The folks at Hugo-winning science fiction fanzine SF Signal asked me to be on an authors guest panel for a special Halloween article. Since Halloween is the best holiday, I happily accepted. My choice for “scariest story” is H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dreams in the Witch House”. Find out why here.
Category Archives: Interview
Interview with James Robert Smith
I’m happy to have friend and fellow author James Robert Smith on the website today for a quick interview. James has published numerous novels (THE FLOCK being the most well-known), as well as over sixty short stories. His comic scripts have been published by Marvel and Spiderbabies Grafix.
I first became aware of James when I was accepted for the Dead Bait 2 Anthology, which was packed with some of the best writers in the game.
Author James Robert Smith in Colorado’s rugged Weminuche Wilderness.
What was your influence for THE FLOCK?
I had always been fascinated by the so-called Terror birds. No one had ever found the wing bones of the North American species, Titanis walleri. But when one was located it was theorized that the wing had evolved back into an arm so that the animals pretty much resembled theropod predators that had been extinct for 65 million years. With that image in my mind, my imagination ran away with the idea. Within a day or so after that I had concocted the premise of a remnant population still existing in a part of their native range and of how such a situation could exist.
Alex Kane and Clarion West
I’m happy to interview fellow writer and friend Alex Kane on his upcoming Clarion West adventure. I’ve known Alex for a few years now, and he’ a heck of a creative force. Keep an eye on this guy. And better yet, throw a little coin his way so he can focus on what matters at Clarion West, like listening to writers such as Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.
It’s incredibly hard to get into Clarion West, and that’s underselling it. What was your initial reaction?
I really didn’t expect it, to be honest. I’d applied to both Clarion and Clarion West two or three times each over the past few years, and had been rejected, so despite a few stories being published in the meantime, I had no real reason to anticipate anything but another kind rejection email. Instead, I got the most exciting phone call of my life. Cell phones do this incredible thing, these days, where underneath the number it displays the caller’s location, as well: “Seattle, WA.”
There was this element of wow, what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ll get to study the craft of fiction under writers like Joe Hill, whose novel Horns is probably my biggest literary influence, and Neil Gaiman–what could possibly be more valuable and thrilling? Yet there’s something very scary and intimidating: having to ask for all that time off, and wondering whether you’ll have to quit your job and find another one; worrying you won’t be able to afford it, or what you might have to do to be able to pay for the trip; not to mention the common symptoms of Imposter Syndrome–what Gaiman refers to as the “Fraud Police.” You worry that you’ll be wasting your own time as well as that of your instructors. Doesn’t matter how much fiction you’ve sold, or if you’ve been a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest, or even how excited you are by the craft and all your ideas. The expectations you put on yourself are really pretty paralyzing, sometimes.
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