Drew
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Jeff, you've created several awesome settings for your novels (Veniss, Area X, Ambergris) - but then you leave them, headed off to even more inventive places. Do you ever miss them, those old haunts? Slash do you ever think about going back? I was inspired to ask because I had a dream the other night where I was back in Ambergris during the festival... and it was a pleasant, if dangerous, pseudo-memory.
Jeff VanderMeer
Hey, Drew. I'm so immersed in the world of the Southern Reach and Area X that it's hard to answer the question, perhaps. I'm loving writing about the real world, even if it's a somewhat altered version. There's a refreshing freedom in that. But although it's possible that there might be a short story or two lurking around the edges of the Southern Reach novels, this series is done with the third book. Which means I'll be moving on to a couple of new novels, including Borne, which is kind of like Godzilla versus Mothra with a Chekov play going on in the foreground. Um, but more synthesized than that sounds!
As for Ambergris--I do want to write fiction set about 20 years after the last novel, in the morass of politics and factions that the city has become by then. But it's probably going to take the form of a graphic novel because I want to slip in and out of a lot of different points of view, and don't think a novel is the best format for that.
As for Ambergris--I do want to write fiction set about 20 years after the last novel, in the morass of politics and factions that the city has become by then. But it's probably going to take the form of a graphic novel because I want to slip in and out of a lot of different points of view, and don't think a novel is the best format for that.
More Answered Questions
João
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Reading through your Wonderbook, I found, on page 30 "(...) My novel Annihilation was inspired by a dream in which was walking down the spiral staircase of a submerged tower, descending into the ground below." Would the origin of that dream be the staircase at Quinta da Regaleira, in Sintra, Portugal, where you have been a couple of years ago? Best regards to you and Ann, from João, in Lisbon
Sheryl
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Regarding POV in Wonderbook: What is the best way to solidify an omniscient objective POV in the mind of the reader as they enter a story – without making the narrator a defined presence or character in his own right? I find that readers sometimes latch on to the first character to speak or act and respond as though the story was written in third person limited. Thus, POV shifts read as inappropriate head hopping.
Christopher Walborn
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
As a reader, one of the best things about discovering a new author is the opportunity to discover additional writers through following the author's influences, peers, and the new writers championed by the author. What authors or specific works would you like to introduce to someone who's mostly familiar with "literary" classics? (I don't like the literary/genre dichotomy, but what easier way to describe it?)
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