Canadian Gothic: An interview with Mary E. Choo Part One

/Q: Mary, tell me how you got started as a writer -- what was the first thing you had accepted for publication? /

MC: I first started composing rhymes, orally, when I was about four or five. As a child I wrote and illustrated my own novels -- often in lurid detail. I won a prize -- a ticket to the Ice Capades-- for a rehash of "Cinderella", when I was ten. The first thing I had accepted for publication was a poem, "Nocturne" (for the literary magazine Mamashee) in 1983.

/Q: What drew you to fantastic//speculative literature --as opposed to mainstream? /

MC: I find the medium more flexible. The writer can create her own situation as opposed to being confined by established conventions. There's also opportunity, particularly in fantasy, to embellish a situation with the use of imaginative language, to expand horizons while incorporating aspects of the "real" world.

/Q: Recently, you've been writing and publishing horror and dark fantasy. What led you in that direction -- and where do you find your inspiration? /

MC: Horror and dark fantasy seemed to come naturally. In a way, it's a means of using elaborate metaphor to exorcise personal demons. I come from what could be described as a rather Gothic background. Much of that nuance has worked its way into my plots and characters, though in a greatly altered state. I try to write from compassion, to explore the motivation of my characters and aim for perspective.

/Q: There's a dream-like, almost hallucinatory quality to much of your work. Are you influenced by dreams?

MC: I dream a good deal. The dreams are generally complex and riddled with bizarre symbolism -- the antlered man is a recurring figure. Many dreams are a catalyst for poems such as "Dreamwalker" or "A Tale for Pandora", and from there they often find their way into short stories. And I do dream in colour.

/Q: You're married to a Southeast Asian, and you've travelled and worked  abroad. Your writing is enriched with many cultural (and cross-cultural) references, both actual and created. How has your exposure to other
cultures influenced your work and helped you to shape your characters?

MC: I've co-existed with the Southeast Asian//Chinese culture for a number of years. I'm frequently exposed not only to my husband's dialect and customs, but to the traditions of the Chinese community as a whole. I've also studied French and Spanish, and in a very limited way, Egyptian hieroglyphs -- this when I was living in London, and working at the British Museum. It goes without saying that travel and living in another country enriches the mind and spirit. All this has given me a strong sense that there are things outside my own experience, and has shown me how customs both unite and separate people. There are  intrinsic, subtle meanings and connotations in every culture that are lost in translation. For instance, much of the significance of an Asian ritual like the traditional Lion Dance might escape a westerner. In the trilogy I'm currently writing, I've been influenced by all of the above. I've endeavoured to build detailed, convincing societies, and to incorporate some idea of the challenges of intercultural marriage into the main relationship.

Several members of my family have had training in various Asian disciplines, and I've observed a lot from sitting through countless competitions. One family member studied under the masters in Japan. He's also a successful competitor and qualified instructor, and now works in film and TV. This has provided some insight into action scenes and how to construct them. I'm most interested in the discipline aspect, and the ways in which --externally and internally -- the arts make you strong.



(to be continued)

Canadian Gothic: an interview with Mary E. Choo Part 2

/Q: You write in three mediums: poetry, short fiction and novels. Do you have a preference?

MC. Each medium fulfills a specific need. I feel totally free to express myself in poetry. Short fiction is more of a discipline, a means of dealing with ideas and characters in limited word space. In a novel, there is more opportunity for plot and character development, and a variation in pace that can't be achieved in short fiction.

/Q: You've published in both U.S. and Canadian publications. Do you feel there is any difference between these two markets? That is, do have U.S.and Canadian editors (and readers) have different standards and expectations? Do you write differently for the two markets?

MC. That's a difficult one to answer, these days, as market needs are changing rapidly. I think many Canadian writers tend to layer their stories more, and that a number of U.S. publications have been leaning more towards this kind of fiction the last few years. I don't consciously write for either market, particularly when I'm writing dark fantasy or horror, but I do pare my work down much more than I used to -- with the U.S. market in mind.

/Q: What do you see as your strengths as a writer, and your weaknesses?

MC: Hopefully, I attain some depth of character, and I do try to use language imaginatively. I had early training in piano, and I'm very disciplined. All those five-finger exercises and scales taught me the meaning of hard work and patience, the will to get it just right. In the end, all of it went into the actual music, and made for better, more competent execution and expression. I feel the same is true of good writing. It's important to try to say it well. I have a tendency, though, to overwork a manuscript, particularly short fiction, and to worry over things that don't matter and not see things that do. It helps to have at least one other person review your work. My husband speaks three other languages and came late to fluent English. However, he's marvellous at pointing out basic flaws in my prose. He also knocks my ideas and concerns into perspective when I get too involved.

/Q: What are you working on at present?

MC: A poetry collection, short stories, and the final book of a  trilogy.

 /Q: There seems to be a literary trend towards the Gothic and the grotesque. What do you think accounts for this current taste for the macabre?

MC: A couple of things, really. Ours has become an intensely market-driven society, fast-paced and in many ways ruthless and impersonal. I suspect a lot of people feel a tremendous void in their lives, and long for something divorced from all the clutter and technology, some improbable adventure in which they can lose themselves.I also think the current Gothic writing reflects, in metaphor, many of the darker aspects of the human condition -- readers identify with this and are drawn to it.

/Q: Where do you see yourself going, as writer? What would you like to achieve?

MC: As writer, one always hopes for improvement -- and if you're lucky, some recognition. The publishing aspect, as I'm sure many writers would agree is a large and difficult part of the picture. It's very hard to second-guess the market, which gets more competitive all the time.

Matthew Hughes update

 According to the SF Signal blog , Matthew Hughes's Luff Imbry novel, The Other, is on a short list of three titles for the inaugural A.E. Van Vogt Award. The other two finalists are Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder and Alphanauts by Brian J. Clarke. The award is presented by the Winnipeg Science Fiction Association and is named for Canada's only SFWA grandmaster.
http://www.matthewhughes.org/excerpt-from-the-other/

 Paul Di Filippo has reviewed Matt's PS Publishing novella, "The Yellow Cabochon," in the current Asimov's. He says: "Hughes’s facility with ornate, roccoco language has never been more polished, and his plotting is sharp and twisty. His evocation of a faded age of wonders piles high the frissons of a factitious but effective nostalgia that is all the more piquant for being manufactured from mere allusions, rather than actual touchstones of our consensual past."

The whole review is here: (scroll down) http://www.asimovs.com/2013_02/onbooks.shtml

Meanwhile Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine is running the first half of  Matt's space-opera novelette, "And Then Some," as a free sample.  http://www.asimovs.com/2013_02/exc_story1.shtml
Locus Magazine's online short-fiction reviewer, Lois Tilton, calls "And Then Some" recommended reading in her review of the February Asimov's, and notes that the universe in which it's set is "complex and fascinating."

T

Let's Think Small

by Matthew Hughes

(Reprinted from The Lonely Cry newsletter, Issue no. 21 )

In 1951, an editor considering buying J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings worried that it might lose the publisher a thousand pounds. His boss told him, "If you think it's a work of genius, then you may lose a thousand."

Fifty-five years later, no major publisher takes such a risk. Today, numbers rule. The decision to publish a new author is based strictly on the "P&L" -- industry shorthand for "profit-and-loss statement."

The P&L minimizes potential loss while maximizing potential profit. Its formula can be massaged to produce minimal risk by adjusting such factors as type size (thus altering the number of pages and therefore the cost of ink and paper), the number of copies printed, and whether to go hard cover or mass-market paperback. If the editor can make the formula work, the book is published. If not, it isn't.

The P&L is why major publishers now routinely launch SF authors in hardcover, though with print runs of only 5,000 copies and scant promotion. Thirty years ago, SF debuts usually appeared as cheap paperbacks with print runs above 50,000. Today, the hardcover is preferred; it stays on bookstore shelves longer, and unsold copies returned to the publisher can be reshipped to fill new orders. Ultimately, unsold copies are remaindered for a dollar each, recouping part of the manufacturing cost. But mass-markets are neither returned nor resold. After a few weeks on the shelves, booksellers rip off the covers (returning them for credit), while the defaced book goes to the recycler.

Promotion is a favourite for cost-cutters massaging the first-timer's P&L. Most new SF authors receive no more nurturing from the major publishers than baby sea turtles get from their absent mother. The result: every year the big houses launch a new flock of first-timers in hard cover, but most do not make it to the surf -- i.e., they don’t sell enough copies to justify a second book. The days are long gone when major publishers allowed a new author two or three books to develop a readership.

For niche authors (and I'm one), the big houses are no longer a good fit. Fortunately, SF is now seeing a flowering of high-quality small presses, such as Night Shade and and PS Publishing (both of which, by an uncanny coincidence, have published my works), plus Small Beer, Tachyon, Golden Gryphon, Prime/Wildside,  and Edge Publishing of Calgary.. Many of their new authors are launched in affordable trade paperbacks.

If you're looking for new SF authors -- or for a second book by one of last year's little turtles -- why not take a look at what the small presses are doing? Among these publishers who are willing to lose a thousand, future Tolkiens may be found.

Casey Wolf has a few pieces of writerly news:

Casey's short story "The Brídeog", (Escape Clause, ed. Clélie Rich. 2009), has been reprinted on the Brigit-related blog Brigit's Sparkling Flame .  Her short story "Eating Our Young" was sold to Chase Publications for their upcoming horror anthology The Speed of Dark. (There is still time to submit to this paying market. Deadline 30 December.   Read the guidelines here. )

And finally, Casey answered Susan McCaslin's call for tree poems, to be used as a part of the effort to save the trees of Glen Valley, BC. Please consider sending your own tree poems for posting on the threatened trees. For details, and to read Casey's poem "making way" go to http://cjunewolfden.blogspot.ca/2012/12/urgent-call-for-poems-about-trees-from.html

Rhea Rose on smashwords

 Rhea Rose writes, "Continuing in my trial indie publishing vein, I’ve ‘freed’ up a story of mine over at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/172003

On the Pleasures of Antiquity

 
I should like to rise and go
Where the golden apples grow -
Where below another sky
Parrot islands anchored lie…
…Where among the deserts sands
Some deserted city stands…
("Travel")

R.L. Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses was the first book I ever owned, and it inspired a life-long fascination with exotic, far-off places. My tattered copy has survived to this day, along with A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar and L.Sprague de Camp's Lost Continents. Long vanished are the hand-me-down copies of Weird Tales.. In those faded 1930's pulps, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard wrote about worlds where (to quote Sprague de Camp) "gleaming cities raise their shining spires against the stars; sorcerers cast sinister spells from subterranean lairs; baleful spirits stalk crumbled ruins; primeval monsters crash through jungle thickets; and the fate of kingdoms is balanced on the bloody blades of broadswords…" Worlds of mystery, lost in the deepest reaches of antiquity.

The fall of the Indus valley civilization is one of the great unanswered questions of archaeology. Were the cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa destroyed by climactic change? A shift in the course of the Indus River? Invasion? Over-grazing? As far as I can tell, few writers of fiction have explored the subject. Many years ago, in a used bookstore, I stumbled across a small self-published monograph by John Newberry of Victoria BC. It turned out to be the first in an ongoing series: Newberry's exhaustive though little-known efforts to decode the Indus Valley seal inscriptions. I bought the pamphlet. Here was a world lost in antiquity, and an unsolved mystery. I had the subject for a novel.

Alternate histories ask "What if?" Those of us whose fantasies play out in real historic time like to explore the "how" and the "why" - always keeping in mind that if you travel far enough back in antiquity, you may find sorcerers, baleful spirits, magical kingdoms and spells that actually work.

Eileen Kernaghan  (reprinted from The Lonely Cry newsletter)

(Winter on the Plain of Ghosts: a Novel of Mohenjo-daro is available from amazon.com and amazon.ca)