Steve Stanton's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-grants"

The author gratefully acknowledges full-time funding from Canada Council for the Arts in support of a proposed science fiction novel, “Going Green.” The province of Ontario also provided token funding for this innovative project through the OAC Writers’ Reserve program. This interview by Christel Bodenbender first appeared online at Reality Skimming Press in November 2015.

You have recently received funding from Canada Council for the Arts to work on a new novel. How do you feel about the grant and how is the development of the novel progressing?

First of all, thank you, Christel, for your interest. Winning a grant from Canada Council really felt like an absolution to me after twenty-five years in the business and seven years working as a full-time author. I had applied unsuccessfully to the program for five straight years since qualifying as a “professional” according to their mandate. Just to put things in perspective, the total government funding of 25.5k for this project is ten times what I usually receive as a royalty advance. The new novel is developing nicely. No pressure.

Can you tell us something about the novel?

Going Green will examine the transformational impact of future science on Canadian culture using metaphor and allegory. I don’t want to jinx anything by talking about a work in progress, but there will be green aliens. 

What is your timeline for writing/publishing the book? Is this typical for your work?

Publishing is a glacial business, but writing can progress very quickly. My funding is for a full year, and I usually take that long for a first draft and first rewrite. After that, I’ll have to try to sell the manuscript, and then the editing and prep work will be on the publisher’s timetable. My upcoming novel, Freenet, has been four years in the making.

I found it refreshing to read in a different interview that you look at yourself as a reader when you develop the first draft, whereas many authors recommend to lay everything out before starting to write. Can you tell us more about your writing process?

I write for the pure fun of it, and I prefer an open-ended approach. I don’t write to a plot guideline because that makes it seem too much like work, too rigid and tedious. That being said, I take great care in developing characters and sometimes search for pictures that match my internal visualizations. Once characters become real, their actions tend to flow naturally, and I can depend on my subconscious mind to carry the story forward day by day.

Reality Skimming Press brands itself as 'optimistic SF.' Tell us what the phrase 'optimistic SF' means to you.

Science is making the world better for humans every day, and being optimistic about the future is the natural way of thinking. I avoid horror or apocalyptic fiction because I’m an overly sensitive person, so “optimistic SF” must be what I’m looking for and working towards. I don’t mind reading warnings of possible doom as long as an element of hope is offered by the writer or a challenge issued to the reader.

What are your favorite kinds of stories to write?

I like to write funny stories, although occasionally I do cry on my keyboard. I write science fiction as opposed to fantasy, because I don’t like to invoke magical thinking in my work. Fantastic elements must have some aspect of science to make them work for me, or be purely psychological outcomes of a character’s belief system. I like writing stories that are multi-layered and can be looked at from different vantages.

What other projects are you currently working on?

I’ve spent most of the past year working through a gauntlet of editors for an upcoming sci-fi novel, Freenet, which comes out in April 2016, almost two and a half years after the contract was signed with ECW Press in Toronto. I have two short stories and another novel currently under submission, as well as eleven grant applications under review, but for now I am devoting all of my attention to Going Green.