A Conversation With Margo Lanagan
An interview with Trent Walters
On writing fantasy:
"The main reason I started considering fantasy was because the Australian market is so small that a person is very unlikely to make enough
money to live on from writing unless she writes in an international genre. And as crime and romance don't appeal, that left SF, fantasy
and horror! Then there's the added benefit that you can bung in any old weird Australian animal and mess about with the seasons and the
language all you like, and if you call it fantasy, the xenophobia falls away."
A Conversation With Miller Lau
An interview with John Berlyne
On growing up in Edinburgh:
"Well, I grew up in Edinburgh -- it's my home town. In fact, you could say I am a survivor of
Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting generation. I grew up at the same time, in the same housing estates he talks
about in his novels. What I feel Walsh chooses to ignore is the strength and warmth of the Scots
character -- qualities which I hope are evident in my own writing -- and that's sad. He chooses not to
focus on our dignity and humour but rather on the grimness of growing up in that environment."
A Conversation With Ursula K. Le Guin
An interview with Nick Gevers
On Taoism:
"...but what happened to the practice and teaching of Taoism under
Mao that was the initial impetus of [The Telling]. I was shocked to find that a 2500-year-old body of thought,
belief, ritual, and art could be, had been, essentially destroyed within ten years, and shocked to find I
hadn't known it, though it happened during my adult lifetime. The atrocity, and my long ignorance of it,
haunted me. I had to write about it, in my own sidelong fashion."
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A Conversation With Mary Soon Lee
An interview with Trent Walters
On the trepidation of writing short short stories:
"I think there are writers who find it difficult, and hence perhaps frightening, to write short
stories let alone short-shorts. But I suspect that another factor is the economics of it all. Even at
20 cents a word, a short-short won't earn much money, yet the marketing effort is the same as for a
longer story."
A Conversation With Jonathan Lethem
An interview with Zachary Houle
On absorbing literary and artistic knowledge in early life:
"I was very lucky to be brought up in what was basically an artist's household, where reading and going to museums was a
privileged activity. It was seen as basic that you'd absorb a lot of art and do a lot of reading. That's a habit I've never
lost. There's nothing as basic to writing fiction as reading it voraciously, and I think reading it diversely. And defining
your own obvious tastes and inclinations, and finding out what other kinds of fiction are out there. It's enormously
important, and that's how I entered the world.
A Conversation With Tom Lloyd
An interview with Sandy Auden
On developing the white-eye species:
"Well I started with the image of the deserted palace but very little beyond that, so I sat and just began to jot ideas
down. I've always loved the parts of ancient mythology where the gods are active in the world and meddle as much as
they can. I started with almost a Norse mindset of deities; squabbling, argumentative and lacking any form of
subtlety. From that, it seemed reasonable that their chosen mortal representatives would be similar; principally
be built to fight and overawe the people they're going to be ruling, so white-eyes became these oversized figures
of supernatural strength and speed."
A Conversation With Karin Lowachee
An interview with Alexander von Thorn
On background music:
"Music is a muse for me. I usually write with it on. Certain types of music will help the mood of a scene. For
instance, in fight scenes, I usually play harder music. The lyrics and vocalists have a lot to do with mood as well. The
lyrics go with a theme, or the psychology the characters are going through at the time. Music really does influence me,
and I don't think I'm alone in that as a writer. I pull a lot of different varieties of music, depending on what scene
I'm on or who I'm dealing with. For Joss, it was anything from new metal or rock guitar music to ballads or electronic music."
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