A Conversation With Rob Schrab
An interview with David Maddox
On the creation of Scud: the Disposable Assassin:
'This is early 90's and Scud is being thrown around all over the place because of the Gulf War. And I
was like "You know that kind of sounds like a detergent." It was like
something you would buy to clean your tub. I thought, you know, what would be real neat is to have an assassin that had this
pop art detergent box-like look to it. I though what if there was a robot bought out of a vending machine, like a disposable
razor or lighter.'
A Conversation With Patrick Rothfuss
An interview with Dustin Kenall
On his audience for his writing:
"I do remember that fairly early on someone pointed out that I used the word 'alloy' and 'counterpoint' in the same sentence. That
person pointed out that some people wouldn't actually know what an alloy was. I made a conscious decision right then that my book
was written for people who either knew what that word meant, or were willing to look it up."
Jonathan Strahan: The Iron Man of Anthologists
An interview with Jeff VanderMeer
On trends in short fiction:
"Well, I'd first stress that this is an incredible time for short fiction in the genre. Even in a bad year, there's
more terrific fiction than any one person can keep possibly read. There are two trends that I do see, though. For
whatever reason, stories seem to be getting longer. Ideas that suit a short-short are slipping out to short story
length, short stories tend to lengthen to novelettes, and novelettes are bloating out to novellas. I'm not sure
why this is the case. I've wondered if it's a side effect of online publishing, if it's a general loss of knowledge
of how to structure stories, a decline in editorship, or even a change in the kind of stories writers are attempting."
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The New British Catastrophe an interview with Ken MacLeod
conducted by Paul Raven
On the gestation for The Execution Channel:
"My initial pitch for the book, to myself, was: we've done New Space Opera. Now let's try New British
Catastrophe. That got me thinking about the catastrophe novels of John Wyndham and J.G. Ballard and others, and how
their catastrophes were always things that weren't likely to happen -- walking plants, a wind from nowhere,
giant wasps, volcanoes in Wales -- instead of the catastrophe that everyone really feared. It was as if they were
deliberately averting their gaze from nuclear war. That got me to the first point: to focus on what we really fear --
nuclear attack, terrorism, torture."
A Conversation With Scott Westerfeld
An interview with Kevin Stone
On writing:
"I come from a big family in Texas, in which story telling was very valued. And I've always written, as far back as I can
remember. But the career move came from being fired, in that 'here's some money, go away' way. I set myself the goal of living
cheaply for a year, and getting published in that time frame. Of course, it wound up taking almost ten years."
A Conversation With Sean Wright
An interview with David Hebblethwaite
On mapping Jaarfindor:
"The stories that come from Jaarfindor can't be mapped out as a whole, perfect picture. Why? Because I'm in
the process of discovering what lurks in the cities and countryside, in the deserts and oceans, meeting new
characters in exciting and challenging situations. I'm an artist, and as such I'm obsessed to explore the weird
space of my imagination, writing down what I find there, making numerous pen and ink sketches as
aide-memoirs. I constantly surprise and worry myself. Every time I venture there I find myself asking a simple
yet for me a profound question: are you certain you witnessed that? Much of what I write isn't easy to quantify or label."
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