NOTE: Due to technical glitches with Twitter itself, we lost our guest half way through so I finished the interview with audience’s questions and my own via email. Hence, the transcript has been culled into a neater format than normal for purposes of clarity and transitions between the two formats. The full context of the chat is here with the exception of a few side comments irrelevant to the discussion (i.e. chitchat) and all questions are attributed to a group moniker instead of individual attendees.
SFFWRTCHT: Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Writer´s Chat. Our guest John R. Fultz teaches kids to love heavy metal by day and tells stories by night. His stories have appeared in anthologies like Way Of The Wizard and Cthulhu´s Reign and zines like Black Gate, Weird Tales and Lightspeed. His debut novel, book 1 of the Shaper Trilogy, Seven Princes, is out from Orbit this month. His comic, Primordia, was published by Archaia Comics in three issues in 2007-2008.
John R. Fultz: Ha! Actually, I teach them to love the English language and all its powerful spells and powers…
SFFWRTCHT: Where´d your interest in SFF come from?
JRF: My interest in SFF probably came from comics–as a kid I was reading them before I could read…making up stories about the pics. Also, an early book of faerie tales that my uncle Johnny gave me…that was one of the first books I ever read and re-read.. That book had Jack the Giant-Killer and tons of other stories–illustrated n the old school style. That lead me to discovering The Hobbit when I was in third grade, which led me to LOTR right around the time of Bakshi’s movie. Yes, fairie tales have always fascinated me…but there’s more of that influence in PRIMORDIA (my comic) than in SEVEN PRINCES. I’ve called PRIMORDIA a “stone-age fairie tale”…
SFFWRTCHT: Who were some of your favorite authors/books growing up?
JRF: Faves when growing up: Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Clark Ashton Smith rocked my world when I was 10 or 11… Other early faves: Moorcock (ELRIC), Lovecraft, some Lin Carter (LOST WORLDS is his best work), etc. It wasn’t until college that I discovered Lord Dunsany’s work, which redefined fantasy fiction for me–”A Dreamer’s Tales” — Also in college: Tanith Lee’s work captivated me, Darrell Schweitzer’s short stories blew my mind (still do), & Robert Silverberg. View full article »
