Edward Willett Interview, Part 4

Photo by Sharon Eisbrenner


Robert: So the next obvious question is how do you ensure "characters who are as much like real people as you can?" Are they based on people you know? (and do they know they are those characters?) or are they composites of people you know? Or do you just draw them from your head but try hard to work out the details in a consistent way?

Edward: I've never knowingly based a character on a real person (although I do borrow people's last names without shame). In a sense, though, I'd say all characters are composites of people we know, because what else do we have to draw on when it comes to portraying how real people think and talk and react?

I usually worry about whether my characters are acting consistently or not. I'm glad you think they turned out okay!

Robert: They're not only consistent, but the product of their histories....

So who do you read? Which writers inspire you? Influence your writing?

Edward: I suspect the most influential books on my writing aren't recent ones, but the ones I read as a youngster. The first SF book I can remember reading was Robert Silverberg's Revolt on Alpha C. After that can Robert A. Heinlein's "juveniles," most of which I read multiple times. (My three favorites there: Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, Tunnel in the Sky, and Podkayne of Mars.) Andre Norton figures in there, too. Since I started writing novels in high school, I suspect their influence has seeped through everything I've ever written.

On the fantasy side, besides the aforementioned Norton (although I actually liked her SF as much or more than her fantasy), there were C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, of course.

These days--I recently devoured the Dresden Files books after my brother introduced me to them. Naomi Novik's dragons-in-the-Napoleonic-era books are recent favorites as well. Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas under Red Skies have both blown me away. I never miss a Terry Pratchett.

I still read quite a few YA books, too, because I suspect I'll find myself writing in that field again--at least, I hope I do! On that side of things, Justine Larbelestier's Magic or Madness series is undoubtedly the best of my recent reads.

Robert: Oh Oh! I remember Revolt on Alpha C! I've never heard anyone else mention that book, but it was after reading that book that I started writing. (okay, haven't actually finished anything yet, but that's when I started writing). And now you mention it, I totally see the influence on Marseguro! Though I'd have to say the ethical dilemmas (and the killer robots for that matter) are better in Marseguro than Revolt. And yeah, I can see some influence of Hienlein in your writing.

So with the mentions of Pratchett and Tolkien et al, can we look for some mass market fantasy novels in the near future?

Edward: Gee, I hope so. I have a fantasy proposal in hand and will probably be putting it forward to DAW again very soon along with a possible third book in the Marseguro sequence. (I thought I'd be done after two, and maybe I will, but I can see the outline of a third, though I think that would definitely be the last.)

I enjoy writing fantasy as much as I enjoy writing science fiction, and there's the strictly commercial fact that fantasy outsells SF to consider, as well. Sheila Gilbert (my editor at DAW) has indicated she'd be happy to consider a fantasy from me, so...we'll see!

Robert: You also mentioned YA books..you've done quite a few of these over the years. Are you involved in school visits? I'd think your obvious performance abilities would make you a big hit on the school tour circuit.

Edward: I do a few school visits every year. I'm not sure how big a hit I am, but I enjoy them. The biggest advantage being a performer gives me is that, if they get bored with my reading or answering questions, I can always burst into song. A rousing rendition of "Me" from Beauty and the Beast usually captures their attention (and mightily embarrasses those of them who can't imagine anyone doing that).

I enjoy answering questions more than I enjoy reading, actually. I try to answer everything honestly, even the ones that obviously aren't meant seriously. My favorite: "Is it true that all writers are alcoholics?"

Robert: Oh, nice!

Changing topics slightly, you've made the first two chapters of Marseguro available online. And you have an excellent blog - my favorite part of your blog is "the first sentence I wrote today" feature, which I find captivating -- it gives this odd peek at both the creative process and your next book. So my question is, how important do you think it is for an author to have a strong online presence these days?

Edward: I THINK it's very important, but I don't think you can prove it.

My blog, for example, is doing good to get a couple of dozen visitors a day, and most of those are just random Google encounters. Is that doing anything to sell my books? Maybe once in a blue moon.

My main website does better, with around 500 visitors a day, but that's almost entirely because all of my science columns are archived on there, so Google finds me a lot. I have an ad for Marseguro on every page, but does it sell any books? Who knows?

If you can develop a major web presence, like, say, John Scalzi (to name the obvious example) then I'm sure it helps a lot. For the average writer...I'm sure it helps to be online, but maybe not as much as we'd like to think.

When I studied public relations in university (part of my journalism major) one axiom stuck with me: 90 percent of advertising is wasted, but nobody knows which 90 percent it is. I suspect that's very true of online marketing efforts, too.

Plus, maintaining an online presence is work that takes away from other work, like, say, writing. It's much easier and more immediately gratifying to post to a blog than it is to actually write another chapter.

Which is one reason I like to do the "first sentence I wrote today" feature (although I'm a bit behind on that at the moment because of all the stuff I've been doing around Marseguro's release, among other things). It keeps the blog going while at the same time giving me just a little added incentive to actually write that first sentence, and subsequent sentences. If I know I'm going to tell the world how many words I wrote today, maybe I'll write a few more than I otherwise would!

Robert: Was "the first sentence I wrote today" original to you, or did you see someone else using? It seems to be absolutely brilliant for the reasons you mentioned -- not a distraction from the real work of writing and maybe even an additional motivation, while still engaging one's (potential) readers.

Edward: I don't think I"ve seen anyone else do it. I was inspired to do it by other writers who would occasionally post snippets of something they were working on, and still others who keep a progress chart showing how many words they'd written in a particular day. I just kind of combined the two.

Robert: Well, I think it is more effective even than posting first chapters online -- the 'first line I wrote today' gives a real sense of the book unfolding and the style, tone etc., while still working well as a 'tease' since there is not enough to really fill in the blanks without buying the book. I think some day you will receive some kind of award for coming up with the innovation that made blog-based promotion actually work for authors. Remarkably entertaining!

So how much time do you devote to your blog/web page typically in a day?

Edward: Half an hour to an hour, I'd guess. Sometimes more, sometimes none at all, although I like to get at least one entry on the blog every day.

I used to post more science links on the blog than I do now. Partly that's just because I'm so busy right now: when/if things ease off I'll do more of that. The other reason is that I now do some of that as one of the bloggers for Futurismic (http://www.futurismic.com), which is a science- and science-fiction group blog (and also has been, and hopefully will be again, a market for fiction) based in the U.K. I usually manage three or four posts there a week. Each one of those takes half an hour or more to pull together.

Then there's my main website, http://www.edwardwillett.com. I want to completely redesign it, but that's a bit intimidating since it has something like 900 pages. I suspect I'll end up essentially creating a brand-new site from scratch and archiving the old one. I don't want to pull it down because there are science columns on it that people have linked to, so I don't want their URLs to change. It looks very late-90s now; very dated.

I should mention I also maintain, with some regularity, the news blog for SF Canada, the professional association of speculative fiction writers in Canada, at http://news.sfcanada.ca., and the website at http://www.sfcanada.ca, as well. Both of which I'm currently behind on, I admit, but hope to bring up to snuff soon.

Robert: Thanks so much for doing this interview! And good luck with sales of Marseguro-- and I can't wait for the sequel!

Edward: Thanks! It's been fun!

Edward Willett Interview, Part 3

Robert: I'm always interested in a writer's process. Some writers write by just sitting down at the keyboard and letting things develop as they may; at the other end of the continuum are those that don't set pen to paper until they have a completed outline, a white board filled with timelines and thematic analysis, and a stack of index cards detailing each character, his/her growth, and their interaction with every other character. You've mentioned that Marseguro grew out of a scene you developed in a workshop, but that it was also the first time you sold the synopsis before writing the actual book. So where does your process normally fall on that continuum, and /or can you talk a bit more about how you wrote Marseguro.

Edward: The fact I sold Marseguro from a synopsis didn't really change my process too much. I always sit down and do a rough outline, just so I know where the plot is going to go before I start. I'll usually make quite a lot of notes about the world and the characters before I start, too. To create the synopsis, I just put all that stuff into one file and polished it a lot more than I would if it were for my own use.

Once I start writing, though, things certainly do develop as they may. Terra Insegura, the Marseguro sequel I'm working on now, is a case in point. I realized I needed to add a new viewpoint character fairly early on so that I could provide the reader with a view on some things happening in orbit while my other viewpoint characters were all on the ground. But once I created that character, he had to have his own agenda, and that agenda has now, as I approach the end of the book, forced me to completely replot the last 20,000 words or so. I don't mind, because I think it's an improvement over what I originally put in the synopsis, but I didn't realize it was going to happen when I created the character several weeks ago now.

And I think the last bit I wrote on Terra Insegura, just yesterday, may have some serious ramifications for my expected ending, as well, so again, despite having put a fairly detailed synopsis down on paper to sell the book, I'm also just sitting at the keyboard and letting things develop as they may.

The other thing about my process is that I write a complete first draft, and only then go back and rewrite and rearrange and polish. I very rarely back up and rewrite anything at this point: I just want to get a mass of words in place, so I have something to go back and shape. Even when I realize I've missed something important, I don't go back in the story during this stage of writing: instead, I just write a note to myself right in the text and carry on, something like: NEED SCENE DEFINING RICHARD AND EMILY'S RELATIONSHP ON MARSEGURO PRIOR TO MISSION, to give you an actual example.

Robert: My next question was going to be if your characters ever surprised you, but I see you've already answered that one. So I'll ask instead, is writer's block ever a problem for you? Or does it all pretty much flow from the outline? How long does it typically take you to write a book like Marseguro?

Edward:Depends on how you define writer's block. I can be a terrible procrastinator, which I suppose is a form of writer's block, but once I actually make myself sit at the keyboard, words come very easily. I sometimes think they're absolutely terrible words, and there always comes a point during the writing when I think the whole thing is a hopeless mess and who am I kidding?, but I've learned to push through that. I just tell myself I'll fix everything in the rewrite.

Asor how long it takes me to write a book like Marseguro...longer than it should. If I could work on nothing but fiction, I think I could do 3,000 to 5,000 words a day, which would give me a first draft in less than a month. In an ideal world, I'd then have time to share it with some first readers and gather feedback, then a leisurely month to rewrite the whole thing. But in the world I actually live in, I manage more like 1,500 to 2,000 words a day on a good day, so it takes me more like two months to write the first draft, then I rewrite as fast as I can to meet the deadline that I've already had extended slightly...

Either way, though, I guess it boils down to about three months or a bit more to produce the mansucript I give to the editor. Editorially suggested rewrites, on Marseguro, then took another four or five weeks.

Robert: You're complaining about 2000 words a day and three months to write a novel? You need to talk to those of us who have been grinding away on the same manuscript for 12 years! :-)

So out of all the words in Marseguro, which is you favorite bit? Your favorite scene, or your favorite piece of dialog?

Edward: 'm rather partial to the scene in which the killer robot chases Emily and Richard into the lava-tube caverns of Sawyer's Point, because it was fun to write, because Sawyer's Point is named after Rob Sawyer, in whose class the book began, and because its a mutated version of one of the first scenes I wrote, back when I was trying to make the tale fit into a short story.

Robert: Yeah! Killer Robots! Anyone who knows me knows that I am always advocating for more killer robots in Canadian SF. No, honest!

But it really is a good scene and a crucial one in the development of Richard's relationship with Emily, and in his own development. So let me just clarify for readers, these are not stupid Hollywood killer robots, but decently literary killer robots.

I'm not helping am I?

But it brings up a serious point. Both Lost in Translation and Marseguro are actioners, with strong narratives and strong characterizations, but you still manage to pack in a lot of literary value: complex ethical issues, the evils of intolerance and prejudice and the importance of karma, that you mentioned earlier in this interview. So how consciously do you balance those two elements? Does it all just flow out, or do you have to work in the outline to get the right balance of killer robots and philosophical content?

Edward: 'd have to say that the killer robots come first, then I add in the other stuff.

I'm interested primarily in telling a good story. That's where the action comes in. I love space battles and killer robots and all that good old space opera stuff. But when it comes to the characters, I try to make them as much like real people as I can. The mixture of realistic characters with extraordinary events is automatically going to bring up complex ethical issues, just as it does in real life. We all struggle with our conscience every day as we choose what actions to commit. Sometimes the choice is clear-cut, sometimes it's a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Sometimes we do something in the heat of the moment we bitterly regret later, but we still have to live with the consequences of our actions. All these things should apply to fictional characters, too, no matter how speculative the situations in which they find themselves.

Edward Willett Interview, Part 2

Robert: One of the things I liked about Marseguro was the complexity of the main, and even a few of the secondary, characters. (This is in sharp contrast with a lot of SF where the viewpoint character is essentially flawless Hero, or at best a Peter Parker flawless Hero-with-angst.) Your viewpoint characters are either slightly damaged individuals or ordinary people (well, aside from the whole gill thing) who have to try to rise to the occasion. And every time they succeed, you keep raising the bar on them for the next task. This makes for very engaging characterizations.

So my question is this: if you were casting for the movie version of Marseguro, who would you have playing which roles?

Edward: Now there's a question I've never considered.

Hmmm. Richad Hansen...how about Nicolas Cage? Seems like an ordinary guy but can do extraordinary things when he has to.

Emily Wood...Catherine Zeta-Jones comes to mind, except she's too old. Someone like that, though. I don't see enough movies any more to be able to name somebody more in the correct 20ish age range.

Samuel Cheveldeoff...John Malkovich would be interesting.

Chris Keating...some unknown and ordinary looking kid appearing in his first movie.

Nicholas Cage as Richard Hansen

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Emily Wood

John Malkovich as Samuel Cheveldeoff

Robert: Hey, I was thinking Nicholas Cage for Hansen too!

But does your wife know about your thing for Catherine Zeta-Jones? (Oops! Nevermind...that wasn't an interview question!)

In both your SF novels, the protagonists start out with one point of view / set of prejudices, and end up with a very different set of understandings / positions. You've already suggested that character growth is an underlying principle in your writing, but the particular pattern that has appeared in your books is a archetypal Canadian version -- the hero who sets out to achieve one set of goals, but ends the book somewhere entirely different. I don't think any author ever sits down and says, "I'm going to write a Canadian SF novel" and restricts themselves to some textbook's definition of typical Canadian themes, but, upon reflection after the fact, do you detect anything distinctly Canadian about your writing?

Edward: Huh. No, I've never thought of it in that terms, and I generally vehemently oppose the notion that there's anything distinctly different about science fiction by Canadians versus science fiction by Americans: I don't like pigeon-holes and I prefer to think in terms of individual authors rather than national identities.

Besides, I only just became a Canadian citizen: I was born in New Mexico and we moved to Saskatchewan from Texas when I was eight. I went to university in Arkansas. Most of my life I've been an American only, and proud of it, much to the horror of various Canadian friends who seem to think being an American should be something to be ashamed about. Since I've lived with that attitude my whole life, I generally let it go, but it does rankle.

However, now that I'm married to a Canadian, and the father of a Canadian, and since I have, after all, lived here longer by far than I lived in the U.S., I decided I should be a Canadin. But I'm a dual citizen, so I'm still an American, too.

Maybe that's the process you see in my characters: starting out with on point of view/set of prejudices (purely American), and ending up with a very different set of understandings/positions (becoming Canadian)!

Robert: Works for me! Clearly, Canadian themes have taken over your subconscious!

[ I'd argue that analyzing cultural differences is valid because individuals are all products of their environments -- hey, I'm a sociologist in my day job -- but that one has to be careful not to over do it. People who try to dictate particular themes or forms to authors (e.g., Soviet Realism, certain Canada Council juries) are idiots.]

So my next question was going to be whether you ever had to consciously edit yourself to sell to the American market, but the answer there is pretty obviously a 'no'. So let me ask instead, how did you end up choosing DAW as your publisher for Maresguro (and Lost in Translation)? And what has that experience been like?

Edward:Ah, thereon hangs a fascinating tale. (Well, fascinating to me, anyway.)

Ten years ago, at least, I wrote Lost in Translation, a novelization of a short story that I'd sold to the premiere issue of TransVersions magazine in, I think, 1994.

I shopped Lost in Translation around on my own. Nobody wanted it. (Including, I suspect, DAW, though I don't have the records to prove that.) Then I got an agent. She shopped it around. Nobody wanted it. (Again including, I suspect, DAW.) She sent it back and quit being my agent.

Then, in 2004 or 2005, I got an email from John Helfers, who edits at Martin H. Greenberg's Tekno Books, which packages science fiction titles for the Five Star imprint. Five Star publishes hardcover editions, but really only sells to libraries; indeed, the books are library edition hardcovers, which means that they have the cover art printed right on the hardcover, not just on the slipcover. John wanted to see Lost in Translation. I sent it to him, he liked it, and in 2005 Lost in Translation came out in a Five Star hardcover.


Cover of the Five Star edition of Lost in Translation

I was toying with, but hadn't yet acted on, the idea of dangling the published book in front of agents to see if I could get one to take it on in the hopes of selling the paperback rights for me when, one very fine day, I received a phone call from John Helfers, who told me Martin H. Greenberg wanted to talk to me. Which he did.

As Greenberg explained it to me, DAW had a "hole" in their publishing schedule and needed book to fill it. Since Greenberg has edited a number of anthologies for DAW, and they knew about his Five Star books, they asked him to send along some of the books published under that imprint for them to consider for paperback publication. Which he did and, lo and behold, DAW picked mine! (So really, I didn't pick DAW, DAW picked me.)

With that offer in hand, but before signing the contract, I went in search of a new, improved agent. Ethan Ellenberg responded the quickest and agreed to take me on. We agreed that my next move should be to offer DAW two synopsis for my next book after Lost in Translation. One was a sequel to Lost in Translation, while the other was Marseguro. The response was, "Which one do you want to write?" and after talking it over, Ethan and I agreed that it was better to go with the new idea rather than a sequel to a book that we didn't even know at the time whether or not anyone would like.

It was the first time I ever sold a book based only on a synopsis and then had to actually write the thing: like most starting-out novelists I was used to writing a book and then shopping it around for months and years in the faint hope someone would buy it. It was also the first time I had strong editorial input after I turned in the initial manuscript: none of my other fiction publishers were large enough/interested enough. Sheila Gilbert and I spent a couple of solid hours on the phone talking about the manuscript, and at the end of it, I went back and beefed up the story by almost 20,000 words, particularly in the areas of characterization and motivation and the political situation on Earth. A fairly major plot point also made its way into the story during the rewrite, and a good thing, too, because it's a major element of the sequel!

I've enjoyed all my dealings with DAW thus far. They've been great.


Robert: Fascinating! As part of the discussion of publishers, I usually ask authors what they think about the cover art put on their books. I'm guessing you're probably pretty happy with your covers, since both books look pretty good, but I wonder how much input you had into the coverart.

Edward: I had a bit. I suggested scenes that I thought might make a good cover, and in the case of Marseguro, provided some extra description of some of the things that might appear in those scenes. I didn't know what Steve Stone would do with it until I saw the finished product, though, and yes, I was very happy with them both.

DAW cover of Lost in Translation

cover of Marseguro

Stone is a top-notch cover artist whose art has also graced books by the likes of Stephen King and George R.R. Martin. It'd be nice if some of their sales would rub off on me by association...

Edward Willett Interview, Part 1

Edward Willett, author of Marseguro and Lost in Translation

Robert: In my review of Marseguro for Neo-Opsis Magazine, I said that "As the stakes continually rise, the protagonists have to constantly up their game to overcome yet greater obstacles and confront yet more profound ethical issues...As in Lost in Translation the characters have to confront their prejudices, overcome their justifiable hatreds, examine their loyalties and -- even more clearly in this book – Willett seems to suggest that triumph ultimately belongs to the characters who able to experience the most growth. The winners are those who are able to place others over self, whereas the losers are undone by their core selfishness. In Willett's universe, karma counts..."

So I have to ask -- did I get that right? Do you believe in Karma? Was that a conscious theme of Marseguro?

Edward: I guess I would say I believe in karma as a good organizational principle for storytelling. Certainly I don't see much evidence of it in the real world, where the shallow, foolish, self-centered and cruel can prosper very well, thank you, and live to a ripe old age. But my fictional world isn't the real world--no fictional world is, or it isn't fiction, is it? Since characters who don't grow and change and increase their understanding of their wold and modify their behaviors accordingly are dull, they don't get top billing in my story.

I'm not sure it was a conscious theme: I think it's just part of the way I tell my stories. Now that you've pointed it out, I can see it in pretty much all of my fiction to date.

Robert: Maresguro revolves around issues of genetic engineering and religious intolerance. What stimulated your interest in those two themes?

Edward: mmm. I should probably explain how this story began.

In the fall of 2005 I was attending Robert J. Sawyer's Writing Science Fiction class at the Banff Centre, part of their annual Writing With Style program. On September 20, at 9:13 a.m. (I still have the original file, written on my PDA), Rob had us write the opening of a story. I wrote:

"Emily streaked through the phosphorescent sea, her wake a comet-tail of pale green light, her close-cropped turquoise hair surrounded by a glowing pink aurora. The water racing through her gill-slits smelled of blood."

I liked it. So did the others in the class. And so I began to develop it further, thinking that it would be a short story, then. (I didn't think of it as a novel until I needed a synopsis to present to DAW, with, obviously, happy results!).

I wasn't thinking genetic engineering when I wrote that opening couple of sentences (neither of which exist in the finished book, by the way). But in order to have someone who seemed to be human, with a very human name, who also had gills...well, genetic engineering seemed to be the way to go.

Also, genetics were on my mind because I had recently written Genetics Demystified, a basic introduction to genetics, for McGraw-Hill. And also because the genetic revolution is happening now, all around us, and may well alter society in the future even more than the computer revolution. So genetic engineering wasn't something I set out to write about, so much as it was a way to justify the existence of a character I wanted to write about.

That said, genetic engineering intrigues me because of the prospect it holds of humans being able to alter some of the things that have defined being human for millennia. Are we still human if we can breathe water, or fly, or see in the dark? Are we still human once we can start altering the design of our brains, the very way we think? There are lots of interesting questions in there for SF to explore.

As far as the religious aspect...I should say up front I'm not anti-religious. Far from it. I grew up in a strict Christian household. My father was both a preacher and a teacher at a private Christian school. I attended a Christian high school and a Christian college, and many of the finest people I know are Christians of the sort that many of the other people I know, through science fiction and theatre, would dismiss as bigots or idiots or both. (I sometimes think if I could get all of my friends together in the same room at the same time, there would be a massive matter-antimatter explosion.)

But there is a mindset that afflicts some people that moves them from "This is what I believe, and will argue for passionately," to "This is what I believe, and will force others to believe...or punish them for not believing." In my book, this mindset is found in The Body Purified, which is a religion (though one of my own devising, not one that exists today). But it's also a mindset that can be found amongst people of, say, strong political belief, or any other kind of strong belief: the notion that others cannot be allowed to have their own opinions about whatever it is you believe in so passionately, but must be forced to agree with you...or, failing that, at least forced, through whatever power you can bring to bear, to act as if they believe in it.

In Marseguro, the Body Purified has a LOT of power to bring to bear, because it has become the world government of Earth. But although the Body Purified is a religion, it's not just religious intolerance I have a problem with: it's intolerance of all kinds.

Robert: Your mention of Genetics Demystified brings up another question I've been dying to ask, if a little off the topic of Marseguro. Many SF fans think of Marseguro as your second book, but in fact you have a stack of young adult novels, nonfiction books, and biographies behind Maresequo and Lost in Translation; and I first heard of you as a science columnist and radio personality; and I've seen some TV science reporting you did; and I can't help but notice your Facebook portrait here is you performing in the musical, Beauty and the Beast. So, who are you really? Novelist, nonfiction writer, actor, singer, or, radio personality, or science columnist? When people ask you what you do for a living, which answer comes first?


Edward: I guess I'm "All of the Above."

I tell people I'm primarily a writer, but I act and sing as a sideline. If asked what kind of writer, I say I think of myself as a science fiction and fantasy writer first, but nonfiction is my bread and butter.

Really, I'll do anything for a buck!

Robert: Oh, let us say rather that you are the embodiment of the modern day renaissance man!

Interview with Edward Willett

I'm doing an interview with author Edward Willett on Facebook for the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy group (moderated by BC author, Donna Farley) to coincide with today's official release of Marseguro, Ed's second mass market SF novel. I'll reprint my questions and Ed's answers here when it's done, but if you'd like to add your own Q and A to the process, join us any time between now and Thursday Feb 7 on Facebook.

You can also read the first two chapters of the book at Ed's site and view the book trailer. My review of Marsguro is in the current issue of Neo-Opsis or you can read the positive bits excerpted on Ed's blog Ed's Blog.

New SF Imprint

Not the sort of SF I write -- or usually read -- but nevertheless an interesting announcement:

University of Ottawa Press Announces Speculative Fiction Imprint

The University of Ottawa Press is very pleased to announce its new speculative fiction imprint, Cangrande.

The imprint will include books of “science-based fiction,” novels which draw heavily on current scientific research. In the tradition of Francis Bacon, Mary Shelley, and Aldous Huxley, Cangrande books will emphasize the social and ethical challenges technological innovation poses to human existence, and explore the utopian vision of the future promised by science and materialism.

“We are very excited about this new imprint,” says UOP Marketing Manager Jessica Clark. “It signals an important shift in our publishing program towards trade books. We also feel that Cangrande’s editorial mandate fits perfectly within our scholarly list. Though these books use the novel form to dramatize scientific progress and the ethical issues that it raises, at their heart, these books are based on the most important scientific research happening today. And the scientists and philosophers who are writing these novels deserve to have their books respected both as literary and scientific creations.”

The inaugural Cangrande title, already available, is Hera, or Empathy by William Leiss, the first book of the Herasaga, a three-book cycle about a group of sisters who were genetically engineered to have increased cognitive abilities. Leiss, noted risk management expert and scientist, will also act as the director of the imprint for the next three years.

He believes that the speculative fiction genre creates important social dialogue: “With each passing day, new discoveries in the natural sciences are perceived by citizens as increasingly important for everyday life. Many of these discoveries also raise social and ethical issues that deserve wide and protracted discussion. The genre of science-based fiction provides a new opportunity for the public to learn about these issues and to become engaged in thinking about them.”



For further information, please visit www.uopress.uottawa.ca or contact Jessica Clark at promote@uottawa.ca.

50 movies in 50 days

I've been catching up with John Herbert's blog, Shlock and Yawn and was very impressed with his current series, 50 movies in 50 days, in which he reviews old SF movies, most of which no one has ever heard of...or wished that they hadn't heard of them! Highly entertaining.

Hawaii Aftermath

The wind was over 100K Friday, the temperature cold enough to freeze even the hardiest Canadian, so the combination was not pleasant. Indeed, Kasia flatly refused to go out into the already dark afternoon following Ballet class, even though we had no alternative to walking across the windswept parking lot to the car if we were to get home. But in the end, cries of "I'm not going out there" could only be overcome by my physically picking her up and carrying her to the car. Which turned out to be damned difficult in the face of gusts up to 120K, which, with her added weight and a thick layer of ice on the ground, stopped me cold in my tracks. But we eventually made it across the cold dark vast expanse of the otherwise empty university parking lot (her ballet class is Friday afternoon, so all the university students and faculty were long gone) and I got her buckled into her car seat. As I started the freezing cold car and drove out of the lot, I once again heard a little voice from the back seat saying, "Dad, I want to go back to Hawaii!"

She's not the only one.

The weather in Lethbridge was, thankfully, relatively mild over Christmas, so our return from Hawaii was not as traumatic as it might have been...but I still found myself in a state of denial. For example, I continued wearing my aloha shirts until mid-January, when the weather turned too brutal to ignore. And I have been watching for academic positions available in Hawaii.

Mary and I have seriously discussed the possibilities of moving permanently to Hawaii, calculating how much of a pay cut we were prepared to accept to move there. It would mean giving up the house for an apartment-sized condo, but then, who stays indoors in Hawaii?

And I'm going round the house, figuring out what we would keep, and what wouldn't be worth the airfreight to move if we moved. Even now, as I stroll through Winners or other stores, before buying this or that unnecessary possession, I think, "would this be something we'd take with us to Hawaii," and if the answer is no, I find it easy to resist the impulse to buy. I'm even starting to buy paperbacks rather than hardcovers.

And there isn't a day that goes by without Tigana or Kasia asking why we don't go back -- in Kasia's case, why we can't go now. "Why do live somewhere where it isn't summer all the time?" is a very hard question to answer. Why do live here, other than inertia? (Well, that and the fact that we're not Americans.)

And Mary has caught the cruise bug pretty bad, already booking us on two new cruises.

We decided to do the Alaska cruise to see the glaciers this coming August because it's pretty obvious that if we wait a couple of more years until the kids are older, there won't be any glaciers left to see. Environment Canada noted that the impact of global warming on the North this summer was equal to what they had initially projected for the next thirty years. Another study reported on Quirks and Quarks mentioned that an island in the far north whose usual summer averages hovered around 5c above, this year hit over 20c above for over a week -- melting the permafrost down 1 and a half meters, rather than the usual 15 cms…Without the permafrost to stabilize the soil, any landform with the least slop allowed the ground to flow down into the central valley, blocking the river, and creating a new central lake. In one summer, the island completely reshaped itself and its local ecology. Knowing something about cliff effects, I reasoned that this process was only going to accelerate, and it was now or never for the full-impact Alaskan cruise.

Coincidently, Mary was teaching an extra grad course this term, earning the exact amount extra to cover the cost of the cruise. (She paid for the Hawaii cruise by writing a test bank for a new textbook in her field -- again the amounts matched almost exactly.) This helped to cut down on her guilt for booking two cruises within a year of each other; though I pointed out that when she moved to Lethbridge to marry me, I had promised her a holiday somewhere warm once a year to compensate, and she has never been able to collect on that promise until now, so is owed 9 more cruises just to catch up with the backlog.

So, poking around the cruise sites, she found a Disney cruise through the Caribbean next November that coincides with Mary's study leave and more importantly, Kasia's 5th birthday. (Tigana got Disneyland for her 5th, and so the Disney cruise for Kasia's only seems fair.) So now Mary is casting around for some project to pay for it…though I still argue it is not necessary, given that she went almost 10 years without a break.

So, Mary spends almost all her spare time these days on the Internet reading reviews and blogs and advice columns on the cruises we've signed up for. The level of detail you can obtain on-line is mind-boggling. For example, she found out the suite we had booked on the Disney cruise was right under the dance floor and the last few couples to take that suite found it noisy… so Mary was able to switch to a suite at the other end of the ship -- which the people who stayed in that cabin had said that they could hear the hum of the engines, but that it hadn't bothered them at all, and that they had noticed the motion of the sea much less. It is almost too much detail… in some cases, the reviews mention specific names of waiters or stewards, tell you what menu items to steer away from, and debate which deck chairs are the best.

But we do love cruises…We like that your hotel moves, so you don't have to change hotels to change locales, and we love the kids' club. Most hotels don't have built-in day care, and even when they do, it's well, not exactly Disneyland. In contrast, the reviews of the Disney Cruise often talk about how the kids' club is so good (staff of 60, dedicated facilities) that kids refuse to go back to be with their boring parents. After four years of never being able to leave Kasia alone with a sitter (because of her RAS), we could really use some time to ourselves. Good food, reading, maybe some writing, life is good on board! And Mary has planned so much princess stuff (including all of us getting dressed up in the appropriate Disney themes) that Kasia is going to have the best birthday ever.

And, we have more "Tigana learns about…" projects in mind for Alaska and Florida (see http://www.uleth.ca/edu/runte/tigana/potential.htm), so it all should be good. Except for the having to come back to Lethbridge part.

As I'm writing this, Environment Canada has issued a blizzard warning for Lethbridge, with high winds, blowing snow, and temperatures of 40 below (F and C are the same at 40 below). Looking out the window I have trouble seeing all the way across the street through the snow and deepening gloom, even though it is only 3:30 in the afternoon. It's not just my four year old who wants to go back to Hawaii, it's my aging inner child too.

Hawaii: Left over photo

As an aside on the trip, I find it fascinating how digital has changed how kids deal with photography, scenery, and trips. When I was a kid, I didn't get a camera until about 12 or 13, and then just enough film and flashbulbs to take maybe 12 pictures. And you waited a couple of months to find out how your pictures came out because you couldn't see the first ones until you took the last picture on the roll, and then another couple of weeks for processing. (Admittedly, I'm old, and things had improved a bit by the time digital was phasing out film.) But today, Kasia can have a cheap digital camera at age 4; her camera shows her what she took immediately, and she can take about 5000 photos with the memory chip I got her without any further investment in film or processing. Tigana, at age nine, has developed quite an interest in architecture because she has been photographing it since she was six. We first loaned Tigana a digital camera when touring Casa Loma years ago, on what was going to be a fairly hopeless attempt to interest her in family history (her great grandfather had worked there back in the day) and it was a revelation to us how having the ability to take pictures suddenly engaged her in the tour. Instead of being bored, she proved an excellent photographer and set out to document her journey. The ability to constantly experiment with the camera and to receive instant feedback must imply that these kids will have a fundamentally different experience of photography and (hopefully, though I recognize, not necessarily) get a lot better at it a lot faster than anyone in my generation could.

Hawaii: Sunsets and Rainbows

The licence plates say, "rainbow state" and it's no exaggeration. I don't think that there was a single day that went by that we didn't see one or more spectacular rainbows. But they could also have called it the sunset state (though I suppose some of the connotations there are not quite as good!) because every night had a spectacular sunset too.

Kasia's Song

"Anywhere you go,
Anywhere you go,
Anywhere you go,
There you are!"

She sings this one a lot. So I asked her about it and she said, "You'll have to talk to my people."

"Your people" I asked.

She pointed to her shelf of 'My Little Ponies'. "Those are my people. You need to check with them."

So I'm thinking maybe we have spoilt the kids a little with these vacations in Hawaii and staying in conference hotels etc, that they are starting to think of themselves as upper class. So I said to Mary we have to take our kids camping for the next vacation, or maybe a Motel 6 kind of level.

"Let's do the camping," Mary replied. "At least then the bugs belong there...."

Cruise: Other Passengers

One of the things I found intriguing about the cruise was studying the other passengers. There were any number of middle class businessmen and their families as one would expect, but I also noted some others who seemed, um... well, to have more colorful careers. I am sure the two Russian families and the Colombians were probably insurance agents or some such, but the two bikers wearing full colors were, well, bikers. And I couldn't help noticing that the bikers were exceedingly polite to the Russian and Colombian families. Made you wonder, you know?

And then there was the very muscular black guy who never smiled and had a tattoo of a seal on his arm -- navy seal maybe? He had the build and the security guy look, and we are talking Hawaii with its major naval bases, so not entirely implausible. But this guy kept looking this way and that like someone doing a threat assessment, but he's, you know, in a hot tub on a cruise ship, not guarding the president. And did I mention he never smiled, even though accompanied by his wife and child? I overhead his wife ask him in the hot tub, "Aren't you glad you came, now?" to which he replied, "Whatever. Just so long as you're happy." It was kind of sad. I mean, he was undoubtedly sincere in wanting to provide his wife with the vacation she wanted, but he was so obviously bored/doing it for her sake, that he was clearly bringing her down...would it have killed him to pretend that he was enjoying himself? Not only would it have made for a much better time for her and the child, but he might have enjoyed himself more.

And in the dinning room, there was the huge Japanese family, obviously sponsored by the patriarch who was enjoying himself immensely, and everybody was happy happy happy -- except the one daughter-in-law who was the picture of misery. Part of me is thinking, 'go with the flow -- you're in Hawaii, it's warm, the food is decent, how bad can granddad be?' but of course, I guess it can be very bad.... Judging by her unguarded expression, she'd pretty much rather be anywhere else in the world than at that table. Though she would make an effort to look engaged if anyone looked at her, which they mostly didn't.

Saddest of all was the one older lady who must once have been a beauty but whose current excesses of makeup, hair, and clothing suggested a combination of denial and desperation that was not becoming. I occasionally saw her seated with a large family grouping, so obviously along as someone's grandmother or aunt, but she spent most of her time alone, supposedly sunning on the deck, but like my navy seal, continually scanning the deck for someone or something: Potential prospects or wondering where the rest of the family was, I couldn't say. But I never saw her enjoying herself...even amongst the family, she seemed an obvious outsider.

And, I suppose it should have come as no surprise that several of the kids on the ship were little monsters. I know my girls are spoilt, but I like to believe that they are not yet spoilt rotten. But several of the youngsters on this trip had obvious social problems -- bullying being the most predictable and common. These kids had a sense of entitlement that went beyond expectation to the fundamental belief that they were better than anyone else, and that all other kids should pay them homage. At the other end of the scale was a girl slightly older than Tigana who wore a constant frown, and cringed from any motion in her vicinity, and had victim written in block letters on her forehead. Watching her enter the other kids' sphere of influence was like watching a bather enter a pool of piranha. Tigana was mostly oblivious to these interactions, gravitating naturally to the one or two other nice girls, or when they weren't around, complaining to me that the other kids available were ignoring her. Well, that worked for me: I was just as happy that she wasn't hanging out with these jerks. In particular I recall one stereotypical fat-boy bully holding court in the hot tub while half a dozen girls hung on his every word, and two lesser males took up station behind either arm. They're like 11 and 12 years old and already playing out their life scripts. Very, very sad.

Cruise:Trip Home

The ship docked early in the morning, but we didn't have to leave until about 9AM to get to the airport for our 11AM flight home. Another advantage of our penthouse status was not having to line up for departure at a designated time, like everybody else, but just go when we wanted, knowing that our bags would be waiting in the VIP section whenever we came down. Mary had arranged for a limo to pick us up, on the grounds that it only cost $10 more than the regular shuttle bus, and as long as we were living the life of the rich and famous, we really ought to go all out.

Arriving at the airport, we discovered that our flight was delayed three hours -- which meant that we could not possibly make our one-hour connection in Vancouver. The Air Canada desk hadn't even opened yet, and when it finally did, they weren't able to do anything for us anyway -- all they could tell us was to check with the desk in Vancouver...which of course meant we would have to leave the secure area with our luggage after leaving customs and start from scratch -- at midnight on December 22, so, basically, hopeless.

So Mary, having watched far too many episodes of Amazing Race, got on her cellphone to Air Canada in Canada, and managed to book a flight for us out of Vancouver at 10 the next morning, and booked a night at the Fairmount (airport hotel in Vancouver) before the rest of our flight had even cleared the initial lineup in Hawaii. We then went off for a leisurely lunch in the airport, browsed through a bookstore, set the kids up watching a movie on the computer, and generally found ways to kill three hours. We still were the first to arrive at the gate (once it opened for our flight --security conscious American airports don't let you sit down until the previous flight has departed). We approached the desk about getting seats together (they had randomly slotted us in, so we were separated from the kids) and the attendants efficiently issued us new boarding passes so we were all together. The trip was okay for me as I took care of Tigana; bit more challenging for Mary keeping Kasia entertained.

We arrived in Vancouver at midnight and were funneled into an enormous line-up for immigration/customs. There must have been a 1000 people ahead of us as the Christmas rush maxed out every flight, and there were only three windows open as immigration was down to the Christmas-week-midnight skeleton crew. It took about an hour to get to the head of the line, and about 30 seconds to be processed. But after hours on the plane, and hours more in the airport awaiting our delayed flight, we were all very tired.

And I knew I was in trouble when I heard a little voice from knee-level saying, "Daddy, I don't want to stand here any more." Pointing out that nobody was enjoying standing in line; that we had to stand in the line to get home; that it was probably against the law to leave the line; and the importance of not wandering off, joining another family, and never seeing us again, did not seem to help Kasia comprehend that she had to stand in line and that there was nothing really we could do about it. So after the 50th repetition of "I don't want to stand here any more", she apparently felt her message was not getting through, and so felt the need to punctuate the comment with a fist to my leg. "Daddy! I do NOT want to stand here any more." *Punch*

"Hey, stop that! That is not constructive. Look, I've explained that there is nothing -- ouch!"

So the last thirty minutes or so of the wait is punctuated by the rhythm of a tiny fist hitting my leg at regular intervals. The expression on Kasia's face is not angry or tantruming or anything of the sort, just this tired determination to be heard and her problem addressed.

(Tigana, it must be said, was dealing with the situation like the seasoned traveler she is, and was helpful and cheerful throughout the journey home -- aside from the entirely understandable chorus of "I don't want to go home, I want to stay in Hawaii!".)

So. It was probably a good thing that Mary had booked the Fairmount, so we could crash immediately, rather than trying to continue on that night, as did so many others from our delayed flight. Having so many people miss their connections, they put on extra flights at 3AM, which would have meant arriving in Calgary at 5AM. Followed by a two hour car ride home to Lethbridge -- well, actually it's a three hour drive from the Calgary airport, but I doubt that we would have made it all the way in the condition we were in.

Once through customs (25 seconds, thankfully, after clearing immigration) and a very long walk from the International Terminal to the Air Canada windows to confirm that we were still booked on the 10AM flight the next morning (we feared that they might have been cancelled, given the provision of the extra night flight) we went to our hotel room and slept for five hours. In keeping with the rest of the trip, the Fairmount room was extravagant (not that we actually paid more than what a normal room would have cost) and

Next morning, onto the plane and home. Off the plane, Mary takes the kids to the washroom and collects our baggage, while I zip out to the Park and Fly lot to retrieve the car. Which is stone dead. I discover the dome light has been left on. So, I call the CAA, and a truck eventually shows up to provide a boost. But it is definitely fortuitous that we didn't arrive at 5AM -- as Air Canada would have planned it for us -- to find our car dead.

Cruise: Kauai

We spent the morning on the beach at Kauai. Tigana met another girl from the cruise her own age and they become fast friends, playing together happily. I was amazed both kids could be on the same ship for a week and only meet the last day, but I guess the girl and her mom had taken advantage of all the excursions and had spent relatively little time on board. Back on board in the late afternoon, we took the kids to a Pizza party organized by the Kids Crew, then watched the scenary as the ship pulled out.




Kauai has the best scenary of trip (not that my little pocket camera is up to taking it in), the ship making a point of going along the Northern coast while a Hawaiian cultural representative provided a commentary on history, etc., before turning back to its route home.



We then took the kids to the Kids Crew for PJ night; Mary and I had planned a romantic dinner on the balcony, but we had to cancel due to inclement weather (major winds), so ended up just eating in the buffet.



We got back to the room to find the cutest towel animal so far. The stewart had left a big towel animal (hare or antelope?) prominently displayed which drew our immediate attention, so the second one went almost unnoticed…thus adding to the sense of a mouse sneaking out of the bed!



Highlight of the day was when Mary took Tigana back to see W.T. Greer in the piano bar and he invited her up to sing with her. Getting to sing with a professional in front of an audience was a thrill for Tigana. Nice of Greer to pick up on her singing aspirations and to say she had talent.

Kauai

My birthday today, so feeling a bit old.

Mary gave me the morning off again as a birthday present, so I spent the morning writing while Mary took the kids to the beach. Writing on a balcony in Hawaii could quickly become addictive, and I started telling Mary she really should apply to the University of Hawaii -- and I'd just take early retirement and write.

We spent the afternoon aboard ship again at the pool, and I again had an afternoon of mixed terror and pride as Kasia taught herself how to swim.

Ate at Little Italy again with kids for my birthday dinner, and this time we had excellent service from Anthony the waiter (who was everything our previous waiter had not been). Then the kids wanted Kids Crew, leaving Mary and I to wander the deck, a nice birthday activity. We took in the singer, W. T. Greer, in the Pink Champaign Lounge, and he was so good Mary eventually fetched Tigana out of Kids Crew to hear him. Tigana was duly impressed when she requested a song (God Bless the child) and he was able to sing it without benefit of actually having the words or music to hand.