Category Archives: Anthologies

Editor Interview—Brandon Butler

After interviewing several authors whose stories appear in The Science Fiction Tarot, it’s time I interviewed the anthology’s editor.  As is the case with many editors, Brandon Butler is also an author.

Brandon Butler is a Canadian and a Maritimer, not always in that order, born and raised in Halifax Nova Scotia. He studied English and Computer Science at Dalhousie University before becoming a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest made profound effects on his early writing. Relocating to Toronto in 2008, he now works in the tech industry while writing and publishing short stories, novels, anthologies and film scripts.

Next, the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: How and when did you get started writing fiction?

Brandon Butler: I really think it began by reading ‘clicking’ for me at a young age and going from there. I wanted to be a writer for a long time before discovering how hard it really was! A big step along the way was fanfiction. I wrote a good amount of Star Wars and Star Trek stuff in the early days of the internet to entertain myself and people I met online until one day I thought ‘why not just create my own stuff?’. For me, in a way, it was my first moment of ‘going pro’. And so, it all began.

P.S.: You’ve cited Harlan Ellison and Roger Zelazny as inspirations for your writing. What about those two authors, in particular, do you find compelling?

B.B.: I continue to be in awe in how Roger Zelazny was able to create such unique, epic tales such as the Amber series in so few words. There are other writing styles, but I think it speaks to the power of brevity and how the most important thing is to convey ideas and concepts that will engage the reader.

Although Harlan Ellison was also known for shorter works and even shorter temper, what I find compelling is his sheer power of emotion, and the willingness to pull from the negative side of the spectrum. I sometimes wonder if writers might be a little less willing to engage with anger and hatred than he was. If so, maybe we ought to think about that because as human beings there’s a time for rage just as there’s a time for joy and affection. It must be managed, but it’s all a part of who we are. And the more often you explore an emotion, the better you’ll understand it – or at least that’s what I believe.

P.S.: Do any facets of your ‘day job’ as a computer programmer find their way into your stories?

B.B.: When writing science fiction, it certainly helps! Knowing a little about how computers work and think can be useful when machines become characters in your stories. Once in a while you might run across a new idea to explore in fiction, but I also find it helps a lot in making your technology sound authentic. There’s nothing a little memory deallocation can’t hurt.

Brandon’s story “A Few Days North of Vienna”

P.S.: Congratulations on winning the Writers of the Future contest. What was that experience like?

B.B.: Unreal. I received word a little over a year before and went to the event in Los Angeles only a couple months after I graduated from Computer Science. It was my first time leaving the Maritimes since I was very small. Getting to meet and learn from authors who I had read, spend time on the other side of the continent from where I’d grown up, and meet so many other writers beginning their careers was a formative experience to say the least. It was like the world I inhabited grew tenfold in a few short weeks.

P.S.:  Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?

B.B.: The latter, really. I try to be as eclectic as possible. Writing chiefly short stories means that you can get more separate stories done in a shorter time, and once I’m done one piece, I usually want to go in an entirely different direction for the next one. That said, I do notice certain themes cropping up in my work more than others. Relations between men and women is a large one (platonic, romantic, antagonistic, and all types in between). Another one is the broader reasons as to why we find ourselves in conflict with one another, and to what degree humans, as a species, may seek instability when things seem peaceful. Religion and the power of mythology also seems to pop up from time to time, although as a second-generation atheist, I’m not a religious person.

Brandon’s story “The Fire, as it Eats Itself”

P.S.: Tell us about “The Fire, as it Eats Itself,” published in Helios Quarterly Magazine.

B.B.: It’s a story about a Fireman and captive Demon set in a world that’s post-rapture, where hellfire slowly consumes the planet over an extended period of time. Imps, Demons and Wraiths often enter the real world, and gunfire only stings them while water is deadly. That fact raises the importance of the Fire Department in the society that’s been left behind. The pair then work both with and against each other as they try to find the cause of a recent flare of fires that have broken out in the surrounding city.

It’s a story I wrote over fifteen years ago, and for a long time was probably the strongest story I’d written. It’s still one of my absolute best and I was overjoyed to finally sell it.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

B.B.: Work on the anthology caused me to redirect some of my focus, but in about another month I’ll be going back to handful of short stories and a couple screenplays. Two short stories I’m working on right now involve a protagonist unable to leave a semi-sentient tower that no longer wants him, and look at a world after a synthetic takeover where the machines have turned out to be rather less than infallible. And my screenplay is a non-speculative historical biopic set in the French Revolution.

There’s also a novel series about a pair of immortals I need to get back to – I completed the first one after the pandemic but there’s a significant amount of work that needs to be done from the midpoint onwards, as well as starting up the second book once the first is finished to a level at which I’m satisfied.

P.S.: How did you first get involved in editing fiction?

B.B.: The first editing work I did was back in High School for a non-speculative anthology concentrating on the pressures and ramification of war. I and a few other students had an opportunity to work on a ‘real-world’ project, so I’d say that counts as my first experience as an editor. I also worked here and there as both a contributor and editor to my High School and University newspapers, and I served as one of the staff for T.Spec’s Imps and Minions anthology a few years back, helping to select and offer feedback on submissions.

Mainly though, my editorial experience comes from reading my own work, and viewing it with a critical eye that’s as fair as possible. Seeing and correcting issues with what I’ve written has become an experience that’s both time consuming and enjoyable, to the point that it’s one of my favorite things to do. And after I’ve been away from writing for a while, I’ll usually start by editing one of my existing stories to get me back in the authorial headspace.

P.S.: How did the idea of The Science Fiction Tarot come about?

B.B.: On a Zoom call during the pandemic. It began with a conversation where someone mentioned she had learned how to read tarot, or wanted to. I believe either she or many others in the group tended to be into YA, Harry Potter and that sort of material (I personally tend towards what I personally term as the previous hot trend of late 70s-early 90s horror and dark SF: Stephen King/Dean Koontz or, more lately, Black Mirror), and I jotted down the idea of a tarot card deck for a new generation. As in, one with different cards. Zelazny’s Amber series was probably showing its influence again there with its use of trumps.

Originally it was a story idea and I spent a few months trying to get it to work, but it wasn’t coming together. Finally, I began to conceive of it as an anthology, since it seemed to me the card concept could function exceptionally as a list of contrasting topics – not unlike how the album Dark Side of the Moon tackles its concept of the pressures of modern life.

The last wrinkle was the involvement of Managing Editor Andy Dibble, who was a big part of the early work on the book. We had a conversation while I was still putting the idea together, and he suggested a focus on Science Fiction. Until then I’d been thinking of a speculative anthology with contemporary card themes. His suggestion seemed simpler and straightforward, so naturally I jumped on it. And so, The Science Fiction Tarot was born!

P.S.: People use conventional tarot cards for prediction, self-exploration, or care therapy. Will readers of this anthology know the future, know themselves, feel better, or enjoy some other benefit?

B.B.: Perhaps all four! In knowing yourself you probably know at least some of your future, so doesn’t that make you feel better? And it certainly comes with other benefits! Kidding aside though, I think it’s great that tarot is used in so many multifaceted ways. We created actual decks for our kickstarter backers of just our major arcana and a handful of other cards. Anyone who would want to use our cards to help in anything they do would be fantastic. And some of our cards take direct inspiration from the original tarot, so I can imagine there’s plenty of room to explore tons of possibilities.

P.S.: What plans do you have, if any, to edit future anthologies?

B.B.: Like with my short stories, I tend to want to do something else after finishing a large project. So, no particular plans for more editing in my near future, although I rule nothing out. If something comes along that I want to do, then something comes along. There’s been talk about us doing another project, but it’s just conversation so far.

Ultimately though, I didn’t commit to this project because I wanted to do an anthology – I had an idea that I wanted to do that became The Science Fiction Tarot, which happened to be an anthology. If that distinction makes sense.

P.S.: What advice can you offer aspiring writers or editors?

B.B.: Let your ideas own themselves. Although I find it’s essential to form pictures in your head of what happens in your story or what form your editing project will take, try to sense the natural boundaries of what you have. Instinct and experience help with that, although they take time to develop.

It’s maybe a commentary on that old Andy Warhol quote of getting your 15 minutes of fame: I prefer to think of it as waiting until you have something to say, then saying it and taking as long as you need until you’re done. And then leaving the stage for the next person and giving yourself a break until there’s something else to say. Which there often is. There’s time enough for everything in life, and a big help in working on any project is knowing where you are during its beginning, middle and end.

Thank you, Brandon.

Readers can learn more about Brandon Butler at his website, on Twitter, on Goodreads, and on Amazon. Also check out a previous interview of Brandon by Angelique Fawns of Horror Tree here.

June 2, 2023Permalink

Author Interview—Iain Hannay Fraser

If you read The Science Fiction Tarot anthology, you’ll find great fiction, and some brief bios about the authors. But to know those authors better, well, you have to read these interviews. Iain Hannay Fraser proved to be somewhat mysterious. He values his privacy—I’m not even sure that’s his real name. Lucky for you, I managed to coax him into answering some questions.

Here’s the bio for Iain Hannay Fraser:

Born on the West Coast of Canada. Previously taught English but now working as a contract writer, with specialties in tech marketing, legal analysis, and medical research. Dedicated to privacy protection, devoted to family of wife and two daughters. Lives near the ocean, rides a bike with a basket. Studied overseas.

Next, the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?

Iain Hannay Fraser: For me, it was almost a straightforward process. I have been working toward clearer communications for years in life and at work. I even spent a period of time writing and editing tweets for a business-consulting firm: sometimes trimming even one or two characters is a win. Not that “shorter” always equals “clearer”, but learning that intense discipline changed my focus on what could be left out. After a certain time, I found myself believing that my writing was clear enough to be considered nearly professional. I kept using that stylistic rigour to write short fiction, then just started submitting the stories when I was done. Once I believed that I could, it seemed an inevitable next step.

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?

I.H.F.: I was influenced growing up by the early science fiction writers, who literally wrote fiction about science. This was the “pulp” period of greats like Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov. In my adolescence I thought the social-and-technological insights of William Gibson were just the most awesomest thing ever. As an adult I wrestled with the same ethical questions as Iain M. Banks. As a writer I have come to admire stylists like Raymond Chandler, and those who elevate genre fiction to something more, like John Le Carré. My favourite book is probably Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, because I think it accomplishes all these things.

P.S.: You claim to be a private person without much of an online presence. I know many writers can identify with that. If your writing career took off, with substantial sales and readers clamoring to know more about you, would you choose to open up more, or remain private?

I.H.F.: Absolutely I would still remain private. I treasure anonymity and even appreciate being ignored. I suppose fame might have some material benefits, like getting a better table at restaurants, sometimes? But I can’t really imagine enough value to overcome the substantial downside. I think I would feel an obligation to behave in a particular way, and I don’t particularly want to take on more obligations. I suppose privacy provides a lot of freedom.

P.S.: In today’s hyper-connected world where people expect others to share personal details with all humanity, you’ve chosen a private life of introspection and relative isolation. Do you believe that’s helped your fiction writing? If so, in what way?

I.H.F.: Well, I really do hope introspection improves my writing, because it’s the way I am! It’s like me writing in English—not really a choice.

I struggle continually with the way things are. I don’t just mean that the world seems a bit lost these days, though that’s also true—I mean I struggle to understand the nature of truth underlying things. This requires engagement with the world, but it is very easy to be overwhelmed by input. I withdraw after engagement, and spend a lot of time thinking about that input, and integrating it with my thoughts.

Of course, my preference to disconnect and think may also have disconnected me from what people are really like. I hope my preferences are a net positive, but it’s hard to be sure. I often feel my writing is too cerebral and not visceral enough.

P.S.: Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?

I.H.F.: I care most about the intersection of genre fiction with substantial, quality writing. We have probably all run up against the assumption that worthwhile insight and admirable art come only from literary fiction, and that genre fiction is “just for fun”. I really dislike that assumption. I like the idea that there is substance in the books that everybody reads. So that aspect of respect for genre is always in my writing. I have a personal affinity for naval fiction, noir detectives, and the broad big tent of SF.

I also think I write more about people than about events. I’m not sure that’s wise, in the circumstances.

P.S.: The ‘day job’ mentioned in your bio sounds impressive and you specialize in several disparate fields. Does your knowledge in these fields help you in your fiction writing?

I.H.F.: Yes, but also no. There’s a truism in teaching writing: “write what you know”. This doesn’t mean just write about what happens in your family, your college classroom, your neighbourhood. I think it means, write about the human truths that your family embodies. It means write about the universal insights that are revealed by your classroom. Write about the realities of life that are played out in your neighbourhood.

So, by this same token, the work that I do has some occasionally interesting connections. But the details are the vehicle for thoughts about life. That’s what I want to write about. It doesn’t matter precisely who spilled coffee on their pants, or what stem-cell research project has just uncovered a new mechanism for treating cancers. What matters is what does either of those things mean, for people? For one person, or for all people, it doesn’t matter.

P.S.: Your short story, “Three Weeks Without Changing History,” appears in The Science Fiction Tarot. What prompted you to write this story?

I.H.F.: This story started from a sense of feeling like an outsider in my old neighbourhood. The initial scene is set in a place I used to live, and used to feel connected with. Driving through there years later, though, I felt disconnected and forgotten, as if I’d never lived there at all. It was like history had changed to write me out.

I started wondering, if I had done that—if I had written myself out of that history—what was my reason? Presumably I thought the new history would turn out better for me. That would be an interesting power, wouldn’t it?

But then I started thinking about this phenomenon I’d heard about, with regard to happiness: hedonistic adaptation. Even if things improve, you tend to wind up at the same level of happiness as before—or unhappiness. If you’re discontented, you stay discontented even if you improve your circumstances.

So, I realized, if you had the power to change history, you’d probably get addicted to using your power. That’s when the story connected to human truths, so that’s what I made it about.

P.S.: Please tell us some details about the protagonist of “Three Weeks” and his conflict.

I.H.F.: Alexei is a man out of place. Many of his memories are of worlds that no longer exist. Because he can change history, he struggles with an addiction to this power, which he has used too many times. He holds desperately onto a memory of his wife and children, who left as a consequence of his addiction. Alexei is half-committed to a twelve-step program for those who can change history, but also believes he can restore his family by changing history just one time.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

I.H.F.: The easiest part of writing is the mechanics. I believe I’ve served my ten-thousand-hour practice period, and sentences hold no fear for me any longer. I get to think about what I’m saying, instead of how to say it. To use a musical metaphor: I don’t have any more problems with my fingering.

But I don’t always know what music to play. It is often very hard, in my life circumstances, to find uninterrupted writing time to focus and achieve immersion in the free-flowing psychological state that I really need. Frustration is a daily enemy.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

I.H.F.: I’m working on a novel now, my third, which like the other two is a blending of genres. This one, which is called Married to the Dead, is a blending of high fantasy (meaning, literal swords and literal sorcery in a generally-medieval setting) with detective noir (a hard-boiled cynical private investigator with past trauma but unshakeable principles, taking on high-level corruption).

It starts, because I believe in conventions, when a gorgeous woman walks into the investigator’s office and hires him to track her cheating husband. Of course that’s not the whole truth.

P.S.: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

I.H.F.: This above all: to thine own self be true. Okay, that’s from a character by Shakespeare, and there’s good reason to doubt the quality of his fatherly advice. But I think this piece, at least, has value.

No matter how you write, or what you write, some people won’t like it. It’s important not to care about them. They want something else, and you’re not going to be any good at that something else. The only thing you can be good at, I think, is whatever thing you are. You’ll hear a lot about “finding your voice” which is a little bit mystical. What I think it means is, getting rid of all preconceptions about how your writing “should be”, and making it the best version of how it actually is.

It’s hard enough to learn the techniques of writing, and figure out the things you want to say. Nobody needs a third challenge of pretending to a different identity. You—as they say—do you.

P.S.: You’ve traveled through time and met yourself at a point when you were first thinking of being a writer. What one thing do you tell this younger version of you?

I.H.F.: I would say “don’t teach high-school English”. The teaching is fine, but the rest of the job will drain your life and screw up your self-image.

P.S.: You’ve won a trip to the fictional world of another author. Where will you go and what will you do there?

I.H.F.: I have no doubts about this at all. I would go to the Culture, the universe created by Iain M. Banks. It’s a post-scarcity society with (in effect) total freedom for all. If I went there, I would claim political asylum. If I got to live there I would do absolutely nothing at first, except live quietly in isolation with no demands on me. Ideally next to an ocean. (Some of his characters do just this in fact). The plan would be to purge the expectations of our society, so I could start from scratch and understand my own self.

It doesn’t hurt that people in the Culture are effectively immortal. 

Poseidon’s Scribe: You just met an interested reader in an elevator. The reader asks, “What sort of stories do you write?” The doors will open soon, so what short answer do you give this reader?

Iain Hannay Fraser: Stories about the human experience in settings that have never existed. We’re all heading into the unknown, so it’s a good idea to practice.

Thank you, Iain.

For readers interested in Iain and his writing, I can’t offer any social media links. You’ll just have to search for his name every now and then.

June 1, 2023Permalink

Author Interview—Kevin Binder

How can one anthology contain fiction by so many fascinating writers? Today I seized the chance to interview Kevin Binder, author of “Judicial Review” in The Science Fiction Tarot.

Kevin J. Binder’s fiction has been published in The Science Fiction Tarot, Liquid Imagination, Blue Lake Review, and beyond; his humor has been published in McSweeney’s, Slackjaw, and elsewhere. He received his MFA from George Mason University, where he was awarded the Shelley A. Marshall Fiction Award and the Alan Cheuse Nonfiction Award. He has previously served as fiction editor of phoebe literary journal.

Here’s the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?

Kevin Binder: I’ll admit I got started with pure fiction a bit later than some authors. In college, I wrote for my university’s version of The Onion and loved it. But then, as I approached the end of my undergrad years, I knew I couldn’t just keep writing for a college paper forever. I mean, they’d need to kick me out eventually, right? So, I needed to find another creative outlet, and that’s how I started writing fiction—novels at first. And a dozen years later, here I am, still at it.

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books? 

K.B.: Based on my previous answer, it probably won’t surprise anyone to hear that my early influences were more satirical and/or humorous writers, though that ranged from the light satire of Douglas Adams and the witty introspection of Nick Hornby to the dark satire of Orwell, Bradbury, and Heller. From there, my tastes expanded as I found authors both in the realm of sci-fi and outside of it whom I truly loved, like Ted Chiang, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Lesley Nneka Arimah, so I tried to find ways of incorporating the great things they were doing into my own writing.

As I think about my favorite stories, they currently draw more from that latter list. Chiang’s “Story of Your Life”is probably my all-time favorite story, and others at the top of my list include Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go and, on the short story side, Arimah’s “What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky” and Caitlin Horrocks’s “Zolaria.”

P.S.: You’ve won a trip to the fictional world of another author. Where will you go and what will you do there?

K.B.: Given my inclination toward dystopian works, I don’t think many of my favorite authors’ stories would be that wise of a choice. Instead, I’ll harken back to my teen years and pick the world Douglas Adams built in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Give me a spaceship with an improbability drive, and I’d probably just keep pressing the drive’s button over and over. What an absolutely wild ride that would be.

P.S.: Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?

K.B.: I’m a fairly eclectic author; I write everything from literary fiction to science fiction to humor shorts in the style of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. I think part of that is because I try not to be too prescriptive in forcing a particular genre or length on my writing. Instead, I’ve found that my ideas will usually tell me what they want to be after I let them marinate for a few days or weeks. Some concepts easily grow into novels, some need to take place in a universe that isn’t our own, while others quickly reveal themselves to be shorter in length, more literary in spirit, and so on.

The one throughline I can find in my writing is the themes I tend to work with. Guilt and culpability are recurring concepts in my work (for which you can probably thank my Catholic upbringing), and my writing tends to look askance at large, rigid systems, especially those that operate based on economic incentives. Thinking about it now, you can see both these themes peeking through in “Judicial Review,” the story I wrote for The Science Fiction Tarot.

P.S.: You’ve edited a literary journal—phoebe. What was that like? How did being an editor affect your writing?

K.B.: It was a lot of work. Each semester, we received about 400-500 pieces on the fiction side alone, and as one of the two fiction editors, I personally read about sixty percent of those. So, I honestly wondered at times if I’d made a mistake signing up for the role, on top of my MFA coursework and two other campus jobs.

But looking back, I’m glad I stuck with it because it ended up being an incredibly valuable learning experience. When you’re reading that many stories on a consistent basis, you’ll inevitably learn a lot about the craft of short story writing. For every story I read, I felt that I, as editor, owed each writer a certain level of justification, that I needed to tie my impression of their work to their craft mechanics and decisions rather than stopping at a gut impression, so I was constantly asking myself: “What’s working here?” “What’s not?” “For the stuff that I like, what makes me like it?” “And for the stuff I don’t like, what’s causing that reaction?”

Ultimately, that editing experience allowed me to become the type of short story writer I am now, because that in-depth reading and question-based process helped me better understand the shapes and forms of shorter fiction, as well as common pitfalls to avoid within it.

P.S.: What non-writing hobby or interest do you have? Does it complement your writing or is it a relief from writing?

K.B.: I’m an avid traveler when life allows, having spent a year teaching English in Turkey and some significant time in Morocco. Clearly, I haven’t gotten outside the United States much in the past few years, but I’ve been trying to find opportunities to scratch the travel itch. And I certainly think my love of travel has complemented my writing in that it’s helped me see outside the common narratives I find around me in the United States. Hearing other people’s stories is probably the most effective way I’ve found to check my current modes of thinking and generate new ones. And while I’m certainly conscious of which stories are mine to tell and which aren’t, I wholeheartedly believe that exposing yourself to a diversity of thought, especially in terms of cultures, is beneficial in the craft of writing. You never know what sorts of outputs you’ll produce if you let enough belief and value systems from across the world intermingle in the strange nexus that is the human mind.

P.S.: Congratulations on winning the Shelley A. Marshall Fiction Award. Please tell us about that experience.

K.B.: Many thanks! The prize was for a writing contest organized by George Mason University (they run a few such contests each year, open to the entire GMU student body), so I suppose it was fitting that my winning piece was one that I’d conceived during my years in GMU’s creative writing MFA program. And it wasn’t a sci-fi piece, more of a literary one: a darkly satirical story about how our capitalist systems respond to the threats of climate change. I’d banged out a first draft of the piece in response to a prompt one of my professors had assigned and then revised it a few times based on my peers’ feedback. Honestly, when I submitted it for the contest, I was just hoping for an honorable mention, so to win first prize was quite the pleasant surprise.

P.S.: Your short story, “Judicial Review,” appears in The Science Fiction Tarot. What will readers enjoy about that tale?

K.B.: “Judicial Review” is a near-future story, and since its world is very similar to our own, I’m hoping readers will enjoy it as an exploration of a single sci-fi concept. To give the TL;DR intro, it’s a story about a brain transplant. As a writer, I was trying to find a way to give one of my characters a brain transplant and still make the resulting person arguably “them”—in the philosophical and psychological sense. And from there, my writerly mind spun off into ten thousand different questions about what would happen next, even if we (humanity) did our best to make this brain transplant work. For example, who would get to decide whether the resulting person was the same as the one who went into the brain transplant? What would the arguments on both sides be? And so on.

So, all that is to say, I hope that readers enjoy the story as an exploration of human identity and how close we could someday get to “surviving” with a brain that’s not our original one. And beyond that, I think they’ll appreciate the layered nature of the story because, beyond that surface-level, philosophical layer, it contains several other layers that unspool and intersect as you journey deeper into the story.

P.S.: In what way is your fiction different from that of other science fiction authors? 

K.B.: My guess is that, if you read my work, you’ll see that my writing and interests are, as I mentioned, fairly eclectic. Though “Judicial Review” isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, I think readers will spot my satirical influences because I try to find opportunities for humor and lightness in the story, despite the heavy subject and themes. Beyond that, I think they’ll also notice some of my more literary tendencies. As I mentioned before, the story is a near-future one, so instead of the heavier world-building you see in some sci-fi, I wanted to spend that real estate getting into the head of the protagonist. In that way, I’m hoping readers will enjoy the mixture my work offers, in that it certainly explores the technology behind the story but is also very much a character- and voice-driven story.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

K.B.: I’m currently working on a futuristic dystopian novel in which we humans have the technology to connect our minds directly to an immersive and integrative virtual reality (a la The Matrix), but where this technology is only available to those who can afford it. What I’ve really enjoyed about the novel so far is that its world has allowed me to both build a compelling character- and mystery-driven story and comment on the massive technological and wealth disparities present in our current society. It’s taken a lot of work so far, but I’m excited about how it’s shaping up and where I feel it going.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Kevin Binder: Oh man, a lot of ideas come to mind here, but most of the things I would say have been mentioned before by people much smarter than me, like “It just takes time,” “Be persistent,” and “Read a lot.” So, I’ll instead focus my advice on the importance of knowing yourself as an artist. As important as it is to learn from other artists and take your peers’ feedback into account, it’s equally important to filter all that through your understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, what you’ll become successful for is your unique mixture of talents that no other writer can copy, so it’s important for each writer to approach projects (and revisions) in a way that aligns with their interests and talents instead of trying to shoehorn their work into someone else’s conception of what’s “good writing” or “marketable.” Because if you go down that second road, you’ll end up trying to be too many things to too many people, which can quickly destroy the originality of any work.

Thanks, Kevin.

To keep up with Kevin’s literary adventures, follow him on Twitter and Mastodon.

May 27, 2023Permalink

Author Interview—Ben Coppin

The new anthology, The Science Fiction Tarot, contains many fascinating stories by marvelous authors. Today I present another interview with one of these writers—Ben Coppin.

Ben Coppin lives in Ely in the UK with his wife and two teenage children. He works for one of the big tech companies. He’s had a textbook on artificial intelligence published, as well as a number of short stories, mostly science fiction, but also horror, fairy tales and other things. All his published stories can be found listed here.

On to the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you? 

Ben Coppin: Maybe the real question I should answer is what stopped me. As a kid, I loved writing — I still have some stories I wrote from when I was 7 years old — science fiction before I’d ever ready any real science fiction. But then when I did A-Levels, which is the final set of exams you do in the school system in the UK I had to choose between sciences and language-related subjects, and I chose the sciences. And from that moment on, writing became pretty irrelevant. I didn’t even write an essay until many years later when I did a Master’s degree in Linguistics. And then in 2002, 2003 I was figuring out what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to be, and I had this instinctive idea that writing was the right direction. So I wrote a textbook on AI which got published in the US and was used as a college text book. 

It was an amazing experience, but also very grueling. I was working full-time and writing this book at the same time, and I’d foolishly agreed with the publishers to write it in half the time I estimated it would take — I told them 18 months, they said it needs to be 9, and I agreed. And so when I finished it, I was pretty sick of writing, and certainly didn’t want to write any more text books.

Then fast forward to 2018. I had an idea for a novel but no idea how to go about writing one. So I took a load of online writing courses, and although I did start on the novel, I also realised that I needed to practise on something shorter. So I got into writing short stories. I completed a second draft of that novel, but have never got it to a state where I think of it as being finished.

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books? 

B.C.: As a kid I read almost exclusively science fiction. Mostly Asimov, Heinlein, Harry Harrison, Arthur C. Clarke. I also loved (and still love) The Hobbit, which I think is my favourite book. I branched out a bit when I went to University, and now I read all kinds of things, but I do tend to gravitate back to science fiction. Iain M. Banks, William Gibson and Neal Stephenson are particular favourites. In the past few years I’ve also particularly loved some books that are perhaps on the border between science fiction and fantasy — the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemison and the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer. Both feature incredible world building and mind-blowingly good writing that keeps you hooked. Oh, and I’m really liking the trend towards what to me seems like more positive, more human, perhaps a bit lighter science fiction from writers like Becky Chambers.

P.S.: You’ve had more fiction published in just the last four years than many writers do in over a decade. What’s your secret?

B.C.: Heh. I find competitions are a good forcing function. They provide a prompt and a deadline. Deadlines are so important for motivation, at least for me. If I start a story that is not for a competition, there’s a much higher chance that I’ll just never finish it. With a deadline I just have to get it done, even if it doesn’t feel perfect. I’m also lucky in that I am never short of ideas—it’s not always easy to turn them into stories, but at least I rarely find myself stuck for ideas.

P.S.: Has your expertise in AI helped you in your fiction writing? If so, how?

B.C.: Maybe. Or maybe it’s a hindrance. I know a lot of people like science fiction to be very grounded in science, full of scientifically accurate scientific detail. Personally, I prefer Star Wars, Iain M. Banks and Ada Palmer precisely because they’re not constrained by things we consider to be scientifically plausible today. Perhaps that’s part of the reason that I’ve tended to try to avoid AI in my science fiction writing. Having said that, it often creeps in because it feels like such an essential part of the future of our world.

P.S.: Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?

B.C.: I guess I’ve tried lots of things. I wrote a romantic comedy a couple of years ago which is one of the stories I’m most proud of. Admittedly, it’s set on a dying earth, so it is also science fiction… So yeah, I guess I tend to write science fiction even when I try to write other genres. And I tend to like writing about protagonists who are a bit lost, not really sure what’s going on or what they need to do. Heroic heroes don’t really appeal to me so much, at least when I’m writing.

P.S.: In what way is your fiction different from that of other science fiction authors? 

B.C.: Hmmm… This is a good question, and a hard one to answer. I guess I like to think that I allow myself to draw on a broad range of genres and styles — I have written science fiction westerns, detective stories, comedies and adventures, all of which I’d consider science fiction, but all of which make use of the tropes of other genres. But that’s not unique, of course.

P.S.: Tell us about “The Time Lottery,” your story in The Science Fiction Tarot. Winners of this lottery don’t get money, do they?

B.C.: Hah! No, indeed. The idea came from two places: A friend of mine, Paul, messaged me out of the blue one day, saying, “I had an idea for a story: time lottery.” I asked him if I could use it, and he agreed. Around the same time, I’d also been reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones in which she mentioned the idea of a couple who lived in such a way that when one of them was awake, the other was asleep. And those two sparks gave me this idea of a society in which there wasn’t enough resource for everyone to be awake at the same time, and the idea that a lottery would be a fair way (perhaps) to decide who got to be awake, and for how long. So then the story was set in a utopia, but a utopia with a problem. And when the protagonist wins the lottery and is woken up, he has a goal in mind that is not easy to achieve.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

B.C.: Easiest: coming up with ideas. Hardest: actually sitting down and writing. Seriously, I find it so difficult sometimes just to get out my laptop and start typing. Once I’m typing, it’s not so bad, but getting going is always the hardest part.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

B.C.: I’m working on a second novel. It’s science fiction, obviously, and is about legacies and how we can focus too much on the legacy and not enough on what’s going on now. It’s actually based on an idea I had many years ago, and in fact wrote a very short story about it, which got published a few years ago. I won’t say which one…

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Ben Coppin: Just write. It’s the hardest thing. Reading books and taking courses are super helpful for the basics and for getting a sense of what the rules are: as people always say, if you want to break the rules, you need to know what they are first. But once you’ve done all that, just write, as much and as often as you can. The more you write, the easier it is to keep doing it. Even if you just write garbage, it is easier to then write something worthwhile than if you’ve written nothing. And if you don’t write anything, you’ll never get anything published. So if publication is what you’re aiming for, write, and submit. A lot.

Thank you, Ben.

Readers can find out more about Ben at his website.

May 23, 2023Permalink

How “Turned Off” Got Turned On

The new book The Science Fiction Tarot anthology, edited by Brandon Butler, contains my story “Turned Off.”

In the anthology, images of science fiction related tarot cards accompany each story. The one for mine, drawn by Marco Marin, looks wonderful.

My story involves two movie prop robots who awaken during a strange electrical storm in Hollywood. I patterned one robot, Automo, after the Robby robot of movies like Forbidden Planet (1956) and The Invisible Boy (1957). The robot Ava of the movie Ex Machina (2014) inspired my other robot, Evie.

Forbidden Planet poster

Now conscious and sentient, both robots ponder the circumstances of having been turned off by their human creators. In each case, movie directors, concerned that a robot could go berserk on a set, opted instead to film human actors in robot costumes.

Ex Machina poster

I don’t mean to imply that “Turned Off” will, or might, be prophetic in any way. It’s humorous in spots and scary in others, and based on an unrealistic premise. But we all should contemplate the larger question raised by the story, since the rise of AI involves us all.

With artificial intelligence systems gaining capability every day, it seems useful to consider what such systems will think about if or when they become capable of self-directed thought.

In the coming weeks, I hope to conduct blog interviews of the other authors whose stories appear in The Science Fiction Tarot anthology, and to interview the editor as well.

Note: No AI or robots were used in the creation of this or other posts by the blogger—

Poseidon’s Scribe

May 14, 2023Permalink

Great Time at PenguiCon 2023

Attendees at the science fiction convention PenguiCon enjoyed a great treat yesterday. They got to go to an informative and fun panel about Jules Verne.

Scifi fan and bookseller Jeff Beeler led the discussion and asked questions designed to give the audience a good feel for the famous French author. Unlike most readers, the first Verne novel Jeff read was the obscure 1888 novel Two Years’ Vacation.

The con’s Guest of Honor, Eric Choi (pictured with me) explained how he came to write his story “Raise the Nautilus,” which appears in Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Remembered, and Eric’s short story collection, Just Like Being There.

JD DeLuzio added his own perspective on Verne. He’d read the author’s major works and commented on the societal and cultural change Verne wrought.

The president of the North American Jules Verne Society, Dennis Kytasaari, knew more about Verne than the rest of us combined, and discussed not only the history of the society, but also mentioned that the publisher BearManor Media is offering 25% off on its Verne titles (including Extraordinary Visions) through the end of this month. Use the code ‘Verne25’ at checkout.

Even if you missed that panel at PenguiCon, you can still get that 25%-off deal. These are modern translations, not like the poor early English translations of Verne’s major works. Go snap up those books at this website now. You can always come back later to read posts by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 23, 2023Permalink

Upcoming Events for Poseidon’s Scribe

Hectic times for Poseidon’s Scribe. Last week I mentioned I’ll be speaking at PenguiCon. Today I’ve got two more events to tell you about.

First, here’s an update on PenguiCon, the scifi convention at the Westin Hotel in Southfield, Michigan. For the panel “Extraordinary Visions: the enduring legacy of Jules Verne” (11:00 am on Saturday, April 22), there’s been a person added to the panel. In addition to Eric Choi (the con’s Guest of Honor), Jeff Beeler, JD DeLuzio, and me, the panel will also include Dennis Kytasaari, president of the North American Jules Verne Society.

Also, for the next panel after that, Eric Choi graciously invited me to read some of my fiction as well.

Two weeks later, I’ll be speaking at DemiCon, the scifi convention in Des Moines, Iowa, running from 5-7 May at the Holiday Inn & Suites Des Moines-Northwest.

I’m scheduled for the following events:

  • AI Meets SF, Friday 6-7PM
  • Iowa in SF, Saturday 10-11AM
  • Can Writers Benefit from Being Editors? Saturday noon-1PM
  • Steven Southard Reading, Saturday 2-3PM
  • Pandemics Through History, Their Effects on Literature, Saturday 3-4PM
  • Character Changes from Unlikable to Likable, Saturday 9-10PM
  • Gadgets in SF, Sunday noon-1PM

I’ll give you more updated information on that as the dates approach.

Then, on April 30, a new anthology launches and it will include one of my stories. You might not associate tarot cards with scifi, but both have something to do with predicting the future, so it works. TDotSpec is publishing The Science Fiction Tarot, edited by Brandon Butler.

The book contains my story, “Turned Off,” a tale of two movie prop robots whose circuits activate during an electrical storm. They each recall being turned off after being replaced in their movies by costumed human actors. Now they consider what to do about the humans who created them but can turn them on or off at will.

You can pre-order The Science Fiction Tarot here.

You just can’t miss a week of this blog. For some reason, all of a sudden, there’s a lot happening in the world of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 16, 2023Permalink

Sale on 20,000 Leagues Remembered – Only $2.99!

Two days ago, I mentioned a sale on the new anthology, Extraordinary Visions. Now I’m announcing a sale on another Jules Verne-related anthology—20,000 Leagues Remembered.

Maybe these publishers and book distributors are trying to celebrate Verne’s 195th birthday on February 8, I don’t know.

At any rate, in conjunction with a promotion at the Fussy Librarian, the ebook version of 20,000 Leagues Remembered is on sale for $2.99 at the publisher’s site, as well as Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and Smashwords.

At the Fussy Librarian, 20,000 Leagues Remembered is listed with their Bargain E-books under General Fantasy. That promotion may only last today, Saturday, February 4, but the sales at the other sites will likely remain in effect until Friday, February 10.

20,000 Leagues Remembered, published on the 150th anniversary of Verne’s masterwork, contains 16 stories by modern authors, each inspired by the classic tale of underwater adventure. Read exciting stories by Mike Adamson, Alfred D. Byrd, Demetri Capetanopoulos, J. Woolston Carr, Maya Chhabra, Eric Choi, Corrie Garrett, Andrew Gudgel, Nikoline Kaiser, James J.C. Kelly, M. W. Kelly, Jason J. McCuiston, Gregory L. Norris, Allison Tebo, Stephen R. Wilk, and Michael D. Winkle.

Prices are rising for everything else, but for this book—at least for a while—the price has dropped. When it comes to good deals, it’s hard to beat this one. Everyone likes a bargain, even—

Poseidon’s Scrive

February 4, 2023Permalink

Sale on Extraordinary Visions – 20% Off!

BearManor Media, Inc., the publisher of Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne is letting the book go for 20% off. The sale only runs through February 4, so hurry.

When you order either the hardcover or paperback version, it will show up at full price until you put the book in your shopping cart. Then you’ll see the discount.

As a reminder, the North American Jules Verne Society sponsored their first-ever anthology of stories written by modern authors, each inspired by Verne’s works. Not only does the book contain thirteen wonderful tales, but each story is accompanied by an original illustration from the earliest publications of Jules Verne’s novels. In an appendix in the back, you’ll find a complete listing of all of his writings.

You had this book on your to-read list, but never got around to buying it yet. Now’s your chance to grab it at a discounted price. For the hardcover version, click here, and for the paperback, click here.

Forgot to mention: one of the co-editors of this anthology is—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 2, 2023Permalink

Extraordinary Visions has Launched

At long last, the North American Jules Verne Society has produced its first-ever anthology of new fiction. Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne just got published today. As of today, it’s available from the publisher, BearManor Media, in paperback and hardback, and from Amazon in both versions.

The anthology includes stories by Mike Adamson, Joel Allegretti, Gustavo Bondoni, Demetri Capetanopoulos, Brenda Carre, Eric Choi, Christopher M. Geeson, Kelly A. Harmon, David A. Natale, Alison L. Randall, Janice Rider, Michael Schulkins, and Joseph S. Walker. Credit goes to artist Amanda Bergloff for the splendid cover image.

The stories derive not only from Verne’s better-known novels, but also from the obscure ones many are unfamiliar with. These stories may prompt you to sample Verne’s lesser-known writings.

In addition, an image taken from the original illustrations of Verne’s novels accompanies each story. One appendix lists the sources of these illustrations, and another appendix provides the complete bibliography of Verne’s works.

I’m honored to have served as a co-editor for this volume. I’m proud of the result, and should mention my co-editor, Rev. Matthew T. Hardesty, and the others who served on the anthology team: Dana Eales, Arthur Evans, Alex Kirstukas, Andrew Nash, Reggie Van Stockum, and the Society’s current president, Dennis Kytasaari.

Even 117 years after Jules Verne’s death, his works continue to inspire and delight writers and readers alike. Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne comes highly recommended by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 13, 2022Permalink