The Art of Fiction

For some insights into the creative process and the author's most difficult job -- avoiding clichés -- here are some of my recently published (and net accessible) articles, interviews, and essays discussing the art of fiction.

THROUGH STRANGER EYES

Through Stranger Eyes is a new collection of my book reviews, introductions and essays on popular culture, released in the Western Hemisphere by Nimble Press and in the Eastern by Altair Australia. Included: everything from carefully measured views on J.R.R. Tolkien to that infamous, outraged rant about the Star Wars saga! From sober reflections on Jared Diamond's Collapse, and Rebecca Solnit's River of Shadows, to scientific ponderings on Feynman and Gott, along with appraisals of great authors like Brunner, Resnick, Zelazny, Clarke, Verne, and Orwell... all the way to fun riffs on the Matrix and Buffy! More than two dozen reviews and commentaries that are sure to enlighten, entertain, possibly infuriate, and even make you laugh, but above all, offer some perspectives you never imagined before.

Advice for New Writers

I believe a person is behooved to help pass success on to those who follow. So, after writing the same answers, over and over, to many letters I received from would-be writers, I decided to put it all together here. Call it a small trove of advice. Mine it for whatever wisdom you may find.

(For another professional's perspective, see Jeff Carver's Advice to Aspiring Writers page.)

"Art may be essential and deeply human, but it ain't rare. What's rare is honesty. A willingness to look past all the fancy things we want to believe, peering instead at what may actually be true."

Now for Something Completely Different

See an interview I gave the brash and pretty new online speculative fiction magazine IDEOMANCER.

"Progress gives...and it takes away. A more open and educated and richer society can allow ever-larger fractions of the popularity to have hobbies in the arts. Hobbies that enrich lives. But the best hobbyists want more. To move into professional status. As I did in 1980 with my first novel."

Writing as Art

An interview I gave about the art of writing recently appeared in Science Fiction Weekly.

"Late at night, I can pound the keys in a frenzy as vehement and emotional as Shelley, screaming at heaven during a lightning storm. By day, the rational me then sighs, rolls up his sleeves and edits all that stuff. Skill and inspiration can work together."

Writing and the Environment

An interview concerning science fiction and the environment appeared in a recent issue of the Australian magazine Living Planet and is reprinted here.

"I don't care for demigods or charismatics. As humans, we are at our best when we take a lot of individual passion and brilliance, and mix it in with lots of debate, science, accountability, more argument, and heaps of honest professional skill. This more mature process sounds less romantic than the Homeric image, but it gets more done. There are plenty of environmental 'heroes' out there. They are most effective in the context of a community... a worldwide community of rising consensus that a living world is much better than a dead one."

Writing and the Future

A new Q & A session covering thoughts on literature and the future has appeared at the Artist Interviews site.

"I'm known as an optimist because I think people are getting better, smarter, wiser. But I don't consider that hugely 'optimistic.' Not if the rate at which it's happening is way too slow. To get better, but not fast enough, that's a unique style of tragedy that Aristotle never imagined. Yet it's one that modern science fiction is wonderfully well-equipped to handle."

Becoming a Futurist

An interview that appeared in the April-June 2002 issue of Scifi-stories.com asks questions like "How did you make the leap from scientist to science fiction writer to futurist?" and "Do you have advice for future authors?"

"Most stories portray more years simply being tacked onto the end, in a serial fashion. But that makes no sense since it packs the future with conservative old fogies, getting in the way of your grandkids! No, what we really want is more life in parallel... letting each of us do more with the span we already have."

Fiction and Symbolism

Here's an older interview I did for Innervision about symbols in fiction has new meaning in light of recent (9/11) events.

"Love of civilization is the rebel view nowadays: not idiotic or jingoistic patriotism, but appreciation for being part of something."

Can You Speak Lojban?

"Toujours Voir" -- a specialty micro-story exactly 250 words long -- has been translated into the logical artificial language "lojban." It's an experiment in how complex an idea can be conveyed in the smallest number of words.

i lu ze'e viska li'u
fi'e la deivd brin
 
i lu ju'i prenu la zeloskis bazi vi zvati i ki'anaidai li'u se cusku le marbi

My Conversation With Germany

Here's an interview I did for LiteraturSchock. (It's worth a peek just to see the German covers for several of my novels.) It also contains some commentary about how we did not really need to damage the Western Alliance in order to go after Saddam Hussein.

"I have no objections to correcting the terribly cynical mistake that George Bush Sr. made in 1991, leaving a mass-murderer in charge of Iraq. I just wish these people would admit that they foolishly created the problem in the first place."

Can We Go to Mars... Or Just Write About It?

The Planetary Society posted an interview I gave them concerning fiction, my motivations as a writer... and how we might get to Mars.

"Every civilization had professionals dedicated to dreams and wonder... but only one ever had an entire class of skilled workers dedicated to finding out what was real, and what was not. Scientists."

An Uplifting Interview

Read my interview in Science Fiction Weekly, where I discuss writing, the Uplift universe, and other topics.

"The delicious aspect of epic drama is the suspension and tension you find in some tales as ancient as the Odyssey. Tension that builds gradually as layer after layer is unpeeled."

Feminizing the Future

Read my interview for The Linköping Science Fiction & Fantasy Archive.

"I believe female attributes ought to play much bigger roles in our future, although HOW this shall be done is a crucial question. It is vital to note that not all matriarchal societies need be conservative/pastoralist, as I depict in Glory Season."