This year, I examined the rating descriptions in greater detail and it resulted in a lower score than in previous years. For each attribute, you rank from one to five. One = below expectations. Two = partially meets expectations. Three = meets expectations. Four = exceeds expectations. Five = far exceeds expectations.
It’s a comparison of actual performance during the year to expected performance. Based on that, a score of three isn’t bad. It means you’re doing what you expected to do. If you scored three in all twenty attributes, you’d get 60.
As my assessment turned out, I did get a 60. Mostly 3s, but also one 5, four 4s, four 2s, and one 1.
That 1 rating applies to “strategic thinking,” and I’ll do more in 2024 to discover the influencers of my genre by checking out podcasts and Youtube videos by reviewers and authors.
I’ve also committed to some corrective actions in the areas rated as 2:
Organization and Planning – I’ll use the Pomodoro method to manage my time.
Goal Orientation – I’ll follow the Stephen Covey method of setting large goals, then breaking them down into smaller goals, and weekly tasks.
Genre Knowledge – I’ll read more books in my genre.
Target Audience Knowledge – I’ll spend some time listing characteristics of my ‘ideal reader.’ That’s how I get to know my fictional characters better, so it might work for readers.
I made good progress on the first draft of another novel
I completed another round of edits on my upcoming short story collection, The Seastead Chronicles, and am hoping for its publication in 2024.
Most employers and employees keep annual performance assessments private. As both employer and employee, I display mine to the world as a service to other writers.
May all of us who scribble words have a successful 2024. That’s the New Year’s wish of—
Some authors (like me) strike out at the plate for years before achieving their first sale. Others hit it out of the park on their first time at bat. Today you’ll meet one of the latter types, and a story by this author appears in the anthology The Science Fiction Tarot.
Marco Cultrera writes science fiction and is enjoying a fine start to his writing career. He sold his first story to The Arcanist magazine at pro rates, a rare accomplishment. He’s had other works published by Hybrid Fiction magazine, Polaris Borealis magazine, Total Quality Reading magazine, and The Science Fiction Tarot anthology. Another story is set to appear in the anthology Novus Monstrum. Since 2018, he’s served on the staff of Can*Con, the SFF convention in Ottawa.
Born and raised in Italy, he now lives in Ottawa where he’s found his theoretical physics degree to be more useful in his writing than in his day job.
Next up, the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?
Marco Cultrera: I’ve always been a voracious reader, from a very early age. I always thought that one day I may write, but I wasn’t in a hurry to start. There were so many wonderful books to read, I didn’t have the time to write my own. Eventually, in high school, I got into RPG games and that medium gave me the impetus to start creating adventures for my friends to play. From there, the switch to speculative writing was only natural. In my mid-twenties, I began writing in Italian a bit, just to test the water. But then life got in the way, I got married, moved to Canada, began working in videogames, where I started writing exclusively in English, and then kids began to pop-up. It was then, in the early two thousands, during the long nights half-awake between one feeding and another, that the plot of my first book coalesced in my mind, inspired by… Oh wait, I was getting ahead of myself, on to the next question.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
M.C.: The author I almost mentioned above was Steven Erikson. I got sucked in into his Malazan Cycle, to this day the best fantasy I’ve ever read, and probably ever will, and it got my creativity going. I wanted to create something similar, but also give it my own personal stamp. And so my first novel was born, a 200K-word mammoth that will probably never be published, but helped me immensely in improving my craft. I also rediscovered Science Fiction in that period, after having read all the classics in my youth (Asimov and Clarke above all, but also Jack Vance and Philip Jose’ Farmer), and I was blown away by the way the genre had evolved. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie blew me away, also I love how Andy Weir is able to insert rigorous science in all his books while keeping them extremely entertaining. I found his Project Hail Mary unputdownable. So naturally, my second novel – the one I’m sending to agents now – is a near future sci-fi story with technological and environmental themes. In general, I try to read broadly, including Literary fiction (The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell remains one of my all-time favorite), crime novels (I love all Harry Hole books by Jo Nesbo) and I also go back the classics (reread recently The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse, what a fantastic book).
P.S.: Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?
M.C.: I would say no, I’ve written any kind of speculative fiction, from introspective reflections of the human condition and how it constantly changes confronted by technology, to action packed sword and sorcery. I really enjoy jumping from one genre to another, and the opportunity to explore the very different characters that creative freedom allows. At the end of the day, I live and die by the ideas I can come up. If one takes root in my brain, I just need to write it, no matter how wacky or out there it is.
P.S.: Tell us about “Malapropic Rhapsody.” Is it true you sold your first story at pro rates, and the editor accepted as is, with no revisions?
M.C.: Yes, it was quite shocking, to be honest, and it may have set some unrealistic expectation of the rate of publication of my short stories after that. I wrote that story on a whim, as part of a monthly competition in a private forum I was part of. Surprisingly, it won. Riding that enthusiasm, I looked up what were the best Flash Fiction magazines on the net, and I found The Arcanist. I submitted it, and I was delighted to hear a few weeks later that they loved it and wanted to publish it, with no editorial changes whatsoever. Payment was $50, which divided for the number of words, it came to about 8¢ a word, that at the time was considered pro payment. So I started writing more stories and submitting them everywhere, and naturally, shortly after, an endless train of rejections began to appear in my inbox…
M.C.: I have always been fascinated by how human consciousness may have arisen, and what evolutionary advantages have brought the Homo sapiens sapiens to become the dominant species on Earth. One day I was driving home, and passed by a church while ruminating on that, and I thought, “What if we knew that there was an afterlife? How would that have affected our evolution?” I decided that it would have hindered it, as surviving at all costs wouldn’t be as imperative if our ancestors knew that there was a new life after death. The next thing I knew, I had written 10K words about an evil corporation trying to find out if there was any truth about that.
P.S.: You’re a big part of the Ottawa-based SF&F writing convention Can*Con. Tell us about Can*Con, your role in that annual event, and how you started doing that.
M.C.: I discovered Can*Con in 2017, when I found out that my favorite fantasy author, the Steven Erikson mentioned above, was going to be the Writer Guest of Honor. I bought a full ticket and was blown away. In just a few days, I had met and talked with Steven and a ton of more established authors. I also got to pitch my novel to the editor of Daw and talked to a New York based agent! I learned more in that weekend at the con, than in the previous ten years trying to figure out the industry by myself. It was clear in my mind that I needed to be part of Can*Con moving forward, so I approached Derek Kunsken, one of the two co-chairs, and told him straight out that I wanted to help. He referred me to the other co-chair, the excellent Marie Bilodeau, and it turned out they needed someone to take over their website. I had all the knowledge necessary from my day job, so I accepted. Since then, I’ve made a ton of writer friends and become part of Ottawa’s writing community, that include some legends in the field, like Julie Czerneda, and Kate Heartfield, who is rapidly raising to a well-deserved stardom (her latest novel, The Embroidered Book, is just phenomenal. But don’t take my word for it. Come to Ottawa on the third weekend of October, you won’t regret it.
P.S.: Your story in The Science Fiction Tarot, “Support Group: Apocalypse,” earned a tarot card labeled ‘Apocalypse.” What is the premise of this story?
M.C.: Parallel Earths have become all the rage recently, but I swear I wrote this story before a certain entertainment corporation had to come up with something else after having dispatched a certain blue titan. What if victims of different apocalypses in parallel but equally doomed Earths could come together every week to a support group run by a licensed therapist? Would they be there for each other? Argue about who has it worst? Go read the story to find out…
P.S.: What are the hardest and easiest aspects of writing for you?
M.C.: Hardest one is finding the time to do it. I have a full-time job that keeps me quite occupied and a very busy household, with three daughters and four cats, so stealing time to write is a challenge. The easiest thing is coming up with ideas. I have always more concepts in my head than I will ever be able to actually write, so whenever I sit, I have no problem putting words on the page.
P.S.: In what way is your fiction different from that of other science fiction authors?
M.C.: I guess what I really like to do is come up with new ideas, or at least a new take on old ones so out there that they are hardly recognizable. Yes, characters are very important, and I work hard to make mine likeable or whatever shade of humanity they are meant to be, but my stories are invariably plot driven. Don’t get me wrong, I read a lot of character-centric fiction, and enjoy it a lot, but when it comes to my own writing I always start from an idea (or a set of ideas) that I have not seen anywhere before, and build a cast of characters around it to support it.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
M.C.: I always have at least a short story and a longer project in various states of completion. The story right now is about how something like ChatGPT can be turned on its head in the right dystopian society. The novel is about an asteroid about to hit Earth. Wait a minute? I can hear you thinking. What happened to an original idea? I can’t think of a more used trope in the history of Science Fiction. Yes, but what if the impact is 18 years away, and the first ever woman to have become Secretary General of the United Nations is determined to save every single human and not just a small colony? And what if the progress of the salvation effort is monitored through a webspace in the holoweb, created and updated in real time by a group of people scattered all over the world that share visions of Earth’s last moments? Not enough? What if the first trillionaire private citizen is building a lunar base to become the only savior of humanity? Not enough? Well, then I can’t do anything for you. Just go back to watch Armageddon or Deep Impact again, patting yourself on the back that you were right all along…
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Marco Cultrera: This question made me chuckle a bit, as I still consider myself an aspiring writer. I would say my advice is to find like-minded individuals. Writing seems like a solitary endeavor, but it doesn’t have to be. Join a writing group, online or in person, look for writing events in your city, go to book launches and talk to the authors. In my experience, the writing community is wonderfully inclusive, and everybody is always ready to cheer you on in your journey. Since I joined the Can*Con team, I made a ton of friends, and my enjoyment in the slow process of becoming an established writer has multiplied tenfold.
Poseidon’s Scribe: Thanks, Marco. My readers and I will watch your career with interest. Your early success seems well deserved.
Readers interested in following Marco Cultrera will have to do occasional internet searches for now. He’s spending his sparse free time writing fiction, not posting on social media or updating an author website.
Every time I turn around, more fascinating authors consent to be interviewed. Today I’m featuring another author from the anthology The Science Fiction Tarot.
Jacob Pérez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, but spent most of his young adult life in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up reading books and gaining an unhealthy knowledge of comics and movies. After graduating from college in 2008, he dedicated his continued education to caring for people. If he couldn’t have superpowers, nursing was the next best alternative.
He spends his time off writing about monsters, spaceships, robots, and the most bizarre creatures. He loves crossing genre boundaries and exploring the complexity of human nature. He now lives in Loomis, California, with his wife, three beautiful kids, and an indifferent cat named Zelda. He’s currently working on expanding his writing portfolio.
Let’s get to the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?
Jacob Pérez: I started my writing career back in 2009. I’d just graduated from college and was working through my nursing degree. My job, then, was an office assistant position that allowed for a lot of downtime. Around this time, I read Eric Van Lustbader’s The Ninja. It sparked something in me. After reading it, I discovered I wanted to write a novel I would enjoy throughout, as so many of my favorite books had done for me.
I’d always been an avid reader. For as long as I can remember, I would carry around a novel to read during my free time. So, writing was always in the back of my mind. But the reason I waited so long to write was due to a lack of confidence. Growing up in a predominately Spanish-speaking household, the idea of learning to write at a professional level felt like a daunting aspiration. But there I was, with the perfect job and that spark of inspiration to give me the push I needed to start writing.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
J.P.: I grew up on The Berenstain Bears and R.L. Stine as a child. They were my gateway into my obsession with reading. Unlike many classmates, I enjoyed our assigned book reading list. But my early influences were an eclectic group of writers: Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, Eric Van Lustbader, Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Frank Herbert, and Orson Scott Card, to name a few. I devoured their books and their series. Some of my favorites include The Last Stand, Hyperion, Dune, Frankenstein, and Ender’s Game. I didn’t gravitate toward one genre. I loved them all.
Since then, my taste in writing has expanded. I’ve found authors like Neil Gaiman, Kazuro Ishiguro, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, M. John Harrison, and Jennifer Egan, whose mastery of the English language is awe-inspiring. Picking my favorite story is hard, but if you twist my arm and force me to answer, M. John Harrison’s The Pastel City and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This is How You Lose the Time War (which I read before the recent tweet) are at the top of my all-time favorite novels.
P.S.: If you won a trip to the fictional world of another author, where would you go and what would you do there?
J.P.: I’ve always been fascinated by space exploration and the many forms executed in science fiction. That being said, I would love to be a crew member of the Wayfarer from Becky Chamber’s The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Who doesn’t want to travel on a spaceship with a multi-species crew while creating wormholes to connect distant trade routes?
P.S.: I understand your day job is a nurse. It seems you drew inspiration from that in your short stories “Coterie” and “Code Gray.” Do you plan to continue with medical-related stories, or go in different directions?
J.P.: My two short stories, “Coterie” and “Code Gray,” are a couple of the very first I ever wrote while under a mentorship about four years ago. As a new writer, it was only natural for me to draw inspiration from my day job. Key elements were already there. But as I develop as a writer, I want to step out of my comfort zone. I want to explore the potential that speculative fiction has to offer without overly relying on my day job. I’m sure another medical-related story will eventually want to be told. It’s been a lot of fun writing other stories for now.
P.S.: I gather from your Facebook page that you are (or were) a runner. Do you find yourself thinking about fiction story ideas as you run? If not, when do you get your best ideas?
J.P.: I used to run until I tore my meniscus a few years back. Until that happened, running was a great time for me to develop my stories. Now, I’m juggling toddlers, work, and friends. And while I try to think about my writing constantly, my best ideas appear at night. My phone’s notes are riddled with ideas, phrases, and concepts that pop into my head late at night. It would seem my muse likes to come knocking in that period of half-sleep while I’m trying to turn in.
P.S.: Your bio mentions monsters, spaceships, robots, and bizarre creatures. How did you become interested in writing science fiction?
J.P.: As mentioned above, I became interested in science fiction from my insatiable love of reading. It also stems from my obsession with movies and comic books. My father exposed me to movies like Star Wars, Robocop, Aliens, and Terminator when I was very young. He also introduced me to comic books and their fantastical stories that spanned from Earth to the far-reaching edges of space. I’d like to believe that movie ratings were lost in translation at my household. But in reality, I believe my father just wanted to share his love of science fiction, and ratings be damned.
P.S.: In The Science Fiction Tarotanthology, your story “The Bridge” earns a tarot card labeled “Virtual Reality.” Can you tell us the premise for the settings in the story?
J.P.: My story, “The Bridge,” is set hundreds of years in the future, after humanity flees a dying Earth. An immersive virtual reality program has been developed to alleviate the physiological stressors of prolonged space travel. My main character is a companionship entity within this virtual reality program whose human girlfriend is on the verge of ending their relationship. When I wrote this story, I wanted to explore what would happen if such a character developed real human emotions, but those feelings contradicted its core programming. It also delves into the creator’s motive in creating the program, her legacy, and how it affects the story’s characters. As our technology increases and the debates on AI intensify, the idea that a programmable entity could have feelings is not far-fetched.
P.S.: It appears some of your Puerto Rican background worked its way into your story “The Bridge.” Did your memories of PR make the story easier to write?
J.P.: Yes, this is a perfect example of writing what I know. I love Puerto Rico. I love the rich culture of my people, our traditions, and the way we place a high level of importance on family and family honor. While I’ve never been to that particular observatory in Puerto Rico, I drew sensory descriptions and settings from personal experience. It’s definitely a setting I will use again in future stories.
P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?
J.P.: There’s an easy aspect to writing? Tell me, please! All kidding aside, the easiest part for me is creating wonderful stories using my words. I love coming up with exciting plots and memorable characters. It’s very rewarding. What I’ve found the hardest is balancing my other obligations in life and finding time to write. Like many writers, I don’t have the luxury of making a living from writing. At least not yet. So family and work come first in my life.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
J.P.: My current work in progress is a Writers of the Future entry. My main character travels via quantum teleportation for the first time and discovers the multiverse. Suddenly, he has the opportunity to find a universe where his wife doesn’t die in a car accident. But chaos ensues when his jumps have unforeseen consequences. It’s a fun story and a little different from the emotionally complex stories I’ve written in the past. The balance in humor, plot, and character development has been a challenge, but it has a lot of potential to make for a great story.
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Jacob Pérez: Now, that’s a loaded question. There is so much great advice out there, made by people far more talented and experienced than me. But the one that I live by is one a mentor gave me. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. We all want to be great writers and publish our stories for the world to read. In our enthusiasm, we forget that it takes time to master any craft. Everyone’s writing experience is different. I’m guilty of comparing myself to others. But it does you a disservice to rush the process. So many factors affect a writer’s journey, and every journey is unique. So, keep your head down, read, write, learn, and figure out what you want to say with your voice. Let that unquenchable need to write and tell stories fill you with perseverance. Because writing is hard, but if that’s what you love and want to do it right, the journey is worth it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In my last post, I hinted I would interview authors whose stories also appear in The Science Fiction Tarot.
Today, I’m pleased to present the first of these interviews.
Karl Dandenell is a first-generation Swedish American, graduate of Viable Paradise XVI, and Full Member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. He lives on an island near San Francisco famous for its Victorian architecture with his family and cat overlords. He is fond of strong tea and distilled spirits.
On with the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?
Karl Dandenell: I remember writing basic stories in grade school, and moved on to SF around middle school. (Yes, I did my own version of Star Trek fanfic.)
My school had several excellent reading programs that allowed you to get extra breaks from class if you committed to read (X) number of pages per month/semester. I might be conflating here, but I recall that in 6th grade the class (or at least the advanced readers) was put on a bus to a book fair in nearby Santa Barbara. One of the authors presenting was Beverly Cleary, and The Mouse and the Motorcycle was one of my favorites. Meeting her was a major event in my life.
As to why I began writing… I think I always wanted to be a storyteller. At least, I wanted people to pay attention to me. Writing seemed a better route than sports. (For the record, I also dabbled in theatre.)
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
K.D.: I read pretty much everything in the local library SF/F section, which didn’t take long. When I started using my Christmas money at the bookstore, I gravitated toward folks like Zelazny, Le Guin, Patricia McKillip, and Jack Vance (all exceptional prose stylists). For Big Idea stories, I’m a big fan of Greg Bear, Larry Niven, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Nancy Kress.
Favorite books: wow, another hard one. Like many writers, there are books that I go back to again and again, the ones that have survived multiple relationships and house moves. There are also books that come into your life at a critical moment and smack you upside the head. A short list would have to include Lord of Light, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, The Wine of Violence, Emerald Eyes, and In the Garden of Iden.
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.D.: I write a lot of small cast stories; sometimes it’s just two (main) characters dealing with story’s conflict. My narrators tend to be solitary, or perhaps quiet outsiders. It’s hard for me to write someone like Shakespeare’s John Falstaff. My settings are all over the place. They will, however, always feature food and drink as part of the action. I suspect that started because I would write early in the morning or late at night, especially in grad school, so when I was hungry, my characters tended to eat. So it became a habit.
P.S.: You seem to favor the short story form. Why?
K.D.: Ironically, I find it easier, even though every novelist I know says the short form is harder. For me, the creation of an entire novel is a huge commitment not only to the world but the people, the characters. You’ve got to hang out with these folks for at least a year, and that’s only the draft! With revisions, submissions, re-revisions, etc., you’re looking at multi-year project.
Don’t get me wrong. I love novels. I love a good series. If I ever find myself truly passionate about a theme and cast some engaging characters, I will wade right in. For now, I like to sprint, or at least jog, to the ending. Rejections come a lot faster too, although I’m not sure that’s better. Writers have to develop a thick skin.
P.S.: Your blog has an intriguing title: “Beware of Fire Wombats.” There’s got to be a story behind that. What is it?
K.D.: Oh, yes! You can blame Scott Lynch, an amazing fantasy writer and all-around clever fellow. He was a guest lecturer during my week at Viable Paradise. He was talking about worldbuilding and there was a little digression about the Epic Creation Myth that some writers permit themselves. He tossed out an example of some Ancient War Between Great Powers, like dragons versus fire wombats. Whatever. I loved the image and immediately grabbed that domain (firewombats.com) for my new blog. It’s sort of an unofficial mascot for the VP 16 class.
P.S.: For readers unfamiliar with Viable Paradise, please describe it, and let us know what it was like for you.
K.D.: Viable Paradise bills itself as “a science fiction and fantasy writer’s workshop.” On its most basic level, that’s true, though a better definition might be “genre writers’ grown-up summer camp.” Every year (except during the serious COVID lockdown), twenty-four students and a dozen instructors and “house elves” gather in a hotel on Martha’s Vineyard. In October. It’s off-season, and the hotel is pretty empty. The weather can be lovely, or cold and wet. Not that you see much of the outdoors (at least I didn’t). For five intense days (plus the arrival/departure day), you read, critique, attend lectures, and write. There are also other delightful and challenging diversions that I cannot describe because of the code of secrecy.
What I got during that week was a huge reboot to my writing approach. While I’d had a few professional sales before VP, I lacked a clear understanding of the larger genre writing community and the potential pitfalls of the artistic life. Or the joys, to be honest. Writing is a solitary business, and attending VP introduced me to amazing people, both faculty and students. They were a new tribe, a found family, or perhaps an island of misfit toys. I made some very important friendships, and they have been maintained thanks to the internet and other writing events, like conventions. I honestly think if I hadn’t attended VP I would have struggled for a decade or two to figure out what I wanted.
P.S.: Tell us about your short story, “The Schadenfreuders,” which appears in The Science Fiction Tarot. Something about aliens with strange eating habits, I’ve heard.
K.D.: That was a tough story. I did the initial drafts at a weekend writing workshop in San Antonio but it changed a lot since then. (And was rejected by plenty of markets, honestly.) My idea was to play around with the “alien invasion” trope. I wanted to make it funny, in a dry manner, like classic British humor. What if the aliens came here not because they wanted to enslave us or steal our women, but to eatus? Specifically, they want to eat our suffering. It’s a treat for them. And what if the aliens were just as obnoxious about their gourmet experiences as humans? Well, they’d need someone to act as their intermediary, which gave me my narrator, a poor schmuck of an attorney just trying to make an honest buck. Things don’t go quite the way you’d think.
P.S.: Tell us about your short story, “Supply and Demand Among the Sidhe,” which appears in Strange Economics. Did I hear right? Leprechaun mafia?
K.D.: The title comes from one of my beta readers and her lecture on economic underpinnings in fiction. The working title was “Changeling” since the plot revolved how leprechauns made some extra coin by selling human babies and replacing them with changelings. Eventually, I abandoned that idea and kept the characters, whom I really loved. The story explores the underbelly of capitalism in the land of fae. Specifically, it’s an oligarchy, with all the money flowing upward to Queen Titania. To make any kind of a decent living, all the enchanted creatures had their side gigs. That evolved into organized crime and illicit trade with humans because why not? The main conflict involves a currency shortage, and the queen isn’t putting up with that. Our enterprising leprechaun MC has to ally himself with goblins and sabotage his political rivals (the dwarves) in order to come through the crisis with his skin and bank account intact. It’s very tongue-in-cheek.
P.S.: It seemed you waxed Shakespearean in your tale “Sullied Flesh,” which appears in Speculative North. Tell us about that one.
K.D.: Every writer with an English degree feels the need to do a riff on Shakespeare. The Bard stole from everyone, and I returned the favor. (Full disclosure: I acted a tiny bit in college.) I wanted to use my theatre experience to inform a near-future SF story that is going to be fact sooner rather than later. When I first conceived the plot, it leaned heavily into cyberpunk: what if we would only hire actors to be puppets for famous performances? And what if there were an actor who wanted to prove that he could do Hamlet just like Richard Burton without the brain hardware? That gave me my main character and my conflict.
Some trivia: Hamlet is the most off-quoted Shakespeare play. For my part, I have a wrought iron sculpture in my entryway that spells out, “To thine own self be true.”
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
K.D.: I have a lot of WIP stories. It’s a condition. My most recent draft was something I put together during the Nebula Awards conference. It’s a very short piece of secondary world fantasy. In broad strokes, it’s a slightly different POV on the traditional knight vs. dragon trope. Everyone wants to be a hero, but not everyone is cut out for the life.
P.S.: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
K.D.: Write. Read. Read widely and weirdly. Don’t feel boxed in by classic literature: Shakespeare and Milton and Chaucer are great but they may not call to you. Look to untraditional voices (i.e., woman and writers of color). Travel when you can afford it. Try to make friends with other writers so you can share each other’s pain and celebrate triumphs. Be wary of friends who give you feedback but don’t really say anything. (The same rule applies to family and partners.) Pace yourself: this is a marathon, not a sprint.
And never, ever ignore the Muse. She’s fickle, and appears at the oddest times. If you feel compelled to write something that wasn’t in your plans, then WRITE THE THING. You can always edit later.
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?
K.D.: Similar to what I mentioned above for aspiring writers. For me, I might add that attending an expensive MFA program is more beneficial to job hunting than actual writing. I’d also tell myself to swallow my discomfort, go to those early SF cons, and ask questions. Writers generally love to talk about their work. You can learn a lot more from them than you can from any course.
P.S.: Tell us a little bit about your most recently published story/book.
K.D.: The Science Fiction Tarot! This was my 4th publication associated with the lovely folks in Toronto. (I previously appeared in their “Strange” series: Strange Economics, Strange Wars, and Strange Religion.)
I was attracted to the project’s concept: creating a literary “tarot deck” anthology in which the Major Arcana of the Tarot would represent many of the classic SF tropes (e.g., time travel). As part of the project, the editor planned to commission new artwork for each story. That’s always fun (and pretty rare, unfortunately). It was also a Kickstarter project, which I love to support.
My story, “Schadenfreuders” had been rejected over 40 times before finding a home with TSFT. When the editor reached out, I knew that my story about weird gourmet aliens might be a good match. And it was! At the time I’m writing this, the anthology has only been out in the world a few weeks. I’ve read a few stories and look forward to the rest. And hey, you can get your very copy in gorgeous paper or e-format. Just saying.
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.D.: My first impulse is to name one of the big fantasy realms, but I don’t think that would be much of a vacation. I like indoor plumbing. If I were to stretch the definition of “fictional” to include “imagined future,” then I would love to go to the Mars created by Kim Stanley Robinson, specifically Blue Mars. There would be so much territory to explore.
P.S.: 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?
K.D.: “I write short fiction, primarily fantasy and speculative fiction. My spec fiction doesn’t require math to appreciate it, and my characters are occasionally snarky.”
Poseidon’s Scribe.: What non-writing hobby or interest do you have? Does it complement your writing or is it a relief from writing?
Karl Dandenell: Does reading count as a hobby? If it does, then it’s both a relief and a complement.
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—
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.
