Read more at The Millions.

Full coverage, including a list of all winners, will appear on the SFWA blog this Saturday.

Stina Leicht’s debut novel, Of Blood and Honey, published by Night Shade Books,  was shortlisted for the Crawford Award and has garnered Leicht a spot on the Campbell award ballot this year. The sequel, Blue Skies from Pain, appeared this year. Leicht is currently working on her next book.

You’ve talked about Of Blood and Honey originating in a conversation about cultural appropriation and whether or not Celtic mythology had been strip-mined to the point where it was longer a useful source for story-telling. What conclusions have you come to about that, now that you’ve written a book set in Northern Ireland that draws on Celtic mythology?

By using the original myths and setting them in Ireland, I like to think I was following the example of W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory in my own way. From the beginning it was important for the story to be an Irish one, not an American one. American culture is not Irish culture. That is why Liam isn’t self-actualized and independent from the start. It’s why Kathleen, his mother, is the person she is. The concept that one is 100% in charge of one’s destiny is an American trope. (Fionn mac Cumhaill and Cúchuilann both were pushed around by forces more powerful than they were.)

The absolute necessity of a happy ending is another Americanism. So, while I understand why some readers were frustrated with those aspects of the story, I wouldn’t change them even if I could because I feel Americans should be open to other points of view — or at the very least, exposed to them.

Mind you, I do feel there’s a place for taking a myth and creating totally new things from it. However, fantasy writers owe their source material and source cultures a certain amount of respect. We need to do our homework — much the same as any sci-fi writer would do when writing about technology.

Catholicism is also (understandably) a strong influence in the book, and you’ve actually got a Catholic Church that’s confused about the difference between fairies and demons. How much did your own Catholic upbringing play in that configuration?

A great deal of it. Of course, I also pulled from other experiences with Christianity. While in college I investigated a whole host of denominations before I decided Christianity wasn’t for me. The man I was seeing at the time was a staunch Southern Baptist. The experience of attending a Baptist Church and being treated as if I’d never heard of Jesus Christ was an eye-opener. It didn’t matter how often I told them otherwise. It didn’t even matter that I’d read the bible cover to cover *twice.* I was treated as if I were some form of ignorant alien who hadn’t just spent her entire life in a Christian-oriented culture. All because I was Catholic.

Funny thing is, the Baptists weren’t the only ones. The Church of Christ was equally as stubbornly ignorant about Catholicism. And these are denominations of the same religion! They (including the Catholic Church) all believe (quite firmly) not only that theirs is the only legitimate individual brand of religion that is going to heaven — they also believe that no other deity system exits. Period. (Even though the ten commandments state “I am the Lord Thy God, thou shalt not worship any Gods before me.” Logically, being ordered to chose over others, implies that others must exist.) Christianity only acknowledges the preternatural world, as valid in terms of Christianity. I understand that is portrayed differently within fantasy fiction these days, but that is not the reality, and I was playing under reality’s rules.

Frankly, Irish culture gave me the initial idea. During my studies, I was left with the impression that the old ways weren’t entirely snuffed out there — mostly, but not entirely. The old traditions exist right alongside of the Christian ones. If you’ve ever seen Dancing at Lughnasa or The Secret of Roan Innish, you’ll know what I mean. Dancing at Lughnasa is a play set in the 1930s and the sisters set out offerings for the fey. They also discuss Beltane fires. (I seem to recall.) The priest hates these practices and berates them for it, but it doesn’t stop them.

The grandmother in The Secret of Roan Innish calls upon Brid and draws protective symbols in the hearth fire as she banks the coals before bed. She might call Brid a saint, but the symbols she’s drawing are not Catholic or even Christian ones. This film is set in the 1940s, not in the 1100s. These aren’t quaint traditions. They’re very real and living beliefs. I wanted to reflect that in the books. So, all belief systems carry equal weight in my novels. All are equally as valid and real. The Catholic Church doesn’t agree because it flat out doesn’t. In fact, they’ve categorized fairies as fallen angels. I didn’t make that up.

Any plans for something set in your home state of Texas anytime soon?

I’ve a short story called “Glass Coffin” that is set in Austin. (It’s up at RevolutionSF.) Other than that… well… I don’t know. We’ll see. Nothing straight away, mind you. But we’ll see.

You’ve mentioned traveling to conventions as one of your favorite things about being a writer. What are other favorite aspects – and what’s your least favorite?

Making up stories and getting paid for it? Fan-freaking-tastic. Really. That’s the best thing EVER. I’ve adored books since I was seven and had finally understood why I should go through the struggle of learning to read. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was twelve. Meeting authors whose works I’ve long admired is just… damned cool too. (Oops. Don’t look, y’all. The fangirl just busted out of the closet.) The privilege of meeting and talking with people from other cultures is simply amazing as well.

The not so amazing stuff? Well, the pay sucks, and the hours are long. The constant demands of social media get in the way, but the worst aspect of writing is that ugly voice in the back of your head that tells you you suck. Someone should figure out how to surgically remove that bastard

You work with the writers workshop at ArmadilloCon. How important do you think workshops like that are to upcoming speculative fiction writers? What about conventions – are they something newer writers should be seeking out or avoiding – and why?

First, if anyone tells you there are short cuts, they’re lying and/or selling something. Good writing is the result of hard work, and if that’s your goal, you’re in for the long haul.

I’m a big believer in writer’s workshops. They might not be for everyone long term, but they are something every would-be writer should experience. Writers need outside feedback, particularly at the start. Good workshops teach you how to constructively critique other writer’s work in addition to your own. This is important because you can’t learn from what you read (and real writers are readers) without the ability to understand what works, why it works, and why certain aspects of writing are valued — not just why it doesn’t work for you. Good workshops also teach you how to listen to and accept criticism. Human beings learn most thoroughly via trial and error. Mistakes are a writer’s best friend. You can’t learn from your mistakes if you hide from them. Perfection isn’t an option.

On the other hand, great workshops teach you how to discern the difference between necessary, helpful feedback and… well… bullshit. In addition, workshops help you to develop a thick skin, and you’re so going to need one as a writer. Not everyone who talks about your writing is going to enjoy it, even if your work is great. There are a number of terrific workshops out there for new SFF writers: Clarion, Odyssey, and Viable Paradise are the main three that come to mind. However, those are several weeks long programs and the cost is quite high.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that writers should get paid for their work. Period. However, my feeling is that the expense and time required can be a barrier to new voices from less affluent communities. If SFF is to survive, it needs to be more inclusive. Armadillocon Writer’s Workshop is not intended to compete with longer, more extensive programs. (It’s one day only, costs $75, and is volunteer run.) However, it is intended to provide opportunity and access to education for those who can’t afford the cost or the time off from their jobs.

Conventions are important because writers need other writers. It’s very difficult to learn while writing in isolation. At conventions, beginning writers get the opportunity to meet and form writer groups with writers at their own level. Above all, exposure to industry professionals and knowledge of how the industry is actually run (as opposed to the myth of how it is run) is extremely important for anyone who is serious about writing. Last, there are the contacts one can make. If you meet an editor or agent at a convention, when you later send them a query they will have a face to go with your name. It’s one of the best ways to hit the top of the slush pile — particularly if you made a positive impression.

SF Reviews said you’d inadvertently created a new genre, “the incidental fantasy.” Do you agree or do you think other writers have been staking out that terrain already? 

While I do think I did blaze a new trail in certain respects, I don’t think I did so in that one. There’s this whole genre called ‘magical realism,’ and it’s existed for quite some time. It’s a non-western concept, and relatively new to the U.S., but it’s definitely been done before.

Who are the writers that have influenced you? Is there anyone you’d particularly love to read with someday?

Stephen King, Peter Straub, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Holly Black, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rafael Sabatini, Shirley Jackson, Adrian McKinty, are all influences. There are probably many more, but those are the ones I fixated on at various times. I’d be thrilled to death to be able to read with any of the above. (Except for the dead authors, naturally. That’d be more than a bit scary.) Also, anyone from the Borderland crew. (And now you know why I was so nervous at Armadillocon last year.)

Of Blood and Honey’s met with some great success, including being short-listed for the William S. Crawford award. Was that surprising to you, or did you expect it all along?

Surprising, absolutely! I thought it’d take some time before anyone noticed anything I did. Of course, I’d hoped otherwise, everyone does, but honestly, I knew I was writing for a niche audience. What’s really funny is, I had no idea what I’d done would be considered literary at all — not until my agent said so.

What are you working on right now, and where can readers find more of your writing?

I’m working on a YA novel right now. I hesitate to say too much about it. My hind brain tends to think that if I talk about a project a lot, it’s done. However, I’ll say it’s a secondary world fantasy set in the late 1700s with different races, war, politics, and magic. One of the main characters is a prince named Nels. His people are very magically-oriented. People without magic are looked upon as less than animals in his country. As it turns out, Nels was born without magic and copes by faking it through slight of hand and other tricks. I’ll leave it at that. I’m a good way into the manuscript and will turn it in soon.

There’s not a lot of my work out there, I’m afraid, but I do have the short story available on the RevolutionSF site as well as a flash fiction sci-fi piece in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s Last Drink Bird Head.

Find Cat Rambo’s fiction, which includes over a hundred published stories, at her website. She teaches at Bellevue College as well as via online workshops and serves as a volunteer with Clarion West. Her most recent publication is her short story collection for Kindle and other e-readers. She is the editor GoH at MidSouthCon this March.

Best Novel – English

Enter Night by Michael Rowe, ChiZine Publications

Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism by David Nickle, ChiZine Publications

Napier’s Bones by Derryl Murphy, ChiZine Publications

The Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet, ChiZine Publications

Technicolor Ultra Mall by Ryan Oakley, EDGE

Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer, Penguin Canada

Best Short Fiction – English

“The Legend of Gluck” by Marie Bilodeau, When the Hero Comes Home, Dragon Moon Press

“The Needle’s Eye” by Suzanne Church, Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd Did I Live, EDGE

“One Horrible Day” by Randy McCharles, The 2nd Circle, The 10th Circle Project

“Turning It Off” by Susan Forest, Analog, December

“To Live and Die in Gibbontown” by Derek Künsken, Asimov’s, October/November

Best Poem / Song – English

“A Good Catch” by Colleen Anderson, Polu Texni, April

“Ode to the Mongolian Death Worm” by Sandra Kasturi, ChiZine, Supergod Mega-Issue, Volume 47

“Skeleton Leaves” by Helen Marshall, Kelp Queen Press

““Skeleton Woman”” by Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps, Fairytale, CD

“Zombie Bees of Winnipeg” by Carolyn Clink, ChiZine, Supergod Mega-Issue, Volume 47

Best Graphic Novel – English

Goblins, webcomic, created by Tarol Hunt

Imagination Manifesto, Book 2 by GMB Chomichuk, James Rewucki and John Toone, Alchemical Press

Weregeek, webcomic, created by Alina Pete

Best Related Work – English

Fairytale, CD by Heather Dale, HeatherDale.com

The First Circle: Volume One of the Tenth Circle Project, edited by Eileen Bell and Ryan McFadden

Neo-Opsis, edited by Karl Johanson

On Spec, published by the Copper Pig Writers’ Society

Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales, edited by Julie Czerneda and Susan MacGregor, EDGE

Best Artist (Professional and Amateur Nominations)

(An example of each artist’s work is listed below but they are to be judged on the body of work they have produced in the award year)

Janice Blaine, “Cat in Space”, Cover art for Neo-Opsis, Issue 20

Costi Gurgu, cover art for Outer Diverse, Starfire

Erik Mohr, cover art for ChiZine Publications

Dan O’Driscoll, “Deep Blue Seven”, cover art for On Spec magazine, Summer issue

Martin Springett, Interior art for The Pattern Scars, ChiZine

Fan/Volunteer Award Nominations

Best Fan Publication

BCSFAzine, edited by Felicity Walker

Bourbon and Eggnog by Eileen Bell, Ryan McFadden, Billie Milholland and Randy McCharles, 10th Circle Project

In Places Between: The Robin Herrington Memorial Short Story Contest book,edited by Reneé Bennett

Sol Rising newsmagazine, edited by Michael Matheson

Space Cadet, edited by R. Graeme Cameron

Best Fan Filk

Stone Dragons (Tom and Sue Jeffers), concert at FilKONtario

Phil Mills, Body of Song-Writing Work including FAWM and 50/90

Cindy Turner, Interfilk concert at OVFF

Best Fan Organization

Andrew Gurudata, chair of the Constellation Awards committee

Peter Halasz, administrator of the Sunburst Awards

Helen Marshall and Sandra Kasturi, chairs of the Chiaroscuro Reading Series (Toronto)

Randy McCharles, founder and chair of When Words Collide (Calgary)

Alex von Thorn, chair of SFContario 2 (Toronto)

Rose Wilson, for organizing the Art Show at V-Con (Vancouver)

Best Fan Other

Lloyd Penney, letters of comment

Peter Watts, “Reality: The Ultimate Mythology” lecture, Toronto SpecFic Colloquium

Taral Wayne, Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards art

All works and activities were completed in 2011 by Canadians. Voting will begin on April 16, 2012. All ballots must be received by July 23, 2012, 11:59pm PDT.  For more information visit The Prix Aurora website.

. . . I finish a whole manuscript.

. . . I learn how to rewrite that whole manuscript.

. . . I get five/ten/fifteen/one hundred/etc rejection letters from real-life agents.

. . . I knuckle down and rewrite the book again. And again. And again. Etc.

. . . I get a request for the whole manuscript from a real-life agent.

. . . I get an agent.

. . . I get five rejections from publishers.

. . . I get ten rejections from publishers. (Would you believe twenty rejections? How about thirty? One hundred? One thousand? One million?)

. . . I start writing my second/third/fourth/fifth/etc book despite the fact that the first/second/third/fourth etc book hasn’t sold yet.

. . . I get an offer from a publisher.

. . . the deal is announced in Publishers Lunch.

. . . I get my first real editorial letter.

. . . I have my first hissy fit about my first editorial letter.

. . . I knuckle down and rewrite the book.

. . . I get my second real editorial letter.

. . . I have my second hissy fit about my second editorial letter.

. . . I knuckle down and rewrite the book. Again.

. . . (And repeat. Or not. Depending.)

. . . I get my first copyedit.

. . . I have my first hissy hit about my first copyedit. (Only robots speak without contractions! “Me and LJ” is how my character would say it NOT “LJ and I” because my character is not the FREAKING QUEEN OF FREAKING ENGLAND!)

. . . I get my first ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) of my very own book with my name on the front and EVERYTHING. Oh my Elvis! It’s real, people. Book by me! *faints*

. . . I get my first page proofs and am overwhelmed by the urge to completely rewrite everything and make the book, you know, ACTUALLY GOOD!! (Also notice that I use the word “actually” way too much and that is BY NO MEANS the only word I use WAY TOO MUCH. Wonder if I have also overused CAPS and italics and exclamation marks!!! Consider getting publisher to cancel book. Actually.)

. . . I get my first good review.

. . . I get my first bad review.

. . . I get my first meh review.

. . . I am enraged by an eleven year old who enjoyed my book but wished it was as good as [redacted]‘s bestselling piece of [redacted] about [redacted].

. . . I get my first box full of my own finished actually TRULY REALLY book what I have written MYSELF!!!

. . . I open said book on a page with a typo of “actualy” and the CAPS and italics in the wrong places.

. . . I realise that it is the last book in the entire world I wish to read.

. . . I go to my local bookshop and there is my book in a real actual book shop.

. . . I get a query from my publisher wondering where my next book is.

. . . I miss a deadline.

. . . I miss two/three/four/five/etc deadlines.

. . . I get my first query from Hollywood which goes nowhere.

. . . I am sent on tour to promote my book.

. . . I bitch and moan about being sent on tour to promote my book.

. . . I am not sent on tour.

. . . I bitch and moan about not being sent on tour to promote my book.

. . . I get my very first fan letter. Someone read and enjoyed my book enough to write to me! Best. Day. Ever.

. . . the fan letters I get make me cry because they are so moving.

. . . the fan letters I get make me cry because they are so illiterate.

. . . I get more fan letters than I could ever possibly answer.

. . . I become a New York Times bestseller.

. . . I am disappointed when my next book only reaches no. 8 on the New York Times bestseller list.

. . . I am not a New York Times bestseller.

. . . I think about killing those entitled bastards who whinge about their books only getting to no. 8 on the New York Times bestseller list.

. . . I quit my dayjob.

. . . I can live off my advances.

. . . I can live off my royalties and don’t have to sell books on proposal anymore.

. . . I have to live in a garret and eat ramen in order to keep writing.

. . . all my friends are writers.

. . . I don’t have to hang out with writers anymore.

. . . I win the Nobel Prize.

. . . I do an event and half the crowd is dressed up as characters from my books.

. . . one of my books is optioned to be made into a movie.

. . . my book becomes a movie.

. . . my book is made into a movie and I get to complain about how Hollywood destroyed it.

. . . my book is made into a movie and I get to go to all the Hollywood parties for it and stand in the corner because no one’s interested in talking to a writer. Even a nobel-prize winning New York Times bestseller who can live off their own royalties.

. . . all my books are optioned to be made into movies.

. . . all my books are made into movies.

. . . my first book is remaindered.

. . . all my books except the most recent are remaindered.

. . . I fire my first agent.

. . . I move to a different publisher.

. . . even people who don’t read know my name.

. . . only people who read my genre know my name.

. . . only some of the people who read my genre know my name.

. . . I have to change my name and genre in order to keep being published.

. . . I write a book that I am truly happy with.

•••

Justine Larbalestier is an author and editor. Her novels include Liar,  Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons, and Magic’s Child. Her next book, Team Human, was co-written with Sarah Rees Brennan, and will be published in July 2012. She lives in Sydney and sometimes New York City. For more information, visit her blog, where this post first appeared.

The nominees are:

Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three (Gollancz)
Drew Magary, The End Specialist (Harper Voyager)
China Miéville, Embassytown (Macmillan)
Jane Rogers, The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
Charles Stross, Rule 34 (Orbit)
Sheri S.Tepper, The Waters Rising (Gollancz)

Award Director Tom Hunter said:

“Every year the judges for the Clarke Award are tasked first to make their definition of science fiction, and then to define those books they think best showcase the genre. The task of turning sixty books into a shortlist of just six is no simple task, and I hope science fiction readers everywhere will appreciate both the challenge of making the selection and also the challenge any shortlist can make to our preconceived notions of the SF genre having any one simple definition.

“The Clarke Award shortlist this year is, in my opinion, a greatly exciting selection, and one that follows behind two equally exciting prizes I always watch with great interest; the British Science Fiction Association Awards and the Kitschies. Three genre prizes with different backgrounds and different approaches, but when read together can offer a deeply encouraging indication of both the strength and breadth of science fiction literature today.”

The winner will be announced on Wednesday May 2nd. The winner will receive a cheque for £2012.00 and a commemorative engraved bookend.

Jason Heller is the nonfiction editor of Clarkesworld Magazine. His nonfiction has  appeared in The A.V. Club, where he’s a regular contributor, as well as Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Tor.com. His debut novel, Taft 2012, was published in January by Quirk Books; it will be followed later this year by the first book in a middle-grade horror series (to be announced). He’s also the author of The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook, and his short stories have appeared in Apex Magazine, Sybil’s Garage, Brain Harvest, Polluto, M-Brane SF, and many others.

Writing about Taft was not your idea, but Stephen Segal’s. What anxieties did you have about writing a first novel based on someone else’s idea?

There were definitely some worries on my part, but they were far outweighed by the positives. Stephen, then an editor for Quirk, approached me his concept for Taft 2012 after I’d written The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook for him (and before that, done some nonfiction for him at Weird Tales). Captain Jack taught me a couple encouraging things: A) that working with someone else’s idea and/or an established property could still be an opportunity to be creative, and B) that Stephen and I had great synergy, work-wise.

As reassuring as those things were, my first reaction was to turn the project down. I’d already been working on an original, dark science-fantasy novel of my own, one couldn’t be more different than Taft 2012, and I was concerned that I might be giving the world the wrong first impression about my identity as an author.

At the same time, I feel I’m pretty versatile as a writer—and in fact, unknown to Stephen at the time, I’d previously written a couple of lighter, somewhat satirical speculative-fiction stories involving contemporary electoral politics and the presidency. Taft 2012 wasn’t outside my wheelhouse, just over in a far corner of it. Of course, I was also thrilled by this unique opportunity; in essence I was given on-the-job training while completing my debut novel.

My biggest worry, though, was the most obvious one: That I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a novelist since the original idea for my debut wasn’t mine. But as the project evolved, and I began to expand Stephen’s core concept into so many different dimensions, I felt a lot more comfortable owning Taft 2012. Still, if it had been up to me, Stephen’s name would have been on the front cover along with mine. He’s a brilliant guy, and I can’t thank him enough.

What did Stephen end up thinking of the book?

Oh my god, I can only hope he likes it… I mean, he says he does, so I have to take his word for it!

I felt a great obligation to make Taft 2012 live up to the spirit of his vision. I mean, this isn’t Crime and Punishment here, but there’s no denying how clever and savvy an idea Taft 2012 is (and I say that with all due credit aimed at Stephen). Fleshing out his page-long proposal into a 260-page book wasn’t easy—and I can’t stress enough how vital and extensive Stephen’s input was throughout the entire process—but I think he’s proud of this weird little book.

In writing Taft 2012, you researched Taft era politics – what similarities did you notice to our own political scene?

The parallels are downright eerie. Ideological tensions within the GOP. Battles over taxes (Taft was in office when the 16th Amendment establishing the federal income tax was ratified). Fears about corporate influence over the political process. Preservation of the environment versus the interests of commerce. Race relations. The pros and cons of regulation. How active a role the U.S. should take in world affairs. These were all dominant issues during Taft’s time, as they are today.

The more I researched, the more it seemed that Taft was going to find 2012 to be very similar to 1912—even as he obviously was going to struggle in the attempt to adjust to all the radical changes that have occurred over the last century. In the book, I was definitely trying to make a subtle point about things changing, things staying the same, and whether we as a society are perceptive enough to realize that our problems are not in any way new.

That said, we’re talking satire here, so I wanted to make sure this was all done with a wink and a poke. Believe it or not, I’m actually more optimistic about the American political system after writing Taft 2012 than I was beforehand.

How worried were you about the 2012 election season proceeding in a way that would somehow make the book less pertinent to today’s politics?

That was a huge concern. I wrote the book between the summers of 2010 and 2011, yet the bulk of the story takes place in late 2011 and 2012. I decided to make the story, well, fuzzy in certain ways in order to avoid the glaring omissions that were sure to pop up in the real-world 2012 race.

For instance, in the book, Taft doesn’t name any of his competitors in the presidential race—after all, in the summer of 2011, I had no way of knowing exactly who would be in the race by the time 2012 rolled around. Besides President Obama, of course.

But even then, it would have been lopsided if Taft constantly mentioned Obama by name without mentioning the GOP candidates by name. In a sense, I’m glad this limitation popped up. It gave me the chance to be little less of a political wonk, which I think would have made Taft 2012 a less fun read, and turn the book into more of a character-driven romp.

Are there other historical figures that may pop up in your forthcoming fiction?

Hell no! As proud as I am of Taft 2012, my natural inclination has always been toward secondary-world fantasy (and science-fantasy). I love worldbuilding. I love using symbolic and metaphorical social constructions to exaggerate and concentrate the issues we deal with in the real world. I love being able to craft a setting from scratch—and then use that setting to be simultaneously escapist and relevant to the here and now.

More importantly, though, I hate having to stick to the facts. When you build your own world, you play by your own rules. Granted, you have to maintain an internal logic and continuity in a world of your own device. Actually, screw that, you don’t really have to do that either! If my hero Michael Moorcock can break that rule, maybe there’s a slim chance my barely talented ass can get away with it too.

If not, I’ll have a fun time failing in the attempt. But no, no more alternate history for me. That is, unless another great editor happens to approach me with a particularly promising idea…

The book’s made up of a combination of documents, including the Twitter stream of a Taft still mastering the 140 character limits, Craiglist discussions of Taft spottings, Secret Service Incidence Reports as they accompany their assignment “Big Boy,” and Fox News polls. What were the hardest to write?

The hardest were probably the transcripts of the Department of Home Security surveillance footage. More specifically, the covert recording of the men using the public urinals at one of Taft’s major campaign events. And it was difficult mostly because I was really cracking myself up while writing them.

Who are the fiction writers who influenced you and helped shape Taft?

When it comes to the darker speculative fiction that I write, my influences are more along the lines of J. G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, and M. John Harrison. Of course, those authors had zero influence whatsoever on Taft 2012.

Honestly, I’m not sure where all this goofy stuff came from. Certainly I grew up reading satirists like Joseph Heller (no relation), Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut, although I have to admit I haven’t read any of those authors in ages (Taft does get a mention in Bluebeard, however, if I remember correctly).

Maybe the one writer that ties everything together is Douglas Adams, whose sense of the morbid and absurd played irreparable havoc with my 13-year brain.

Does Taft have an accompanying music playlist/Taft mixtape?

I’m a huge music fan, and I usually do make playlists for pieces of fiction I’m writing. (In fact, in one of my earlier presidential-SF stories, a disgraced, fictional former president in the future joins the teenage punk-rock band that practices in her basement.)

With Taft 2012, though, it was hard to think along those lines. I love music of all genres and eras, but the popular music of Taft’s time goes beyond even my wide threshold. Ragtime was huge.

But the commerce and culture of recorded music didn’t operate the same way then as it does today; songs were more famous than the artists who sang them, and music fans were more apt to buy sheet music (and play the song themselves at home) than a gramophone record. The vast majority of the innovations in jazz happening at the time were criminally undocumented. I’m not much of a classical guy, but surely Taft enjoyed some of the contemporary composers of his day. Personally, I probably listened to a lot of death metal while writing the book.

What prompted you to come up with the presidential ID code that allows Taft to identify himself, and how nervous are you about exposing government secrets like that?

If I remember correctly, that was Stephen’s idea—one of the many brilliant ones he had during the book’s gestation. A lot of liberties had to be taken with things like presidential procedures and protocol (for instance, in Taft 2012, the government apparently and inexplicably had the incredible foresight to preserve a sample of Taft’s tissue, enabling a DNA test in 2011 confirming his identity).

I love these weird little details that pop up throughout the book—the less plausible, the better. Not only do I get a mischievous joy out of the ridiculous (again, thank you, Douglas Adams), I think it helped establish the baseline of weirdness and unreality that Taft 2012 was going to follow.

Tell me about Irene and her real life model.

In the book, Irene Kaye is a woman born in 1906 who wrote Taft a postcard just before his disappearance in 1912. When he returns, she’s still alive and living in a retirement village. They reconnect—and she becomes Taft’s only living link to his own time, as well as his moral compass to a certain degree.

I dedicated Taft 2012 to my late grandmother, Margaret Smith, and the character of Irene is based on her. My grandmother was a lovely, generous, incredible woman, and she raised my brother and I just as much as our mom did. She just breathed history, and my fascination with the past definitely came from her.

She also was the first person to encourage me to write; at the age of five I was scribbling poems for her. Sadly, she didn’t live long enough to see any of my achievements (modest as they are) as a writer. But I believe she knew all along that I needed to be pointed in that direction, and in that sense, Taft 2012 wouldn’t have existed without her. Nor, of course, would I.

(After the book was finished, I realized this tidbit of synchronicity: My grandmother was born November 3, 1912, the week Taft lost reelection to Woodrow Wilson. Neat, that.)

Where can fans of Taft 2012 find more of your work?

I keep a blog at www.jasonmheller@blogspot.com and a website at www.jason-heller.com. I usually update them with news of recent publications (and a list of previous short stories, including stuff in Apex Magazine and Sybil’s Garage). Most of my pop-culture journalism runs at www.avclub.com. Also, I’m on Facebook way, way too much, obsessively leaving a breadcrumb trail of neurotic rambling that some shrink ought to have a field day with someday.

What’s upcoming and is it equally politically loaded?

I’m working on two book-length projects right now, and each is politically loaded in its own way: One is a post-apocalyptic YA series that explores class hierarchies in a vast, biomechanical, walking city; the other is a standalone novel for adults that’s kind of a post-steampunk pastiche of Moby-Dick and Dune. The latter focuses far more on organized religion than politics, but of course the two are inseparable. No real-world stuff, though!

After the 2012 election cycle runs its course, I hope to retreat into my twisted psyche to dwell in the weird worlds of my own creation for a couple years. If not forever.

•••

Find Cat Rambo’s fiction, which includes over a hundred published stories, at her website. She teaches at Bellevue College as well as via online workshops and serves as a volunteer with Clarion West. Her most recent publication is her short story collection for Kindle and other e-readers. She is the editor GoH at MidSouthCon this March.

by Cat Rambo

As a secu­rity con­tractor, gov­ern­ment civilian, and mil­i­tary officer, Myke Cole’s career has run the gamut from Coun­tert­er­rorism to Cyber War­fare to Fed­eral Law Enforce­ment. He’s done three tours in Iraq and was recalled to serve during the Deep­water Horizon oil spill.

His first novel, Control Point, is contemporary military fantasy with an engaging edge, delivering satisfying and fast-paced action. For more information about Myke, visit his find his website.

This interview takes place in the giddy whirl of the first week in which your book, Control Point, has come out. Have there been some shining moments that you know you’ll particularly treasure later on? 

Roughly 3 years ago, my best friend and mentor, Peter V. Brett exploded onto the fantasy scene with his breakout novel The Warded Man. The book was a deserved runaway success, and watching him soar lit a fire in my belly to get my own writing career moving. I struggled hard to get my work into professional shape, and Pete was tireless in helping me focus on my craft.

Most importantly, he helped me still my tendency to rush, to pay attention to detail and to put quality first and foremost. That, combined with over a decade of my life spent developing my voice and building connections finally punched through.

And after all that time, I walked into a Barnes & Noble with Pete at my side, took my books off the NEW RELEASES shelf and brought them up to the front desk to sign. Pete grabbed his as well and joined me.

Colleagues at last.

Control Point has come out to plenty of notice, and you’ve been indefatigable about guest blog posts, podcast appearances, interviews, etc. How consciously did you shape your book promotion plan and is there one thing you think is crucial to it? 

I didn’t shape it consciously at all, other than to target specific large venues (New York Comic Con, Publisher’s Weekly, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, the Onion A.V. Club, etc . . . ) that I really wanted to be in. In another Q&A, I was asked this same question, and I laid out my basic rules for promotion:

1. I quit my day job to give myself the time necessary to really go after this.

2. I said yes to EVERYTHING. Every request for interview, guest post, podcast appearance, convention programming slot. EVERYTHING. YES. I WILL DO IT.

3. I accepted the fact that ALL of this is on my dime. I spent freely on it.

4. For those sites/shows/cons that didn’t invite me, I went to them and asked (nicely) if they would have me on. If it was a big venue that didn’t know me, I sent my publicist or agent after them.

At least right now, it’s taking up a TON of my time, and I’m not writing much. Just today I finally got back to working on book III in the Shadow Ops series after being pretty much full time on pumping the book.

The really hard part is that I have absolutely no way to know if it’s effective or not. Control Point‘s amazon.com sales ranking is off to a good start, but that’s no guarantee it won’t start to slide as the novelty wears off. I’ve gained a lot of Twitter followers and Facebook friends, but whose to say whether they’re buying the book or not? I have no way to know if they’re recommending it to friends (which is the way the majority of book sales happen).

And how do I judge how many Twitter followers is a lot? By comparing myself to Neil Gaiman? To Snooki? To the White House Twitter Feed? How can I judge how many @ mentions counts as “buzz?” There is really no hard data correlating guest posts, convention appearances or social media buzz to sales of the book. I intend to keep doing it because I believe it helps, but I can’t say how much it helps and that makes it pretty much impossible to plan around.

The book’s most engaging moments are the ones where you combine precise military detail with a fantasy overlay. While serving in the military, did you consciously track such details to use in your writing later (and if so, how), or is it simply that you know the setting so well that you can draw on it while writing your first draft? 

The latter. I have worked in/around the military since I got serious about writing (roughly 15 years ago). Add to that my love of military history and military science (I’ve published a bit on 4th-5th Generation Warfare Theory. I won’t bore you with what that is, but you can find a bibliography on my website under the PRODUCTS tab) and my passion for wargaming, and you’ve got a . . . military-geek, I guess.

It also helps that the book was edited, sent out to market right on the heels of my 3rd tour in Iraq (ensuring that I was up to speed on the latest terms, technology and tactics). I still serve in the reserve, which keeps me current as well. Writing in a “military voice” comes quite naturally to me.

Keeping my nerd voice current takes work too. Fortunately, I still read a ton of fantasy and comic books, game when I can, and spend hour upon hour debating finer points of nerd canon (who would win in a fight? Batman or Captain America) at con parties. Blend the two and the Shadow Ops series start to seem kind of inevitable.

Your protagonist, Oscar Britton, starts the book rebelling against his situation and what we might call the military-industrial-complex. You’re a military officer who’s served three tours in Iraq. Was Oscar — and the other characters for that matter, such as Fitzsimmons, Harlequin, and Salamander — a way to explore some of your own conflicts about the military? 

Of course. The military is obsessed with internal scrutiny. The degree of self-policing (and corresponding punishment) far exceeds any private sector organization. This is particularly true of officers, who are ultimately responsible for the actions of their subordinates. Now, this is out of necessity. The military wields deadly force and much of the nation’s wealth and it is expected to be accountable for how it handles both.

That kind of pressure trickles downhill (as it should), and suffuses the entire organization with a culture I can only describe as “internal-affairs heavy.” I wouldn’t want it to be any other way, but when you combine that kind of pressure/responsibility with the license granted by the immediate need for action in a crisis and you get a unique environment where the Fitzys, Harlequins, Salamanders and yes, Oscar Brittons of the world can both be born and can live and operate.

I absolutely love the military, but I’m not blind to the challenges and limitations of the life either. Control Point was definitely a steam valve in some respects.

The chapters are interspersed with documents that help shed light, often quite entertainingly, on the setting. What gave you the idea and how much fun was it to write those? Were there any that didn’t make it into the final version? 

The publisher is calling those “epigraphs.” The idea came to me fully formed while exercising (I get a lot of my writing ideas this way). It turned out to be a fabulous tool for giving information to the reader without expository dialogue or infodumps (something all SF/F writers struggle with. You have to build a unique world without overloading the reader with important details in a way that slows the narrative).

Inspirational quotes are a big part of military culture and are a blast to write. There are a TON of great ones in the Warhammer 40,000 universe (you can see a sampling here). Warhammer 40,000 began as a table-top miniatures game before it spun off a publisher to cover fiction in the universe, so it had the challenge of relating the entire story to the reader through just imagery, game rules and epigraphs. The idea really stuck with me and made writing Control Point much more fun.

There are plenty of epigraphs that got cut, and many of those were repurposed to Fortress Frontier. I’m currently collating/refining notes for Breach Zone (book 3) and part of that involves planning the new epigraphs. Can’t wait to see what comes up.

What writers do you think are the strongest influences on your writing? Are there any whose universes you’d like to write in? 

The single strongest influence on my writing is Peter V. Brett (author of the Demon Cycle, which currently consists of The Warded Man and The Desert Spear). He is a dear friend and mentor, but even if we had no relationship, I would still be in awe of his narrative efficiency, his empathy for his own diverse range of characters and his unflagging commitment to perfection in his work.

China Mieville is a huge influence in his willingness to break rules and push boundaries in genre, and Joe Abercrombie has really impressed the importance of extrapolating realism in fantasy writing. And those are just three.

I read a great deal and have many other significant influences, but we don’t have the time for me to go into all of them here. But I wouldn’t want to write in their universes. Writers become influences on me because I am awestruck by their work. The first thing I usually feel when I encounter such a writer is a desire to throw in the towel (because I could never write so well). Once I get over that, and begin to study their craft, I am still left with the indelible impression that I could never do it as well as they could.

And, honestly, why would I want to? It’s their voice that I enjoy. I know what my own sounds like.

That said, there are soooo many media tie-in franchises I’d love to write for. I’m a big fan of Star Wars, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, Starcraft, D&D, and about a million different comic books. Those franchises already have a range of voices contributing to them (some great, like Joe Schrieber and R.A. Salvatore – you asked about my influences). If I could add my voice to the mix, that would be amazing.

Several recent interviews have touched on your plans to write a romance someday. Any other genres that seem particularly worth tackling? Any that you would never touch? 

I try to think of myself as a writer in the broadest sense. My complete list of publications isn’t on my website, but it includes non-fiction on military theory, satire, journalism and military public affairs writing. I’ve written and published both fantasy and science fiction, but have also written (unpublished) historical fiction, literary fiction and even a western. SF/F is my first love, but I can honestly say there isn’t anything I wouldn’t want to write.

What’s your favorite place/situation for writing in? 

The Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library or a local coffee shop. People around, giant cup of coffee next to my laptop, decent (free) wifi connection. Movie soundtracks on my headphones drowning out ambient noise. Cheap eats and hopefully the guy sitting next to me has a nice dog who I can sneak bits of my sandwich to.

What’s your favorite RPG system? Alignment? Polyhedral? Any plans to do some game writing? What about a Control Point game? 

System: D&D 1st Edition. Not the red-box; the old hardcover Players Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual.

Alignment: Lawful Good.

Polyhedral: The classic 20-sider. Preferably red with gold numbers (or black with red numbers).

Plans to do game writing: From your lips to god’s ears. I’d love to. Control Point game: Game design and writing fiction for a game universe are two very different things. I feel very confident in my ability to do the former and have absolutely no ability in the later. I’ve recently become friendly with Joshua A.C. Newman, and have learned a ton about what goes into making compelling games from him. It’s a lot more complicated than people think (and I’m talking about the game mechanics here, not the story).

My point in all this? If somebody wants to make a Control Point game, I would be overjoyed and would help the project in any way I could. But I can’t design the skeleton of it.

Where can Control Point fans find more of your work, and when can they expect the sequel? 

You can check out my bibliography. Fortress Frontier (Book 2 in the Shadow Ops series) is already done, approved by my agent and turned into the publisher. You can expect it January 31st of 2013. Breach Zone will follow a year later.

What question should I have asked you that I didn’t? 

You should have asked me what folks can do who want to join the military but don’t want to give up their full time jobs.

What about folks who want to serve their country, but not in a service that is dedicated exclusively to warfighting? Well, we’ve got an app for that – http://www.gocoastguard.com/find-your-career/reserve-opportunities. And for those folks who want to help but are too old or have physical limitations? We’ve got an app for that too – http://join.cgaux.org/

Stand with me. I can’t do this alone.

Find Cat Rambo’s fiction, which includes over a hundred published stories, at her website. She teaches at Bellevue College as well as via online workshops and serves as a volunteer with Clarion West. Her most recent publication is her short story collection for Kindle and other e-readers. She is the editor GoH at MidSouthCon this March.

Some panel ideas, which any convention organizer is welcome to grab.

Making the Transition from Short Story to Novel
What are the pitfalls and what should the writer know before starting? Is it easier to do it in reverse and go from novel to short story? What’s similar and what’s different? Does it help to think of chapters as mini-stories?

(This seems to me to be harder than anyone acknowledges it to be, and I know there’s several basics I wish I’d known before I’d begun blindly floundering in the much deeper waters of a novel. I’m also pretty sure this is not a new idea for a panel, but I haven’t seen it at recent cons I’ve been at.)

The Architecture of the Country of the Blind
Reading blind, so you see just the story and not the name of the author with its info about gender, is something many editors and publishers agree is a good idea. What are the practical aspects of setting up such a system? What do you do if editors or slush readers recognize the story? Is it true you can tell gender by how someone writes? What about the fact that such a system removes the “name recognition” that some widely published authors hold?

(Let’s just start with the assumption it’s a good idea for once. For the love of Pete. Thx.)

What the F*** is Flash Fiction?
Some people say flash fiction has a minimum length, such as 1000, 500, even 250 words, while others say Hemingway’s famous “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” is a complete story. Who’s right? Where does prose poetry fit? Why are flash magazines so popular and what are the ones doing interesting things in the field? Who are the flash authors to watch out for?

Teaching Writing
Many of us teach writing classes in order to supplement our incomes. What’s the best way of doing it? What should (and shouldn’t) a student expect from a writing class? How can you make the best of them? Which are the good ones and are there any that should be avoided?

Does Anyone Have a Business Model Yet?
Online magazine publishers discuss what works and what doesn’t, including what’s surprised them about online transactions. What are the basics of starting up an online magazine and what are the most effective ways of making it grow?

•••

Find Cat Rambo’s fiction at her website. She teaches at Bellevue College, acts as a board member for Broad Universe and serves as a volunteer with Clarion West. Her most recent publication is her short story collection for Kindle and other e-readers. Look for upcoming work in Abyss & Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bull Spec, Daily Science Fiction, Giganotasaurus, Lightspeed, and more.

A couple of weeks ago I read the cover article of the Nov/Dec issue of Intelligent Life, “A One-Man Market,” by Bryan Appleyard. (It was excerpted in the Economist.) It’s about Andy Warhol and the market for his art.

Warhol is now the god of contemporary art… In 2010 his work sold for $313m and accounted for 17% of all contemporary auction sales.

That shocked me. Seventeen percent of all contemporary auction sales. For one man who made it very clear that he regarded art as a commodity.

Campbell's Soup I (1968)

But that’s just a by-the-bye. What really struck me was part of the last paragraph:

… Prompted by Warhol, conceptualism–art driven by ideas rather than sensuous and emotional engagement–has ruled for more than 20 years. It is a machine aesthetic, a desire to make art that is beyond human, and Andy always wanted to be a machine. But, though all art is in constant, self-questioning flux, one thing never changes–the longing to define, synthesise and express the human condition. In the absence of religion, it is art’s job to do this…

Read the last two sentences again. This is one of the bases of my philosophy. Art–more particularly, literature–exists not only to entertain* or to soothe**, but to help us understand ourselves, our world, and our place in it.

Literature is what distinguishes us from every species that has gone before. It’s what makes it possible for seven billion of us to breathe the same air. Literature is the great sum and sea of human experience, out there heaving serenely in the moonlight, ready for individuals, when it’s their time, to paddle out on their voyage of discovery. Sometimes a whole boatload goes at once (a class, a book club). Sometimes the lone traveller comes back and tells her family and friends tall tales (the child retailing horror stories around the campfire). Sometimes he simply hugs the knowledge to himself (the gay teen exploring forbidden territory). But every voyager returns with added experience, a new perspective, a different lens through which to examine the world.

Literature is what keeps us learning about violence without having to kill, about hunger without having to starve, about fear without having to be hunted. Through books we learn strategies for situations we haven’t yet encountered. We try on lives we may never get the opportunity to live. We can learn to walk in another’s shoes without depriving him of them.

Literature isn’t risk-free because books change us. But it can save us from physical harm in the quest for experience. It can save us time. Books provide valuable rehearsal so that when the big moments and grave decisions come we don’t screw up as badly as we might otherwise. And we come back from our voyage, we recognise fellow travellers. I’ve talked about that in this essay I wrote with Kelley: without books, I’m not sure we would be together. I’ve talked about it in my paean to reading, “Doing it for Pleasure.” And I’ve talked about it in my promise to run my software on your hardware.

I talk about it all the time. Because I believe it. I believe writers are the shamans who map unknown territory so that you don’t have to. I believe writers help create the world, not just report it. I don’t always do it well, but I’m getting better. And, oh, there are so very many journeys ahead.

* I’m with Pauline Kael on this. “If art isn’t entertainment then what is it? Punishment?”

•••

Nicola Griffith: English novelist living in Seattle. Author of five novels (Ammonite, Slow River, The Blue Place, Stay, Always) and a multi-media memoir (And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner notes to a writer’s early life). Co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of original queer f/sf/h stories. Essayist. Teacher. Blogger. Winner of the Nebula, Tiptree, World Fantasy, and 6 Lambda Literary Awards. (Also a BBC poetry prize, some Gaylactic Spectrum awards, the Premio Italia, and a few others.) Partner of writer Kelley Eskridge. Currently lost in the 7th century–working on a novel about Hild of Whitby. Emerges to drink just the right amount of beer and take enormous delight in everything.

This post first appeared on Nicola Griffith’s blog. Author’s photo by by Jennifer Durham.

When I was about six or so, I realized that what separated humans from other animals was our intelligence rather than our physical capabilities.  Sure, there are other differences, such as the degree of tool use, or the social aspects of our species and how we employ culture and altruism to lead to ever increasing success, but ultimately we’re smart critters.  We figure out how to do really complicated things both as individuals and as groups working together. Silly me, I logically decided to focus on intellectual achievement.

Little did I know that being tall leads to advantages in society, or that athletic scholarships are much bigger than academic scholarships.  In some meta context, it really does seem crazy to reward freaks of physical achievement when there are animals faster, stronger, and much more physically capable than humans. A guy I knew once put it this way: you can measure someone’s athleticism by how many seconds they last before a tiger kills them.

Despite this, our popular stories often feature heroes who are stronger or faster than average, even though they would last only a few seconds longer against a tiger. As for bravery? The tiger doesn’t care.

So what about the smart heroes? The ones who think first, fight second, or don’t fight at all?

Science fiction has them. At least more than other genres.

I remember being impressed with Star Trek’s Captain Kirk as a kid. Not because he could karate chop unsuspecting alien guards into unconsciousness with one blow, but because he could think his way to victory as often as not. To wit, Kirk vs. the Gorn.

It wasn’t a very good fight scene, I grant. And if the Gorn had possessed a tenth the speed of a tiger, Kirk would have been toast. What I loved, however, was that physical prowess could not defeat the alien, but intelligence could. Kirk recognized the components of a weapon in his environment and used his smarts to triumph. That was a message that made sense to me then, and still does.

When dealing with other humans in contemporary settings, sometimes being stronger or faster is plenty to carry the day. When your rivals are enhanced humans, robots, aliens, or other beings with physical capabilities beyond those of normal people, only superior scientific knowledge, technology, or cleverness can prevail.

So let’s celebrate our smart heroes, from science fiction and any other field. Let’s hear it for Kirk, Spock, Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter, the Professor, Walter Bishop, Sherlock Holmes, Dana Scully, House, McGuyver, the Antonio Banderas character in the 13th Warrior, Reed Richards, Jadzia Dax, Tony Stark, Willow, and others who show that scientists are not only mad villains, but heroes and role models to anyone who wants to avoid fighting the tiger, or to kill it if they have to.

•••

Originally from the St. Louis area, Mike Brotherton got his PhD in astronomy from the University of Texas in 1996, and held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Observatory before coming to Laramie. His specialty is studying the supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies and how they shine when in the active phase. He is also interested in the relationship between such active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies, and their mutual evolution. His work is primarily observational, and he uses a wide assortment of telescopes/observatories operating across the electromagnetic spectrum including WIRO, McDonald, IRTF, KPNO, Lick, Keck, Gemini, the VLT, Hubble, Chandra, and the VLA. He also makes use of data archives such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In addition to being a scientist, he is a science fiction writer, author of the well-received science fiction novels Star Dragon (2003) and Spider Star (2008) from Tor Books. He is also the founder of the NASA-funded Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers, which brings a dozen award-winning professional writers to Wyoming every summer. He blogs at www.mikebrotherton.com and loves his fierce cat, Sita.