Lit Literature member interviews

Oh, my. That is the class of ship Garris Shrike's Trader's Luck belongs to, isn't it? I always pictured it as an Acclamator-class since all I knew about it was that it was a Clone Wars troopship from the Republic, even though I knew that wasn't right. Now I know.

 

Nope. His ship was Liberty-class. Just one of a parade of Clone Wars ships that never got used in any of the various Clone Wars material.

 

I guess I'll go on picturing it as an Acclamator, then.

Yeah, I wish more EU ships had shown up in the prequels. At least TCW finally gave us Z-95 Headhunters.

 

Yeah, we never got Dreadnoughts, Victory-class SDs, Carracks, or Bulwarks.

 

Apparently the Galleon appeared in the Rebellion comics:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galleon

 

We got some, but I was thinking of the large number of ships that didn't get anything - especially some ships introduced in Clone Wars material, like the Geonosian dreadnaught.

 

I'm about to head out for the afternoon, but I can get to these easily enough!

1) Waaaay back when I was signing up for either my old email account or the Warren Ellis Forums on Delphi (I forget which), I needed a screen name and looked around and the copy of PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ that I'd been reading to my niece was sitting next to me, only I had to add a z, and so most things I sign up for since then are some permutation of "patchwork(z)".

On the forums the best way is probably "patch" which is the default everyone seems to use.

2) Huh...well, when I was young the only VHS tape we owned was STAR WARS (before it was a new hope) and when my parents would have friends over for dinner I was sat in front of the TV and would demand Star Wars be played. I later got a copy of ESB on VHS and a copy of the novelization,, and thus my love of Star Wars was born. My earliest EU was a record and book thing that I THINK was SoTME, because I remember crystal trees (?) and Chewbacca and Leia fighting Vader in it. Something about them crashing their ships? I confess I've not read SoTME in some time.

I would check in on SW every now and then, and I loved, loved, loved the SW comics from Dark Horse but sort of lost track after Zahn's first trilogy until 2004.

While on my honeymoon in England I was visiting my friend Karen when she announced she needed to discuss something at dinner and did I know anything about Star Wars. I may actually have been a member prior to her getting the gig to do RC, but I can't recall.

TFN is actually responsible for me moving to California (which I love) as I started talking to a poster with a love for Jaina Solo and became internet friends with her and hung out with her at SDCC and eventually my wife and I spent a year as room mates with Shea, and I was there when she got the gig for LFL doing Topps Galaxy cards, hence my avatar.

In case it isn't obvious, the Jim or James thanked in the front pages of most Traviss books and Karen Miller's TCW novels is me, and Karen was kind enough to name Mij Gilamar after me. We've known each other since becoming friends at the Clarion Writers Workshop East in 2000.

Star Wars has, and continues, to bring wonderful people and opportunities into my life.

 

Okay! Back from Brick Mansions (moment of silence for Paul Walker) which was not as good as the French film it's based on but such is life, and now back to the questions.

3) I originally got my BA in English from Michigan State and worked as a newspaper stringer/technical writer before going to Clarion on the back of my first serious attempt at fiction...fast forward a few years through the year I spent in London...meeting my future wife at a Belle & Sebastian show...and I went back to school for Radiography.

So, I am a diagnostic radiographer, which is a fancy way of saying I'm the guy who takes your x-rays.

Except I spent eight years as a Level 1 Trauma & Surgery team member and hold all sorts of additional licenses associated with that.

I currently run the radiology department at an ortho clinic which is much less physically and emotionally stressful. As much as I miss the thrill of working a trauma, after a while you get tired of death and blood and violence and want something a bit more low-key. It is my ideal profession, and I also still do writing on the side and am getting back into that this year in a bigger way. At the moment I have to say it's my dream profession and while I miss trauma (sometimes) I love what I do and it gives me time to write.

I write on the side and have had fiction and essay pieces in numerous anthologies, webzines, and so on.

I've written two novels for Warhammer 40K, one got spiked because the video game it was based on was canceled, and the other is with the editor right now.I've also written several short stories for that universe, one of which was published in FEAR THE ALIEN and a couple more that are sitting in drawers because I wrote them as a canon issue was being resolved and they don't quite fit anymore.

4) Detroit! Born and raised not far from the intersection of Joy and Evergreen, my dad was a Detroit firefighter for 35 years and seeing his First Responder manual as a kid is probably one of the things that made me interested in medicine. As much as I loved the Detroit that was...it's not in good shape, but I grew up when it was still very big city but at the same time there was a sense of neighborhood and community.

I went to Michigan State University in East Lansing and then did a lot of traveling including backpacking across Europe and living a couple of summers in London, including working at a bar attached to a youth hostel. I loved London, and my local friends took me to underground clubs and raves and it was a wild time living out of a youth hostel and enjoying life.

I met my future wife in Seattle after I'd come back, met a girl in Michigan, and took a roadtrip across the country with her and travelled up the west coast. I ended up emailing the girl I met in Seattle and visiting her in Madison and two months later moved there from Michigan for a year. Madison, Wi is a gorgeous town and earns the name "Berkeley of the Midwest". I decided to go back and get my medical degree before I moved to SAN FRANCISCO!

Well...the Bay Area, since I live in the East Bay, but I love SF with the diversity and the people and if I want to do something I just hop on BART and I'm in the city. I wanted to live on the west coast since I'd travelled up it years before, and one day I got an email from Shea asking me if I still wanted to move and she needed roommates and a month and a half latter I was living in the East Bay.

I suspect my rambling days are over as I love the Bay Area and while I could be persuaded to move to Oregon or Washington, unless I won the lottery and could move to London I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else.

Of course, if I'm being honest...the things I loved about London were the things I loved when I was young and single. I am old and boring now and do not hit the dancefloor or the raves much anymore.

 

5) Oh, it must be my Romany blood because I have traveled a lot, and often lived for times out of my backpack. There's no experience like life experience.

If I had to pick a favourite it'd be the UK. I loved the British Isles, and I loved going up to northern England and Scotland. I even loved Portsmouth. When I backpacked across the UK and Ireland I have never in my life met so many wonderful and gracious people. I can't tell you how welcoming the people were. I ended up spending nights on sofas, in guest beds, in barns...everywhere I went it seemed like if I hadn't already lined up a place to stay I had people offering.

I like Paris okay...but it was really the surrounding towns that were the best, and again, the people there were wonderful. Forget what you might think about the French, they were welcoming and the night I got into France all the hotels were booked and I ended up crashing on someone's floor.

I traveled across Europe, up through Belgium and the Netherlands, Denmark...down through Germany and back across Europe and back over to the UK. I wish I'd had time to get to the Czech Republic, even if my Czech is almost non-existent, or even further up to Oslo. Someday I want to get to Iceland.

Domestically...it's all about the West Coast. Although I do like Vegas. It's not a place I'd want to live, but despite not gambling I've enjoyed my trips there. Portland is...well, Portlandia is accurate. During the same trip I met my wife, Elise, at the Belle & Sebastian show two girlfriends found out Amy (the girl I was riding with) and I didn't have a place to stay and next I knew we were all crashing in their queen bed in a little loft apartment after the show and they made us a vegan (of course!) breakfast the next morning. I just loved Portland and Olympia and the Northwest in general. Seattle was okay, but I think I'd take Portland any day. If Shea hadn't wanted roommates it was Portland that my wife and I were looking at to move to.

6) Wow...this is a big one. Just sticking to franchises; Robotech is pretty much what made me a reader, as well as blowing my mind by having people die, taking on mixed raced relationships, transgenderism, and just loads of things that were not topics on adult shows in the 1980's. The books were written by Jack McKinney, who is actually the pen name of Brian Daley and James Luceno (I recall reading the Daley Han Solo adventures just because of that) and the books hit me at a pretty formative time.

When I was a kid we had RiF (Reading is Fundamental) so I read lots of Battletech (Mike Stakepole!), some Dragonlance stuff, and loads of other stuff that I don't really follow anymore but recall fondly.

OK, off the top of my head; Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Halo, Gears of War, Warhammer 40K, and those are the "corporate" franchises. If we were talking about just book series...yeah, I'm verbose enough. If we got into comic books....yikes!

Because I'm also a writer and know so many writers and artists I don't...it's not that I'm not passionate, it's knowing how the sausage is made does change how I interact with franchises. I know so many comic book writers, franchise novel writers, artists, etc across so much media that I see and hear a lot of the backdoor politics and sometimes that can bum me out, but that stuff is there for creator owned stuff to a degree too. I guess knowing the behind the scenes does change how I look at things, but I still love SW and so many franchises.

I love Warhammer40K because it's such a broad church and you have people like Sandy Mitchell doing satirical work, Dan Abnett doing wonderfully large space opera and military SF and there's something for everyone. It's such a big, crazy story.

I think a lot of the franchises I love are more comic book related, but that could be another question. I would say that ROBOTECH was pretty important to me thanks largely to James Luceno and Brian Daley, Warhammer 40K is my dose of big, crazy SF, and then you have Mass Effect which just blows my mind. I love that there's no canon to Mass Effect. The canon in Mass Effect and Dragon Age are totally what I make it, and this works better with Mass Effect because my FemShep is a singular character through all three games and I absolutely love the franchise and the story it allowed me to tell myself.

Special mention to the works of Simon R Green which are pretty well interconnected; Deathstalker is the absolutely insane space opera that is just BRILLIANT and Star Wars could learn some stuff from him. His urban fantasies are wonderful as well and I look forward to a new Simon R Green novel like it's Christmas.

 

7) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...as some hack writing for a deadline one wrote. I honestly think it's a good thing because it frees the franchise from the fickle tourism of George Lucas, who...all power to him for creating it and it was his as he owned it and he allowed people to write and create and make things in his universe...George just never really seemed all that interested in the story. He'd kinda get involved when something novel came along like the TCW cartoon and if some new technology caught his eye, but I think he was really at the end of his desire to do much with the universe, so as much as people are upset they should ask themselves would they rather get a new EU and ST or would they rather have nothing.

Me? More SW is always good. Will it thrill me as much as it did when I was six years old watching a second generation copy of Star Wars on VHS...probably not, and that's okay, because someone else will get that rush, and I don't like it that there's a perception (somewhat grounded in reality) that there's loads of fan factions that are at war with each other. That side of things just bums me out.

My hope is that we get good, exciting, entertaining movies that they bring the joy we've all taken away from SW to a new generation of fans.

8) Well, I'm already biased as I love Luceno an JJM. I don't personally know Luceno, but I've met JJM and both of them have worked in both EU's, and while part of me is sorry to see the EU become Legends and non-canon, no one is going to take away those stories, and now the slate is clean and we have some great writers who have the chance to write what they want without being beholden to three decades of material. I'm excited because I think there's a lot of potential there and I think we'll see something that isn't the same EU...it may have nothing from the old EU of it, but I think it'll be exciting and I know that the writers they've brought on have an honest love for the franchise and the skills to do the job.

 

9) Oh, another tough one as I stink at listing favourites...well, just a scattershot of TV; Person of Interest, Archer, Strikeback, Daily Show, Arrow, True Detective, South Park, Nu-BSG, Forbrydelsen (aka The Killing), Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, House, MD, Sandbaggers...and the many permutations of Law & Order except Criminal Intent.

And a scattershot of movies; Blade Runner (best movie EVER), The Third Man, Heat, Alien/Aliens, Casablanca, The Apartment, Blues Brothers, Ronin, Chinatown, Drugstore Cowboy, and many more.

10) I was really turned off by the first few seasons of TCW...the animation and writing just were not up to par, I thought, but I will say that the faux-marionette look faded with time to be replaced by a slicker look, and I just watched the episode "Bounty" the other night and I can honestly say it was good. And kids seems to love TCW. The kids that I know who watched it had the same crazy excitement for it that I had for the movies...so, that's a good thing, and from what I can see of Rebels they're only taking it further and getting slicker with the animation.

Most important is that the cast seems very diverse and it looks like there's a lot of love and excitement going into it. And I love the idea of a punk rawk sk8er Mando ;p

So I say bring it on, and I'll be checking out the first few episodes and if it catches my interest...I'm in.

 

Oh, man...

11) Okay...inside SW I would say James Luceno has rarely let me down and, of course, the X-Wing. I'll also venture the controversial opinion that I really enjoyed Drew K's work with Bane and one thing about him is that he can lay out action without it being overboard. I really think a certain SW writer who loves long, detailed lightsaber fights could learn a thing or two from his stuff.

Outside of SW...wow. Just off the top of my head; TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD because I think it's my all time favourite novel, anything by Charlie Huston (especially his crime novels) because he has a wonderful style and his crime novels are crisp, his vampire novels noirish but original, and his SF novel SLEEPLESS was painfully plausible, anything by Simon R Green because despite his quirks he is a Big Idea guy who retains the humanity of the stories and he fits everything including the kitchen sink in, Harlan Ellison because he's a short, yappy Jew pain in the ass who has mastered the art of the short story and to read his work is to wade through Harlan's blood and viscera poured out on the page and laced with razorwire the bites into you and won't let go, especially the short story "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin" as well as "Deathbird". Alfred Bester's THE STARS MY DESTINATION and THE DEMOLISHED MAN as well as his shorts because he's another humanist SF writer who is just a master of weaving SF and humanism into a glorious bundle. Joel Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov novels for being Blade Runner cross with Ghost in the Shell, THE WATCH novels by Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko (NIGHT WATCH, DAY WATCH, LAST WATCH, etc) for being utterly different than most urban fantasies, having a fascinating ecology of the supernatural, and offering a sardonic look at the nature of good and evil.

HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z Danielewski is just mind-blowing and the closest to a horror movie in novel form. Blew my mind the first time I read it and I reread it about once a year.

Just about anything by Dan Abnett is going to entertain me because he's just a master of fast moving action SF.

The science writings of Mary Roach such as STIFF or PACKING FOR MARS are easy and accessible for everyone as well as being hilarious.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'brien remains a deeply moving true story of a man trying to come to grips with Vietnam.

I'll stop before I get too carried away...but I would be remiss if I didn't mention Cordwainer Smith...one of the most overlooked but greatest SF writers ever whose "Ballard of Lost C'mell"...well, my allergies start acting up when I read that one.

12) Ugghh...man, I will try not to take up too much space and hit the highlights; THE INVISIBLES by Grant Morrison is an absolute amazing piece of work and remains something I reread every few months because I find something new every time. Morrison is just one of those writers who almost never lets me down but with THE INVISIBLES he takes it a step further and shows us why saving the world is both the easiest and hardest thing to do and maybe saving the world is just saving ourselves.

Alan Moore's FROM HELL is just a massive tome that is a testament to his skill as a writer but the best part is the afterword that takes the form of looking at how the Ripper legend grew and a look at how the mystery grew and took a life of its own. As to Moore's WATCHMEN, well it's pretty much the definitive word on superheroes.

Warren Ellis is responsible for me meeting many lifelong friends, many of whom went forth from his old Delphi message boards from the late 90's to have careers in comics. His own comics are absolutely wonderful; THE AUTHORITY is a love song to over the top superheroes and blurs the line between the fantasy and a horrifying reality while things like Nextwave are a hilarious roadtrip through the Marvel Universe and includes Fin Fan Foom...what more do I need to say? TRANSMET is some of the best SF/political comics you can find. He's reinvented, for the better, plenty of superheroes including the defining EXTREMIS run on IRON MAN.

SCALPED by Jason Aaron is an absolutely amazing piece of crime fiction set on an Indian Rez that is just some of the best stuff in the genre and medium.

WORMWOOD, GENTLEMAN CORPSE by Ben Templesmith is just crazy...urban horror gonzo comics.

I'm just going to list comics I love and am reading and would recommend; HAWKEYE, SAGA, DEAD BODY ROAD, LUTHER STRODE, FUSE, BRPD, HELLBOY, PRETTY DEADLY....

Look for these names, basically; Justin Jordan, Anthony Johnson, Kieron Gillen, Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka...they are all automatic buys from me just on name value alone, and the first four all started as posters on Warren Ellis' old Delphi forums...it blows my mind how many of my friends from those forums, people I used to drink with and chat with, and am still friends with...and they went on to be some of the finest writers of comic books I know.

I can't forget PAD's work...anything Peter David touches is going to be gold because he's just a great writer who is witty but not as cynical as some of my other faves.

That is most definitely not a comprehensive list...I have four bookshelves stuff with graphic novels and books as well as an external HD stuff with e-books and e-comics and there's just too much to name.

 

Did you ever look at the Dark Tower work he, Jae Lee and Richard Isanove did? It's worth a look, not least for images like this:

 

13) I'm optimistic. I know the thing to do is immediately leap to conclusions but we have a core cast, some members may be added, and in terms of the Diversity Score (and I very much appreciate all of Coop's work with the Diversity thread)...you know, I think you're already in the hole when you're already bringing back the white cast + droids and Wookiee, because that's going to be the focus (supposedly) so right there you've got what screenwriters would consider a crowded room.

I would like to see more females onscreen. I think we need pilots and soldiers and all sorts being female. No more taking the female pilots out of the final product. But I think Adam Driver would make a great villain and when my wife and I hate-watch GIRLS he's the only likable person to be had...so there's that.

It's early days and we honestly don't know what the final cast is going to be and Disney is planning quite a lot of these movies so I'm not going to jump to conclusions just yet, but I remain optimistic and I think when we start seeing trailers and costumes even those with doubts are going to get that old familiar charge.

I do hope once we're past the hump of seeing off the old generation that we get stories with new and varied casts and I think that's absolutely something that will happen.

14) Huh...well, I have never met James Luceno, and the man has been (as said) partly responsible for me being such a voracious reader and a writer by co-authoring those old Robotech tie-ins that I really think I'd enjoy the chance to sit down and thank him and tell him that even something that...and I don't know how he looks at those old Robotech novels he did with Brian Daley...but even something that wasn't perhaps the most artistic of ventures still ignited a fire and a passion for reading and really helped spark my imagination. And I still remember the bits he and/or Brian Daley added on such as the extended Roy Fokker's death experience and just the little spins they put on things from the show. Of course, his Star Wars stuff has been awesome as well, so I think just for having been involved with so many things I love that's one. Since you added the deceased bit...I wish I'd been able to tell Brian Daley the same things.

Harrison Ford disturbingly resembles my dad both in looks and general attitude, and despite his gruffness I would really just like to have a beer with the man and then go build something with him. Frame a house or do some finishing...but just have a beer and a chat and do something hands on. There are some people you'd just like to have a beer with and he's on my list.

This is hard for me because I don't get starstruck, never have...and having insight into how the sausage is made, so to speak, perhaps robs a bit of the luster...right up until I pick up the book and read, or look at the artwork, or watch the film and then that part of my brain turns off and it doesn't matter if it's something someone I know wrote or drew or acted in...that drops away and I'm sucked in.

I think the real question would be whether I'd want to have a beer with an actor and carpenter or a smuggler and rebel hero. There's two boxes in my head, one labeled Harrison Ford and one Han Solo and it would make the six year old squee to meet Han Solo, but old experienced me knows it's just Harrison Ford in different clothes ;p

I would still love to have a beer with Harrison Ford, mind you, or chat with Carrie Fisher about...oh, anything, because I worked with substance abuse and mental health patients for a time and her experiences in both fields would be fascinating. People are generally fascinating.

Karen once asked me if SW had been ruined for me by seeing how things were produced and decisions made and knowing as much as I know about publishing in general and all that and the truth is that when I sit down to read or watch something all that falls away and I'm still that six year old kid who wanted to grow up to be an X-wing pilot. The same with most things...I can switch on my objective "editor" switch if I really wanted to but when I pick up SW I have to admit I'm not very picky...in hindsight I've seen some scenes and passages from books removed from context and cringed at how clunky they were, but when I sit down in "Entertain Me" mode, I'm reading for pure enjoyment, and I usually get that from even the stuff that sometimes isn't quite up to snuff or flat-out silly.

 

I've got the entire Dark Tower series in hardcover staring at me from the bookshelf right now, and not partly because my wife is a huge Stephen King fan and loves the Dark Tower books, so it was an easy sell to get her onto reading those comics/graphic novels.

 

15) I am going to say telekinesis, mainly because I can think of ways to simulate other powers using TK and also because it's so handy!

16) I'm torn between my love of big cities but also my love of nature...so I'm going to say Mandalore as seen in the RC books. If I want to be left alone like Jeremiah Johnson I could be or I could be down to the town and sitting in a tapcafe. Good enough for me!