09-25-09: A 2009 Interview with Kirsten Imani Kasai: Ice Singer
Every world has an "in." Whether we meet a hobbit living in a hole in the ground or witness the arrival of a winged loner to the city of New Crobuzon, every writer of fantasy of science fiction has to usher the reader into their world. Kirsten Imani Kasai takes the reader into the world of 'Ice Song' with the shock of the new.
In my conversation with Kasai, I wanted to find out how she created this world, and we talked about her world-building process. But just as important are her character building skills; it’s a tribute to the writer that the two are seamlessly inter-twined in this layered, exotic novel. She'll be appearing this Saturday, September 26 at Borderlands Books. She's well worth your time to see, to meet and to talk to. You can get a preview of what's to come that is slightly less shocking than immersion in a sea of ice by following this link to the MP3 audio file of our conversation.
09-24-09: A 2009 Interview with Erin Lee Gafill
"The writing is really a daily approach." — Erin Lee Gafill
Interviews are as varied as authors; not surprisingly, some are easier than others. And some just seem to flow like a river. Having read Erin Lee Gafill's 'Drinking from a Cold Spring: A Little Book of Hope,' I had some residual worries. The writing was beautiful the scenery is beautiful — would the author live up to the simplicity of her work? She was, after all, primarily a painter. It's one thing to paint or write, quite another to sit in front of a microphone in the back office of Capitola Book Café.
But there is, I'm beginning to believe, something as magical about that damn office as there is about Nepenthe. The sound is great, so long as I remember to unplug the phone. And Erin and I had a delightful conversation about her book. It was almost as if we were picking up from where we had left off not long ago, though we'd never spoken before. Like Erin, my kids are now pretty much launched, and I can look back on those years of fitting things in with some perspective. You can hear our discussion of domestic duties and creative work, of writing in the nooks and crannies between family, friends and keeping back the domestic chaos, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-23-09: Michael Kurland and Nalo Hopkinson "moderated" by Terry Bisson : SF in SF, Saturday, September 12, 2009
"It's something I try to teach my students, they've all got something they're obsessed with..." — Nalo Hopkinson
You get a couple of writers like Nalo Hopkinson and Michael Kurland up there in front of a few readers on a Saturday night, give everyone a few "shots for tots" as Rina Weisman likes to say, and it's not surprising that you’re going to get a pretty lively discussion.
Kurland is an interesting and pretty volatile speaker, with strong opinions that he's enjoys speaking of in no uncertain terms. Hopkinson is a thoughtful presence with lots of presence, whose smooth undertones shimmer with emotions. This is the sort of literary discussion we need more of, both inside and outside the science fiction genre. I'm rather surprised, now that I think of it, that the sort of mini-panel format hasn’t been more widely adopted by the literary establishment. Having two writers, moderated by a third (though the word "moderate" is not necessarily one that one would associate with the engaging Terry Bisson) is a great way to dig into the reading, to get at some of the writing and publishing and life issues that the best books bring out. You can hear this edition of the SF in SF panel by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-22-09: Nalo Hopkinson Interviewed at SF in SF on Saturday, September 12, 2009
"No matter what you believe, this is miraculous; and we forget." — Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson induces wonder, on two levels. Obviously, there's the quality of what she reads. Her reading at SF in SF was a perfect example of that. The words themselves wonder in the old-fashioned science fiction "sense of wonder" way, even if what she writes is not, strictly speaking, science fiction.
But Hopkinson also induces wonder on a personal level as well. She's a powerful presence, and even when she's bewitching you with her powerful words you can't help but be aware that she is superbly and uniquely talented. So it's always fun to talk to her, and it was especially fun to dig into her work in the unheimliche, the uncanny, that she read from a forthcoming novel thus far titled 'Donkey.' Even that harmless word takes on a disturbing undertone when she uses it. You can hear her use it by following this link the MP3 audio file.
09-21-09: A 2009 Interview with S. G. Browne
"Lucio Fulci's Zombi back in 1978, that was actually a double feature with Scanners..." — S. G. Browne
S. G. (Scott) Browne set out to do a bit more than Lucio Fulci ever did. Not to deny Fulci his due; he wanted to scare the crap out of you, and that he did. Browne, on the other hand, uses zombies to explore not what it’s like to confront living dead corpses, but rather to determine just what the boundaries of human are.
And, of course, to tell more than just a few good jokes. Up until recently, Browne was a total local, and he admits in my interview with him, that his protagonist Andy, lives not far from where the author himself lived. Residents of Santa Cruz will get a kick out of Browne's local name-checks, and out of his gentle pokes at our own version of society. In Santa Cruz, zombies get more than rotten tomatoes and old Taco Smell burritos thrown at them; they’re just as likely to find themselves drenched in Jamba Juice as a Starbucks latte. We talk about developing the prose style, the mythology and the perceptions of the living dead, but I turned off the recorder when he told me about the movie, which he said, changes stuff (of necessity) but preserves the essence and voice of the novel. As ever, read the book first. The way things work in Hollowood, there's as good a chance that zombies will overrun the nation as there is that a decent movie will be made from this excellent book. Breathers, yes, we do tend to screw things over. To our credit, most of us don’t eat brains. Not literally, at least.
New to the Agony Column
03-18-10: Commentary : Stephen Kessler Follows 'The Mental Traveler' : Bad Trips and Good Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Alta Ifland and Stephen Kessler : "I had to do it; it was a way of both coming to terms with the experience, of documenting the experience, of commemorating it..."
03-17-10: Commentary : Ted Chiang Charts 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects' : Joshua Blue, Digital Chimps and Lives in Flux
03-15-10: Commentary : Elif Shafak Reveals 'The Forty Rules of Love' : Intimacy and Centuries
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Elif Shafak : "I know that culture that exists in my country, that is carried on by women, generations of women."
03-12-10: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Scales the 'Matterhorn' : World-Building in the Past
03-09-10: Commentary : Paul McHugh Meets 'Deadlines' : Murdering the California Coast
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Paul McHugh : "..the strengths of good writing go all the way, across all the genres..."
03-08-10: Commentary : Joe Hill Grows 'Horns' : Devil and Detail
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Joe Hill : "Eventually, the wicked and the unworthy will get their just desserts on the business end of the Devil's pitchfork."
03-05-10: Commentary : Henry Porter Calls 'The Bell Ringers' : It Takes The Village
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Four Books With Alan Cheuse : Thrillers! : Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers; Keith Thomson, Once a Spy; Jo Nesbo, The Devil's Star; Hennig Mankel, The Man From Beijing
03-04-10: Commentary : Jo NesbØ Earns 'The Devil's Star' : Rewind
03-01-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Invests With 'Union Atlantic' : Abstract Power Abstracts Absolutely
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Adam Haslett : "With her, and with each character, how does the rhythm create a kind of musical argument?"
02-26-10: Commentary : Dan Simmons Heads for the 'Black Hills' : Unstuck in Life
02-23-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Knows 'You Are No Stranger Here' : Stories from Strangers' Shoes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Jedediah Berry Interviewed at SF in SF, February 13, 2010 : "...being at Small Beer has actually introduced whole worlds to me ..."
02-22-10: Commentary : Graeme Gibson's 'The Bedside Book of Birds' and 'The Bedside Book of Beasts' : A Feast for Your Mind, Your Eyes and Your Mind's Eye
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Graeme Gibson : "Our common humanity, our common culture, will help make the connections."
02-19-10: Commentary : Ralph Waldo Ellison 'Three Days Before the Shooting ...' : One Book, Many Stories
Agony Column Podcast News Report : John Callahan and Adam Bradley and 'Three Days before the Shooting' : "I've moved through the phases of my own life, and I find those phases mirrored in the characters of this novel." — John Callahan "...capable of brilliance, eloquence and power; that's how I understand the second novel, as we see it in Three Days Before the Shooting, and that's certainly how I understand, and I think how Ellison understood, America." — Adam Bradley
02-18-10: Commentary : George Mann Scares Up 'The Ghosts of Manhattan' : Hard Core Pulp Action
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly With Thomas Frank : From Tea to Shining Tea : "When I think about what I'm saying, it's so depressing..."
02-17-10: Commentary : Thomas More, Clarence Miller and 'Utopia' : Politics, Satire, Fantasy
02-15-10: Commentary : 'Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded' by John Scalzi : A Decade of Whatever
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni : "I have to work through the novel and then it comes to me, how it's going to end."
02-12-10: Commentary : Stephanie Merritt Becomes S. J. Parris : 'Heresy'
02-11-10: Commentary : Max Watman 'Chasing the White Dog' : Home-Made Hooch and Rebellion
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Sam Farr : : "The money came from Washington, but the uses for that money came from the local community."
02-10-10: Commentary : Anne Lamott Spots 'Imperfect Birds' : The Ties That Unbind
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly: Thomas Frank on Re-Populism and Re-Launching The Baffler : "I have never seen 'populist backlash in a headline before."
02-09-10: Commentary : Douglas Clegg Returns to 'Neverland' : Is 1980's Horror Returning from the Grave?
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with David Drake, Part 2 / Complete : "I didn't have governor ... that is ... anything, endgame, was me killing somebody.""
02-08-10: Commentary : David Louis Edelman Completes Jump 225 : 'Geosynchron'
