Interview:
Ken Rand
by Joy V. Smith
Ken Rand has written a hundred short stories, two hundred humor columns,
three SF novels, a nonfiction chapbook, The Ten Percent Solution: Self-editing
for the Modern Writer (Fairwood Press, Oct. 1998), Kaleidoscopes Made
Semi-Easy, and thousands of nonfiction articles.
He's been a reporter, photographer, editor, talkshow host and producer,
and sports announcer, among other things. And he interviews SF/Fantasy
writers for each quarterly issue of Talebones Magazine.
His "The Gods Perspire" was in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the
Future, vol 13 (second place). Another story was an honorable mention in
Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, vol. 10. His short story "I Am Klingon" won
third place in the anthology Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, vol. 2, Pocket
Books.
And upcoming is "The Writer's Will — How to Write It" in the SFWA Bulletin.
His most recent sale is "The Find" in the Extremes CD-ROM anthology,
published by Lone Wolf Publishing.
JVS: So, Ken, did you take up making kaleidoscopes as a respite from all that
writing?
KR: Actually, I started making kaleidoscopes for Christmas gifts for the
family, and just got carried away. See, the year before, I was pretty
strapped for money around Christmas time. I found this book in the library
were I work part-time as a shelver about making cardboard dinosaurs. I
thought: what a great thing to do for my grandson! I made eight or nine of
them, and they were a hit. That was in 97. In 98, I decided making
something for Christmas was a Good Thing, but I wanted to do something for
the whole family. To the library again, where I found a book on how to make
the scopes. The book was cockeyed, as far as I was concerned, so I ended up
figuring out how to do it myself. I made about 50 of them that
Christmas — and learned enough to write a book about it. I still make them,
but not as often. I find making them, and looking through them (as well as
watching other people look through them) soothing, refreshing. Nice toys.
Last year, I made calendars for the family. This year, I'm making a
book.
JVS: Did you write "I Am Klingon" especially for the Star Trek anthology?
Have you always had a yen to write a Star Trek story?
KR: Until I saw the anthology, I never had any plans to write for Star Trek.
I knew that door was closed to me, at my present level of expertise in the
genre, so I never wasted any time dreaming or planning to write Trek. Then
the antho comes along. I wrote three stories for the first antho, and got
close with one of them. I wrote three for the second one. So I wrote six
stories, and sold one. Call the other five "practice." For $1150, and to
become a Trek writer! Worth it.
JVS: I love your humor writing, which I've read in places like Nuthouse. Is
there any type of writing or genre that you prefer?
KR: I enjoy humor. Twain, Heller, Kesey, Vonnegut, Brautigan, Robbins — all
my heroes. I like to think I've read everything Twain ever wrote, but I keep
finding new stuff.
I always thought I was a science fiction writer — Sir Arthur Clarke was my
inspiration back in the late 50s — but lately, I've reconsidered. I think I
use science as magic, and I'm simply not a scientist. I have trouble reading
hard SF. It ain't the droid I'm looking for. Maybe some of my stuff gets
called SF, but I know the difference. I'm a fantasist at heart. It was fun
to find Tim Powers, Jack Cady, and Jonathan Lethem. Another very early
influence was Lewis Carroll.
JVS: You've not only been published in a wide variety of print publications
and e-zines, I know that you have had your work translated (in French) and
you've been published in an audiobook. How much time do you spend on
marketing? Do you have any market bulletins you'd like to recommend?
KR: My first priority every day is to create new words on today's number one
task. I aim for 1,000 words a day. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don't.
The project could be an article, interview, short story, or book or novel.
Whatever's on the front burner. Second priority is marketing. I want to get
something in the mail each day, something that will potentially earn me
money — not merely correspondence, or request for guidelines — but a
submission. For money. Once a day. Naturally, some days I don't get to
priority number two, for a variety of reasons, but I try. At one point, I
had 90 items in the mail. Today, I have 51. I want to try to keep it above
50.
I recommend Speculations and Callihoo as two of the better genre market
listings. I write for Speculations now and then, and I helped create the
Callihoo writers group here in Utah — way back when — from which the newsletter
has sprung. It's among the longest lasting, most complete, most easily
accessible newsletters I know of. There are others. I'm simply not as
familiar with them.
JVS: With all the writing books out there, what did you feel you could add
with your book, The Ten-Percent Solution? And can you clue us in as to the
significance of the title?
KR: Many new writers tend to think that the first thing that comes out of
their heads is inspiration, and therefore sacred. Muse-inspired stuff.
Nonsense, of course. You can tell a new writer that, but how to show
them — to prove it to them? The Ten-Percent Solution is an attempt to
demystify the editing process, which has a lot — a hell of a lot — to do with
productivity, creativity — actually finishing stuff. Understanding the
process has helped a few writers get over writers' block. It's a simple
process that can be easily adapted to anybody's methods, aspirations, needs,
and style. A formula. But it produces non-formulaic writing. Its goal is
clear and accurate prose. The damn thing works. That fact alone, finally,
is sufficient grounds for having written the book.
What the title means is that almost any prose cut by ten percent will
read better — more clearly, more accurately — if it is cut by ten percent.
This is, of course, an over simplification. I explain it in detail the book.
JVS: I enjoy your occasional mentions of how many trips it took for your
stories to sell. (OK, I admit it. It makes me feel better.) Please share
some examples.
KR: I sold a story titled "With Forked Tongue" to Talebones on its 54th trip
through the mail. That story was named an honorable mention in Windling and
Datlow's Year's Best antho, volume 10. I wrote it originally in 1965. My
Writers of the Future winning story, "The Gods Perspire," won on its 21st
trip. (Incidentally, I wrote that story as one of three written in a six-day
period in 1995. One of those dare-to-be-bad challenges. The other two have
just sold.) I started submitting to Writers of the Future in almost every
quarter since 1989, only missing three or four quarters. A few weeks ago, I
sold "Phoenix" to Realities Escape on its 42nd trip through the mail. That
story had won an honorable mention from Writers of the Future when I first
submitted it in 1990. I wrote "The Waiting Game, which appeared in Quantum
SF 1999, as a one act play in 1965.
See, I have this clerk in my head that handles the mail. He doesn't
bother the writer in my head, who is usually too busy on today's project to
be bothered by rejection. And my clerk sends stuff back out so
fast — sometimes the same afternoon the rejection comes in — that even the
clerk doesn't have time to bellyache about all that bookkeeping.
JVS: Can you tell me a bit about your upcoming projects/what you're working
on now? I've heard something about a film, "Nine Billion Names of Arthur C.
Clarke
."
KR: The film is a project being done by a student at Stanford. It's a
no-budget project, an experiment. I just supplied the script. Who knows
what'll happen?
On my front burner right now is a top-down edit of my novel Pax Dakota,
preparing to send it to an agent who has asked to see it. After it clears,
I'm going to put Where Ideas Come From and How to Get Them back up front.
Broadly stated, it's in the same vein as the Ten Percent Solution. It's
almost done. I still aim to start my next novel, A Cold Day in Hell, by July
1, aiming for a December 31 finish. I also have a short story in the
ten-percent editing stage, and another I'm working on in collaboration with
my good friend Dave Felts, and three interviews scheduled for this week and
next — Simmons, Straub, and de Lint — for upcoming issues of Talebones. After
that, I'm open.
First published on AOL. Reprinted with the kind permission of the author.
Copyright © 2000 by Joy V. Smith
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