From: Riordan GilBrigid (jack_bohlen@msn.com)

You probably got a message like this one before, but I'm not familiar with the operating of this system, I'm not sure I sent it the first time I tried.

My question is:
Why don't you write science fiction anymore?
And, following this one:
Why don't you write short fiction anymore?

Unlike the first message I sent you, I just went through your archives, the section on Science Fiction, and you stated, like I felt you would, that Science Fiction, and specially Short Science Fiction, is a wonderful means to explore the issues - I think are those - that move you.

The genre might have not taken you right away with open arms, but that rapidly changed, it took some growing into but it ended up welcoming you, and you certainly made a splash - I'm talking about the awards.

And you care about it, as demonstrated by the Bending the Landscape anthology series which you edited.

So, why not write?

Apart from the advantages aforementioned for you, it would certainly benefit from the "character exploration" you impart to your novels.

And, this is a private nit to pick, though you are in my shortlist of favourite writers - I adored your first two books - I never got around to reading your following books, because - shame on me for being so limited - they're not SF (Note: by SF I mean Speculative Fiction, including Science Fiction in all it's subgenres, and also Fantasy and Horror and all mixes and Slipstreams and whatnot).

Personally, I hardly read anything else, if there is a theme or an issue I would like to know about I look for an exploration of it in a SF work.

I do currently write science fiction, short fiction. I just don't publish it.

I am more of a novelist than a short story writer. Novels are where I live, what make me tick. Writing short fiction is a pure joy, an indulgence, something I do between novels when I have a notion that I can't fit into a novel. (I've also written poetry on and off since my teens; I've never published any of it.) I currently have two unpublished novellas (both fantasy, kind of), an unpublished novelette (science fiction, maybe), and several unfinished (slipstream, speculative fiction, whatever) stories. What happens is that I blast out a piece of short fiction (one novelette, about 14,000 words, I wrote in a long weekend), enjoy myself thoroughly, and then never get around to rewriting it because I start noodling with a novel, and once I get my teeth into a novel, it's all over. I get monomaniacal: nothing, nothing matters but the book. But I think it's getting to be about time to do a collection of short fiction, for which I'd probably complete a couple of new pieces--or at least polish up some extant first drafts. Also, when I've finished ALWAYS I'll have to decide on my next novel project. At this point, it's a toss-up between the YA fantasy I've been mulling and a huge historical novel. Historicals can be a bit like SF: they take the reader to utterly alien times and places where the thought process and mores of the characters are quite alien.

If I were feeling particularly inventive I might argue that the Aud novels (The Blue Place and Stay and, soon, ALWAYS) are speculative fiction because the narrator's world isn't, quite, like our world. The approach I use is quite sfnal, all about the systems: how people and cultures work. I'm simply choosing the best vehicle to drive over the fictional terrain. I'm not saying you would enjoy them, but you might. It depends on how far your definition of SF stretches. Techno-thriller e.g. Michael Crichton? Biology disguised as horror e.g. Preston and Child? Or just pure written-and-marketed as genre work published by specialised imprints e.g. Del Rey and Tor and Eos?

Anyway, seeing as you asked, I've decided to make available a couple of extra previously-published short stories, "We Have Met the Alien" and "Wearing My Skin." These are very early stories (written in 1988 and 1990, respectively) and are probably the closest I've come to writing horror--or what, to me, is horror. Let me know what you think.

From: anonymous

No question...just thank you :o)

I have just finished your first novel and the note about writing it in 1992.

I don't know if I fit the description you made about readers but I know that each time I read one of your novels, I have this feeling of inner peace.

I like so very much the rhythm of your books; it is unique.

I am not a writer (nor English) and am not able to express myself like I want to...I just would like to thank you for writing such beautiful stories (especially Slow River and Ammonite) that make me travel, dream and wonder. I hope you will keep on writing for a long time. merci beaucoup

De rien.

I think you expressed yourself beautifully. Your comments were just the kind of thing I need to hear at this stage of a rewrite, when I've worked on my book for so long it starts looking like rubbish (it's a little like repeating a word, for example "chair," over and over; eventually it feels like nonsense in one's mouth). Thank you.

From: Alexandra Wolfe (thebigbadwolfe@videotron.ca)

Simply: Thank you.

It's my pleasure. Mostly. Actually, no, all the time. I'm one of the luckiest people walking the earth: every day I get to do a job I love, and get paid for it, and praised for it. How cool is that?

It becomes more clear to me every day that most people in our society are not treated well at work. In fact, my partner, Kelley Eskridge (also a writer) has recently become so incensed by this that she's going to be doing something about it. Watch this space for more in the near future.

From: Ava

My first (and last) attempt to join a book group led me to read "The Blue Place", and then I devoured all your other books. Browsing through your archive, I saw that the draft title for "Stay" was "Red Raw"... Thank you for _not_ doing a cutesy this-is-a-series matching titles thing, like using a color reference! All too often this title-with-a-theme pattern reflects a real boring cookie-cutter type of series, and "The Blue Place" and "Stay" are not simply variations of a theme but are strong, individual, independent _stories_. Congratulations on that!

I came up with the title RED RAW when I was still calling The Blue PlacePENNY IN MY MOUTH. It was never intended to be a colour-code schema. That kind of thing, to me, makes it appear (at least to me) that the writer privileges marketing over honest art. Even John D. McDonald couldn't pull it off (there again he was pretty awful at titles). I think titles of novels, like that of poetry, should be an integral part of the piece; they should illuminate and explicate, not just sell.

I'm delighted that you don't see Aud and her tale as cookie cutter product. I worry about that sometimes. There again I worry about everything at this stage of a book. I never know if a novel works or not until it's all written, rewritten and rewritten again. This means that for years I labour at something that could be a great steaming pile. At some point, though, I have to commit and go for it. It's worked out well so far.

So what was it about the book club that persuaded you to never join another--or perhaps failed to persuade to try again? Was it too much about the book (some people prefer the social aspects of bookclubs) or not enough? Or was it an interpersonal thing--were the other people irritating dorks?

From: anonymous

Aside from the lines of thought that you might not have followed, if you had not had a conversation or question through the reality of internet, if it all went away...no internet at all...would anything substantial change about the way you write? What makes this type of communication matter enough to put your energy into responding?

I don't think my work would be as good. I don't think I would view it as clearly. (I've touched on this briefly in my essay with Kelley, "As We Mean To Go On.")

I'm not saying I see my work with brilliant clarity now--just that at least I am explosed to a myriad opinions on it, and this persuades me, most of the time, to try to be honest with myself. Honesty is one of the cornerstones of good fiction. In my opinion, honesty takes courage--or always has for me. Sometimes it would be a lot easier for me to say to myself, 'Ah, fuck it, this is good enough, close enough for government work' and stop trying to dig, to scrape away the nonsense and get to the bedrock. It's been interesting the last couple of years, working on ALWAYS, to try to achieve a mix of readable, exciting fiction that's simultaneously true, psychologically, at least to the limits of my understanding, but which feels natural, as though it's just unfurling, with no puppet-master behind it, tugging on the strings. I've no idea if I've succeeded, of course, but that was my goal.

Having said that, perhaps my work would be better if I didn't keep accepting input from so many people. Perhaps it would be purer and hew more closely to my initial vision without being influenced by what others think. Perhaps I'm a misunderstood genius who should just be left alone to create my works of brilliance without interference. But, er, much as I sometimes like to dream about that, I don't really believe it. (Or at least not all the time.)

Perhaps I would write more (all the time spent interacting with readers would be poured into fiction). Perhaps I would no longer write at all (newspaper reviews and dismal sales would have made me despair). I don't know. I can imagine a variety of scenarios. At base, though, I believe talking to people makes my work stronger. Plus I get an enormous kick out of it. I've met some cool people this way.

From: anonymous

I'm a native of Birmingham, AL, but moved to Atlanta to attend Emory at 17 and stayed for 30 years - now back in Birmingham seeing my Mom through her final years. I bought your first two books - Ammonite & Slow River - at Charis in LFP in Atlanta and loved them (Science Fiction is a guilty pleasure). But, as years passed and I would re-read them, I never thought to look for anything new... until I cane across The Blue Place and Stay on Amazon. I'm three-quarters of the way through The Blue Place and I just have to ask...

...have you lived in Atlanta? You seem to know it well (I think I even know the park in Duluth that you write of) and it just doesn't seem to be one of those 'set-in-Atlanta' novels by someone who has never lived there (my first home whilst a student was just on the edge of Lake Claire in the Candler Park area and then I later bought my 'dream house' in VH, just three doors down from the fire station in Highland).

So I'm simply curious - did you once live in ATL and, if so, when? I've a feeling we may have known some of the same people.

I'm luxuriating in The Blue Place as I know Norway a bit as well but am looking forward to Stay. You write beautifully, by the way, and I can't help but see some of yourself in your protagonists (if the short bio's I've read of you are correct).

So, Nicola... ever lived in the ATL?

From December 1989 until June 1995 I lived in Duluth, Georgia (at Northwoods Lake Court), in Decatur (on Landsdowne Ave), and in Atlanta itself, in Lake Clarie (Marlbrook Ave).

I'm curious about which protagonists you believe I resemble. Personally, I think it's possible that I resemble them all, or at least some facet of my personality is reflected in them. Fictional characters are like dream characters; to some degree they all come from inside us.