Q: Ian...what made you become a writer?
A: It all started a
long time ago when I was in my first year as a student at the University of Canterbury
Q: What is your
typical writing day like?
A: Right now, I
start the day with about two hours on promoting the books I already have out
there, then I do other things. Then in the afternoon, I spend about an hour on
scientific theory, and an hour on the next novel.
Q: Do you
outline? If so, how extensive are your outlines?
A: I have a list of
characters and their relationships with others, and a statement as to why they
are there. Before writing anything, I have in my mind a theme, and a sequence
of scenes through the proposed novel, and I sometimes write down a plot that
links these scenes, but as often as not I just follow my nose. The key
scenes really fix the plot, as does the theme (or themes). For me, theme and
overall purpose is critical.
Q: How many
revisions will you typically do on a novel?
A: I don't count
them. I typically revise the start several times while I am writing, often
restarting. Some of my novels actually include more than one "start," with later starts put in front. Once I have written the whole thing, there are
usually no major revisions, but there are a considerable number of editing
cycles. You might call them revisions.
Q: What is your
best tip for editing a manuscript?
A: Leave it alone
for some time, and start the next one. When you restart editing, do the best
you can, and when satisfied, use the spell check and grammar tools. If there
are very few changes required, then you know you have been reasonably accurate.
If there are a lot of changes required, then you have real problems. It is important early on to make sure the characters
remain consistent with what they are supposed to be, and when something
important happens, make sure you can explain from the text why it is happening.
Q: Which writing
habits and/or tricks of the trade have made you a better writer?
A: Persistent
writing (i.e., experience) and frequent reference to Fowler.
Q: Do you ever
suffer through writer’s block? If so, how do you fight it?
A: I never have
"block" as such, but sometimes I do wonder where a scene ought to go,
or how am I going to get it where I want it to go. At moments like that, I just
go away and do something else, think about it, and come back later.
Q: What drew you
to write your preferred genre(s)?
A: I am a
scientist, so I guess SF was an obvious choice. I have also had an interest in
ancient life, and I have managed to include some Roman history into two of my
novels.
Q: Do you
utilize beta readers?
A: No. I don't want
to sound antisocial, but where I live there don't seem to be any writers that
write the sort of things I do.
Q: In your most
recently published novel, what’s one scene you really enjoyed writing—and why?
A: Let me have two.
The book is Miranda's Demons and one
scene involves a trek in giant transporters from Hellas Planitia to an
excavated cave complex in the Valles Marineris (so as to be protected from
space attack). My wife did not like this scene at all; she said it was just too
grim, with too much unpleasantness, but that was the whole point. The second
scene was where Haruhiko looks down onto Argyre Planitia from the Bosporus
Rupes. My sister thought this scene was almost poetic, and that pleased me.
Q: What makes
the main character(s) of your most recent novel so special?
A: In one
sense, this is the hardest of your questions because there are so many of them.
My latest book, Miranda's Demons is
my attempt at a War and Peace, but it
covers different social problems. Gaius Claudius Scaevola comes from Roman times,
was abducted by aliens, had been the equivalent of a Galileo, and was extremely
capable militarily. Natasha Kothchetkova is his promised "ugliest woman in
the world," he uses alien technology to heal her, but then she refuses his
attempts at love, and is annoyed that she will have to surrender command of the
Earth forces, when Earth is under threat from aliens Scaevola has defeated
previously. (The Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy shows his history.) Harry
Lansfeld, despite a stellar time at University, has turned his back on physics
to become a space pilot, only to find himself critical to the Earth defense,
despite a tangled love affair, and he has to grow up fast. But then he finds
himself on an alien space ship, and he has to try to work out the physics
behind their technologies. However, one of the characters I am proudest of here
is Karl Groza. He is a very minor character, and he plays a role similar to the
fools in Shakespeare. He makes cutting comments, rubs everyone up the wrong
way, but the comments often carry inconvenient truths that everyone else would
rather sweep under the carpet.
Q: What is your
best advice for author self-promotion?
A: This is
difficult too, but in a word, persist. You have to make yourself known, which
means you have to do what you can to make an impact on the web to people who
might be interested in your thoughts and writing. Of course, local speaking,
etc. is important, but the world is a lot bigger market than anything local, no
matter where you are.
Q: How do you
deal with negative reviews?
A: Generally, I
ignore them. I will read them, and I would take notice of anything
constructive, but the review, "I don't like this sort of book" merely
means that perhaps a little more effort is required on the book description.
Q: What is your
favorite aspect of being an indie author?
A: The freedom to
write the way I want to. My original attempts at finding an agent of a
publisher for Miranda's Demons was
doomed to fail because they want 70,000 – 100,000 words, and my attempts were
rejected in the first line – the work is far too long for them. I can
understand the reason. The costs of printing are linear with length, but the
sales are likely to be independent of length, and given that most first author
publications fail, they want to minimize the downside. However, the cost of
eBooks is independent of length (other than the time spent writing).
Q: What is
your least favorite aspect of being an indie author?
A: Trying to get
the marketing done. When you don't live in the center of things, it is very
hard to get your message across, and there are literally hundreds of thousands
of others out there doing the same as you are. It is hard to make your impact.
Q: What is your
current writing project?
A: My current work
will be called (tentatively) "Ranh." The concept is that about 65 million years
ago, some advanced aliens took Cretaceous life from Earth and put it on a
terraformed planet (Ranh) around Epsilon Eridani, a star that is too
young for life to have evolved significantly. I am having fun devising a culture for the Ranhynn.
Q: What are
three of your favorite novels?
A: I don't have
favorites, as they change from day to day. There are too many out there.
However, three very significant ones for me are Lord of the Rings (Tolkein); War
and Peace (Tolstoi) and The Kraken
Awakes (John Wyndham). The last one was perhaps the more significant
contribution for the direction and style of my early writing.
Q: If you could
have lunch with any novelist, living or dead, who would it be? What would talk
to them about?
A: One option might
be Michael Crichton, another author from whom I have read a lot. He was born about the same time I was, and it
was just a few years after I had failed with Gemina that he succeeded with The
Andromeda Strain. I stayed more focused on science, he stayed with writing.
It would be interesting to compare how life had treated us.
Q: What is your
best piece of advice for budding authors?
A: Persist, and be
your most intense critic.
Q: What is your
favorite inspirational quote?
A: From Carl Sagan:
"We live in a world exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in
which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." One of the
objectives of my novels is, buried deep within, to illustrate the scientific
way of thinking, so this quote reflects part of my approach to writing.
Another one, which
I have seen attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero (obviously in a depressed
mood): "Politicians are not born; they are excreted." I do not
guarantee the attribution, but this fits with some of my personal experiences
with some politicians, and it has inspired one or two politicians in my novels.
#
No comments:
Post a Comment