Gravity” by Leah Petersen

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

by Michelle Ristuccia

 

“Fighting Gravity” by Leah Petersen is a science fiction gay romance that follows Jacob Dawes starting with his removal from the ghetto to the Imperial Intellectual Complex, where he is expected to benefit the Empire with his genius and, somehow, fit in with his prejudiced upper class peers. For a Romance, the book is high on smart details and serious themes which raise Fighting Gravity to the cream of modern science fiction. Never does the reader get the myopic sense that Fighting Gravity is about Jacob Dawes and whomever he happens to be in love with at that moment. Instead, the book is as much about social structure and personal improvement as it is about the unpredictable human heart. At the same time, Leah Petersen never loses sight of the personal relationships that make Jacob’s narrative a Romance that will have you racing to get to the end and then pining for the next installment.

Fighting Gravity is not YA, yet the characters are in their teenage years, so it may appeal to and be appropriate for young adult readers who are ready for more mature themes. Although the characters are teenagers, the perspective is of Jacob as an adult relating a story of his past, and the next book in the series will take the characters into adulthood. But what really separates Fighting Gravity from your typical YA book is that the romance is more realistic and more mature, reflecting the complexities of real life relationships and how they form, break apart, and evolve when the participants are faced with intrapersonal, interpersonal, and external challenges. Jacob’s relationships are affected by life changing events such as Jacob living on a spaceship for a year, as well as by Jacob’s human inability to explain or control his actions one hundred percent of the time. As the characters encounter these obstacles, they each strive for healthy relationships and a stable position in life. In other words, while the characters make their share of questionable decisions, the love interest is not a creepy jealous stalker type whose behavior is made all the more abominable by the other characters’ blind acceptance. Jacob Dawes is an antihero, but one who, like most good antiheros, eventually realizes that he’s due for self-improvement. For these reasons I find Fighting Gravity to be no more objectionable for a mature teenage reader than many of the standard classics on a high school reading list.

As much as I love a good Romance, my favorite aspect of Fighting Gravity is its tip-of-the-iceberg science that categorizes it unabashedly as Science Fiction. Like other great modern writers, Leah Petersen effectively brings Science to the forefront without bogging down the story or making the reader feel like they need a Masters in Everything. You come away with the sense that the author knows her stuff, without having to dive into obtuse pages describing how binary star systems work or why faster-than-light travel is or isn’t possible. Fighting Gravity is like if Ursula K. Le Guin and Orson Scott Card could co-author a book without exploding. On the one hand you have the liberal and social science aspects of Ursula K. Le Guin, and on the other hand you have a character-driven story that isn’t afraid to be entertaining.

The depth of Leah Petersen’s writing gives the reader credit and engages multiple aspects of the self. For that reason, I feel confident recommending this whirlwind read to a variety of genre readers, from Romance to High Fantasy, because even a lover of High Fantasy would enjoy the conflict arising when an Emperor and a boy from the ghetto lock eyes. If you’ve had trouble getting into other science fiction, give Fighting Gravity a spin. You don’t have to be a mechanic to enjoy the hum of a classic engine.

You can find out more about Leah Petersen and Fighting Gravity at http://www.leahpetersen.com/

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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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The SFFWRTCHT Interview: Alethea Kontis

Monday, April 30th, 2012

New York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a goddess, a force of nature, and a mess. She has authored several published books in multiple genres as well as short fiction, essays, and poetry appearing in over ten anthologies and numerous speculative fiction magazines.. Her debut YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, will be published by HMH (Harcourt Books) this spring.

You can find Princess Alethea online at: www.aletheakontis.com and on twitter at @AletheaKontis .


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SFFWRTCHT: I see that you’re quite enamored with folk and fairy tales. Where did this love start?

Alethea Kontis: My father read to me every night when I was a baby (until age three, when I read to him and he fell asleep). I loved fairy and folk tales the best, which were written like my father told stories around the dinner table (“told”, not “shown”–ha!). This love resulted in the gift of many books from many friends and relatives, including a giant, unexpurgated Grimm and Andersen collection from my Memere when I was nine. I gobbled it up from cover to cover, and my life has been magical ever since.

SFFWRTCHT: Who were some of your favorite authors/books growing up?

Alethea Kontis: I once sat down and made a list of my 21 Most Influential Books (http://aletheakontis.com/2009/06/my-21-most-influential-books/) — only two of these (Jovah’s Angel and Me Talk Pretty One Day) were books I read after graduating high school. And there were just so many beyond this list: Edward Eager, Roald Dahl, Lloyd Alexander, Vivian Alcock, Catherine Dexter…if my childhood imagination knew no bounds, it was because the kingdom of source material was SO VAST.

SFFWRTCHT: When did you decide to start writing? How did you begin?

Alethea Kontis: I had always enjoyed writing assignments in school (I still have quite a few of them), but it wasn’t until a poetry unit in the fifth grade that I looked at the words on the page and knew I was meant to be a writer. I was ten years old.

SFFWRTCHT: Did you study writing in school? How did you learn your craft?

Alethea Kontis: I was a math and science geek. I made the worst grades in English. And as I was not encouraged by my parents to study writing in college, the only formal “craft” training I have is Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp in 2003, and the fabulous monthly meetings held by my local RWA chapter (Washington Romance Writers). Beyond that, I’m pretty much self-taught. I read a TON, and I wrote stories with my friends and for my friends, like a game we used to play. I’m so very glad were only had five television stations and no computers until my last years of high school. My life might have been very different.

SFFWRTCHT: How long did you write until your first sale? What was that?

Alethea Kontis: I was published a while before I got paid for it. Robert Bly (Secrets of a Freelance Writer) says that if you want to make a career out of writing, you need to start writing, even if it’s for no pay at all. A neighborhood newsletter, a church circular, something, anything. This will teach you to write to topic, concisely, to deadline, and for a particular editor–exceptionally good advice for me. I had a friend who was writing movie reviews for a local TN free press (The Rutherford Reader) that was mostly classified ads, and I asked him if they would be interested in book reviews. I had a word limit and a deadline every two weeks. I kept the job until 2005, when I got a gig writing about my life in books and the publishing industry for a monthly column in Apex Magazine. AlphaOops: The Day Z Went First was published in 2006.

SFFWRTCHT:  What aspect of Enchanted came first? Characters? Plot? Setting? Was a particular fairy tale involved from the beginning?

Alethea Kontis: In the summer of 2005, the Codex Writers (my online writers group) held a fairy tale short story contest. After a great deal of discussion, we decided that the stories had to be inspired by at least one of four “seeds”: “Fundevogel,” “The Princess and the Pea,” the Irish legend of Cú Chulainn, and the nursery rhyme “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” I was inspired by all of these things, as well as all the other suggestions that hadn’t made it on the list (like “Monday’s Child is Fair of Face). It was a novel’s worth of ideas, but I managed to edit it down into a 10,000-word story. “Sunday” won third place in the contest (only because Tom Pendergrass and Luc Reid tied for second) and was published in Realms of Fantasy in the fall of 2006. Enchanted is…well…the director’s cut of “Sunday.”

SFFWRTCHT: Do you identify with any of the characters in “Enchanted”?

Alethea Kontis: In so many ways, I am all the characters in Enchanted–they are drawn from my experiences. It all started with Sunday herself, though. I, too, was born a Sunday’s Child, with a storytelling father and an exasperated mother.

SFFWRTCHT: Did you do any pre-writing for “Enchanted”? Did you outline?

Alethea Kontis: I suppose “Sunday” would be considered the pre-writing for the novel. Just over halfway through the novel, I did make a sheet with bullet points for the last chapters, to make sure I was addressing what needed to be addressed, tying up what loose ends I needed to, pulling through any recurring imagery, and leaving myself a window through which I could write more sequels.

SFFWRTCHT: Was there anything you had to research for “Enchanted”?

Alethea Kontis: Beyond the fairy tales, I did do a bit of research on medieval European clothing, so that I could speak intelligently about the dresses the Woodcutter sisters wear to the ball. Luckily I was at Sherrilyn Kenyon’s cabin while writing that chapter–Sherri has done extensive research and written many stories about that time period. She was a great help with the styles and fabrics and sociological implications of such, and she had some lovely reference material on hand I was able to refer to. Enchanted does not have a specific time period, and I wanted to make sure that I did not include a particular late-model style of dress that would pin the tale down on a timeline.

SFFWRTCHT: What’s your writing time look like? Planned time? Grab it when you can?

Alethea Kontis: While I had a full time day job, I wrote after work and on the weekends. After I moved from TN, I had the great opportunity to live as a full time writer for a year. It was marvelous. I would go to the gym and write and work and blog and get everything out of the way before Joe and the girls came home from work and school. Thanks to the horrid economy I now have two part-time day jobs, and I’m back to writing when I can (and when I’m not completely exhausted). I do love my job at the bookstore and I treasure my kids in the afterschool program, but I do look forward to the day when I can go back to writing full time.

SFFWRTCHT: Do you use any special software or music playlist?

Alethea Kontis: Microsoft Word and silence are my friends, when I’m not going old school and writing with a pen. Crazy, right? I have notebooks everywhere.

SFFWRTCHT: How do you deal with writer’s block?

Alethea Kontis: Make a cup of tea, sit my butt down, shut up, and write.

SFFWRTCHT: How are the challenges of long form different for you than the challenges of a short story?

Alethea Kontis: Long form requires more sitting. Writing short form distracts me from writing long form, but I still love the format and can’t help myself.

SFFWRTCHT: What role do beta readers play, if any, in your process as a professional author?

Alethea Kontis: Because I didn’t have any formal teaching, I learned to write and submit all on my own. I appreciate getting feedback, but for me the most important feedback is that of the editor. Oh, I’ll get a second and third opinion if I’ve made a mess of a story, but so far those stories have all been tossed into the trunk as “unfixable.”

SFFWRTCHT: What advice would you give an up and coming writer?

Alethea Kontis: Never stop reading. Never stop learning. Most of all, shut up and write.

SFFWRTCHT: Do you have any other novels or projects? Do any involve fairy tales?

Alethea Kontis: I’m currently working on the sequel to Enchanted (tentatively called “Saturday”). I’m also working on a short story about the greatest serial killer of the fairy tale world: Fitcher (also known as Bluebeard).

SFFWRTCHT: You’ve written many stories across the spectrum of speculative fiction. Do you have any favorites (besides Enchanted)? Are there any that readers can access online?

Alethea Kontis: My favorites are the fairy tale-themed stories because I am so familiar with that world, and it’s a real challenge for me to write something new and fresh and interesting. “Sunday,” you guys know about. “Blood and Water” (online at IGMS) is my retelling of “The Little Mermaid” with vampire mermaids and pirates. “Sweetheart Come,” (Werewolves and Shapeshifters, ed. John Skipp) based on the Nick Cave song, is a Tam Lin sort of tale about enchanted wolves. “Hero Worship” (online at Enchanted Conversations) is the fangirl obsession Red Riding Hood develops with Jack Woodcutter, post wolf. My very favorite, “The Unicorn Hunter,” (Demons, ed. John Skipp) is the story of what really happened to Snow White in the woods, and discusses the origin of the iron shoes she later makes her mother dance in. I loved this story so much that its characters wove themselves into the Enchanted world, and I’m excited that I get to write about them again!

SFFWRTCHT: What future projects are you working on that we can look forward to?

Alethea Kontis: Brilliance Audio just bought the rights to do Enchanted as an audiobook, and I am SUPER excited about this! The sequel to Enchanted is my biggest project right now, and there are a few essays and short stories for anthologies that I shouldn’t really tell you about until I make the deadlines. There’s a super sekrit project with Eisner Award-winning artist J.K. Lee that I can’t tell you about or the publisher will shoot me. And for the AlphaOops fans out there: an AlphaOops Christmas book manuscript does exist, but Candlewick has not set a date for it yet. If you’d like to hurry them along, please send an email to bigbear@candlewick.com. Thanks!

To hear Enchanted in Audio,

To read our review of Enchanted, click here.

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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com


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YA Report: “Enchanted” by Alethea Kontis

Monday, April 16th, 2012
Review by Michelle Ristuccia

“Enchanted” by Alethea Kontis is a YA fairy tale that follows Sunday, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and her romance with a prince-turned-frog. Set in a world where it seems possible for all of our classic fairy tales to be true, Enchanted focuses on the importance of family and friends, trust, and the truth that builds that trust. After all, when your godmother is powerful enough to turn you into a frog, family matters.

If you were to ask me which fairy tale Enchanted takes after, my gut response would be, “all of them”. What starts out as apparently innocent details in a Disney-esque tale culminate in a heart-stopping fairy tale geek-out which will have you whispering madly to yourself, “I should have known!” Alethea expertly knits references to fairy tales and folk tales in every stitch of Enchanted, but one of my favorite folktale aspect of the story is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter premise. Typically the legend goes that a seventh son of a seventh son will be born with magical powers, so extending this to the female equivalent is both mind blowing and as natural as breathing. From Sunday’s name to the Leprechaun that lives under a tree, you’ll recognize archetypes that tickle the fancy and reach deeply into the human soul.

Yet, Alethea Kontis spins from these details a story that is all her own, a tale like a fair summer day with hints of darkness breaking through the clouds, and at the center of that tale is Sunday. Sunday feels both joy and heartbreak on a profound level, and as such she is genuine and imperfect and very much sixteen, with a hint of that selfishness common to us all. Her personality drives the story, and, along with the personality of the prince, gives the story heart. The secondary characters complete the colorful selection like second, third, and fourth strands on Alethea’s knitting needles, leaving us with a work that feels as complete as it does warm and fuzzy. The grand conclusion of Enchanted is not one little girl saving the world, but the entire Woodcutter family and their friends sending evil scampering away.

This book is for readers who enjoy a realistic female protagonist and the power of friends and family. Enchanted is also for those who enjoy classics such as the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, yet yearn for more detail and breadth. Most of all, Alethea Kontis’ novel is for those who believe in the power of words.

Nab your copy of Enchanted and find out more about Princess Alethea and her varied fiction online at: www.aletheakontis.com and on twitter at @AletheaKontis .

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Michelle writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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YA Report: “Wicked Passage” by N. M. Singel

Monday, April 9th, 2012

by Michelle Ristuccia

“Wicked Passage” by N. M. Singel is a trippy science fiction following thirteen year old Blake Wyatt as he attempts to preserve the timeline while taking directions from a talking book and two dogs who live in a field of blue grass. With the help of an uncle who likes to nap at the most inopportune times and a sister who manages to get herself locked in a trunk, Blake must save Christopher Columbus from a mutiny started by a Tolucan, an evil being determined to destroy not only Blake but the universe’s entire timeline.

Wicked Passage is a wonderful gateway book to bizarre fiction, and Blake is the perfect young man to drop into the chaos. Persistent and single minded, Blake says things that make my inner teenager squeal with glee, like, “take that, Barbeque Man!” He also makes some big mistakes, which you would expect of any one lacking the proper hero training and fighting the tide of their own incredulity. It isn’t until Blake locks eyes with Christopher Columbus himself that he takes the plunge of acceptance that allows him to surge forward, and you can hardly blame him. First he is confronted by an uncle who can stop time, then a flying, talking book, and then Dagunblud, the evil overlord of the Tolucan who can shoot fireballs.  Truly, in a universe where dark matter is literally evil, anything is possible.

The wonderful thing about bizarre fiction, Wicked Passage included, is that you have to lean back and accept the amazingly odd details. The only thing that interrupted my suspension of disbelief was the fact that Blake speaks English, yet has no trouble conversing with the Spanish-speaking Christopher Columbus and crew. I’m perfectly willing to accept the idea that the Wyatts gain the ability to speak any language they need to as they travel through time, but I would have appreciated some mention of this. Translation issues would have needlessly complicated the book, so it’s a good thing that Singel did not go that route and instead successfully created a fun rollercoaster of an adventure that is worth your consideration.

N. M. Singel has written a book for any reader with a sense of humor and a hankering for something unique. Wicked Passage is like what would happen if I were asked to save Columbus from a time traveling maniac – instead of sending Columbo, who can escape anything with a paperclip and a pencil, I would botch it up and send two kids who don’t like history. Luckily, Blake and Ricki can magically blast the bad guys using rocks from the eleventh dimension. Totally ‘Wicked’ cool.

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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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The SFFWRTCHT Interview: Author Andrew P. Mayer

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Andrew P. Mayer is author of the Society of Steam trilogy and has interviewed with us before. Active at cons like Dragon*Con, you can also find Andrew online at www.societyofsteam.com and www.facebook.com/societyofsteam and on twitter as @AndrewMayer.

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SFFWRTCHT: How did The Society of Steam morph from a comic book pitch to a trilogy of novels? Why a comic book? Why, then, novels?

Andrew P. Mayer: At the time I first created the series I was purely pitching comics. I hadn’t written prose for quite a while, and I figured that comics would be my path to fame and glory. It was also a great way for me to get a lot of the ideas I had in my head onto the page without having to write them out long form.  That, by the way, is both the blessing and the curse of the comics medium. There are way more ideas out there than there are artists to draw them, and people are pitching constantly.

Once I decided to write a novel I knew that I was definitely going to use one of my existing pitches as the framework.

I’m not sure there’s any particular reason that I picked the Society of Steam except that I thought it was one that would work as prose. I also really liked the idea of delving into superheroes in a more narrative way without getting into the full on meta-deconstruction that seems to plague so many superhero novels.

In my case I wanted to bring some of the aspects of comic book storytelling that I’d picked up during my time trying to break into comics and bring them into the literary world—narrative reconstruction, if you will.

SFFWRTCHT: What key aspects had to be changed to accommodate the new medium?

Andrew P. Mayer: Originally, the comic was a much more straightforward story about a team of steampunk superheroes. It many ways the novels are telling what would have been the origin story for that comic, so I can’t really explain what I had in mind for that without giving away the ending.

Comics are visual in a way novels aren’t so you end up focusing on what looks the coolest. You need that because you don’t have nearly as much room to tell your story. You also don’t have the same kind of ability to focus on the characters from the inside out, so in the comic the Automaton was also the lead character of that series—front and center. Sarah was relegated to the background. But once there was room to focus she stepped forward and took over from the first chapter.

SFFWRTCHT: How did your work with shorter fiction influence your work on The Society of Steam?

Andrew P. Mayer: I picked something that I figured would be more effective in smaller chunks, and I had originally intended to release the book as a serial. Really it was about cutting the story up into pieces that I knew I could handle.

That’s completely changed now. I have a much better grasp of what it takes to structure a book. If anything I’m finding myself figuring out what I need to cut so I can get to the end of the story with a reasonable word count.

SFFWRTCHT: What was the most interesting or baffling thing you had to research for The Society of Steam?

Andrew P. Mayer: At first everything was baffling to some degree. I wanted to get into the world of my characters, but visiting the past is harder than visiting some place you get to completely make up—at least it was for me.

So in the beginning I needed to research everything, from the layout of Manhattan to the type of hats people wore and why. Easily the most time in the Falling Machine was spent researching what takes place in the Darby house. I really needed to stop and research almost every aspect from teeth cleaning to home heating. One thing about the Victorian era is how often you’ll discover something that you’re sure couldn’t possibly have existed at that time was commonplace, while things that seemed like they must be ancient weren’t around until the 1920s or 1940s..

SFFWRTCHT: Which has been your favorite scene to write?

Andrew P. Mayer: I really enjoy the big set pieces like the one on the Brooklyn Bridge in book one, and the theater sequence at the end of book two. They’re a bear to set up, but once they’re rolling they can be tons of fun.

SFFWRTCHT: If you could pick a character to give more “screen time” to, which would it be?

Andrew P. Mayer: Well, that would have to be Sir Dennis. He spends far more time haunting the books then actually being in them. I’m going to be giving him the chance to shine in the prequel.

SFFWRTCHT: How did you keep readers from guessing that Lord Eschaton was right under our noses the entire time?

Andrew P. Mayer: Did I? Until you mentioned it I had no idea that I’d even managed to pull that off. I just assumed everyone would guess right away, so I didn’t put a lot of effort into hiding the fact except for not stating it explicitly. Maybe that allowed me to be a little more nonchalant than I might have been if I was trying to hide something.

SFFWRTCHT: Are you planning to attend any upcoming conventions?

Andrew P. Mayer: I went to a lot of shows over the last two years, so I’ve been taking it easy for the first half 2012. I’ll definitely be going to Dragon*Con in the fall, and I might attend World Fantasy. I also really like going to Orycon, so I’m sure I’ll go back up there.

Other than that there are no big plans. Once the third book comes out I’ll hit the road a little harder over that next year. A lot of it also depends on what I get invited to.

SFFWRTCHT: Can you tell us any thing about the prequel novel?

Andrew P. Mayer: It takes place about fifteen years before the events in the series, and is going to focus on the Paragons in their heyday. My goal is to try cover things from a different angle and use that to reveal that some of the events in the trilogy aren’t quite as black and white as they appear to be.

SFFWRTCHT: If you please, tell us one thing we can look forward to in the third book.

Andrew P. Mayer: There will be a new twist on Nathaniel’s drinking problem that no one will be able to ignore.

To read our review of Hearts of Smoke and Steam, click here.

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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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YA Report: “Forsaken Harbor” by Laura Kreitzer

Monday, March 19th, 2012
Review by Michelle Ristuccia

“Forsaken Harbor” by Laura Kreitzer is the second in the “Summer Chronicles,” a YA dystopian science fiction series following Summer through time travel, slavery, and romance. Each time Summer’s world is turned on its head by the Secret Clock Society, she must learn to adapt – first by keeping silent, then by learning when to call out, and lastly by telling her enemies “enough is enough” in not only words, but actions. In Forsaken Harbor, Summer sets her feet firmly on the road to emotional recovery as she sets her cross hairs on the very organization that led to her enslavement in the first place. But don’t think that the Secret Clock Society is going to sit back and watch the new Summer destroy their lynchpin, Forsaken Harbor. They’ve sent a spy and fellow time bender, Julian, to complicate Summer’s new found freedom.

Summer begins the novel as a person that I could never get along with and ends it as someone that I could respect. In the beginning, she keeps insisting that she is not naive and that she doesn’t need to be protected, but these bits of internal dialogue instantly come off as “The lady doth protest too much.” As such, I found some of the early internal dialogue to be too blow-by-blow, with a little too much “tell” and not enough “show.” Then, as the action and the romance heat up, Summer realizes that she must adapt because her enemies aren’t going to give her sympathy points. This means freeing her voice, her ability to manipulate time and, ultimately, the emotions that make her a fully rounded, imperfect human being. In other words, Summer is just like the rest of us, except that she can beat you up in the time that it takes you to blink.

What really sold me on Forsaken Harbor was Julian, the love interest with a moral dilemma the size of Einstein’s hair. Summer thinks she doesn’t know how she feels because she has feelings for two boys. Julian thinks he doesn’t know how he feels because he knows that his feelings have been toyed with on a neurological level. And if The Secret Clock Society can plant feelings, what’s to stop them from manipulating Julian into betraying the one that he thinks he loves? Talk about raising the stakes!

Another great part of Forsaken Harbor is the short chapters showing recordings from Forsaken Harbor itself. These chapters add a sense of breadth by including an additional perspective and glimpses of additional characters. Without this, I may have found the backstory of the fall of the United States, as well as the pseudo-science of time bending, to be a bit nonsensical for my tastes. Luckily, it becomes clear early on that the characters are the main ingredient. Add in Summer’s time-bending nanobots and Forsaken Harbor’s sequel promises to be Escape From New York meets Dr. Who.

For new readers I would absolutely recommend picking up the first book of the series rather than jumping into the middle. I hate to be that guy who comes into the middle of the movie and starts asking who that chick who doesn’t talk is, and I’m sure you do, too. You’ll enjoy the series much more with a proper introduction to Summer and her first love interest, Gage, who makes the problem that is Julian all the more poignant.

Check out Laura Kreitzer’s website at http://laurakreitzer.com/ where you can find many of Laura Kreitzer’s novels in formats from ebook to audio book, and, of course, the Summer Chronicles. You can also find her on twitter as @laurakreitzer

See our interview with Laura Kreitzer, Author-Publisher, here.

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Michelle writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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The SFFWRTCHT Interview: Author E. C. Myers

Monday, March 5th, 2012

E. C. Myers is author of debut novel, FAIR COIN, as well as several short stories. When he isn’t writing, he reads, plays video games, watches films, sleeps as little as possible, and spends far too much time on the internet. Check out his twitter, @ecmyers , his Star Trek TNG rewatch at theviewscreen.com , and, of course, his author webpage at http://ecmyers.net/ .

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SFFWRTCHT: When did you decide to start writing? How did you begin?

E. C. Myers: I didn’t make a serious effort at writing until 2001. At the time I was working as a technical writer, and one day I decided I needed to write something completely different from user manuals and software documentation. I began with science fiction and fantasy short stories. Back then I really wanted to write screenplays for film and television, but I didn’t want to move to L.A.; I figured I could write and submit fiction from anywhere, and I would publish–or not–based entirely on my own merits.

SFFWRTCHT: Did you study writing in school? How did you learn your craft?

E. C. Myers: Aside from one class on screenwriting in college, I haven’t had any formal writing training. I learned my craft from a lifetime of reading, first of all. And I also turned to writing instruction books to get started, especially Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Characters & Viewpoint, and tips on his website. I read and wrote a lot of short fiction to try to figure out what did and didn’t work in a story, and what would and wouldn’t sell. The real breakthrough for me as a writer was the Clarion West Writers Workshop, an intense bootcamp for writers that I attended in 2005. It condenses six years of learning into six weeks, through exercises and lessons from established writing professionals like Connie Willis and Octavia E. Butler. That’s where I learned to think critically and apply these observations to my own writing, through group critiques with seventeen other writers. That was all the training I needed, but essentially, I learned from doing and failing–a lot.

SFFWRTCHT: How long did you write until your first sale? What was that?

E. C. Myers: I guess it was about four years of writing and submitting before I made my first sale in 2005, shortly before going to Clarion West. It was a flash story called “Snow Angels” to a flash fiction market called Flash Me Magazine. It was a small sale, but it was a big moment for me, and it came at a time when I was starting to wonder if I would ever be good enough to get published. It’s still out there on the internet.

SFFWRTCHT: What aspect of Fair Coin came first? Characters? Plot? Setting?

E. C. Myers: Plot. It’s almost always a plot idea that starts a story for me. In this case, I had the image of a guy flipping a coin and making a wish. When he caught the coin a ripple expanded from it, changing the world around him in its wake. I knew there was a wishing fountain involved, and that he thought the coin was magic. From there I had to figure everything else out: who he was, what the coin was, how it worked.

SFFWRTCHT: What sort of pre-writing did you do for Fair Coin? Did you outline?

E. C. Myers: The only pre-writing consisted of whatever notes I jotted down in my notebooks over the course of a couple of years. When I decided it was finally time to try to write the book, I looked over all those story fragments and hashed out what I thought were the key moments and concepts. Then I started writing it. I usually don’t outline a book beforehand, preferring to figure the story out organically as I go, but I did outline the book after I wrote each chapter, so I could keep track of everything, which helped a lot in revision.

SFFWRTCHT: What’s your writing time look like? Planned time? Grab it when you can?

E. C. Myers: A little of both. I have planned time every morning before work for about an hour, but I steal additional time wherever I can–lunch breaks, after work, late at night, and especially on weekends. An uninterrupted weekend where I can write for the whole day is like heaven. One thing I learned after Clarion West is that you have to write when you can; there’s no perfect time, and you have to be able to write under all sorts of conditions. I’ve written on trains, in the hall at jury duty, in laundromats, busy coffee shops… You have to make the time instead of making excuses.

SFFWRTCHT: Do you use any special software or music playlist?

E. C. Myers: I’ve been dabbling with Scrivener, but only for revising novel drafts so far. I haven’t used it from scratch on a new book yet, and sometimes it seems like overkill for more straightforward edits. I listen to classical music on Pandora or movie, anime, or video game soundtracks when I need to drown out conversations at the coffee shop–any instrumental music without lyrics will do. Sometimes I’ll discover songs that resonate with a book I’m writing, but I don’t need to listen to anything for inspiration.

SFFWRTCHT: How do you deal with writer’s block?

E. C. Myers: Writer’s block usually means I’m on the wrong track or I haven’t figured something out yet, so I take a break to brainstorm for a bit, or I switch to working on another project. I might also watch a movie or some television just to distract me, or run on the treadmill at the gym to give my subconscious time to work it out. And if all else fails, I push through with brute force and just write something awful that I know will have to be rewritten entirely, just to keep the story moving forward.

SFFWRTCHT: What role do beta readers play, if any, in your process as a professional author?

E. C. Myers: Beta readers are a huge, essential part of my process. I have a terrific writing group called Altered Fluid which has read pretty much every short story I’ve written since Clarion West, and many members of the group have also read my first three novels. It’s really important to get other perspectives on my work, because I’m too close to it and it’s hard to know if the story and characters make sense outside of my own head. I also get tremendous feedback, insights, and line edits from my agent, Eddie Schneider, and of course, there’s no substitute for a good editor who gets your work. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to become friends with other writers through conventions, workshops, and the internet, and some of those have become beta readers too–so I usually can have different groups read different drafts to give me a sense of how successful my revisions are.

SFFWRTCHT: What advice would you give an up and coming writer?

E. C. Myers: I think the best thing you can do is find a writing group or create one on your own, in person or online. It can help so much in motivating you to produce new work, helping you learn how to critique, and exposing yourself to different perspectives, different stories, and different processes. A mix of writers of different levels is best–you can learn from someone less experienced as well as someone who has been writing and publishing for years. I also say you should just write as often as you can, prioritizing it over things like television and video games. Persist. Don’t be afraid of failure. And you need to read–a lot. Read anything and everything. Don’t limit yourself to just one genre, or things that are like what you write.

SFFWRTCHT: Are you involved with cons and fandom? Cosplay?

E. C. Myers: I like going to cons as often as I can afford the cost in time and money, but I haven’t been involved in panels and that kind of thing yet. I don’t cosplay, mostly because I have zero talent at creating costumes, and I’m no longer as obsessed with other people’s stories as I am with my own. About the farthest I’ll go is wearing a Superman T-shirt.

SFFWRTCHT: Where did your love of specfic and science fiction in particular begin?

E. C. Myers: It probably started as a kid in the cartoons that I watched, but as far as fiction goes, I have to attribute it to William Sleator’s Interstellar Pig, which is the first science fiction book that made a big enough impression on me that I remember it today.

SFFWRTCHT: Who were some of your favorite authors/books growing up?

E. C. Myers: In addition to Sleator, I loved the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, Beverly Cleary, E. Nesbit, Roald Dahl, L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, and Doctor Dolittle. I also adore a book most people probably haven’t heard of: The Silver Crown by Robert C. O’Brien, who is much more famous for Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and Z for Zacharia.

SFFWRTCHT: How do you define science fiction? “Hard” science fiction versus “soft”  science fiction?

E. C. Myers: That’s always a tricky one. Science fiction is a story that would not work if you removed the scientific or technological concept. Hard science fiction, to me, places more of a focus on getting the scientific theories right and developing the plot than on the characters, while soft science fiction is more character-oriented and the rules of the technology or science are less stringent–almost magical, really. I think a lot of social science fiction, and dystopias, fall into that category.

SFFWRTCHT: What future projects are you working on that we can look forward to?

E. C. Myers: I don’t know if you’ll look forward to them necessarily, but I’m finishing up the sequel to Fair Coin now, Quantum Coin, which should be out in the fall. After that I’m going to revise a standalone science fiction/alternate history YA about a world where everyone remembers their past lives. There’s a fourth book in much rougher shape which will be a contemporary young adult book about twins, theater, and soccer.

To read our review of Fair Coin, click here.

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Michelle Ristuccia writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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YA Report: “Fair Coin” by E. C. Myers

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Review by Michelle Ristuccia
In “Fair Coin” by E. C. Myers, Ephraim’s world is shattered when he comes home to find his mother has tried to kill herself. Mysteriously, the suicide attempt was prompted by a case of mistaken identity — there seem to be two Ephraims, and one of them was hit by a bus and killed earlier that day. Yet, having a doppelganger hardly seems to matter when Ephraim finds a magic coin that grants his wishes, for better or for worse.

The bold beginning told me every thing I needed to know about why I was going to like this book. Myers quickly immerses us in the characters, who in turn usher us through an increasingly complex and fast-paced plot. We learn soon enough that the so-called magic coin is actually a device created to transport its users through the multiverse of “Fair Coin,” meaning that each alternate reality that Ephraim has seen has remained behind him in his selfish quest for a more perfect life. This revelation plunges us into a cold sea of consequences, where problems cannot be wished away, death is still permanent, and the mere flip of a coin may be the difference between reparation and destruction.

“Fair Coin” reminds me why it is that I have a soft spot for multiverses. Rather than just a convenient plot device, the multiverse concept in “Fair Coin” explores its characters and their choices by contrasting each character against other versions of themselves. These foils within foils bring out a nature versus nurture issue with a slight focus on the nurture aspect. “Fair Coin” shows how a hard life changes people, yet at the same time, each character has that thread of personality in common with all their selves to round out the nature side of the equation. The result is that each character, rather than being diminished by the existence of endless copies of themselves, is instead held to a higher standard of uniqueness. It is, after all, their divergent choices which separate each from his or her other selves.

I recommend this book to any one interested in a character-driven science fiction young adult novel. The science is not overly technical because Myers does an excellent job explaining the Many Worlds Interpretation, which I was pleased to see included universes where time is slower or faster than in our own, as well as a hint of worlds even more divergent. The plot also will not disappoint. Taking advantage of the endless landscape of a multiverse, “Fair Coin” will make you feel like you are following the white rabbit to a particularly dangerous game of croquet.

Visit E. C. Myers’ website at http://ecmyers.net/ to find out more about “Fair Coin,” the upcoming sequel Quantum Coin, and his impressive array of published short fiction. You can also find him on twitter @ecmyers . Star Trek fans should check out his OS re-watch reviews at http://www.theviewscreen.com/

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Michelle writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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YA Report: “Thief’s Covenant” by Ari Marmell

Monday, January 30th, 2012
Review by Michelle Ristuccia

“Thief’s Covenant (A Widdershins Adventure)” by Ari Marmell is a YA fantasy with a twinge of horror. The book follows self-made thief Widdershins as she unravels the mystery of who — or what — is out to kill her and those she loves. The book begins with the horrific murder of Widdershins’ fellow worshipers of an unnamed god, and from there spills the details of her past and present in a non-linear progression that will have you connecting the dots when Ari Marmell wants you to, and not before.

Thief’s Covenant was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the world and I appreciated the cleverness of the scene layout, yet I was left wishing that I could take the characters more seriously. The tone was a mixture of humor and horror that, for me, threatened to mask the complexity of the characters under a veil of witty dialogue. It wasn’t until nearly half way through the book that I was completely satisfied with the main character’s motivations and human qualities. After I saw Widdershins commit a monumental selfless act, I could more fully enjoy the author’s colorful descriptions and quips. Until then, I felt that the premise of the book teetered on the edge of believability. Perhaps this is because I’m used to reading books where the rags-to-riches story is the focal point, described in detail near the beginning of the text. Here the reader comes in after the fact and we are expected to take it at face value for much of the book. But, I did appreciate how this worked towards a clever release of information and a number of surprises at the end that would have been far too easy to guess with a straight forward linear progression.

The only other thing that dampened my enjoyment of the book were one or two descriptions that I felt were anachronistic. The setting of the book appears to be a standard fantasy backdrop, so except where certain religions and magics are defined otherwise, I expect the world to conform to the standard. I do not expect the characters to understand, say, details of physiology that speak to a more advanced science than medieval times. So, while these were clever and funny, they took me out of the book for a moment, and I’d rather stay in it.

Perhaps I am not the target audience for Ari’s novel. I’m not as much a lover of humor, even dry humor, as I am of the dramas of interpersonal and internal conflict. Give me a sappy emo anti-hero over a ninja assassin superstar any day. However, If you enjoy plot-driven stories, this one will engage you with plenty of How questions, some of which you can get a taste of in the back over blurb. The scene layout and flashbacks are structured to showcase plot, setting us up with interesting mysteries from page one. It certainly kept me reading.

Ari Marmell has some thoughtful blog posts that you’ll love if you’re a speculative fiction geek. Hope on over to http://mouseferatu.com/ and, who knows, you might find that Thief’s Covenant is more your style than it was mine. Marmell has posted links to other review of his book here.

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Michelle writes short fiction of all speculative fiction genres in between chasing her toddler from tree to tree. The shorter the work, the better, because 200 words looks very long on her cellphone and that keypad is very, very small. You can find out more about her rabid love of Star Trek, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com

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