Keeping An Eye On... Scott Westerfeld

This week's Keeping An Eye On... author, like me, knows a little something about alphabetical discrimination. A fellow W, Scott Westerfeld is frequently shelved at the end of the aisles. Fortunately for him, his talent also keeps another stack of books front and center on the bestseller table. Unfortunately for him, he got pushed toward the back of the interview queue.

Honestly, I'm not sure how Westerfeld snuck his way onto SF Signal's list of up-and-coming authors. I'm guessing its a lack of awareness because the majority of his work is marketed toward the Young Adult crowd and some of the "SFF elite" still refuse to read "garbage" like Little Brother, The Graveyard Book, or Leviathan. Brainless boycotting aside, you should have heard of Westerfeld by now. There's his Uglies series which frequented the bestseller lists and took home several awards including Best Book for Young Adults from the American Library Association. Or his Peeps books which also earned the same award. Or his Midnighters books that garnered an Aurealis award. Or there's his Succession books. Or any of his standalone novels.

Or there his brilliant new Steampunk alternate history novel, Leviathan, which recently came in first in a Reader's Choice Poll here at Stomping on Yeti. I just finished the book, and the only problem I had with it is that it's sequel, Behemoth, doesn't come out until next October.

Read on to find out more about Leviathan, Scott's feelings on the YA "stigma", and whatever else we felt like talking about.

---

SoY: I’ve been Keeping an Eye On you, but for those who haven’t, can you tell us a little about your recently released book, Leviathan?

SW: It's a half-steampunk, half-alternate history version of World War I. In this world, Charles Darwin discovered DNA, and the Victorian empire was built on the backs of fabricated species--living airships, talking message lizards, and various fighting creatures. The Germanic peoples (aka "Clankers") went a more mechanical route, and use walking machines with a classic steampunk look. The two main characters are the son of the archduke Ferdinand (a Clanker) and a girl passing as a boy to serve on a living airship (a Darwinist, of course). So basically, it's Romeo and Juliet in an alternate Great War.

SoY: How long do you plan to write in the Leviathan world?

SW: Leviathan will be a trilogy plus one. The trilogy covers an around-the-world trip, so we get to see Europe, the Ottoman Empire, Japan, and the US in this alternate reality, and there's also a fair amount of resolution in the war itself. The fourth book is a large-format, all-color geekfest of deck plans, cutaways, and illustrations of the uniforms, creatures, and machines.

SoY: A lot of your work has been primarily marketed as YA fiction but is often included in lists of quality YA fiction even adults should read. In your mind, what distinguishes YA fiction from adult fiction?

SW: "The age of the protagonists" is the usual answer. But I think it's more than that. Being a teenager is mostly about identity, figuring out who you are and what your place in the world is, while at the same time questioning how adults could have left things in such a mess. YA is really close to science fiction in that regard, which is why I always say that the SF section WAS the young adult section until recently.

SoY: What’s it like competing with Harry Potter and Twilight for attention and shelf space? (You seem to have done pretty well for yourself)

SW: Those books have created millions of new readers, most of whom have grown up with the fantasy genre as their primary reading mode. They've saved many, many bookstores from bankruptcy during an economic downturn, and created a culture where certain book releases garner as much media attention as movies. It would be churlish to complain.

SoY: How do you respond to adult readers who dismiss YA novels as something below them?

SW: Crippling insecurity is a terrible affliction, and we should all be as supportive as possible.

SoY: Back to Leviathan for a moment, one of the highlights of the book is Keith Thompson’s beautiful artwork interspersed throughout its pages. They give a visual aspect to the book which really works well with Steampunk. How did his illustrations come to be included in Leviathan?

SW: About 60 pages in, I realized that I was writing a "boy's own adventure," the kind my parents had moldering in their attic when I was growing up. Like most novels of that period (whether for adults or children), those adventures were illustrated. So I went in search of an artist.

I soon found Keith, who is amazing at both weird creatures and fantastical machines. He's created a style I call "Victorian Manga," a very accessible look that's based on Punch Magazine from that decade.

There are about 50 images in each book, more than one per chapter, so it's quite a bit more illustrated than the books in my parents' attic. But Keith Thompson's amazing work was worth stretching historical precedent.

SoY: You’ve written both vampire books (Peeps) and steampunk books (Leviathan); two of the hottest trends in genre publishing today. First, which subgenre will crash first? Second, when do we get your Zombie novel? And Third, what’s the next big trend in genre fiction?

SW: Well, I wrote Peeps a long time ago, too early to get included on the Twilight "readalikes" tables, so I wasn't exactly trend-spotting. And Leviathan has been in the works forever. But I do have a zombie short story coming out next year (in an anthology to be revealed soon). I would say I loved zombies before they were cool, but there was NO SUCH TIME.

But seriously, it's quite interesting to see steampunk gain some visibility over the last couple of years, after two decades of relative obscurity. I would doubt the genre can ever get big enough to "crash," because it's just too complicated for the average person. (It can certainly get big enough for people who hate trendy things to hate, but that's not a real crash, that's just wankers mouthing off.) To really get steampunk, you have to have a sense of history, a love of technology, and a whole set of notions about how human beings fit into industrialism and colonialism. And frankly, most people don't have the time.

Steampunk will only ever really trend at surface levels. It's like after Mad Max was a hit, and for a while every future included leather jackets, motorcycles, and mohawks, and then people mostly got bored of that (mostly). But you would hardly say that "post-apocalyptic settings crashed." Mad Max-ism just entered the canon of sf styles, which is what steampunk is in the process of doing.

I don't think vampires will ever crash, never ever, but why that is would be a whole dissertation.

SoY: Earlier this month, it was announced that your series Midnighters was being optioned for television by NBC. How involved are you in the development? What can you tell us about the series?

SW: What I can tell you is that I have nothing to do with it. The press release says something about the midnighters "fighting crime," which is news to me and to readers of the series. My guess is that people in TV say "fight crime" as a form of Hollywood-specific Tourette's.

SoY: You’ve been optioned for TV shows, won numerous awards, and often grace the New York Times Bestseller Lists. Out of all of your accomplishments, what has been the highlight of your career so far?

SW: The big story that most adults are missing right now is that today's teenagers are way more smart and sophisticated and cool than we were. I mean, seriously, doing things like writing novels en masse? Just to see what it's like to write a novel?

Being lucky enough to hit during that wave (which partly comes out of the YA boom, and partly from the internet itself) has been a total gas. Being an inspiration to this vastly awesome generation, and having the opportunity to guide a trickle of them toward SF (with fantasy being the overwhelming mode), is the best honor I could think of.

In short, my fanmail is the best thing ever.

SoY: Fill in the blank: “If I can write a book that _______________, I will consider my career a complete success.”

SW: I would hate to be a *complete* success. That sounds like being done.

SoY: Hypothetically, you get kicked off the list for selling too many books. Who do you nominate in your place?

SW: Lauren McLaughlin, whose Re-Cycler just came out (a sequel to last year's excellent Cycler).

SoY: What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?

SW: Let me get back to you on this. Bug me if I don't! [Note: I bugged him. He never did]

SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]

SW: http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

---

Another little known fact about Scott is that he refuses to experience winter, instead traveling between New York City and Australia as the seasons change. While that seems strange, as I sit here freezing in the slushy Chicago weather, I can't blame him in the slightest.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post my review of Leviathan this week or next. The short summary is that you should either ask for this book for Christmas, buy it for a young relative, or do both. His alternate steampunk world is so interesting that I absolutely cannot wait for the follow-up. Maybe I will have to travel to Australia to find out what happens next. And if I happen to stay there until there is sunlight again, that sounds good too.

Keeping An Eye On... Daniel Abraham

After a brief holiday absence, Keeping An Eye On... has returned! This week's author is none other than Daniel Abraham. I held off interviewing Daniel until late in the process because I had previously talked with his alter ego, M.L.N. Hanover a couple of months ago regarding a few Urban Fantasy covers of "typical quality" and I wanted to give him the opportunity to write a little more. It helps that everything he writes is definitely worth talking about. Additionally, that first interview focused on his Hanover books and Urban Fantasy in general, so I wanted to revisit Abraham's own books and gauge his opinion on some more universally applicable subjects.

Abraham has proven to be one of the authors on most enjoyable authors on SF Signal's Watchlist. Granted, that's like picking the most attractive Victoria's Secret model but nonetheless Abraham's Long Price Quartet and Hanover's Black Sun's Daughter Series are some of my recent favorites. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Abraham's short fiction has been nominated for several major awards including the Nebula and World Fantasy. Needless to say, Abraham writes a pretty good story and if you keep reading, you'll find he makes for a pretty good interview as well.

---

SoY: If we are keeping an eye on you, what should be looking for in the near future? What have you been working on recently?

DA: In the absolute most literal answer to the question, I've got a contract for three books in an epic fantasy series for Orbit and a couple more of the urban fantasy titles as MLN Hanover. I'm hoping that both of those turn into more contracts in the next few years. They're both projects I'm having a lot of fun with.

On a more abstract level, I'm finding myself interested in the difference between trying to do something really new and trying to do something familiar really well.

SoY: If a reader has never heard of you before reading this, what is the one single piece of work of yours would you like them to read?

DA: I'd point them at "The Cambist and Lord Iron". It's just a short story, so it's not something that asks for a lot of time. I'm fond of it, and it's free online here.

SoY: Can you tell us some more about your Dagger and the Coin series?

DA: Ah! The Dagger and the Coin. That's an interesting project.

When I started writing the Long Price Quartet, my personal mandate apart from the exact plots and characters and all was to figure out how to write a novel. I'd written a bunch of short stories, and i felt like I had a handle on that length. Novels, though? Before A Shadow in Summer, I'd written three trunk novels. Each one was better than the one before, but I didn't have it down yet. So four books later -- or five, if you count Hunter's Run, or seven if you add in the Black Sun's Daughter books to date -- I understand book-length fiction a better. I'm comfortable. I win, right?

When it came time to build the new project, one of the things that was clear to me is that if you know where you're going from the first word, you win. I have this whole rant comparing X Files to Babylon 5 that makes the point. Anyway, I started this by something I called the Symposium. I got a bunch of really great minds together for a Sunday, and we talked about what epic fantasy *is*. What's the relationship of the genre to landscape? How is it about nostalgia for a mythical past and how is it more than that? What are the expectations, and how can you fulfill them without painting by numbers? It was a *long* talk.

Then with that as a focus, I went through all the things I think are the most interesting things that I could fit into an overtly epic fantasy universe. I love the Medici bank, and especially Tim Park's book-length essay on it, Medici Money. I love The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis. I love Whedon's Firefly (not so much Serenity, but that's another rant). I love The Diary of a Man in Despair by Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen. I love Dumas and Dickens. I love Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo books. I think Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's Fall series is critically under-appreciated. And on and on.

And so I stole everything I liked the best, and now I'm making gumbo.

The books -- I'm under contract for three, but I'm thinking that the first full arc will take about five -- follow five main characters. It's a little weird, since instead of having a farm boy chosen by prophecy, I've got an orphan girl who was raised by my version of the Medici bank, but hey. The point was never to paint by numbers, right?

The first book covers the introductions and setup with a bunch of swashbuckling and dark magic and intrigue and sentiment. The second book is the start of the Great War. The third will take us up to the critical moment, and then change the game again.

They're longer books than the Long Price -- about 160,000 words at the minimum where the Long Price was more in the 120-140 range -- but so far, it reads like a short story. With as much as there is to cover, things move fast. And it's a different tone. The glib way I've been describing it is that I wrote my tragedy first, now I'm writing my adventure, and if someday I'm good enough, I might try my comedy. But not yet.

SoY: You've currently got work planned in both the Epic Fantasy subgenre and the Urban Fantasy subgenre. Are there any current plans to further diversify? In an ideal situation?

DA: Oh yes. I'd love to. I have things on the back burner for a space opera, a mystery series, and a semi-literary horror/popular science book. But I also have 24 hours in the day and a family. I've had a good time playing in the different subgenres, though. It's taught me a lot of things I don't think I'd have learned otherwise.

SoY: What authors would you describe as your primary influences in developing your personal narrative style?

DA: That's a hard call. I don't think I've consciously adopted anyone's voice. When I was just starting off, I was interested in Anne Rice and Stephen King and Margaret Atwood. There's a grouping that would make all of them cringe, but they were all people I admired. People forget this, but back in the day, Anne Rice was really good with evoking a mood and making things that should have been absurd and ridiculous poignant. She lost it later, but a lot of people do. It doesn't make her earlier work bad. King was great at telling a story, and not letting the beauty of the piece get in the way. I still admire the hell out of him for being utterly in the service of the story and not the aggrandizement of the author, moreso since he's become a demigod. And Atwood -- say what you will about her unfortunate snobbishness -- has a feel for the complexity of human emotion and poetry options of language that is very, very compelling, especially in her non-genre work before The Handmaid's Tale.

The biggest single influence, though, is Walter Jon Williams. I've been workshopping with him for over a decade now, and he has taught me more than any other single person, especially about how to identify and overcome my default errors. Walter's a craftsman, and that's sky high praise where I from.

SoY: In the novel Hunter's Run, you collaborated with genre heavy hitters Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin to expand a novella decades in the works. Do you find it easy for you to collaborate on creative projects? Is it harder when working with people that are at different points in their careers?

DA: I appear to be pretty good at collaboration. The biggest single skill I can recommend for that kind of project is give up having it be the way you'd do it alone. The point of collaboration is that it isn't what any of us would have done solo. Once you're willing to lose a point here or there -- to relinquish total ownership of the project -- it can be great fun. That's true whether it's Hunter's Run or the Wildcards books or the Tauromachia story I did with Walter, Sage Walker, and Michaela Roessener.

And George and Gardner were fun to work with. We have deeply different styles -- especially me and Gardner -- but they're serious writers who treated me and the project with utter respect. As far as being at different points in our careers, that would be a real problem if I looked too much up to them or they looked too much down on me. But they were very good about treating me as an equal, and I'm not that bowled over by people higher on the food chain. Didn't help me in high school, but it's a nice talent now.

SoY: Like many authors you started out writing shorter fiction (Leviathan Wept is out next year!) but your output has diminished as you came to focus more on novels. What is your opinion on the short form? Is it merely a stepping stone to bigger things or a valuable form that just isn't financially viable for today's writing market?

DA: Are you sure my output's diminished? I've got three novelettes that are eligible for the Nebula this round, and four more stories under contract one place and another, both as myself and MLN.

I think short form is great. It's sharper and faster than a novel, and it allows for some effects that in a longer story would just get tedious. From a purely mercenary point of view, yes, it's a good stepping stone to larger projects. I'm not sure that novels always make you more money if you account it by the word, but the stability of knowing that, for instance, the Orbit contract I signed will pay me for the next three to four years is a very pleasant thing.

From a really mercenary point of view, though, any fiction writing is stupid. Better to write non-fiction where the money is, or get a real job. And short stories are fun.

SoY: As a follow up, what would it take to resurrect the ailing short fiction market? Would a clear cut internet delivery system (iPod for fiction/Kindle/iTunes) be enough to provide another golden age for short genre fiction?

DA: Well, the glib answer is more people reading them. Part of the problem is that short stories are more directly in competition with television and movies than novels are. It takes about the same kind of time commitment to read a short story as to watch an episode of House or, if it's a longer story, a feature film.

My sense, though, is that the thing that would really help resurrect the short story market is a really skillful, reliable, high-profile editor who can present stories so that readers know what they're signing up for will be what they want. I remember the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents anthologies. The problem, I think, we're facing in an information age is filtering. We need more recognized, acknowledged, high-profile filters. Maybe Oprah.

SoY: As a Clarion graduate, What is your opinion of writing workshops? What's the more important aspect: writing advice or networking opportunities?

DA: Ah, the tastes great/less filling question.

I went to Clarion West in 1998, and it was a very good thing for me. I've been in a live, active writing workshop for almost a decade, and I've gone to the week-long Rio Hondo workshop in Taos probably eight times in the last ten years. Every one of those has both made me a better writer and broadened the number of serious, professional people I know in the field.

That said, I'm a skeptic when it comes to workshops.

There is an industry of writing how-to books and workshops and seminars that preys on the desperation of new writers. I've talked to editors and agents who go to these, and even the folks who do go to them don't think much of 'em.

If you can get a good group of people to work with, if you're already sure enough of your craft that you can consider something that a more successful author says and discard it, if you're open enough to changing that you can consider something a lesser writer says and accept it, then workshops will make you better faster than anything else in the world.

Even from a strictly craft perspective.

And knowing a bunch of people doesn't hurt.

SoY: What are a modern internet-age author's responsibilities when it comes to self-promotion?

DA: Briefly, meet your deadlines and don't be a dick in public. It's not a moral thing, it's just good tactics. If there's more than that, I haven't figured it out.

SoY: Tell us a little about your personal writing style. What are your writing habits like?

I drop the kid off at school at 8:30. I get my coffee and a raisin tart rom Guiseppe's. I go to a desk in my parent's print shop. I leave it again when I go get the kid at 3. In between, I avoid writing as much as I can.

SoY: Who wins in a fight between Daniel Abraham and M.L.N. Hanover? Does he have an evil goatee?

DA: MLN. Daniel's a very sensitive, thoughtful kind of guy. MLN's willing to take the kick to the balls. And of course there's no goatee; anyone using initials instead of a full name is obviously a woman.

SoY: An incident occurs resulting in your removal from the list of up-and-coming genre stars. What is the most likely cause of that incident? (can be as serious or as funny as you would like) Who do you nominate in your place?

DA: Funny you mention it. My wife was hilariously sick last year, to the point we were talking about what the plan was if I had to go back to a full-time day job. If anyone out there ever enjoys anything that I write for the rest of my life, let me make it very, very clear: You owe Dr. Mohammed Othman and Dr. Michael Camilleri. So do I.

As far as giving away my chair, Ian Tregillis is going to kick my ass out of it in a couple years anyway. You haven't heard of him yet because his Milkweed Triptych hasn't been published, but he's hands-down the most talented writer I've ever read who isn't already more famous than me.

SoY: On a possibly related note, What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?

DA: That's actually a trick question. I'm on the jury for the PKD this year, so I'm actually not allowed to talk about the vast majority of the things I've read this year, and my extra-curricular reading has been thinner than I normally like.

I'd mention Tana French's "mystery" In The Woods. I use the quotes because as a mystery, it's not particularly satisfying. Read as supernatural horror, though, it's freaking lovely. And anyone who hasn't read Jo Walton's Small Change books is missing a real treat.

SoY: What's being a judge for the PKD award like? Have you figured out how many metric feet of book you are suppossed to read?

DA: It's a fascinating process. I'm not allowed to into specific, of course, but the assignment is to read every original paperback science fiction book that comes out this year. I was warned going in that the problem was starting to read a book I enjoyed, but not so much that I'd give it an award, and then having to put it aside because there were so many others to get to.

The award committee this year has some really great people on it, and more than half the fun is getting to talk to them about the books. At this point, there are still some books that may show up on the doorstep, and we haven't even nailed down a short list, so I don't have any idea who will actually take the prize. There have been some damn fine books in the mix, though.

SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]

DA: I'm having the websites redesigned, but very shortly you may reach me at http://www.danielabeaham.com/, http://www.mlnhanover.com/, and bram452.livejournal.com. I am always at home.

---

If you are still here after that long (and fantastic) interview, thanks for reading. Abraham's Black Sun's Daughter series and Long Price Quartet are two outstanding series so I have high hopes for The Dagger and The Coin.

I just finished Daniel Abraham's latest, Darker Angels. Look for a review later this week. Next Thursday, it's Scott Westerfeld's turn in the spotlight.

Keeping An Eye On... Daryl Gregory

There's been a brief hiatus of Keeping An Eye On... entries as I've already had the pleasure of talking to most of the authors on SF Signal's Watchlist and there are only a few authors still escaping my completist grasp. When I first saw the list I checked out a few of the most repeated names that I hadn't heard of. At the top of the list was an author by the name of Daryl Gregory. A little google research led me to an unassuming book by the title of Pandemonium. A few hundred pages later, I had finished my favorite read of 2008.

So it was no suprise when Pandemonium, Gregory's debut novel was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, The Shirley Jackson Award for best dark fantasy or horror novel, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, The Mythopeic Award for Best Adult Fantasy Novel, and helped Gregoy take home the 2009 Crawford award for "outstanding new fantasy writer."

And that was just his first novel, not counting any of his other shorter work which has been nominated for various awards as well. It might sound like I'm a huge fan of Daryl's but I actually hate him. I read his stuff and I know that I could never write anything of comparable quality so I probably should just give up trying now. He's a veritable SoulCrusher.

But that doesn't mean I'm going to quit reading his stuff. I'm vitriolic not stupid.

---

SoY: If we are keeping an eye on you, what should be looking for in the near future? What have you been working on recently? If a reader has never heard of you before reading this, what should they be reading?

DG: Never heard of me? But… but… I was on the list of 21 Genre Writers to Keep an Eye On! I thought that after that everybody in the world would be, you know, eying me.

Excuse me, I’m going to have to take a moment to adjust.

Okay, I’m back. How about this? Read “Second Person, Present Tense,” a short story that first appeared in Asimov’s and was later picked up by some other anthologies. It's not too long. Then if you like that, read everything I publish from here on out -- it’ll make my mother feel better about this career path I’m on.

The next thing to come out is a story called “What We Take When We Take What We Need,” which will be appearing in a special issue of Subterranean that was edited by Jonathan Strahan. Any similarity to the title of the famous Raymond Carver story is entirely intentional.

And [later this month] my next novel will be published—The Devil’s Alphabet, from Del Rey Books. It’s a story about quantum mechanics, addiction, universe-hopping viruses, alternate evolution, and small-town politics. It’s my entry in that overplayed sub-genre, Hard SF Southern Gothic Murder Mystery.

SoY: Do you have anything planned after The Devil’s Alphabet?

DG: Regarding the next book, I'm only talking about it in vague terms. It has a working title of Raising Stony Mayhall, will be coming out from Del Rey at some point, probably late 2010 or early 2011, and is unrelated to the previous two.

SoY: Portions of Pandemonium read like a love letter to the genre. Was this something you set out to do when you were writing it or an unintentional consequence of your childhood reading habits?

DG: After that love letter—the first of many, actually—the genre sent me a restraining order. I’m ignoring it. The genre WILL know my love, no matter how many times it changes its address.

And the answer to your question is: Yes. It was both an intentional act and something I felt compelled to do by my childhood reading. And by “childhood” I mean “childhood and adulthood.” I haven’t stopped reading comics, or Philip K. Dick, or pulp novels for that matter. But when I started writing Pandemonium I realized I had an opportunity to create a mash-up of all those things, while still examining them a little critically. Are these power fantasies and superhero archetypes at all appropriate in a post-911 world? The answer is, Not Really. But I can’t help loving them anyway. It’s a moral failure.

SoY: Every author has that one story they’ve always wanted to tell. Is either Pandemonium or The Devil’s Alphabet that story? Or is that one still to come?

DG: I hope I never discover what that one story is. Because after I write it, then what? I mean, To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, but you have to wonder what Harper Lee was thinking by publishing that first. That's just terrible career planning.

SoY: One of my favorite things about Pandemonium was how it was undeniably a piece of genre fiction but the narrative style felt very “literary” (albeit in a very hard to describe way) As an author who has dabbled across genre boundaries, do you have any opinions on the “ghettoization” of science fiction/fantasy/horror?

DG: All I can say about the ghetto is that it’s mug’s game for a writer to care about it, at least while he or she is trying to get some writing done. I’m aware of genre as I’m writing—Pandemonium, for example, was consciously designed to be a fantasy that feels like science fiction, and The Devil’s Alphabet is SF written to feel like fantasy—but whether it gets me out of the ghetto or keeps me there is a marketing problem for after the book is finished.

As for whether something is literary… well, I think that just means that the writer is trying to write as best he or she can, word by word, sentence by sentence.

SoY: Pandemonium almost defies classification. What sub-genres are you most interested in? Is there a difference in what subgenres you read and the ones you write?

DG: I’m a fairly picky reader. I have to be, because I’m short on time and I’m not a fast reader anymore. (At some point around age 16 I noticed that stories were made out of words, some of which were better chosen than others, and perhaps I should read all the words -- and that ruined my speed.) But what I do pick up ranges across sub-genres, or steps outside the genre entirely. The only thing I consistently avoid is anything similar to what I’m currently writing.

And when I write, I’m attracted to “+1” stories. Take the real world, add one strange thing, and follow that idea wherever it goes. That strange idea can be plausible—like the neurological oddities I write about in some of my short fiction—or completely implausible, like Jungian archetypes possessing people at random. The neuro SF is considered hard sf, some of the other stuff is fantasy, but for me, the similarities far outweigh the differences. Genre ain’t nothin’ but the spin on the pitch.

SoY: What has been the highlight of your career so far?

DG: My first sale, to F&SF, in 1989. Nothing yet has topped that moment. I was weeping in joy and relief. Publishing one story was all that I ever wanted, or expected. Everything since then—award nominations, getting into best-of anthologies, meeting my idols at conventions, drinking with my idols at conventions—has been wonderful, but it’s all gravy.

SoY: An incident occurs resulting in your removal from the list of up-and-coming genre stars. What is the most likely cause of that incident? (can be as serious or as funny as you would like) Who do you nominate in your place?

DG: Geez, I hope it’s because I become a current star of the genre. I want to stay in this game long enough to become a falling star of the genre, then a has-been known only by collectors, and finally a rediscovered artist who is finally recognized as a creative giant misunderstood in his own time. Then forgotten again.

But if I get removed from the list, it’ll probably be because of the usual cause—there are just too many damn good writers out there, and any poll of some assortment of editors is going to come up with an equally valid, equally varied list. In short, please give my spot to Jack Skillingstead, who should have already been on the list, and has released a short story collection and a novel this year.

SoY: You get to choose a single SF/F author (can be living, dead, or reincarnated spirit of Philip K. Dick) to write one additional book. Who do you choose and why?

DG: Philip K. Dick needs to kick one out from beyond the grave—perhaps an Ubik 2. But this time he has to do at least two drafts.

SoY: Every writer has a favorite word. Mine’s plethora. What’s that unique word that tries to find its way into everything you write?

DG: My favorite word is antisesquipedalianist, because if you use the word, you’re a hypocrite. I’ve never been able to get it into a story, though.

SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]

DG: Hit me up at http://www.darylgregory.com/. Free stories! Free opening chapters! Ginsu steak knives!

---

So that's Daryl Gregory. I've had the pleasure of reading The Devil's Alphabet which comes out next week already and surprise, surprise, it's one of my early favorites for Book of 2009. And if you don't trust my word (why are you here?) you can refer to Publisher's Weekly who named The Devil's Alphabet one of it's Best Books of 2009 (one of only 5 genre novels on the list).

I'd go so far as to say that The Devil's Alphabet is the best Hard SF Southern Gothic Murder Mystery Novel in the history of fiction. All kidding aside, this is another great novel by one of the most impressive genre writers I've discovered in the past decade. I cannot recommend Gregory enough to anyone looking for genre fiction that is both intelligent and enjoyable.

I'll have a full review of The Devil's Alphabet up on Monday. You can buy it Tuesday. I recommend that you do.

Keeping An Eye On... Alan DeNiro

November is a big month for Keeping An Eye On authors. Out of the half dozen authors publishing work this month, none has more to be excited about than Alan DeNiro. On November 24th, DeNiro publishes his debut novel, Total Oblivion, More or Less. Debut novels are always exciting and you never know what a up-and-coming author is going to do . If I've learned anything from reading the early work of the authors on SF Signal's Watchlist, it's that they knock the ball out of the park when it comes to debut novels. It's almost as if the editors and genre professionals that nominated them did so for a reason. But other than quality, I'm not sure what to expect out of Alan DeNiro. As I started following these developing authors, one of the first things I read was DeNiro's first collection, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. Some authors do one thing and do it well; others dabble in different subgenres but never find their niche. And then there are the writers like Alan DeNiro or Neil Gaiman who do things in every genre and then invent several of their own and inexplicably their stories work. Skinny Dipping was a veritable cornucopia of ideas that was as creative and memorable as it was unpredictable and unique.

So when I had a chance to talk to Alan DeNiro I took advantage of the opportunity to find out a little bit more about Total Oblivion and how he manages to write such unique material.

---

SoY: If we are keeping an eye on you, what should be looking for in the near future? What have you been working on recently?

ADN: Well, there has been quite a lull for the last year or so but I do indeed have some things coming out in the remainder of 2009. The novel of course (Total Oblivion, More or Less) which drops 11/24. I also have some stories coming out in Strange Horizons, Interfictions II, and Paraspheres 2. And an essay on Van Vogt which is coming out in an Aqueduct Press critical volume. I've been working on more essays on speculative literature lately.

SoY: If a reader has never heard of you before reading this, what is the one single piece of work of yours (novel, short story, etc.) would you like them to read?

ADN: It's really hard to say, so I'll hedge my bet with two answers: Total Oblivion, More or Less, and The Stations, which is a 165 page speculative poem. Those are the two works that I'm likely most proud of--which hopefully has a good correlation of what people would like to read (or is at least indicative of the different things I like to write). Also, I'd love to get into some cave paintings someday.

SoY: Some of the stories in Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead almost defy classification. What sub-genres are you most interested in? Is there a difference in what subgenres you read and the ones you write?

ADN: I really don't think in subgenres. Occasionally I'll try to start in a subgenre and then it goes woefully awry. I mean, awry in terms of the subgenre, but all the same it will go where the story needs to go. I have a recent story called "Moonlight Is Bulletproof" which is theoretically a futuristic detective story but it somehow throughout its drafts wended into narrative topography involving Persian gardens and little imps with swords jumping around. I pretty much read in the same fashion that I write, so I don't really dwell on categories all too much.

SoY: Can you tell us anything more about your upcoming novel? Is it set in the same world as your short story “Our Byzantium”?

ADN: That's a great question--I would say no, although there are definitely similarities. In the short story, the anachronistic invasion was more of an extended metaphor. The novel is much more "lived in" with the invasion, although I deliberately tried to avoid much of what would be called "classic" or traditional fantasy world building. So I guess in that sense there is a similarity.

SoY: Whats on your plate after Total Oblivion, More or Less?

ADN: I've started working on two novels, I mean, not EXACTLY at the same time. But two "in the mix" as they say. One set in a near future MMORPG, and another one involving dragons. Aside from that, the usual peppering of short stories, poems, essays and reviews.

SoY: What are your writing habits like? Do you have any peculiar writing habits that somehow work for you but everyone else would find quirky (and/or insane)?

ADN: No, I'm pretty normal in that regard (whatever that means). I do most of my writing on the weekends because of my day job, and just squeezing time here and there during the week. In terms of actual practice I've been all over the map, trying to find what works and what doesn't. I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to the actual techniques and structures of storytelling.

SoY: An incident occurs resulting in your removal from the list of up-and-coming genre stars. What is the most likely cause of that incident? Who do you nominate in your place?

ADN: Haha...maybe people suddenly decide I'm not much of a genre writer. There are a ton of great writers out there, overlooked writers. Although he's certainly not "up and coming", one person I can definitely think of is Mark Rich, who people should read if they haven't had the chance to. He has a marvelous range--everywhere from Analog to the small press genre zines. He has two recent collections out--great stuff!

SoY: One of my favorite things about your shorter fiction is how it is undeniably genre fiction but the narrative style still feels very “literary” (albeit in a very hard to describe way) As an author who has dabbled across genre boundaries, do you have any opinions on the “ghettoization” of science fiction/fantasy/horror?

ADN: I'm fully against it. I actually don't think it happens as much as people within the genre suppose. And when it does happen it's usually self-imposed.

SoY: What has been the highlight of your career so far?

ADN: Meeting readers at readings, online, wherever. That has been the real trip. I have been very lucky in my writing life.

SoY: What will the short fiction marketplace look like in 5 years? Would a iPod-like fiction device/delivery system represent a game changer?

ADN: That would be very cool. But I think it's going to somewhat different, not radically different. The biggest change, which I already see happening, might be the blurring of the line between blogs and online magazines. Is that good or bad? It is certainly different. I think it's going to disappoint writers who are craving the stability of a "pro", "semipro" and "fan" hierarchy. I'm not really into that, so it doesn't make too much difference to me. The more potential readers, the better.

SoY: I’ve avoided asking this so far but where do you get your ideas? Cuttlefish? The Friendly Giants? If I Leap? Your stories work from some of the strangest premises I can recall.

ADN: The first I think began in the exploration of that voice. The second came from the epigraph. The third...wow, that was written so long ago, I don't even remember. I think it had to do with thinking of the character of the Goodbye Girl, and what that could mean. As you can see, it's really different for each story. (And thanks, I think?)

SoY: Along the same lines, what authors have been most influential toward your own personal writing style?

ADN: Let's see...Gene Wolfe, Cordwainer Smith, J.H. Prynne, Lorine Niedecker, Gogol, Alejo Carpentier, Jack Spicer, Simone Weil, W. B. Yeats, James Tiptree, the Old Testament prophets. These writers are really deep in the DNA, so it might not be apparent with specific projects.

SoY: What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?

ADN: If you mean the last 12 months, Cyclonopedia by Reza Negarestani. One of the most baffling books I've ever read. But I love it.

SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]

ADN: Why yes, yes there is. My blog, Goblin Mercantile Exchange, is probably the best place to start. With the novel coming out I'm definitely planning some online shenanigans (er, content) in the upcoming months.

---

Go buy Total Oblivion, More or Less: A Novel on November 24th. I still don't know exactly what to expect, but chances are you'll like it.

Keeping An Eye On.... M. Rickert

M. Rickert is one of the quieter authors I've been Keeping An Eye On. In fact I would say she seems to be the most reclusive of all the authors on SF Signal's watchlist. (I couldn't even get a picture for her). She's keeps a very low profile in an attempt to let her work speak for itself. And speak for itself it does. Unfortunately for us readers, M. only has one short fiction collection but that collection and the stories within won a World Fantasy Award for Best Collection, a World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, the 2007 Crawford Award, as well as being nominated for a Nebula Award, another World Fantasy award, and an International Horror Guild Award. That's a pretty reputable resume for any author's career, and Rickert managed to do all that with just one collection's worth of stories. Obviously, Rickert is a stickler for quality over quantity.

Either that or she wants to give other authors a chance to get nominated which wouldn't be surprising given how nice she was when I conducted the interview which, coincidentally, starts below

---

SoY: If a reader has never heard of you before reading this, what is the one single piece of work of yours (novel, short story, cave painting, etc.) would you like them to read?

MR: I suppose if this reader could find a copy of “Map of Dreams,” my short story collection, she could page through that and see if anything sticks.

SoY: What's something about you that no one would ever guess from your writing?

MR: I have been told that some people are afraid of me. I’m not sure what that’s about. Almost all my anger, despair, fear and bitterness exists in my fiction and therefore has a rather light presence in my life. I was a kindergarten teacher for almost a decade and I still harbor much of that attitude in my demeanor.

SoY: To date you haven’t published any full-length novels but you have written several excellent shorter works. Will we see a full-length novel from you sometime soon? Or perhaps another anthology?

MR: Thanks for the kind assessment of my shorter work. The novel has been a big challenge for me. I have been trying to write novels for twenty years. When I look at my attempts I see that in each case I had fairly large stories with big themes, this is why I thought they were novels. I struggled for years believing that a novel is determined by the subject matter. I now have reason to believe that this was incorrect. Another painful mistake I made in pursuit of novels was working under the impression that each sentence, as it existed as a foundation for all the many sentences that follow, must be perfect. I thought this was very sensible because who wants to throw out all those unused sentences, or make a two hundred page wrong turn? Because of my lazy attitude I have made so many wrong turns that I have filled several boxes with them. I recently finished a project that with fits and starts, abandonment and engagement took me eight years, and it still was not a novel.

Once I finally let go of that folly I began working on a short story, which all by itself, and certainly with no encouragement on my part, made itself known as a novel. This was evident by the pacing, and the expanse of characters. The story, itself, is actually rather small. For the first time since I’ve started trying to write novels, I seem to be actually writing one. Most importantly, I have given myself permission to write a first draft, to have inconsistencies, unfleshed themes and unresolved issues, trusting that I can fix all of this later. I feel like I’ve been really stupid. Why did I think that writing a novel had to be an entirely different process than writing a short story? All those years I struggled with the form, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and the answer was right there, in the way I approach short stories. I probably could have really benefited from a teacher. At any rate, I feel like finally, after so many years, I am writing my first novel. I think. Maybe.

In the meantime I have a collection coming out next year with Golden Gryphon, called “Holiday.” All the stories have holiday themes, with a twist. Tom Canty is doing the cover and some interior art as well.

SoY: You are one of the few female authors (and one of only 5 on this list) in a genre dominated by male authors and male readers. What are your opinions on gender parity in speculative fiction today? Do you feel like being a woman viewed as a negative (unjustly so) by some readers?

MR: I know that being a woman is viewed as a negative by some readers.

I think this sucks.

SoY: As a follow-up, did these issues influence your choice to abbreviate your name to just the initial “M”?

MR: I was completely ignorant of this issue when I decided to abbreviate my first name. I have found it annoying how often people assume that they know why I did it, and on that basis hold opinions of me, my work, and also, weirdly, my name. Most spectacularly annoying of all was the suggestion that I was ashamed of my sex by choosing to present myself as a letter rather than a word.

I don’t mean to suggest that your question is in any way rude or inappropriate. I know people are curious about this, but it’s been educational for me how narrow the view is of possible reasons for it.

I really wanted to disappear in my work and have as little identity tied to it as possible.

When I made this decision I was quite young and given to fantasies of great writing success where my poor hand would be much relieved of the burden of those three extra letters.

And I didn’t like my name very much. I liked the sound of “M.” She sounded like she could get the job done.

SoY: What are your writing habits like? Do you have any peculiar writing habits that somehow work for you but everyone else would find quirky (and/or insane)?

MR: I write longhand. My computer is in the office. I write at a table in the bedroom, then go into the office to type and print what I’ve written, which I bring back to the table to edit. I make faces while I work, basically acting out the characters. I talk over scenes and ideas with my dog, Watson, when we go on his walk. Nothing quirky here.

SoY: Some people (as well as the Barenaked Ladies) say that it's all been done. Are there still new stories to tell? Or has humanity been retelling the same stories since the first myths and legends were spoken into existence?

MR: I think that to say every story has already been told is to dismiss the temperament of words, to devalue nuance and meaning. Yes, of course, if stories are summed up into one or two sentence synopsis, then I imagine they all fit into certain categories. But stories are not just a matter of summation; if they were, the summation would be enough to satisfy that need for story. In fact, every word matters. I don’t know why people are so eager to diminish stories. You don’t hear architects bemoaning that every building has already been built. Within each field of creation there is a structure that exists as the foundation of that creation. The opportunity for expansion and artistry lies within that structure and is not diminished by it.

SoY: What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?

MR: Ok, I can’t possibly pick just one and I don’t even want to stay in this year.

First, Christopher Barzak’s “The Love We Share Without Knowing” is hauntingly beautiful and should be read by more people. I consider Chris an Emotionalist, which is what I am as well. So if you’re looking for something to read where emotions matter, you can’t start in a better place than this.

A book I recommend to everyone, which came out a few years ago and was, I believe, the victim of poor marketing, is called “Strange Piece of Paradise, A Return to the West To Investigate My Attempted Murder and Solve the Riddle of Myself” by Terri Jentz. This was promoted as true crime but I think would have been better served as memoir. When she was twenty, Terri and her friend were attacked by a man with an axe. Both survived. Years later, Terri goes back to Oregon to solve the crime. I was really struck by how much of the author’s personal healing was resolved through finding her story, pieces of which were held by others.

Another book I loved that seems seriously under-read was “The Tattoo Artist” by Jill Ciment. If you are interested in beauty, art and sacrifice, and if you want to read a book about a strong woman, read this book. It has stuck with me ever since I read it, which was years ago. Really, everyone who reads this book tells me how much they love it.

Finally, I recently read Alice Hoffman’s new book, “The Story Sisters” and I loved it. She’s one of my favorite authors.

---

That's it from M. I have a great respect for her for wanting her work to be the focus. However, she could benefit from being a little bit easier to get a hold of; she's very pleasant to talk to and she has some very interesting thoughts on writing. That's been something I've noticed throughout all these interviews.

Just a few more interviews are left. Then I'm not sure what I'll do.

Keeping An Eye On... Vandana Singh

After what feels like forever, I was finally able to get in touch with one of the first authors I approached in my Keeping An Eye On Series. Out of all of the names on the SF Signal Genre Watchlist, Vandana Singh was one of the authors I knew least about and I wanted to correct that. After doing a little digging and reading a few stories, I realized that Vandana was doing some very interesting writing that stood out as unique against the majority of my reading experience. This inspired me to see what the highly regarded author was currently working on and to learn more about her as an author. Unfortunately, I initially had some trouble getting in touch with Vandana and my interview with the author responsible for such brilliant pieces as "Delhi" and "The Wife" was unfortunately put on hold.

However, after a few months trying to track her down, I've finally got some answers which I'd like to share with you.

---

SoY: If we are keeping an eye on you, what should be looking for in the near future? What have you been working on recently?

VS: I’ll have two short stories out in early 2010, and possibly a couple of novellas next summer. I tend to write mostly in the summer, since I have a very intense college teaching job, which, while it feeds my writing, also prevents it for most of the year.

SoY: If a reader has never heard of you before reading this, what is the one single piece of work of yours (novel, short story, etc.) would you like them to read?

VS: This is a hard question! Perhaps the answer would be my novelette “The Tetrahedron.” Or, if I were allowed to offer a choice, my novelette “Infinities.” The reason I pick those is that the stories are familiar to me like an old shawl or coat might be. If I can inhabit them so easily, perhaps a reader will find more of what makes my fiction my fiction in those stories. If that makes any sense.

SoY: Describe your writing style in haiku-form.

VS: Ask a crow

How it flies; look! A feather

Sails down.

SoY: To date you haven’t published any full-length novels but you have written several novellas and novelletes. Will we see a full-length novel from you some time soon?

VS: I have two novels in my head. But they each require about three months of dedicated writing time, and freedom from various responsibilities, which isn’t going to happen any time soon. On the other hand a novel might sneak up unexpectedly on me. When writing my novella Distances (Aqueduct Press) I came the closest I’ve ever been to 40,000 words. It was like almost falling off a cliff! So you never know.

SoY: What sub-genres are you most interested in? Is there a difference in what subgenres you read and the ones you write?

VS: I don’t really think in terms of sub-genres as much as I think in terms of authors I like to read. I like reading authors with interesting, deep, thoughtful ideas couched in elegant language with or without strong plot elements, such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Jeffrey Ford, Ian R. Macleod, Molly Gloss. I love stories in which science is taken seriously but used with imagination and sensitivity to the human dimension (Kim Stanley Robinson, or Geoffrey Landis, for example). I love stories about alternative ways humans and human societies could be (Ursula K. Le Guin, Eleanor Arnason to name just two). I love stories that challenge comfortable, conventional ways of looking at the world (L. Timmel DuChamp, Karen Joy Fowler, Carol Emshwiller, for instance). Put in terms of sub-genres, I like urban fantasy and some traditional fantasy as well as good hard SF (scientific more than technological), enlightened space opera, pretty much everything if it is well written. The sub-genre I have the hardest time with is alternative history. So I find myself not reading too much of that.

SoY: How does your Indian heritage influence the stories you write? Are there any thematic elements that resonate strongly in Indian culture that may be overlooked by the uninitiated?

VS: My being Indian is possibly the biggest thing that influences my stories. Not just in terms of settings --- most of the settings in my stories are Indian --- but also in terms of characters and plot. I think growing up in India grew my imagination in certain ways that would not have happened in any other place. I’m also fascinated by the idea of India, and writing stories allows me to explore this. As for thematic elements, they are probably pretty obvious in my stories. Non-Indians might miss a few cultural allusions and will probably misunderstand some things because they are generally viewing them through the distorted lenses of stereotypes, but I’m going to be optimistic and say that the main ideas are likely clear to all readers unless they’ve been hiding in a cave somewhere. I also hope that my stories bust stereotypes at least to a modest extent.

SoY: What are your writing habits like? Do you have any peculiar writing habits that somehow work for you but everyone else would find quirky (and/or insane)?

VS: I write like anyone involved with a family and a full time job: in stolen moments. I’ve had to adapt because I have so little writing time, so I write while dinner bubbles on the stove, and get away to cafes when I can. It is good to have a small laptop to haul around. I wish I could admit to bizarre writing habits, you know, like “I can only write in the presence of my favorite pet elephant, who is my fount of inspiration,” but the truth, alas, is far more mundane.

Perhaps if there is anything remotely interesting about my writing style, it is this: more often than not I have no idea what the story is going to be about. Sometimes I have a fuzzy vision, or a glimpse of one scene, or a character. But mostly all I have is a random first sentence, and I follow it to see where it might go. I know there are writers who plan everything down to the details of every scene, and more power to them if that works for them. For me, if I attempted that, my Muse would run away screaming and I would bore myself silly. It is the process of discovery, of gradually figuring out what happens in the story and how it ends, that makes writing an interesting process for me.

SoY: An incident occurs resulting in your removal from the list of up-and-coming genre stars. What is the most likely cause of that incident? Who do you nominate in your place?

VS: I write my novel, and it is a best seller, and I am up-and-coming no more --- I have arrived! Or: I am abducted by aliens, return after an amazing space-operatic adventure and achieve instant celebrity status! The two are about even in probability I think. But anyway rather than appointing someone in my stead I’d like to name at least one person who should be on the list anyway: Anil Menon.

SoY: You’ve written some short-stories specifically for children. What do you find are the major differences in writing for children versus writing for adults?

VS: For me it is less a question of decreasing the sex or violence because there isn’t much of those things in my adult fiction (with some exceptions). One difference is that there are kids in my children’s stories, but the stories are not only about kids. Also, I think my style changes somewhat. The themes I am interested in exploring are mostly the same, but I tackle them differently. My Younguncle books are at the surface comic adventures of the eccentric title character but they are also serious beneath the fun and frolic. And I use Big Words, like “ambrosial,” which bothers some children’s book reviewers. The children’s short stories you mention are mostly quite serious.

SoY: I’m largely unfamiliar with the world of Indian Speculative Fiction. Is there an Asimov, Heinlein, or Clarke of Indian SF? Are there any seminal authors who have been translated into English?

VS: Indian speculative fiction has quite a history. The first SF story in India was probably written around the late 1800’s in Bengali. The problem is that we have 18 languages apart from English and there are very few translations, so we don’t really know where the next Clarke or Le Guin is hiding. One writer who is brilliant, whose translations from Bengali to English were done some years ago, is Premendra Mitra from the 1940’s. I’m waiting to find more such writers in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and other languages. Writing in English are Anil Menon, Manjula Padmanabhan, Samit Basu, Priya Chhabria, Payal Dhar, to name just a few.

The Indian spec fic scene is full of promise. There are annual conferences, there is an Indian Science Fiction Association, and this past summer I co-taught at a science fiction workshop that was bursting with talent. I’ve written extensively about it on my blog (see below).

SoY: Every writer has a favorite word. Mine’s plethora. What’s that unique word that tries to find its way into everything you write?

VS: Oh I don’t know. I’ve lately become fond of concatenation but haven’t had a chance to use it much, yet.

SoY: What has been the highlight of your career so far?

VS: I have a pretty modest career as far as writing, but among what you might call the highlights is a recent review of my story collection “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories” by Paul Witcover in Locus. And there’s a teeny picture of me in that issue as well. Also four of my short stories have been reprinted in Years’ Best anthologies, most recently “Oblivion: A Journey” in Year’s Best SF 14 (eds. Hartwell and Cramer).

SoY: You are one of the few female authors (and one of only 5 on this list) in a genre dominated by male authors and male readers. What are your opinions on gender parity in speculative fiction today? Do you feel like being a woman viewed as a negative (unjustly so) by some readers?

VS: I don’t have the data on how readers view female authors, so I don’t know. But I know there is gender imbalance in the spec fic field, and it concerns me very much. We live in a gender-biased world, so how could that not be reflected in our field? There have been some fascinating discussions and studies on this on the internet in recent years. There seem to be a lot of women writing spec fic and not as many getting published, or getting their works reviewed, or otherwise taken seriously. While it seems there is less overt bias against women writers compared to a few decades ago, there are still institutionalized biases, subtler biases that are harder to discern. I think these are serious issues that deserve examination by the community.

SoY: You are approached to write a tie-in novel in an existing (and your favorite) SFF universe. Which universe is it? Do you take the offer?

VS: No. I can’t imagine playing in someone else’s universe without changing it too much. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy other universes. I haven’t had a TV for years but I remember being fascinated by Babylon 5, and Stargate Atlantis, and, always, Dr. Who.

SoY: What’s the best thing you’ve read this year?

VS: I can’t pick just one thing because my mind doesn’t work that way, but I’ll restrict myself to two things: Ursula Le Guin’s novel Lavinia and Carolyn Ives Gilman’s novella Arkfall.

SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]

VS: There’s my website, http://users.rcn.com/singhvan which also has information about my recent short story collection and how to order it, and my blog, http://vandanasingh.wordpress.com/. There is an older story of mine archived at Strange Horizons: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040105/sky_river.shtml.

---

As much as I've enjoyed talking to some of my favorite authors, discovering and getting to know new authors has been one of the highlights of this interview series. Vandana Singh is no exception. Hopefully, she can find the time to sit down and write one of those two novels sooner rather than later.

Keeping An Eye On... Jason Stoddard

This week's Keeping An Eye On author is poised to have a big 2010. For the past few years, Jason Stoddard has been slowly building a very respectable portfolio in the science fiction circles. His work was impressive enough to catch the eye of Ellen Datlow, Jonathan Strahan, and Gardner Dozois and to stick out in their minds when asked to name the writers of the future by SF Signal. After making a splash in the short fiction markets, Stoddard is publishing not one, but two(!) novels next year. And that in addition to his usual short fiction output. Stoddard is also a member of the generation of authors who have at least partially used fiction websites, blogs, and other forms of internet publishing to establish their name within the genre market. That's not suprising given his day job which he still maintains despite a blossoming writing career.

To find out just what Stoddard does for a living and how it affects his writing career, read on...

---

SoY: If we are keeping an eye on you, what should be looking for in the near future? What have you been working on recently?

JS: The big news is that I have two novels coming out in 2010 from Prime Books: Winning Mars and Eternal Franchise. The titles sound familiar, don't they? More on that later.

As far as what I'm working on, ha! Most is work-work. But, with luck, I'll soon finish the rewrite of my new near-future novel Hello World, and I'm working on a script based on my short story Willpower--which appeared in Futurismic--and you'll be hearing about another story or two soon.

SoY: If a reader has never heard of you before reading this, what is the one single piece of work of yours (novel, short story, comics, etc.) would you like them to read?

JS: Actually, Willpower is a good place to start. It was originally published by Futurismic, and will show up in Rich Horton's anthology Unplugged: The Best of Online Fiction, and it's had some (tiny) love from the Hollywood crowd. Here's where you can read it for free:

http://futurismic.com/2008/12/01/new-fiction-willpower-by-jason-stoddard/

Your day job involves working with social media and virtual worlds. Can you expound on this a little more? Is it as interesting as it sounds?

Yes! And, well, no!

In a broader sense, what my day job involves is marketing. Frequently we work on the bleeding edge. Frequently we work for companies doing interesting stuff, like nanotech or mind-controlled toys or kids' virtual worlds. This is the exciting part--getting to see a broad swath of what's happening tomorrow. Getting to have drinks with some of the people who are shaping the future.

But, guess what? It's always still about results. The campaign has to get results. The site has to work. So there's plenty of detail work, plenty of keeping-up stuff, plenty of grind. Not complaining--it goes with the territory.

SoY: How has your experience with social media influenced the content of your writing? The way you market yourself to potential readers?

JS: Ha. Yeah, I write what I know, and you could look at a lot of my recent output--especially the story Monetized, which appeared in Interzone this year, and the upcoming novel Hello World--as taking social media (and monetization of social media) to logical extremes. Social media is so powerful on a personal level, it's a fairly profound change.

As far as social media for marketing myself, sure, but tempered with a huge dose of lack-of-time, and another strong dose of caution. People don't want to be marketed to when they're hanging out with their friends. It's like me coming into your house with a sandwich board and bullhorn, saying. “Buy my book!” Because of this, I concentrate mainly on blogging. Facebook is more or less for friends, Twitter is dedicated to one-line wine reviews.

That said, I do have some interesting ideas for marketing the book when it comes out--but they aren't entirely social. I'm going to keep my hat on these for now.

SoY: What's the most innovative example of “social media” you've come across this year? What's at the bleeding edge of the market?

JS: When we're talking social media, I think we need to concentrate on “most relevant,” rather than “most innovative.” And only one thing really comes to mind as an example of a company doing it right. Google “Extreme Shepherding” and watch the video. This is the way to do it. It's so well-done I didn't think to ask myself “Hmm, did they really just find these guys and pay them to do this, or did they engineer the whole thing (maybe even to the point of CG?)”

Bleeding edge? That's easy. Augmented reality is the bleeding edge. It's kind of a marketing fad at the moment--only Ray-Ban has a good use for it, which allows you to model virtual sunglasses via your webcam. But augmented reality is going to mature, it's going to be big, and it's going to be pervasive. But before that, it'll have to go through its Second Life moment, where it's savaged by the press.

SoY: What's been the highlight of your career so far? What would you have to do to consider your writing career a success?

JS: The high point was getting contacted by Sean Wallace of Prime Books. The conversation went something like this:

Sean: “So, are Winning Mars and Eternal Franchise available for publication?”

Me: “Well, uh, yeah, but I've released one as a Creative Commons PDF and one's being serialized on my blog.”

Sean: “Doesn't matter. More publicity for the physical product.”

Me: “!!!”

So there you go. Two novels, both released into the wild. Now both will be hardbacks. From an unknown author. Or, in other words, what a whole lot of people said could never happen. I'm very happy about that.

And, as far as long-term success goes, I'll be thrilled if I can just keep writing stories and books (and, hopefully, screenplays) that people like. Everything else will come.

SoY: Like Cory Doctorow, you appear to be a proponent of Creative Commons, giving away PDFs of your first novel, Winning Mars. You are also serializing your second novel for free on your blog. How has the free revolution worked for you?

JS: I'm absolutely all about Creative Commons. Giving away my stuff got me a two-book deal from a reputable publisher!

SoY: Combining your career in new marketing techniques and your experience in short fiction circles, do you have any idea on how to modernize/fix the genre short fiction market?

JS: Oho, wow. That's a loaded question. The short answer is, “Yes, I have some ideas, but . . .”

On the “Yes, I have some ideas,” side, the publishers can go a long way to improving their fortunes by taking a lesson from niche marketing: take care of your fans, actively. You do this by keeping people informed, holding special events, and encouraging people to tell their friends. There's no magic here. I'm talking newsletters and Q&As and giveaways and contests. There's no need to go out and have a Facebook and MySpace and Twitter and YouTube and Flickr presence and frantically post and fan and friend. Though Facebook ads would be an interesting test. A more interesting test would be a more visual magazine targeted at people who hang out on i09 and BoingBoing (amongst others), but that takes much deeper pockets.

The “But,” comes from the fact that I've never done a mile on a publisher's Segway, so I can't claim any great expertise. And, like all marketing, any program would take testing and optimization--which means it could end up somewhere very different than where it started.

SoY: What are your writing habits like? Do you have any peculiar writing habits that somehow work for you but everyone else would find quirky (and/or insane)?

JS: I'm an isolationist. I can't write in a coffeehouse. I can't write while listening to music with lyrics. I also frequently don't remember big pieces of what I wrote a week before, so the first rewrite can be a big surprise (both good or bad.) Is this weird?

SoY: An incident occurs resulting in your removal from the list of up-and-coming genre stars. What is the most likely cause of that incident? Who do you nominate in your place?

JS: If I'm removed, it'll probably be due to me skewering some sacred cow of science fiction groupthink. I'm amazed at how such a forward-thinking group of people can sometimes seem so sad and morose. Maybe it's because I'm in contact with a lot of leading-edge technologies and the people who are creating them, but I'm hugely excited about the future. I think that yeah, there's some scary stuff, and yeah, it ain't necessarily going to be easy, but, I think it'll work out in the end. And it'll work out better. Which some people simply don't want to hear.

The person I'd nominate? The guy who skewered the sacred cow of the reputation economy. Currently with only one Futurismic story to his name, this is a name to watch: Adam Rakunas.

SoY: What are your opinions on eBooks? Are they the future of publishing? What's the biggest deterrent toward eBooks changing the market the same way digital downloads changed music?

JS: Having your whole library in one device beats “the look, the touch, the feel of paper.” Wireless distribution beats shipping slabs of wood pulp all over the world. Yep, ebooks are what make sense for the future.

What doesn't make sense is the pricing. Sorry, big publishers, knocking three bucks off the hardcover price for an ebook simply doesn't work. eBooks make sense at $1-5. Just like iPhone apps.

When the upward pricing pressure falls away, then ebooks take over. It's that simple.

SoY: Your fiction has some interesting ideas about funding the future of spaceflight. What's your opinion on the current state of the Space Program? Where is it going to be in 20 years? Where should it be? What needs to be done to get from where it is to where it should be?

JS: Even when hamstrung, the US space program has achieved some very cool stuff. That said, we're hamstrung. The news of water on Mars could have come in 1976. It took an Indian space probe to confirm water on the moon.

The future, at the least, should look a lot like Zubrin's presentation to the Augustine Commission: Reclaiming the American Spirit Through Mars. In short, he's proposing that we go back to being destination-based, and the destination is Mars. The push is for a number of missions, run continuously, which would put a largely self-sufficient, permanent presence on Mars. And it would be done fast. And it would pay off in terms of a new frontier, and a new focus on science and engineering.

Beyond that: multiple private companies competing to build the first space elevator. When we get low cost to orbit, then everything opens up. Everything changes. And even our biggest fears suddenly seem very, very small.

If we wanted to, we could have Zubrin's Mars presence, workable space elevators, and a lunar colony in the next 20 years. Remember, the original plan for Project Orion was to be on Mars . . . in 1965. I'd love to see some of that spirit back, whether it's in the public or private sector--but, ah, with less nuclear weapons involved.

SoY: If you were offered a one-way ticket to be the first human on Mars, would you go?

JS: Yes. Even if I am The Man Who Lost the Sea.

SoY: You get to choose a single SF/F author (can be living, dead, or zombie) to write one additional book. Who do you choose and why?

JS: I'd love to see what Cordwainer Smith would do if he was living today. His work was so off-path from, well, almost everything else at the time, I used to think he must be a time-traveler hiding in the past.

SoY: What's the best thing you've read this year?

JS: You're assuming I read. Kidding. Though time has been at an extreme premium. And perhaps that's reflected in how long my backlog is--the best thing I've read this year is Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge . . . which yeah, I know, I should have read in 2007.

SoY: [Obligatory pimpage] Is there anywhere online that readers can follow you and your work? [/obligatory pimpage]

JS: You can usually keep abreast of what I'm doing at http://www.strangeandhappy.com/ (that is, provided I'm not buried in work and unable to update it!) There's a ton of links to free stories and social media-y stuff, as well.

---

That's it from Jason. He had a lot to say on a number of interesting topics (ignore the fact I was asking the questions) and if this interview got your brain whirling, you should definitely check out his fiction. Even if you don't I'd keep an eye out for the name Jason Stoddard, by the end of 2010 you're most likely going to see it whether you want to or not.