Category Archives: Interviews

Author Walter Mosley says write that novel

Posted on September 27, 2006 by Keren

U.S. novelist Walter Mosley, who is most widely known for his crime fiction, says if you’ve got a novel in you, write it.  Mosley, 54, will next year release a 100-page book called “This Year You Write Your Novel” giving people advice on how to write a novel in a year.

Q: You produce about three or four books a year. How do you approach your writing?

A: “When I wake up, the first thing I do is to write for two to three hours. The ideas are unconscious. Every time you spend two or three hours powerfully creating you set off all the depth chargers in your conscience that you are unaware of. It has always been the case for me.”

Q: What tips do you give people?

A: “You have to write every day — for at least one-and-a-half hours but the ideal is three.  You have to write in an unrestricted fashion. Don’t procrastinate or feel guilty about the people you are writing about in the book. You have to be able to say things you really feel.”

Read the Yahoo News interview here.

Posted in Authors, Interviews, Upcoming releases |

Science Fiction and the City: An Interview with Jeff VanderMeer

Posted on September 8, 2006 by Keren

The novels of Jeff VanderMeer fall somewhere between science fiction, urban surrealism, dark fantasy, magical realism, and even horror comedy. VanderMeer’s literary range becomes immediately apparent when you consider that he’s been “a two-time winner (six-time finalist) of the World Fantasy Award, as well as a past finalist for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.”

VanderMeer: I get my inspiration from real life as much as possible, and then from history books and then from other writers. I find Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, for example, stultifyingly boring because of this idea of speculative urban design. Although I like the idea of a setting also being a character, it has to also be a character – not be the only thing in the book.

Sometimes I will use authors as something to react against – and say, well, okay: this is an interesting design for a city and this is an interesting design for a city, but neither of these actually work. By kind of cross-correlating them and looking at the differences I can figure out where it is that I want to go.

Link to the full interview at BLDGblog (via Boingboing)

Posted in Authors, Interviews, Science fiction/fantasy |

Sarah Bradford chats about her Jackie Kennedy Onassis biography, 'America's Queen'

Posted on September 6, 2006 by Keren

Sarah Bradford is a historian and biographer. She is the bestselling author of several biographies including “Disraeli,” selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; “George VI,” and “Princess Grace.” Her most recent biography, The New York Times bestseller “Elizabeth,” received praise by everyone from John Updike in the New Yorker to The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine.

Chat Moderator: Please tell us a bit about your book, “America’s Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis” and how it differs from other biographies about Jackie.

Sarah Bradford: Number one, it differs in the length of time. And number two, the range of interviewees — particularly people like her sister, Lee Radziwill, who have never spoken to writers before. I think this has given me insights to a new Jackie that most people don’t know about.

Read the CNN interview here.

Posted in Authors, Interviews |

Interview with Robert Harris

Posted on September 3, 2006 by Keren

He famously fell out with the Prime Minister over what he saw as the victimisation of his close friend, Peter Mandelson, but the former journalist saw enough of politics at work during the time he spent with Mr Blair to inspire his new book, Imperium, set in Cicero’s Rome. He insists, though, it’s not New Labour in togas.

Read the article here.

Posted in Authors, Interviews |

Fast Forward – listen to interviews with famous SF authors

Posted on August 30, 2006 by Keren

Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction is a monthly half-hour television series about the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. The show was started in 1989 and has run (almost) regularly ever since.

Each episode of Fast Forward features an in-depth interview with a professional writer, artist, editor, or filmmaker who has created work that can be described as SF, Fantasy, and/or Horror.

We are ever so slooowly adding previous Fast Forward interviews [in video format] to this site. We are also posting low bandwidth audio only versions so that folks with dial-up connections can get easier access.

The free archives include clips of interviews with a stunning selection of famous authors, including Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman and many more. For some reason, the video clips weren’t available when I tried to view them, but the audio clips are working fine.

Link (via The Friends of English Magic)

Posted in Authors, Interviews, Science fiction/fantasy, Websites |