Daniel O'Malley Interview

Daniel O’Malley is an Australian who graduated from Michigan State University and earned a Master’s Degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He currently works for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, writing press releases for government investigations of plane crashes and runaway boats. More impressive to me though is the fact that he's written a book, a very good book called The Rook. I won't get into details on the book here because I already did that in this post. Mr. O'Malley was kind enough to take some time away from writing his government releases to answer a few questions about his writing.

First of all, let me congratulate you on The Rook. I certainly enjoyed it and from reviews I've read of it, I wasn't alone. There are aspects of the book that reminded me of Torchwood, Men in Black, and X-Men. Were any of these inspirational in the writing of The Rook?

Thanks so much, I’m really glad you enjoyed it. As to influences on The Rook, there’s been quite a few. In terms of approach, one of the writers I most admire is China Mieville. His books are always so crammed fulled of ideas, they make for a very rich and detailed world. I tried to have something similar – glancing mentions of things that suggested a vast history.

As to the works you mentioned above, well, I enjoyed Men in Black very much (and I loved the animated series when it was on). The thing that really caught my eye was the blasé attitude of the staff when dealing with the most astounding and insane situations. And I was a tremendous X-Men fan as a kid. I thought it was so cool how everyone had their unique power and they formed a (usually) coherent team, so it’s definitely something that impacted on me.

Torchwood hadn’t come out when I started writing the book, I don’t think. I was certainly well-along by the time I heard about it. In any case, I’ve only seen one episode of it, and while I liked it, I don’t think it had much of an influence on me. The idea of a Government organization that secretly deals with the bizarre is an old one, and it was one I enjoyed playing with very much.

The main character in your book, Myfanwy Thomas, is a woman suffering from amnesia who is in possession of a series of letters left for her by her previous self. That allowed you to write her as two separate and quite different characters. Was that something that evolved as you wrote the story or was it something you planned from the beginning in order to allow you to show the transformation she underwent?

Originally, the letters from the old, pre-amnesia self (‘Thomas’) were mainly going to be a useful way to provide background information. A nice way to give infodump. But then it became important (and amusing) to me that there be some significant differences between the old Myfanwy Thomas and the new Myfanwy Thomas. The letters were already going to be a part of it, and as I wrote them, Thomas became very much her own character. I grew more and more fond of her, and it was sad, because the whole book was based on the fact that she was going to be destroyed, before the book even began.

Gestalt was one of my favorite characters in the book. He's one person with four individual bodies which he's able to operate simultaneously. I tend to refer to him as male but since one of his bodies is female, I'm not sure that's technically correct. Where did the idea for that character come from?

Gestalt came out of me helping my friend move house. I was carrying furniture down all these flights of stairs, and I thought ‘this would be so much easier if I had a bunch of bodies.’ And voila! I had Gestalt! I had to put down the thing I was carrying, so that I could write down the idea.

Most first-time novelists have the luxury of spending years writing and fine tuning their first book trying to get it published. When they do get picked up by a publisher, I would think that the writing process has to change because now there are deadlines to deal with and other people involved in the creative process. How has getting published changed the way you approach writing?

Not a lot has changed, to be perfectly honest. If you’re going to write, there’s always something in the back of your head that pushes you to write – whether it’s a deadline or the hunger to get the story told. I always tried to be disciplined about it, even before I was published – even before I found an agent. I set myself the daily minimum of pages (2 on weekdays, 4 on weekend days), and would then really, really try to hit it. Of course, I failed frequently (and continue to do so.) Sometimes the lightning hits, and you’re pouring out text, and sometimes you’ll find anything else to do instead of write.

I understand The Rook is the beginning of a series and that you're currently at work on the sequel. When is it scheduled to be published? What do your readers have to look forward to in this next one?

I am labouring away on the sequel, and while I’m going to have it to my editor early in 2013 (he says firmly), I don’t know when it will actually escape out into the world in book form. There’s a whole long procedure that has to be gone through. Editing. Re-editing. A whole lot of things. So, it’ll be a while yet. But, in the meantime, I’m very excited about it. The next book is going to follow two new characters (although Rook Myfanwy Thomas will feature prominently.) It’s a story about diplomacy (and a pointed lack thereof), supernatural terrorism, and the etiquette surrounding afternoon tea. Also, it’s going to explore Europe, and see how some other countries deal with their supernatural problems.

Thanks so much and good luck with the next book.

Interview with A.J. Jacobs

If I were to pick an author I think I would most enjoy having lunch with, A.J. Jacobs would definitely be in consideration. From his books he comes across as very funny, unassuming, and dare I say a little unbalanced? He is the editor at large of Esquire magazine who has written four books, all of which I highly recommend. Three of his books have chronicled his efforts of self-improvement and one of them, a series of month-long experiments in which he used himself as the guinea pig.

His books will make you laugh and sometimes make you squirm as he boldly subjects himself to situations that your average self aware individual would never consider. Here is a real quick interview with the author:

You set out initially to improve yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically. Now that you've addressed all three aspects of your life, how successful do you think you were? Do you think you're a significantly different person today having gone through those years of self-improvement, compared to the person you'd otherwise be?

Well, part of being a better person is being humble. So I don’t want to say I’m the Most Improved Person in the World. (Or that I’m the Humblest Person in the World). But I will say, my life has changed in hundreds of ways, and most of them for the better.

Numerous times for your books you knowingly placed yourself in situations that a normal man would never have subjected himself to, (i.e. attending a pole dancing aerobics class, your month of radical honesty, and your month of abiding by every command your wife could come up with). But when you write about those situations, you write about them as if you don't have any reservations. Was that really the way you felt going into them? If not, was there any one thing you were most anxious about subjecting yourself to?

I do get nervous. In fact, sometimes it can almost be an out of body experience. When I practiced Radical Honesty and said whatever was on my mind, part of me was observing myself with disbelief. But I put myself into these situations because they are usually fascinating, and usually end up improving my life. Even pole dancing is healthy.

Many of the experiments you've subjected yourself to also had a significant, and not necessarily enjoyable impact on your wife as well. Is it safe to assume she demands significant gifts for her birthday, anniversary, Valentine's Day, etc? Did she ever veto any of your plans?

Yes, my wife has the patience of Job. Or actually more patience. I learned from studying the Bible that Job actually gets kind of short-tempered and cranky. Though you can’t really blame the guy. Anyway, my wife is patient, and does receive significant gifts. In my book The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as An Experiment,  I let her get a little payback. I spent a month doing whatever she said. Essentially, I was her servant. She became drunk with power, it was kind of scary. As for vetoes, yes, she’s nixed quite a few. Several readers, for instance, suggested that we reenact all the positions in the kama sutra. She put the kibosh on that quite quickly.

In your latest book Drop Dead Healthy you took the approach of trying to achieve perfect health for one part of your body at a time. If there was only one piece of health advice that you think everyone needs to know about and implement into their life, what would it be?

If I had to choose one, I’d say: Stop sitting! The research on the effects of sedentary life scared the bejesus out of me. Sitting for more than four hours a day raises the risk of heart disease by up to 60 percent. If I’m sitting, I try to get up every half hour and walk around for a couple of minutes. I actually took it to the extreme: I bought a treadmill, balanced my laptop on top of it, and wrote my book while walking. It took me about 1,200 miles.

What's next? Are you working on a new book currently? If so, can you tell me anything about it?

My kids want me to write a book about Spending a Year Eating Nothing But Candy. They say they would join me in this quest. Not sure that would be a big seller. I do have a few half-baked or quarter-baked ideas, but I haven’t settled on which one yet. I think taking a month off is probably healthy.


Thanks very much and I look forward to whatever you come up with next.

Brandon Sanderson Interview

Have I mentioned before how much I really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's books? Even if I have, I'm going to mention it again. I really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's books.

He writes fantasy novels, but they're wholly original fantasy books--no dwarfs, dragons, elves, or orcs. Not that those types of books are bad, I just think they're stereotypical. And with the exception of Tolkien, I've never been interested in reading them. Sanderson's books on the other hand are packed full of action, his characters are very well developed, his dialogue is witty and humorous, and there's always a system of magic present that blows me away with its originality.  

His books are New York Times bestsellers and what is probably the biggest testament to his writing abilities . . . he was selected to finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series following the author's death. One day I need to read those.

Here's a brief interview with the author.

The first time I went to one of your book signings, it was for your second book Mistborn and I was able to walk right up to the table and get my book signed. I think it took about two minutes total. The last time I made it to one of your signings it was for The Way of Kings, and it was a zoo at the bookstore. How much of the increase in your popularity do you attribute to your opportunity to finish Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and how much is because your own books have increased in popularity?

First of all, thank you for coming to one of my signings in the early days where I had to try to convince people to come over and let me tell them about my books! I really appreciate people like you who stopped by. As for your question, it's honestly hard to separate which sales come from my Wheel of Time involvement and which sales come from my other books.

However, I did get two huge boosts in sales. When the announcement was made that I would be finishing The Wheel of Time, all of my books jumped up to having 'first week' sales again. Most entertainment mediums follow the same slope. Huge first week sales, then a tapering off on a steady curve. (Sleeper hits and new books by first time authors don't follow this.)

When The Gathering Storm came out, I got another big boost, which was again a kind of 'First week' sales thing--though in that case, the bigger boost came around Christmas. It seemed that people bought Gathering Storm, read it, thought about it, then asked for one of my books for Christmas.

In the long run, it's going to be very hard--as I said--to separate how many readers tried me out because of the Wheel of Time. As books take on lives of their own (as Mistborn did) they gain a readership through word of mouth. However, how much of that 'taking on a life of its own' happened because of the initial WoT boosts?

I've read interviews with you where you've mentioned the numerous books that you have yet to write. By the sound of it, the next twenty years of your writing career sound mapped out already. Is that the way you see it?

I have more ideas than I could ever find the time to write about and I'll always have random side projects here and there that aren't necessarily planned, to keep me fresh, but for the most part, I have my future books planned out. I wrote a blog post about it awhile back that explains things in more detail (a few things have changed since I wrote it, but not too much.) Here is a link if you haven't seen it.

Do you devote all of your writing time to the current book you're working on? If not, how much time do spend on books that won't be coming out for years to come either outlining, world-building, or even writing them?

Because I'm trying hard to finish The wheel of Time right now, all of my writing time is spent on that. However, at other times I might be writing one book, revising another book and brainstorm a third. As a writer I'm essentially always writing or thinking about writing pretty much all of the time.

I first heard about Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles series from one of your blog posts and absolutely love it. Are there other writers or books that you think are flying under the radar that you'd recommend?

Some of my favorite authors are Anne Mcaffery (If you haven’t read her books I don’t know why you’re reading mine. You need to go and read her’s immediately!) I like Guy Gavriel Kay’s works quite a bit. Tigana is a wonderful work. Melanie Rawn is a great author, I especially like her epic fantasy, I haven’t read her urban fantasy but Dragon Prince is one of my favorite books of all time. And Terry Pratchett (start with the books in the middle of his career, not the beginning because his books get better and better as he goes along.)

On your website, the completion status for the next book in the Stormlight series has been stuck on 0% for too long in my opinion. When do plan to get it written? And is there any hopes that Michael Whelan will do the cover?

I plan to jump right into the next book in the Stormlight Archive series as soon as I finish up with The Wheel of Time. I feel extremely honored that Michael Whelan came out of semi-retirement to do the first cover so I can't rightly expect him to paint the next one but we'll just have to see what happens. It was a dream come true to have him do the cover of one of my books.

Thanks so much for your time.

Matthew Pearl Interview

Matthew Pearl is a New York Times bestselling author of four historical novels: The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow, The Last Dickens, and the recently released The Technologists. Several years ago I picked up his first book, and despite knowing very little about Dante, enjoyed it a lot and realized that Pearl was an author I didn't want to forget about. Fortunately for me I didn't, because his next two books dealt with two of my favorite authors (Poe & Dickens). I recently read and reviewed his latest book and was excited when he agreed to a brief interview.

First of all, I've enjoyed reading your books. I think historical fiction appeals to me because of the alternate version of historical events and individuals that it offers. I would imagine it's not the best genre for a writer to choose if he or she is not willing to go through extensive research during the writing process. What type of research do you go through when writing a book?

I'd guess it all depends on the writer and his or her goals, which within the historical fiction category can differ very much. That said, research has definitely been part of each of my novels and, as you say, it's extensive enough that you have to know what you're getting into. The type and amount of research changes with each book, and varies within the book's aspects. It can range from digging up historical maps and blueprints to going through newspaper articles to reading travel guides, novels, memoirs and other full length books contemporary with your setting. I've been fortunate enough that for the last couple of books, starting with The Last Dickens, I've found a great research assistant who helps me out with collecting some of the material and strategizing my approach to the research. There's a fair amount of tension sometimes when to concentrate on writing and when to concentrate on researching, and whether interrupting one midway will cause problems. It's a juggling act, definitely.

Your first three books revolved around events in literary history, with The Technologists you transitioned away from that. Why the change? and can we expect to see more books from you in the future that deal with literary events?

Yes, my next (fifth) novel will be back to literary history and, for whatever reason, the majority the ideas I have deal with literary history one way or another. There's even some literary references that slipped into The Technologists, for instance a character who appears who is in a theatrical production of a Dickens novel. But as you say The Technologists--and its focus on the rise of what seems to the world to be dangerous science--is a change for me. After three novels it felt like a good time to stretch myself in a new direction, although of course the 19th century Boston setting, and a story that you'd call a thriller, carries over from the other novels. I had a great time with the new elements.

In the short story that you contributed to the collection Sherlock Holmes in America, you brought the famous detective to Boston to solve a crime. I was wondering if The Technologists originated during the writing of that story since I think Holmes would have been impressed with the deductive methods used by the MIT students.

You're on the money! I had the idea for an MIT novel years before, but it was while writing "The Adventure of the Boston Dromio" for Sherlock Holmes in America that the idea came back to me. I was trying to think where Holmes would visit and thought of MIT.

I think all of your books so far would translate very successfully to movies. How likely is it that that might happen?

Well, I appreciate the thought. The truth is, historical stories, especially set in a large city like Boston, would cost so much to produce -- well over 50 million dollars -- it's pretty unlikely. There have been almost no 19th century thrillers as movies, at least until the recent Sherlock Holmes movies, but those are made because of the Holmes brand, sort of in spite of the setting.

Have you started writing your next book? If so, is there anything you're willing to say about it at this point?

I have started on the fifth novel. In addition to mentioning that it's literary history, I could add that it revolves around a "bookaneer," the sort of literary bounty hunters I introduced in The Last Dickens. So far, it's been fun to work on.

Thanks so much for your time.

An Interview with Author Boyd Morrison

Boyd Morrison is the author of two action-packed thrillers: The Ark and The Vault. He also has a pretty impressive resume outside of writing. His jobs have included working on the Space Station Freedom project at the Johnson Space Center, working for Microsoft on Xbox games, and in 2003 he was a Jeopardy! champion. He also enjoys acting and has appeared in commercials, films, and various stage plays.

Me - I've read several Artifact Thrillers starting with The Da Vinci Code of course and am always surprised when I do my own research to find out how much of the story is based on facts that seem to have been forgotten for so long. What's involved in the research you undertake in order to find an idea that you can base a book on?

BM - So far I've taken on very well-known mysteries or legends: Noah's Ark in The Ark, the Midas touch in The Vault, and the Roswell incident in The Roswell Conspiracy. When I start thinking about the plot, I do a lot of Googling to find out what books and sites can give me information about the subject, and that usually leads to some interesting serendipity that I can then use in the books. For instance, when researching The Vault I found fascinating information about ancient engineer Archimedes and the puzzling Antikythera Mechanism, both real subjects that I was able to tie to Midas. My research also led me to incredible real-life locations like the British Museum, the Parthenon, and the extensive tunnel system under Naples, Italy.

Me- You were able to land a publishing deal through a pretty non-traditional route. You posted The Ark on Amazon's Kindle Store and it really took off, becoming more popular than the books of some well-established authors. Do you think your success is indicative of where the publishing industry is headed?

BM - I think many careers will take off from the self-publishing and e-publishing world like mine did. In fact many authors have already done so. Look at Amanda Hocking and Bella Andre, both incredibly successful self-published authors. Amanda Hocking started off by self-pubbing and then inked a two-million-dollar deal with St. Martin's Press, while Bella Andre went the other direction, from a traditional publishing gig with Bantam to now enjoying tremendous sales as a self-published author. It's an exciting world, where authors have more options and negotiating leverage than they used to, and I think that will only grow.

Me - Your books are the type that I have a tough time putting down because they're moving so fast and the action is intense. Do you experience the same thing when you're writing them? Or are you pretty regimented in your writing schedule?

BM - I don't have a strict writing schedule. I tend to be more goal-oriented than time-oriented. I spend a lot of pre-writing time on the research so that when I get down to the novel, I have a good idea where it's headed. Then when I'm actually writing that novel, I try to finish a chapter a day (5-6 pages), and I put a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter, which makes it exciting for me to get started the next day. However, even though I do much of my research ahead of time, there's always room for those story epiphanies during the writing process that are like jolts of adrenaline. Sometimes those require rewriting earlier chapters, but they're definitely worth it.

Me - What do you consider your greatest strength as a writer and conversely, your biggest weakness?

BM - I think I'm best at the action, pacing, and cliffhangers that keep you wanting to stay up reading just one more chapter. As a tradeoff to keep the story moving, I don't spend a lot of time on scene description, just enough to give the reader a sense of place. I want readers to bring their own imaginations into the equation, which means I won't win any awards for a lavish chronicle of the unique settings in my books.

Me - What can you tell me about your upcoming book The Roswell Conspiracy? Any other books in the works?

BM - The Roswell Conspiracy is the third book in the Tyler Locke series after The Ark and The Vault. In this latest adventure, coming out this summer, Tyler must prevent a world-changing catastrophe by deciphering the link between the Roswell incident, the 1908 Tunguska blast in Siberia, and the mysterious Nazca lines of Peru.

Now that The Roswell Conspiracy is off to the printer, I'm hard at work on Tyler Locke 4. And you will definitely know the legend he's investigating in the next book.

Thanks so much for your time. I’m looking forward to The Roswell Conspiracy.

Brock Clarke

Brock Clarke teaches creative writing at Bowdoin College in Maine and is the author of three novels: The Ordinary White Boy, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, and most recently Exley. I have yet to read the first one, but the other two were both exellent and unique enough that I wanted to ask him some questions about his writing. Here's what he had to say:

I've read your last two books and the thing that stood out to me the most in both of them was the main character. Both Sam Pulsifer and Miller Le Ray were very intriguing and not what I'd consider typical protagonists. What was the reaction you received from your readers regarding them?

The reaction has been mostly positive. I mean, if you like these books, then you like their narrators, and I'm supposing the opposite is true, too. And when I say "like" I mean aesthetically (which is to say, people like the way they're written) and also, I guess, personally. I only mention this because occasionally people complain that my characters/narrators are unlikable. By which I think they mean that my characters/narrators are not people they necessarily want to marry, or something. And my reaction to that is, good: because sometimes the people we marry would make bad characters.

While reading both of those books, I spent most of the book wondering how much of what was going on was reality or merely a product of the main characters' imaginations. Before you write the book, do you have the story pretty well mapped out in your mind from beginning to end, or how much do the story and the characters evolve during the writing process?

I don't have it mapped out, for better or worse. I had a clearer conception of things with Exley--about what was going on in Miller's head, and what the reality was--and I ended up writing a fairly finished first draft pretty quickly. But then, upon smart second look, I realized that my conception of things was a little too certain, and that what was going on outside Miller's head wasn't as clear as it needed to be for the reader. Which is where Doctor Pahnee ended up coming on. He was the best thing that happened to that book's second draft: he became a reader's advocate, even though he himself is not necessarily totally reliable.

With Arsonist's Guide, I had nothing mapped out, which ended up getting me into considerable trouble with my early drafts, after which I was in total despair. But then, once I hit upon Sam's voice, things came relatively easily and plot points appeared as needed, which is sometimes better than as planned.

Both Sam and Miller seemed to have a difficult time dealing with and accepting the world around them as it actually was and tried to make it conform to their own senses of reality. Where does your inspiration for characters like that come from? How much do you think all of us do that to one extent or another?

I think that's true of some of us. I wouldn't want to presume to speak for the entire human race. But for me, the most interesting people--on page, and otherwise--have a difficult time dealing with and accepting the world around them. Because when they try to change the world, or lie about it, or themselves, then odd things happen, and then other people react to odd things happening, and before you know it you have a book, or a life.

What type of a reaction to your books do you hope for when you write them?

Universal admiration. But I'll settle for, and welcome, random bits of praise from strangers over the internet. I do love that. Although universal admiration would also be pretty great.

What can you say about what you're working on right now and when might it be published?

I'm working on a novel called The Happiest People in the World. It's about people from Denmark and also people from upstate New York, and also terrorists, cartoonists, and high school guidance counselors. It's due to my publisher within the year. It's actually due within the half year, but I'm just going to go ahead and say "within the year" and hope that sticks.

Some Questions for Author Eric Garcia

I'm a big fan of Eric Garcia's books. He's written three "dino-mafia-crime" books which take place in a world where not all dinosaurs went extinct, they merely evolved into smaller dinos, and now--with the help of adhesives, straps, and latex human suits, walk among the unwitting human population. 

His other three books contain no dinosaurs, but definitely contain Garcia's sense of humor, satire, and wit. Matchstick Men was made into a movie staring Nicholas Cage and Sam Rockwell. Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys is a "hard-core chick-lit satire" about a woman fed up with the seemingly endless shortcomings of the men she dates and decides to enroll them in a "finishing school" in her basement against their will. And most recently The Repossession Mambo, a sci-fi story about men who repossess transplanted organs from recipients who fall behind in their payments which was made into the movie Repo Men with Jude Law and Forest Whitaker.

Mr. Garcia was kind enough to let me ask him some questions about writing and his books. Here's what he had to say--

The first books of yours I read were the "Rex" books. Something about their titles attracted me to them.

First question out of the gate, and already I've got to assign credit for this to someone else. My editor at Random House, Jon Karp, was the one who originally suggested the title ANONYMOUS REX. The title I had before that was, well, awful, and we knew we'd need a new one, but I wasn't having any luck coming up with it. One day I got a fax (this was back in '98, mind you, when faxes were still all the rage) with just two words on it: Anonymous Rex. Immediately I popped to it, and the title was born. I'll take credit for Casual Rex and Hot & Sweaty Rex, but to be fair I was just riffing off Jon's idea. For a while, at signings, I'd take suggestions for other book titles and hand out candy to the winners; I've got quite the raunchy list now, should I write any more. In any case, glad they drew you to the books -- I've picked up many a book solely because of its title. 

They were a lot of fun to read and I would have loved for the TV series based on them to have been successful.

Sigh -- me, too, obviously. I think there was a bit of an object lesson in it for me, in that I was still quite young, new to the business, and allowed the TV show to die a death of a thousand cuts. Compromise happens in almost invisible increments out here -- if you're not looking for them, you'll never see them coming. Now that I've been in the Hollywood side of things for a while, I'm starting to understand when to fight, how to fight, and what fights I may or may not win. I figure sometime in the next 30-40 years or so I may actually have it all figured out.

Do you have any plans for more books with Vincent Rubio and the dinosaur mafia?

I've always got some Rubio books in the back of my mind, but right now there's nothing that's pressing hard to get out. At one point I had an idea to go far back and detail the early-1900s immigrant experience via Vincent's ancestors (imagine Godfather II or Once Upon A Time In America, via the dinos), but for now it's just a bunch of pages on my hard drive.

That said, the ease and immediacy of the e-publishing business has me intrigued, to the point where I've had some conversations about doing a series of linked Vincent Rubio-type stories in serialized fashion, something we could never do via traditional publishing (unless I were Stephen King, which, well, no.) We'll see -- I'm a little swamped these days, and I wouldn't want to give it short shrift. But I do have a lasting fondness for Vincent, I can't deny that.

If I hadn't read your other books first, I probably never would have considered reading CFFSFB, but I'm very glad I did. I have to admit the only people I've recommended it to are all women because of what Owen gets subjected to. What was the feedback you got from men versus women with that book?

I do tend to get the strongest feedback from women, which is unsurprising. Some of the feedback is perhaps a bit too strong -- this is a novel, not an instruction manual -- but I'm gratified that people took Cassandra's frustrations, if not her methods, to heart. There are men who enjoy it, as well, but it's got a much stronger following among the ladies.

We're making a TV pilot based on the book right now for MTV, and this time I'm the executive producer (alongside Krysten Ritter, who most people know as an actress, but she's also great at development), and I've done the adaptation myself -- point being, I'm trying to learn from the Anonymous Rex TV situation and retain a certain amount of control. I certainly don't claim to know everything -- or even much of anything -- when it comes to what makes TV hit or not -- but I do know what I think is funny, and I'd like to make sure that comes across. The great thing is that MTV is completely behind it, in a startlingly clear and frank way. They love the brazen attitude and when I try to hold back, they push me to go even further -- it's been great so far.

One of the things we're keen to do is make sure that, while it's certainly a female-oriented show, it will also capture men (pun only subliminally intended). It's something that's definitely forefront in my mind.

I should mention that I'm also in the middle of turning CFFSFB into a theatrical musical. I'm a total musical theater geek (don't get me started), and I've got a great friend and fantastic composer in Brian Feinstein; we've been writing songs and transforming it for the stage for over a year now. It's taken some time, and will no doubt take some more, as these things do, but I love taking Cassie and her friends and bringing them into all these different forms of expression. Favorite bit about the musical so far: there's a chain-gang number with the boys in the basement. It's so wrong, and yet works so well.

The thing about that book that impressed me the most was that you wrote it from the perspective of a woman who has some pretty significant issues with men, and you did it so well. How much coaching did you get from the women in your life while writing it? And did you worry about giving your wife any ideas that could come back to haunt you?

Ha -- fortunately, my wife and I have been together for so long (married over 16 years, together for over 20), those days are long past. Whatever changes she wanted to make have already been realized, no doubt, and it didn't take a basement and rope.

That does seem to be people's first reaction -- "I can't believe a man wrote this" -- which is certainly gratifying. My goal was to have an honest female voice (doing this incredibly dishonest thing) so as to both laud and satirize the chick-lit genre at the same time, and it seems to have worked.

There were certainly elements of the book which took some research and interviews with women I knew -- my friend Laine, for example, was my fashion go-to guru -- but for the most part I think it's because I tend to surround myself with a lot of women. Most of my closest friends (including my wife) are female, both now and while I was growing up, and I can empathize with the issues. Plus, I've now got two daughters -- and a female dog -- and my mother hangs out here a lot, and I've been told that all of our household fish are females... so I'm pretty much swimming in estrogen day-in, day-out. If it weren't for the NFL Network running 24-7 on my TV, I'm not sure if I'd even grow stubble any more.

So I'd say it's even weirder that the non-Cassandra stuff I write is as violent and masculine as it is. But that's just a function of my inherent boredom and need for mental change -- writing CFFSFB and then switching over to, say, The Repossession Mambo is my way of keeping the cobwebs from piling up.

Matchstick Men is probably my favorite of your books and I would venture to guess your most successful seller based on the success of the movie and the fact that everyone I've recommended it to has really liked it. I'm always curious about books with surprise endings. Did you know exactly how the story would end when you began it?

I did! I think for a book like that you sort of have to, and without giving anything away (in case anyone hasn't read it or seen the film), I can say that the idea for the book started with two characters (Roy and Angela), Roy's illness (OCD), and the ending. From there, I started to put the rest of it together, and the story fleshed out. But the last two chapters were forefront in my mind while I was structuring it, and I knew exactly where I wanted Roy to start out and where I wanted him to end up.

It doesn't always work that way with my books -- sometimes I just have the character and the idea and I see where the world takes it, and it all gets banged around and smoothed out in multiple edits. For Matchstick, though, it was plot-character-plot driving the concept from the very start.

Are you currently working on a book? If so, what can you tell me about it?

I feel like I'm always working on a new book; it's just something I do now as a matter of course. Unfortunately, it's been taking much longer than it ever has in the past due to my commitments on the film and television fronts. That said, my happiest, most productive days are those in which I can sit down for six, seven, eight hours and fall into prose. Time speeds by, the usual banalities of hunger and sleep drift off, and by the time I look up the day is done and I'm one happy camper.

Also unfortunately, I've got one silly little rule that I've stuck with since the very beginning: I don't talk about my books until they're done. I can pitch TV, film, theater, etc., but I keep quiet about the books. Don't know why, but it's worked so far, so I don't fix what isn't broken. Soon as I'm done, I'll let you know. Then you'll probably have a hard time shutting me up about it...

Thanks again, and good luck with the CFFSFB pilot.

Of course -- this was fun! I'll make sure to let you know how things go on the Cassandra front.

emg

A Brief Interview with Author Warren Fahy

Warren Fahy (pronounced Fay) is the author of the international best seller Fragment. It was nominated for a BSFA and the International Thriller Writers' Best First Novel Award.

Your first book that was published, Fragment, was the type of book that I enjoy so much that I have a difficult time putting it down. I'm interested in knowing how much enjoyment you got out of writing it. 

I had a blast writing it! But it was a different kind of fun from reading it. I actually had a sign over my computer screen to remind me of what the book was: FUN. But as a writer, I was creating the most fun ride I possibly could for the reader. I envy those who got to take the ride. A writer can never really do that. Of course, the key skill in a writer is to be able to stay viscerally aware of what thrills all the way through writing a novel, no matter how many times you have to read it, especially when the novel is as complex as Fragment or Pandemonium. So the greatest fun for me was knowing how the audience would react to certain revelations, situations, destinations and procrastinations. You have to always have a sense of where the oohs and aahs and laughs and terror are going to grip the audience and why, and be aware of the flow of those highs, lows and swerves, like a musician. It's certainly great fun staging a thrill-ride! But it's not the same fun as experiencing the ride yourself; that I will never have unless I live a long time and forget the book completely. The other part of writing Fragment that was fun (and remember it had to be fun or else it was disqualified from the job) was the research. I have loved and researched science since I was a kid. Working with scientists, especially on verifying some of the facts behind  the original theories of biology in the book, was fun nearly every day. And finally, nature itself was a constant revelation. The more I thought I was inventing the more I found precedents in nature that had beaten me to it. I learned a lot about the natural world around us, ironically, by trying to create something as alien as possible for the sake of the story.


When it came out, I remember reading some comparisons people were making between you and the late Michael Crichton. Do you pay any attention to things like that? Does it make you feel any added pressure when you write? 

It didn't add any pressure until I found out, after the novel had been bought in a feeding frenzy reminiscent of Henders Island, that Michael Crichton had died. It was a shock, and it happened while I was at HarperCollins in London, his publisher. I was informed only minutes after meeting his editor and had noticed that she was subdued and seemed distraught. That was so unexpected and so very sad. Dreadful, really. Then the comparisons people were making seemed ghoulish. I hated that.


From what I understand, your sequel to Fragment, Pandemonium, was released exclusively as an ebook awhile back due to some creative differences with your publisher. Then because of its popularity, it created a lot of interest from publishers and is no longer available as an ebook. Can you tell me if we can expect to see it in print anytime soon? And when it comes out, how close will it be to your original? 

Yes, Tor Books will be publishing the novel in about 9 months time, in hardback. It will be very close to the version I very briefly published. But better. ;)


I've heard some authors say that they write for themselves and that they would write the same thing regardless of how many people would want to read it. I've also heard other authors say that when they write, they're constantly considering whether what they're writing will appeal to their readers. Which group would you say you fall in?

Both.


Are you willing to say anything about the epic fantasy series I've read you're working on?

The epic fantasy is a rollicking sea voyage through a maze of monsters, a story of a 17-year-old sorcerer-king who inherits a kingdom too young, a romance, and every cool thing I could cram into it over 30 years of working on it since I was 12 years old. I love it! Hope to find a home in print for it soon.

A Brief Interview with Author Daniel H. Wilson

I had the idea of trying to expanding this blog a little to include not just reviews of the books I read, but if possible, to include some brief interviews with authors that I enjoy. I don't know how often they'll accommodate my requests, but you never know unless you try, right? This is my first - and hopefully not last post of its kind.

Daniel H. Wilson has a Masters Degree in Machine Learning and a PhD in Robotics. He is the author of the novel Robopocalypse, which appeared on the NYT Bestseller List, as well as some non-fiction titles including Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived & How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies. His next book Amped will be published this summer.

I understand that Robopocalypse is being made into a movie by Dreamworks with Steven Spielberg directing it. That must feel incredibly satisfying as an author to have a story you wrote get that type of attention. As the creator of the story, what type of feelings do you have about turning it over to someone else and letting them take some kind of ownership for it?

I can understand how it would be scary to hand over something that you've had total control over, and then sit on your hands waiting to see what will happen. But Steven Spielberg is directing Robopocalypse. I'm sitting on my hands, sure, but I'm sitting in the front row and I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

The story is told in much the same way as was Dracula and more recently World War Z by Max Brooks, using various accounts and sources to tell the story rather than the typical narrative style. Were either of those books influential in the way you told Robopocalypse?

I enjoyed both of those books, and the incredible success of World War Z certainly helped Robopocalypse get sold. The vignette narrative style is so useful in an epic story because it lets you jump between all the awesome things that are happening and drop most of the boring connective tissue. That said, Robopocalypse does have persistent characters who come together into a single story by the end.

Your PhD in Robotics obviously served you well in writing Robopocalypse and your other works. Do you think you’ll always write books where futuristic technology plays a major role? Or are there other types of stories that you think are inside you that will eventually get written?

I love thinking about the relationship we have with our technology. That will probably always be an underlying theme of whatever I write. It's an ancient relationship that the first humans had and future humans will have, so I don't think I'll run out of stories.

I read in another interview that you gave that you don’t really worry about the possibility of an eventual robot uprising. What realistically do you think the future of Artificial Intelligence in computers could be?

AI is already smarter than we are in many specific domains. This will continue until they're smarter than we are period. As human beings, we will respond by doing what we do best -- adapting.

Your next book, Amped which will be out this summer looks equally entertaining. How was the writing process for that one different from what you did for Robopocalypse?

Amped is near future story in which a massive civil rights movement has been sparked by people with disabilities who are cured by neural implants that make them smarter than regular people. It has a more traditional narrative structure, told chronologically from the perspective of one character. That made it harder to map together, but also let me go into much more detail with our protagonist. And trust me, Owen Gray goes through some serious s***.

Thanks so much for your time and I look forward to reading more of your books in the future.

No worries, Sean. Thanks for your support!

My post on Robopocalypse is here.