Ask the Author: Matt Weber
Answered Questions (6)
Matt Weber
The different cultures in Yemareir have slightly different conventions w/r/t pronouns, for dragons and also babies and priests.
... I don't want to box myself in too much with a Goodreads answer, so pls heavily salt the canonicity of this response, but some of this has to do with the special place of dragons in the culture of Old Mlinivoun (where the Mrineen of Yemareir emigrated from). They're revered, held separate from and superior to humans, and so they get their own designation. The Ililue, on the other hand, live with dragons as kinda normal animals, and will call a dragon "he" or "she" just like they would with a rooster or a cow.
As to whether dragons are hermaphrodites -- their bodies are canonically unusually adaptable, so it's a possibility. :D
... I don't want to box myself in too much with a Goodreads answer, so pls heavily salt the canonicity of this response, but some of this has to do with the special place of dragons in the culture of Old Mlinivoun (where the Mrineen of Yemareir emigrated from). They're revered, held separate from and superior to humans, and so they get their own designation. The Ililue, on the other hand, live with dragons as kinda normal animals, and will call a dragon "he" or "she" just like they would with a rooster or a cow.
As to whether dragons are hermaphrodites -- their bodies are canonically unusually adaptable, so it's a possibility. :D
Matt Weber
Hi Jeff -- there will be a print version available on Amazon at some point, but my publisher hasn't apprised me of the release date for that. :) I'll try to make sure I update Goodreads about it when I know. I appreciate the interest, and best of luck in your own writing!
Matt Weber
Well, since Valentine's Day is coming up, I'll say Vlad and Cawti from Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books. Easily the realest, most heartwrenching breakup in fiction, at least in anything I've read.
Runner-up, for sheer balls: Detective Miller and Julie Mao from LEVIATHAN WAKES. Basically a love story between a more or less normal human being and Tetsuo from AKIRA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awc1Z...), with the added bonus that the mutant fleshmass is also capable of turning space stations into starships and otherwise doing violence to the laws of physics. Cute!
Runner-up, for sheer balls: Detective Miller and Julie Mao from LEVIATHAN WAKES. Basically a love story between a more or less normal human being and Tetsuo from AKIRA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awc1Z...), with the added bonus that the mutant fleshmass is also capable of turning space stations into starships and otherwise doing violence to the laws of physics. Cute!
Matt Weber
I'm working on edits for THE EIGHTH KING, my epic fantasy wuxia novel, which is forthcoming from Curiosity Quills Press in 2017. This is nominally a "self-edit" to bring it into compliance with their style guide... but I hadn't looked at the thing in a while when it was accepted for publication, and it turns out that distance has provided some useful perspective...
Matt Weber
I have achieved a bodhisattva-like state of post-inspiration -- or, if you prefer, perpetual inspiration. I might not feel like writing, I might not feel good about what I'm writing, but if I sit with a page, the words will come.
Or, well, *some* words will come. They might not feel like *the* words. But you go to war with the army you have.
I wish I could figure out a way to answer this that respected both the you've got to admit kind of precious, fragile, self-indulgent nature of the question, and the very genuine deep-rootedness of that preciousness and fragility. On some level, Jesus, it's just words; you can delete them any time you want, what are you whining about? On another: This is a version of yourself you are recreating, or straight-up creating, on the page. It isn't you, but it's an object that says things about you, and not always the things you'd care to say, and once you commit them to the page you know them in a way you didn't previously. You have gotten in the business of creating a mirror of yourself that will throw off a reflection you can't unsee. Some hesitation is natural.
I guess what I'm saying is, the real answer to this question doesn't have much to do with the ideas or plots or characters that excite you. It has a lot more to do with your belly for looking at yourself in what's going to start out, and remain awhile, as a pretty awful funhouse mirror.
Or, well, *some* words will come. They might not feel like *the* words. But you go to war with the army you have.
I wish I could figure out a way to answer this that respected both the you've got to admit kind of precious, fragile, self-indulgent nature of the question, and the very genuine deep-rootedness of that preciousness and fragility. On some level, Jesus, it's just words; you can delete them any time you want, what are you whining about? On another: This is a version of yourself you are recreating, or straight-up creating, on the page. It isn't you, but it's an object that says things about you, and not always the things you'd care to say, and once you commit them to the page you know them in a way you didn't previously. You have gotten in the business of creating a mirror of yourself that will throw off a reflection you can't unsee. Some hesitation is natural.
I guess what I'm saying is, the real answer to this question doesn't have much to do with the ideas or plots or characters that excite you. It has a lot more to do with your belly for looking at yourself in what's going to start out, and remain awhile, as a pretty awful funhouse mirror.
Matt Weber
I write crap and tell myself I'll fix it in post. Mostly it's not as bad as it feels in the moment.
I guess that answer presupposes that I have something in mind, I just think it's bad or feel I can't do it well. That's pretty much where I am right now; I have more novel- and series-length ideas than I could write in five years full-time. But every so often I'll want to take a break with a short story or a poem, and in those situations I typically don't have an idea on the back burner. Generally a prompt helps. Most recently I wrote a story targeted to an solar-power-themed anthology; it ended up being about a community of people who'd gene-hacked themselves to photosynthesize, and I managed to unspool some pretty interesting second- and third-order speculation around that for 8000 words or so. I'd never have written it without the spur of the anthology theme. Lots of magazines have occasional or regular themes; CROSSED GENRES and 404 INK leap to mind.
(Of course, the story was rejected from the anthology and is currently lying around pending revision. Anyone want to buy a short story?)
I guess that answer presupposes that I have something in mind, I just think it's bad or feel I can't do it well. That's pretty much where I am right now; I have more novel- and series-length ideas than I could write in five years full-time. But every so often I'll want to take a break with a short story or a poem, and in those situations I typically don't have an idea on the back burner. Generally a prompt helps. Most recently I wrote a story targeted to an solar-power-themed anthology; it ended up being about a community of people who'd gene-hacked themselves to photosynthesize, and I managed to unspool some pretty interesting second- and third-order speculation around that for 8000 words or so. I'd never have written it without the spur of the anthology theme. Lots of magazines have occasional or regular themes; CROSSED GENRES and 404 INK leap to mind.
(Of course, the story was rejected from the anthology and is currently lying around pending revision. Anyone want to buy a short story?)
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