IGMS Issue 47 Page 12
SCHOEN: I've noted you're no stranger to technology, neither hardware nor software. What's the impact of technology on your work as a writer, or would you be penning the same sorts of things if you had to do so with a quill on parchment?
WILDE: Well, at one point, quill on parchment was high tech.
What we write about, when we write about tech, is often making something new and powerful that we don't always see the full ramifications of at the outset. And that can be anything, really.
I'd use a fountain pen or a crayon to write if I had to (I'd rather the fountain pen -- a nice Twisbi, with some Noodlers' ink) but not parchment. Probably something with a higher rag content.
SCHOEN: Some genre authors only write short fiction, some only write novels. You've shown that you're comfortable writing both. Beyond just the word count (and pay rate) what are the differences for you, and which do you prefer?
WILDE: I like both. Some stories are better suited to 5,000 words, others to 250 words. Some are stronger at 100,000 words.
While I like the speed of short stories, I am enjoying working with longer forms right now.
Differences are kind of deceiving -- you can do as much research for a short story as for a novel, sometimes. Sometimes more.
SCHOEN: It's worth pointing out that you're a regular contributor to the site GeekMom.com, and your writing there epitomizes some of the best aspects of curiosity that drives people in and out of our genre. In fiction, curiosity can be seen as an engine that shapes character's behaviors, as well as a reaction the writer hopes to elicit from her reader. What's your formula for balancing curiosity in your fiction, not just across protagonist and reader, but also your own piqued interest as the writer? Is one more important than the other in your mind?
WILDE: I contribute to a number of blogs and publications; I'm a core contributor at GeekMom, and it and GeekDad are great places for that cross-section of tech, games, culture and family where a lot of us live these days.
Curiosity is certainly part of it -- I feel like if I'm interested or excited in something, I'll be a good conveyor of that information (same goes with parenting things, incidentally), but there are other things I need to report on because of interest or timeliness. But if I'm bored, whether in fiction or nonfiction, the reader will be too. So I try to have as much fun as possible with both in order to avoid being bored at all costs.
SCHOEN: Finally, I know you're contracted for two more books in the Bone Universe, and that you have a completed novel in your Moon Universe. Is that how you see your future as an author unfolding? One to two books a year, supplemented by short stories (some in these universes, some not), on and on until the end of time, or do you have a clear endgame in mind and when you reach it you plan on reinventing yourself and exploding in some new direction?
WILDE: Yes, I'd love to do just that for a while! As far as I know, writing is the endgame, and it's pretty all-consuming.
That said, I often keep several projects on the burners, so that if things slow down, I have something to occupy me.
Letter From The Editor
Issue 47 - September 2015
by Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show
* * *
Welcome to Issue 47 of IGMS. We let a few of the gentlemen make an appearance in this issue, but it's mostly written by the ladies, many of them making a welcome return-appearance.
This issue's cover story is "Fixe," by K.C. Norton:
"If it's a machine, does that mean there could be someone inside?"
Captain Pearce places one damp hand on the boy's hair. "You've a quick mind, lad. Why don't we find out?"
"What the Blood Bog Takes" by Barbara A. Barnett:
"I want to watch," Asthore says, grabbing my hand. She knows my dread of the blood bog, yet pulls me after her, onto the trackway. I try to turn back, but others from our village press close behind us, as eager as Asthore to see the fate of our clan-chief.
"The Debugging of Martin Jarreau" by Rahul Kanakia:
Subscriber is more difficult to semantically map than most: he is the bottom quintile in terms of semantic recognition. Performance of subscriber's LifeCoach is also in bottom quintile. Subscriber is operating below peak possible happiness.
Jessi Cole Jackson's "I Was Her Monster":
While it was highly unusual for a sixteen-year-old girl to still have her childhood monster trailing her into her junior year of high school -- we disappeared at puberty -- I would not be called names.
"Intertwined," by Kate O'Connor:
The fine net of sensors and microscopic wires that wove through her body and mind and into the quantum arc suddenly ended at her skin. She tried to reach out, grab hold of something, but her arms refused to move. Other than basic survival functions, her organic systems were offline.
This issue's audio story is "Antique," by Jared Oliver Adams, read by new voice actor Gabriel Jaffe:
Grandma had gassed out. And now it was Lochlan's job to sell her antiquated tub of a spaceship. Hopefully he'd make some money off the deal.
Plus, the inestimable Lawrence M. Schoen's latest entry as IGMS's Reprint Editor and Interviewer-in-Chief is his conversation with novelist Fran Wilde, along with Fran's short story, "The Topaz Marquise," (originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies), as well as the first chapter of Fran's recently released debut novel, Updraft.
Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show
P.S. As usual, we've collected essays from the authors in this issue and will post them here on IGMS along with our other free columns. Feel free to drop by and catch The Story Behind The Stories, where the authors talk about the creation of their tales.
For more from Orson Scott Card's
InterGalactic Medicine Show visit:
http://www.InterGalacticMedicineShow.com
Copyright © 2015 Hatrack River Enterprises
Table of Contents
Fixe
What the Blood Bog Takes
I Was Her Monster
The Debugging of Martin Jarreau
Intertwined
Antique
Updraft
The Topaz Marquise
InterGalactic Interview With Fran Wilde
Letter From The Editor