Rob Wolf's Blog, page 20
November 5, 2014
Grateful Shout-outs
I just wanted to give grateful shout-outs to James Cambias, Arizona State University and, of course, Kathryn Cramer, for their help spread the word about my conversation with Kathryn on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy about her Hieroglyph anthology.
October 21, 2014
Covering New Ground
It's always gratifying when one of my @NewBooksSciFi interviews probes a fresh angle. I hope they all do, of course, but it's hard to be certain without reading every interview the author has done previously--which is something I'd never do because I don't have the time or, frankly, the interest. If I read lots of other interviews beforehand, I might lose my momentum, especially if it looked like all the big questions had already been answered. In any event, I received confirmation there was something fresh in my New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy interview with Brian Staveley. He noted yesterday in a Facebook post about this week's interview: "We covered some ground that I hadn't discussed in interviews before." Nice to hear.
Post by Brian Staveley.
Post by Brian Staveley.
October 20, 2014
What Does it Take to be an Emperor?
What does it take to be an emperor?
That question is at the heart of Brian Staveley�s debut novel The Emperor's Blades
.
In this first of a projected trilogy, Staveley focuses on three siblings. They are the children of the assassinated emperor of Annur, a descendant of the Goddess of Fire whose irises look like flames.
Kaden, the designated heir, has spent the last eight years training in far off mountains with monks. He�s physically strong and he�s learned to withstand deprivation. He�s also an expert at drawing pictures, capturing images perfectly in his memory and suffering the abuse of his never-satisfied teachers without complaint. But is he ready to take on the responsibilities of emperor, a position that will require him to hold together alliances, manage a large-scale bureaucracy, and foster the admiration of citizens on two continents?
In his interview on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Staveley describes the three types of tension that power good storytelling: psychological, social, and environmental. �If you�re writing a mountaineering story,� he explains, �the psychological tension might be one character�s fear of heights, and the social tension might be that two of the characters on the expedition hate each other, and then the environmental tension would be that there are constant avalanches trying to destroy them. And I think the stories I like � combine all three of those.�
Staveley also discusses how his experiences teaching ancient history, world religion and comparative philosophy to high school students helped him with world-building, his method for keeping track of his numerous characters and storylines (lots and lots of Word files), and the difficult task his characters face of separating myth from historical fact.
Staveley�s vision is enormous. Not only is The Emperor�s Blades itself intricate and multi-layered, but the author had originally envisioned writing seven books. His editor at Tor limited him to three, and Staveley expects to wrap up the series (known as the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne) with the final installment in 2016. But with four books on the chopping block, readers can expect eventually to hear more about the world in which these events take places.
�The world is a large place,� he says. �There are always other stories to tell.�
That question is at the heart of Brian Staveley�s debut novel The Emperor's Blades
.In this first of a projected trilogy, Staveley focuses on three siblings. They are the children of the assassinated emperor of Annur, a descendant of the Goddess of Fire whose irises look like flames.
Kaden, the designated heir, has spent the last eight years training in far off mountains with monks. He�s physically strong and he�s learned to withstand deprivation. He�s also an expert at drawing pictures, capturing images perfectly in his memory and suffering the abuse of his never-satisfied teachers without complaint. But is he ready to take on the responsibilities of emperor, a position that will require him to hold together alliances, manage a large-scale bureaucracy, and foster the admiration of citizens on two continents?
In his interview on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Staveley describes the three types of tension that power good storytelling: psychological, social, and environmental. �If you�re writing a mountaineering story,� he explains, �the psychological tension might be one character�s fear of heights, and the social tension might be that two of the characters on the expedition hate each other, and then the environmental tension would be that there are constant avalanches trying to destroy them. And I think the stories I like � combine all three of those.�
Staveley also discusses how his experiences teaching ancient history, world religion and comparative philosophy to high school students helped him with world-building, his method for keeping track of his numerous characters and storylines (lots and lots of Word files), and the difficult task his characters face of separating myth from historical fact.
Staveley�s vision is enormous. Not only is The Emperor�s Blades itself intricate and multi-layered, but the author had originally envisioned writing seven books. His editor at Tor limited him to three, and Staveley expects to wrap up the series (known as the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne) with the final installment in 2016. But with four books on the chopping block, readers can expect eventually to hear more about the world in which these events take places.
�The world is a large place,� he says. �There are always other stories to tell.�
October 11, 2014
Robert Silverberg's Inspiration
Science Fiction: 101
isn�t just an �exploration of the craft of science fiction� as its subtitle says; it�s also about the impact the stories in this anthology had on the imagination of a young boy.
That boy was Robert Silverberg, who was so inspired by the stories he found in pulpy magazines with names like Startling and Thrilling Wonder that he vowed he would one day become a science fiction writer himself.
He sold his first science fiction story in 1954 when he was a sophomore at Columbia and never looked back. But lest anyone think the job of writer is easy, one of the messages of Science Fiction: 101 is that �hard work rather than superior genetic endowment is the basic component of most writers� success.�
The collection contains 13 stories, most of which were published in the 1950s and from which Silverberg, in essays accompanying each story, draws lessons about the art of storytelling. The anthology was originally published under a different name in 1987 but has been out of print until this year when Roc re-issued it.
In my interview with him on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Silverberg touches on, among other things, his relationship with Isaac Asimov. At first, he knew and admired Asimov from his writing. But eventually, they became not only good friends but collaborators on several books, including the novelization of Asimov�s famous short story Nightfall
.
Ever present in the interview are reminders of the wonder Silverberg felt as a boy reading science fiction. That wonder is all the more poignant now that Silverberg is in the autumn of his career (he says he doesn�t plan to publish any new novels although hasn�t ruled out writing an occasional essay or short story). �Science Fiction: 101 is aimed for the people who, like me, like Isaac [Asimov], like Ray Bradbury were beginners once.�
isn�t just an �exploration of the craft of science fiction� as its subtitle says; it�s also about the impact the stories in this anthology had on the imagination of a young boy.That boy was Robert Silverberg, who was so inspired by the stories he found in pulpy magazines with names like Startling and Thrilling Wonder that he vowed he would one day become a science fiction writer himself.
He sold his first science fiction story in 1954 when he was a sophomore at Columbia and never looked back. But lest anyone think the job of writer is easy, one of the messages of Science Fiction: 101 is that �hard work rather than superior genetic endowment is the basic component of most writers� success.�
The collection contains 13 stories, most of which were published in the 1950s and from which Silverberg, in essays accompanying each story, draws lessons about the art of storytelling. The anthology was originally published under a different name in 1987 but has been out of print until this year when Roc re-issued it.
In my interview with him on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Silverberg touches on, among other things, his relationship with Isaac Asimov. At first, he knew and admired Asimov from his writing. But eventually, they became not only good friends but collaborators on several books, including the novelization of Asimov�s famous short story Nightfall
.Ever present in the interview are reminders of the wonder Silverberg felt as a boy reading science fiction. That wonder is all the more poignant now that Silverberg is in the autumn of his career (he says he doesn�t plan to publish any new novels although hasn�t ruled out writing an occasional essay or short story). �Science Fiction: 101 is aimed for the people who, like me, like Isaac [Asimov], like Ray Bradbury were beginners once.�
September 21, 2014
Max Gladstone and the Mystery of Inspiration
Max Gladstone is a busy guy. He�s marketing Full Fathom Five
, the third novel in his Craft Sequence even as he prepares for the release of the next book in his out-of-order series of stand-alone books. On top of that, he recently released an interactive text-based game called Choice of the Deathless. He writes weekly, thoughtful blog posts, keeps up with his fans on Twitter, and, I imagine, all the while is imagining in the back of his head an alternate world of necromancers, goddesses and lawyerly witches (or witchy lawyers?)
With so much going on, I�m grateful he had time to talk with me on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Gladstone got me thinking about the mystery of inspiration. In the interview, he cites a number of sparks that gave life to the �post-industrial urban fantasy� landscape of the Craft Sequence: the financial collapse of 2008, his years working as an English teacher in China, where he saw non-profits collaborate with less-than-savory for-profits to achieve worthwhile outcomes and the Horatio Alger-like transformations of children of poor Chinese farmers into world-trotting bankers and engineers.
, the third novel in his Craft Sequence even as he prepares for the release of the next book in his out-of-order series of stand-alone books. On top of that, he recently released an interactive text-based game called Choice of the Deathless. He writes weekly, thoughtful blog posts, keeps up with his fans on Twitter, and, I imagine, all the while is imagining in the back of his head an alternate world of necromancers, goddesses and lawyerly witches (or witchy lawyers?) With so much going on, I�m grateful he had time to talk with me on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Gladstone got me thinking about the mystery of inspiration. In the interview, he cites a number of sparks that gave life to the �post-industrial urban fantasy� landscape of the Craft Sequence: the financial collapse of 2008, his years working as an English teacher in China, where he saw non-profits collaborate with less-than-savory for-profits to achieve worthwhile outcomes and the Horatio Alger-like transformations of children of poor Chinese farmers into world-trotting bankers and engineers.
August 31, 2014
A Tip from Andy Weir: Build a Following
Andy Weir�s
The Martian
is an adventure both in and outside its pages. In the story, an astronaut abandoned on Mars struggles to survive in a deadly environment. In the real world, its author struggles to survive in a hostile publishing environment.
In the real world, of course, the author prevails. (To find out if the astronaut enjoys a similar triumph, you�ll have to read the book).
One of the keys to Andy Weir�s success is that he built an audience over many years, starting with cartoons and short stories posted on his website. One story in particular� The Egg �has been so popular, that fans have now translated it into dozens of languages.
�I had accumulated a few thousand readers to start with, before I�d written The Martian. And that gives you kind of a critical mass for word of mouth,� he tells me on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
He wrote and posted The Martian in installments on his site. It was only when some of his fans said they were having trouble downloading the The Martian (which he eventually compiled into a single book) to their Kindle that he decided to self-publish the entire manuscript on Amazon in 2012.
�I charged people 99 cents, which was the minimum [Amazon allowed], and I told people if you want it for free you can download it from my website. If you want to pay a buck to have Amazon put it on your Kindle, then here you go. And more people bought it then downloaded it for free because that�s just how much reach into the readership market that Amazon has. More people heard about it through Amazon than had heard about it from my site or my readers. So it started to sell really well and climb up the bestseller lists and that got the attention of the print publisher Crown.�
The Martian clearly has broad appeal. But one of the keys to its success has to do with all the hard work Weir put into building his fan base. This was not something he did in a calculated way; it happened naturally as his creative output�which until The Martian�s success was basically a hobby�slowly attracted more and more followers.
It�s a great story of a writer doing what he enjoys, giving pleasure to a readership he�s built through his own hard work; and the readership helping the writer, providing critical mass to launch him into the publishing stratosphere.
Astronaut Mark Watney is smart enough to survive on the unforgiving surface
of Mars, but my copy of The Martian is no match for Mr. Catfish.
is an adventure both in and outside its pages. In the story, an astronaut abandoned on Mars struggles to survive in a deadly environment. In the real world, its author struggles to survive in a hostile publishing environment.In the real world, of course, the author prevails. (To find out if the astronaut enjoys a similar triumph, you�ll have to read the book).
One of the keys to Andy Weir�s success is that he built an audience over many years, starting with cartoons and short stories posted on his website. One story in particular� The Egg �has been so popular, that fans have now translated it into dozens of languages.
�I had accumulated a few thousand readers to start with, before I�d written The Martian. And that gives you kind of a critical mass for word of mouth,� he tells me on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
He wrote and posted The Martian in installments on his site. It was only when some of his fans said they were having trouble downloading the The Martian (which he eventually compiled into a single book) to their Kindle that he decided to self-publish the entire manuscript on Amazon in 2012.
�I charged people 99 cents, which was the minimum [Amazon allowed], and I told people if you want it for free you can download it from my website. If you want to pay a buck to have Amazon put it on your Kindle, then here you go. And more people bought it then downloaded it for free because that�s just how much reach into the readership market that Amazon has. More people heard about it through Amazon than had heard about it from my site or my readers. So it started to sell really well and climb up the bestseller lists and that got the attention of the print publisher Crown.�
The Martian clearly has broad appeal. But one of the keys to its success has to do with all the hard work Weir put into building his fan base. This was not something he did in a calculated way; it happened naturally as his creative output�which until The Martian�s success was basically a hobby�slowly attracted more and more followers.
It�s a great story of a writer doing what he enjoys, giving pleasure to a readership he�s built through his own hard work; and the readership helping the writer, providing critical mass to launch him into the publishing stratosphere.
Astronaut Mark Watney is smart enough to survive on the unforgiving surface
of Mars, but my copy of The Martian is no match for Mr. Catfish.
August 22, 2014
Inventing Plausible Aliens
One of the things that impresses me about James Cambias� novel
A Darkling Sea
is its thoroughly believable depiction of the thoughts and feelings of alien characters.
When writing about an alien, an author can make up anything he/she wants. If he/she wants to give Creature X seven arms or the power to walk through walls, well� voila, an author can, as Captain Picard likes to say, �make it so.�
Unfortunately, it�s one thing to create an alien and another to convince a reader of the alien�s plausibility. As a fan of sci-fi and fantasy, I�m always eager to suspend disbelief, but a writer has to give me something to work with. And that�s one of the wonders of A Darkling Sea: Cambias gives the reader plenty of wonderful details to make his vision complete.
He introduces two alien societies�the Sholen and the Ilmataran. As he explains in our conversation on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, he came to understand the Ilmatarans through their biology �and extrapolated outward from there�:
You have a species which reproduces by spawning, which means there is virtually no difference between the sexes, and there is absolutely no parental impulse at all. Children are �they�re about at the same level people view squirrels.
He incorporates into the narrative the Ilmatarans� caste system, laws, relationships, forms of communication (through sonar and tying knots in cord), methods of scientific exploration, and on and on, weaving a complex and highly believable world at the bottom of a cold, black-as-night ocean.
Another noteworthy feature of the book is its deconstruction of the Prime Directive, the principle articulated in the Star Trek series that more advanced societies shouldn�t meddle in the inner workings of less advanced societies. In A Darkling Sea, the Sholen serve as self-appointed enforcers of the most rigid brand of Prime Directive. Under their rules, technologically advanced species (in this case, humans) are banned from any contact whatsoever with techno-inferiors (the Ilmatarans, who, in truth, may not be so backward after all).
is its thoroughly believable depiction of the thoughts and feelings of alien characters. When writing about an alien, an author can make up anything he/she wants. If he/she wants to give Creature X seven arms or the power to walk through walls, well� voila, an author can, as Captain Picard likes to say, �make it so.�
Unfortunately, it�s one thing to create an alien and another to convince a reader of the alien�s plausibility. As a fan of sci-fi and fantasy, I�m always eager to suspend disbelief, but a writer has to give me something to work with. And that�s one of the wonders of A Darkling Sea: Cambias gives the reader plenty of wonderful details to make his vision complete.
He introduces two alien societies�the Sholen and the Ilmataran. As he explains in our conversation on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, he came to understand the Ilmatarans through their biology �and extrapolated outward from there�:
You have a species which reproduces by spawning, which means there is virtually no difference between the sexes, and there is absolutely no parental impulse at all. Children are �they�re about at the same level people view squirrels.
He incorporates into the narrative the Ilmatarans� caste system, laws, relationships, forms of communication (through sonar and tying knots in cord), methods of scientific exploration, and on and on, weaving a complex and highly believable world at the bottom of a cold, black-as-night ocean.
Another noteworthy feature of the book is its deconstruction of the Prime Directive, the principle articulated in the Star Trek series that more advanced societies shouldn�t meddle in the inner workings of less advanced societies. In A Darkling Sea, the Sholen serve as self-appointed enforcers of the most rigid brand of Prime Directive. Under their rules, technologically advanced species (in this case, humans) are banned from any contact whatsoever with techno-inferiors (the Ilmatarans, who, in truth, may not be so backward after all).
August 3, 2014
My Path to Indie Publishing
It seemed miraculous when Shelbi Wescott�s
Virulent: The Release
appeared on my Kindle unbidden. As it turned out, my then 15-year-old son had bought it, and since we share the same Amazon account, it wasn�t so miraculous after all. Still, I took it as a sign that �indie� publishing had gone mainstream. After all, it meant that my son, who represented a new generation of readers, had no hang-ups (as I still did at that point) about reading a self-published book.
That started me down the path to publish my own books independently. Slowly my prejudice against self-publishing vanished, helped by the inspiring examples of folks like Ms. Wescott
and Hugh Howey and many others. Members of my writing workshop also encouraged me. They included our workshop leader, Jennifer Belle, who has experienced bestseller-dom as a conventionally published author, and Donna Brodie, executive director of The Writers Room in New York City, who has witnessed first-hand the often tumultuous and frequently disappointing experiences hundreds of writers have had during conventional agent-to-publisher-to-remainder-pile careers.
I thought because I already had an agent at a respected agency, I was crazy to publish my books myself. But now I realize I was insane to wait so long (six years in total) for my agent to peddle my manuscripts (my first book was a memoir about my husband and I adopting our son, my second a series of two sci-fi novels) with progressively decreasing enthusiasm. I was momentarily blinded by the fact that some editors seemed to like my books; in fact, one at a major house wanted to buy my memoir, but the �team� that makes the final decisions said no.
I thought if we just kept plugging away, and I kept revising in response to my agent�s and assorted editors� feedback, I�d eventually see my book(s) embraced by a mainstream house. But the pace was mind numbing. It inevitably took my agent a minimum of three months�and sometimes more�to read anything I sent him, and then often months for editors to respond to my manuscript, if they bothered to respond at all. The process was opaque, frustrating and deeply unsatisfying.
And what was I doing it for? Of course, there are authors who go from 0 to 60 with Porsche-like speed, advancing from obscurity to literary stardom at a tender age. But the vast majority of writers I know never make it to stardom. If they�re lucky enough to get published (and I�m convinced that luck has as much to do with getting published as the quality of the writing), most of them still need day jobs if they aren�t supported by a partner/spouse or an inheritance or don�t want to live with their parents or in abject poverty.
After fruitlessly pursuing conventional publishing for year after year�while writing every day, holding down a demanding job, and raising a family�self-publishing my sci-fi series seemed like a no brainer.
It seems as if many who eventually go the indie route have experienced something similar. Shelbi Wescott is a good example. As she explains in my interview with her on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, she spent 10 years writing (and re-writing) a novel but couldn�t get an agent. After that, she wrote a short story that she was proud of �and spent a really long time trying to get that published� to no avail. So when she finally wrote her three-part Virulent series, she had no desire to submit her work to that fruitless process again. Self-publishing had emerged as the obvious, best choice.
A book needs to be thoroughly vetted by wise readers, polished to a perfect pitch, copyedited within a pica of its life, and beautifully packaged. But there�s no reason an author can�t assemble his or her own team of professionals to carry out these tasks. And there�s no magic formula that says those things need to take a year or more, as they so often do after a conventional publisher acquires a new manuscript.
Once I�d decided to self-publish my series, it took me six months to make the two books ready for sale. I hired a graphic designer (Roy Migabon, the same talented cover artist that Ms. Wescott used for Virulent). I won the bidding for the services of a copyeditor at a fundraising auction for the New York Writers Coalition. I solicited blurbs from writers I respected. And I laid out the books myself. (I would have hired a graphic designer to design the interior as well, but I�ve had lots of experience laying out books and publications as part of my day job).
The challenge these days is marketing the book while continuing to write and to work on my newest project, hosting New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. But I�m reassured by the fact that there are plenty of fellow writers sharing my path, and, as Ms. Wescott notes, indie authors are an exceptionally supportive group, willing to share their experience and wisdom. I�m glad to be among their number.
Stay tuned in two weeks for my podcast with James L. Cambias, author of A Darkling Sea. I�m reading it now, and it�s quite a page-turner.
appeared on my Kindle unbidden. As it turned out, my then 15-year-old son had bought it, and since we share the same Amazon account, it wasn�t so miraculous after all. Still, I took it as a sign that �indie� publishing had gone mainstream. After all, it meant that my son, who represented a new generation of readers, had no hang-ups (as I still did at that point) about reading a self-published book. That started me down the path to publish my own books independently. Slowly my prejudice against self-publishing vanished, helped by the inspiring examples of folks like Ms. Wescott
and Hugh Howey and many others. Members of my writing workshop also encouraged me. They included our workshop leader, Jennifer Belle, who has experienced bestseller-dom as a conventionally published author, and Donna Brodie, executive director of The Writers Room in New York City, who has witnessed first-hand the often tumultuous and frequently disappointing experiences hundreds of writers have had during conventional agent-to-publisher-to-remainder-pile careers. I thought because I already had an agent at a respected agency, I was crazy to publish my books myself. But now I realize I was insane to wait so long (six years in total) for my agent to peddle my manuscripts (my first book was a memoir about my husband and I adopting our son, my second a series of two sci-fi novels) with progressively decreasing enthusiasm. I was momentarily blinded by the fact that some editors seemed to like my books; in fact, one at a major house wanted to buy my memoir, but the �team� that makes the final decisions said no.
I thought if we just kept plugging away, and I kept revising in response to my agent�s and assorted editors� feedback, I�d eventually see my book(s) embraced by a mainstream house. But the pace was mind numbing. It inevitably took my agent a minimum of three months�and sometimes more�to read anything I sent him, and then often months for editors to respond to my manuscript, if they bothered to respond at all. The process was opaque, frustrating and deeply unsatisfying.
And what was I doing it for? Of course, there are authors who go from 0 to 60 with Porsche-like speed, advancing from obscurity to literary stardom at a tender age. But the vast majority of writers I know never make it to stardom. If they�re lucky enough to get published (and I�m convinced that luck has as much to do with getting published as the quality of the writing), most of them still need day jobs if they aren�t supported by a partner/spouse or an inheritance or don�t want to live with their parents or in abject poverty.
After fruitlessly pursuing conventional publishing for year after year�while writing every day, holding down a demanding job, and raising a family�self-publishing my sci-fi series seemed like a no brainer.
It seems as if many who eventually go the indie route have experienced something similar. Shelbi Wescott is a good example. As she explains in my interview with her on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, she spent 10 years writing (and re-writing) a novel but couldn�t get an agent. After that, she wrote a short story that she was proud of �and spent a really long time trying to get that published� to no avail. So when she finally wrote her three-part Virulent series, she had no desire to submit her work to that fruitless process again. Self-publishing had emerged as the obvious, best choice.
A book needs to be thoroughly vetted by wise readers, polished to a perfect pitch, copyedited within a pica of its life, and beautifully packaged. But there�s no reason an author can�t assemble his or her own team of professionals to carry out these tasks. And there�s no magic formula that says those things need to take a year or more, as they so often do after a conventional publisher acquires a new manuscript.
Once I�d decided to self-publish my series, it took me six months to make the two books ready for sale. I hired a graphic designer (Roy Migabon, the same talented cover artist that Ms. Wescott used for Virulent). I won the bidding for the services of a copyeditor at a fundraising auction for the New York Writers Coalition. I solicited blurbs from writers I respected. And I laid out the books myself. (I would have hired a graphic designer to design the interior as well, but I�ve had lots of experience laying out books and publications as part of my day job).
The challenge these days is marketing the book while continuing to write and to work on my newest project, hosting New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. But I�m reassured by the fact that there are plenty of fellow writers sharing my path, and, as Ms. Wescott notes, indie authors are an exceptionally supportive group, willing to share their experience and wisdom. I�m glad to be among their number.
Stay tuned in two weeks for my podcast with James L. Cambias, author of A Darkling Sea
. I�m reading it now, and it�s quite a page-turner.
July 20, 2014
Writing in 2 Languages (at the Same Time)
One of the many strengths of science fiction is its ability to take a critical eye to present-world problems by speculating about their impact on the distant future. Emmi Itäranta, who joins me on the current episode of New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy, takes full advantage of that strength in her debut novel
Memory of Water
.
In Memory of Water the future is marked by water scarcity. The origins of the problem are murky to protagonist 17-year-old Noria but not to us: Itäranta leaves readers clues that her fictional Scandinavian Union�s semi-primitive society and authoritarian government have their roots in our contemporary failure to address global warming.
In our conversation, global warming is just the tip of the (melting) iceberg. I found it particularly fascinating that Ms. Itäranta wrote Memory of Water simultaneously in Finnish and English�two languages that, she says, are �at extreme ends of how languages work.�
Here�s more of what she said on the subject:
Another remarkable aspect of Memory of Water is the fact that Ms. Itäranta has created in Noria a heroine whose strength comes not through, say, her skill as a fighter (� la Katniss Everdeen) or through magic spells (think Hermione Granger) but through her quiet, careful, and brave determination to search for truth and do what�s right.
Next up on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy: Shelbi Wescott, author of the Virulent series.
. In Memory of Water the future is marked by water scarcity. The origins of the problem are murky to protagonist 17-year-old Noria but not to us: Itäranta leaves readers clues that her fictional Scandinavian Union�s semi-primitive society and authoritarian government have their roots in our contemporary failure to address global warming.
In our conversation, global warming is just the tip of the (melting) iceberg. I found it particularly fascinating that Ms. Itäranta wrote Memory of Water simultaneously in Finnish and English�two languages that, she says, are �at extreme ends of how languages work.�
Here�s more of what she said on the subject:
English and Finnish are extremely different languages. English is a language that has a huge amount of words. The vocabulary is massive, compared to Finnish anyway, but the grammar is relatively simple, whereas Finnish is a language where you have a very small vocabulary but the grammar is very complex and you can do a lot with those few words because of the grammar. So in some ways you could say they are almost at extreme ends of how languages work.
For me, looking at the work in both languages forced me to be extremely careful. It forced me to throw away anything that was unnecessary. It forced me to look at each word and each sentence very closely on an almost microscopic level. So I felt that when I finished the manuscript, even if people didn�t like it, at least I�d be able to tell why I�d made each of the choices that I�d made writing it because I�d had looked at the story through two languages rather than just one. It forced me to be precise and I think that was helpful for the book.
Another remarkable aspect of Memory of Water is the fact that Ms. Itäranta has created in Noria a heroine whose strength comes not through, say, her skill as a fighter (� la Katniss Everdeen) or through magic spells (think Hermione Granger) but through her quiet, careful, and brave determination to search for truth and do what�s right.
Next up on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy: Shelbi Wescott, author of the Virulent series
.
July 7, 2014
Welcome to the New Books Network
My inaugural podcast as host of New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy is now available on the New Books Network.
I supposed I�m biased, but I think the New Books Network is amazing. It�s concise description as �a consortium of podcasts dedicated to raising the level of public discourse by introducing serious authors to serious audiences� belies its vast depth and reach.
It has over 100 channels dedicated to topics as varied as comics, mathematics, food, global conflict, theater, digital culture, archeology and on and on. And this oasis of enlightened conversation is run entirely by volunteers and overseen by Marshall Poe, its editor-in-chief, founder, and all-around workhorse.
I was honored that Marshall asked me to host the channel although nervous at first about the time it would take away from my own writing. Then I realized what a wonderful and fun opportunity it was. I�d assiduously avoided reading too much science fiction and fantasy so as not to unconsciously steal ideas for my own writing. But hosting has given me a chance to test an entirely new approach: spark my imagination by immersing myself deeply in new works of science fiction and fantasy.
My plan is to produce a new podcast every two weeks. My first interview is with Greg van Eekhout, author of California Bones
(Tor, 2014), which came out in June. In this first of a trilogy, van Eekhout creates a completely new, internally consistent world. The primary premise of this world is that magic is real, and the rulers of the Kingdom of Southern California draw power and wealth from potions derived from the bones of magical creatures. Interestingly, I�ve scheduled an interview with James Cambias, author of A Darkling Sea
, who recently wrote an interesting blog post about fictional magic and the great lengths authors will go to in order to create their own internally consistent set of magical mechanics. To give you a preview of what�s to come, I�m also planning interviews with Emmi It�ranta about her Memory of Water
(Harper Voyager, 2014), Shelbi Wescott about her Virulent series (Amazon Digital Services, 2013) and Robert K. Silverberg about his Science Fiction: 101: Exploring the Craft of Science Fiction (Roc, 2014).If anyone has suggestions for other authors to interview, please send them my way.
