Why did you write this book?
About ten years ago I started to read quite a lot. So much that I would treasure the books and stories that were most satisfying, the ones where I would say to myself, “That was a great book!” I wondered if I could write such a pleasing book, or stories. If so, it would be wonderful to think that other people could enjoy reading my stories. It would mean that I had contributed something small but significant in the lives of other people. Also, I enjoyed the challenge, learning how to write well, and the process whereby my stories came to be.
Describe your creative process writing this book. Specifically, how did you conceive this idea?
It began with the story “The Template”. I had an idea that was new to me. Part of the idea was that three people witnessed an event that was important to all of them, and only one of them remembered what had actually occurred. I already knew that the first step in writing a book or a story is to actually sit down and write something. I did. I kept going with the basic idea until I had nothing more to add. Then I turned my efforts towards answering some questions. What would the person who remembered do? What would be the implications of the event that would put this person in a desperate situation? What could cause this event? I thought about these and other questions until I came up with interesting answers. Then I would know what to add to the story and I’d write until, again, I had used up my new ideas. More questions. More answers. Eventually I had a full story, with interesting characters, some cool speculations on science that might become real some day, and a plot that made the reader want to keep going, to find out how the person was going to get out of the mess they were in.
The other stories developed in much the same fashion. I then decided to seek several different, compelling ideas, and to push enough of them until I had a collection of stories that were related to one another.
As to the central ideas, I would think of things that might happen to a person, things they would have thought to be impossible. I was able to come up with many ideas. I focused on the ones that I’d not heard of. The result is a book of stories that explore what people would do in seemingly impossible situations.
What were some of the challenges and highpoints you faced writing this book?
The most challenging aspect was to fit different pieces of a story together, pieces that didn’t seem to be related until I worked on developing more ideas and links between them. For example, in one of my stories the main character has memories of childhood monsters. As an adult, he witnesses an event that only he remembers. How could those two ideas fit together? I was fascinated to see how the links developed, how each story would reach its final form. I would never have guessed the route to the end. There was for me great pleasure in seeing the stories develop. Many times it seemed to me as if I were just a part of a larger operation. Yet I know that the key was for me to keep thinking and somehow connect the pieces. Some stories I worked on did not reach a final form, and are thus not in the book. I’m keeping them in mind.
Another challenge for me was to learn how to know my characters better. I was amazed to see the characters come to life, almost on their own. I would ask myself several questions about each character. For example, in “The Mind Wipe”, what is Pender’s dark secret? The answers sometimes jumped out. Other times I had to be patient and wait until I knew a particular character’s secret, or their deepest fear, and other aspects of their personalities.
Raising the quality of the stories to the highest level I could reach was very difficult. After a story’s plot was complete, I needed to work on the details, seemingly small tasks but essential to improving the story. These activities were new to me. I didn’t know when I started how hard it would be to write a book, but I do now.
The highpoints included the occasions when, for the first time, a story was complete in terms of the plot and different parts fitting so beautifully together. Also, coming to know a character well was something I found to be unexpectedly satisfying.
Who is your intended audience?
Readers of science fiction, especially hard science fiction (where there is an ingredient of science that is known to us), as well as interested readers who prefer other genres, such as mysteries or suspense. Most of my stories will leave the reader with thoughts and ideas after the story is over. Many who have read these stories have pointed to this feature as one of their favorite reasons why they enjoyed the stories.
What books or authors inspired or influenced you in writing this book?
Robert J. Sawyer, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Scott MacKay, F. Paul Wilson, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, and many others. All or almost all of their books influenced me. These writers are masters of the skill of developing the plot, revealing the nature of their characters, and coming up with new ideas that are essential in their stories and novels, and doing all three at the same time! There are no “gaps,” no parts where a character is developed but using events that are not part of the whole story. Note that the latter three are not writers of science fiction.
I am pleased to make special mention of Robert J. Sawyer. Only one of the fourteen stories came to me as a result of something I had read. The first idea I had in writing “The Entangled Man” came to me as I read his novel, “Mind Scan”. I won’t say here what that idea was. I will say that it gripped me and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. To this day, the idea chills me. I still think about it, and I am planning more stories based on it.
What books or authors inspired or influenced you as a writer?
Some of the authors are given above. I have read all or almost all of the books of the authors mentioned above. Others are Greg Isles, Stephen Baxter (and especially his novel “The Time Ships”), Robert Heinlein, and more. Harlan Coben’s characters in his Myron Bolitar novels are so interesting that I would read his books even if nothing happened!
Why do you believe science fiction is important?
There are two main reasons. Science fiction allows us to explore the nature of human beings in a manner that no other genre can, because science fiction is, by definition (to me), inherently involves situations, experiences, and taking seriously ideas that most people would not encounter in their everyday lives. Suppose you got into an elevator, went to your floor, but when you got off you were someplace you had never been before. When you turned around to get back in the elevator, it was not there! That’s science fiction. We can ask what people might do in such “impossible” situations. We learn more about what it means to be human by exploring such scenarios. The second reason is that science is becoming more and more a part of people’s lives, much more so than ever before. Whereas science fiction movies were rarely well received by a wide audience prior to the 1970s, there are now many excellent science fiction movies every year. Most people now watch science fiction movies with no reservations. Similarly, people read science fiction much more that they did years ago. Science and science fiction are an important part of people’s lives.
Your characters face special challenges. Discuss how and why you came to depict these and other issues?
I have always wondered about the world around us and about extreme situations. I remember the first time I saw a photo of Saturn. I wanted to know why it had such spectacular rings, why the other gas giants didn’t (that was what people thought at that time), and what held them up. I had questions. What would we do if there really were a War of the Worlds? What would you do if the elevator vanished and you had to confront a new world, your past apparently lost? These questions and ideas came to me. I learned physics and love teaching it and doing research. I also enjoy speculating about possible strange features of our universe. It was a natural step for me to put characters in the situations they face in my stories.
What advice would you give aspiring writers about writing dialogue?
You need to find the right mixture of the way people actually talk, and the aspects of real dialogue that are useful in a story. For example, people don’t speak grammatically correct sentences. A story gets bogged down if you write characters’ dialogue too realistically. You need to have your characters talk in a manner that seems realistic but leaves out the boring features of real dialogue. Omit the pauses and hesitations and minimize the grammatical errors. Most people don’t speak like this, but it is easier to read, and doesn’t slow the reader down. Another thing. People swear when they speak. I prefer not to put coarse language explicitly in my stories. Asimov never had to use coarse language. Other writers put in the explicit swearing, and it works for them. My point is that a writer has a choice.
You have created strong female characters. Can you elaborate on how and why this is important for you, in your writing?
My editor, family doctor, and many respected colleagues are female. There are also many strong males who are friends or colleagues. The gender doesn’t matter. I don’t intentionally make a character male or female. I simply have the characters’ genders as what is best for their parts in the story. In my opinion, we are very close now to not having to think about a person’s gender when we are considering many roles and positions, such as professors at universities and colleges, medical doctors, dentists, CEOs, administrative positions in companies and universities, and more. My characters come out naturally as being male or female. It would be unnatural for me to have exclusively male or female characters. Three character names that are in many of my stories are: Artemit, Kitt, and Turen. Kitt is female, but the only particular reason is for her and Artemit to have a potential romance. Kitt is a strong character, as much as Artemit or Turen. I would not intentionally pick all male or all female characters in any particular story (unless there is only one character).
Is it important to create sympathy for your evil characters? Why?
In most cases in my stories, there is not much sympathy for evil characters. I did not plan for this. In many cases evil is beyond our control. Perhaps some time in the future this will change.
In some of my stories there is sympathy in an implicit manner. As Turen leaves for home in “Come the Childhood Monsters,” we see that he is in trouble, and will certainly be facing hard times. There are other characters in the story that make Turen look like one of “the good guys,” even if he’s at the bottom of the list. One can’t help but wonder what his childhood was like, what he experienced to make him behave as he does. This will be part of the short novel am currently writing (see below).
The same is true for the character Turen in “Remembering the Future”. In this story, Artemit, Kitt, and Turen make their last appearance in the book. The story ends with the three of them agreeing to work together. This was intentional: I wanted to end on a positive note, that Turen may well be capable of doing good things. In “Remembering the Future”, there is more (implicit) sympathy for an evil character than in any other story in the book.
Protagonists also need to have flaws, to be human. Moreover, flaws and conflicts between what the character wants and what the character needs are the basis for conflict and conflict is essential to good storytelling. Can you give some examples from your book to illustrate this please?
In “The Quiet Room”, John wants to have privacy to do his work. What he needs is to be more trusting. The conflict gets him into a difficult situation. He learns the importance of trust at a high price. The story shows what the price is.
In “The Mind Wipe”, Pender wants all the glory and all the money for his discovery. He needs to learn how to share, and to realize that he could be a good person if he could overcome his greed. This conflict leads him to use Jack to do terrible things, things that could have been avoided.
In most of the “Atemit/Kitt/Turen stories” Artemit has affection or even love for Kitt. He is afraid he will lose his friendship with her if he shows his true feelings for her. Years are lost because of this. In the short novel I am working on, we will find out if he can overcome this weakness.
In “The Entangled Man”, ‘the woman’ wants to be praised by ‘the man,’ but she can only stand their wrongdoings to a certain point. She has to decide. In the story we find out whether she makes a good choice or a bad one.
Other examples are Jill in “The Bird”, the narrator in “The Torture”, “Sheila in Double Click”, and more.
How do you see your stories charting new territory?
Wonderful question! In many of my stories I have speculative science of a nature that is, to the best of my knowledge, not found in many places in science fiction. Much science fiction uses alien artifacts to allow humans to journey throughout the galaxy, for example. In “The Quiet Room” I use an idea that I’ve not seen before, in what I’ve read or in movies and such. (If you haven’t read this story yet, please know that I’m about to state the idea in the next few sentences.) The idea doesn’t use alien artifacts, isn’t based on the frontiers of physics today, and came to me simply by thinking about what I know. Here it is. If we can travel more quickly to the future by moving through space and time, could there be some way we could go to the future slowly? This is what John does in the story. The nature of the speculative science here is simply to extend what we know in a simple manner that does not require advanced knowledge from aliens, or use of frontier physics. Similarly, the collapse of the electron in “Remembering the Future” is a simple extension of what is known to high school and university physics students. Extra spatial dimensions allow for the possible vanishing of the electron: matter disappearing from our world. I’ve used simple ideas to put characters in interesting, seemingly impossible situations. I plan to do more of that in future works.
When did you first start writing science fiction?
When I was a boy, in high school, I wrote six stories and sent them to science fiction magazines. I’m happy to say that they were all rejected. I had interesting speculations in the stories, but nowhere near what is needed for characters or good writing. My next attempt started on Boxing Day a few years ago when I started a story titled “What’s Done’s Done.” This developed into “The Template.” Then I wrote two follow-up stories, the titles of which are now “Prolonging the Inevitable” and “Come the Childhood Monsters.” After that I wrote a novella, “Come the Childhood Monsters.” It was not bad as a first attempt, and I could have pursued it. I decided instead to aim for a book of short stories, and come back to the novella after that. This is where I am at now.
Do you have a writing routine? If so, what is it?
Usually I begin with an idea, such as: what would you do if you knew the future, but only a split second in advance, so you were constantly living twice, so to speak? Then I’ll write what comes to me about the idea. When I’ve used the idea as much as possible, I’ll ask questions. What would it be like to actually experience this double life? What would you do? What is an interesting plot, and what is an interesting setting, in which this could come about? How could you get out of this state? The story comes to me in pieces that end up fitting beautifully together, in a satisfying manner. I write as soon as possible after I get new pieces for a story. I don’t push too much for ideas to come to me: I give them the time needed to fit together. I’ve got several stories that are incomplete at this point, and I’ll come back to them eventually.
How do you maintain momentum in your writing routine?
I write what comes to mind without trying to get the whole story done at once and without knowing how the pieces will eventually fit, or be removed, or adjusted. I think about what I’m working on more or less all the time. Sometimes I’ll wake in the morning and know what to put in the story. In short, I keep at it.
Do you write on the computer, by hand, or both?
Mostly using the computer, simply because it takes less time. If I get ideas and there is no access to a computer I’ll write by hand. I admire the writers who produced such great books and stories prior to the computer becoming so easily available. It is easier to write longer books than it was in, say, the 1960s. I prefer to write stories that are not too long. I’ve been influenced by writers like Robert J. Sawyer, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, and others, who do not write very long books, and I’ve enjoyed their works partly because this.
How long did it take you to write this book?
In some sense, it took about five years, because I didn’t work on this book exclusively in that time. From the big push to write more stories to completion was about two years. The heaviest stretch was a three-month period where I improved the stories to the highest level I could reach.
How many revisions did you do?
Dozens. In the latter stages of finishing the book, I would work five hours on improving a single story. I’d do this with all of the stories, and dozens of times for the collection of stories. I wrote so much that I injured my shoulder! Finishing was the hardest thing to do.
What was the most difficult story to write, and why?
“The Hole”, “Double Click”, and “Forgetting the Future” were all quite difficult, but “The Hole” was the most difficult. In all my stories, I try to grab the reader in the first two or three paragraphs, hold them through the story, and end the story in a significant way. In “The Hole” I don’t have a slam-bam ending. That bothered me, because stories that are good and also have a memorable ending are usually my favorites to read, or write. I finally accepted that “The Hole” wouldn’t end this way (although I did add a connection at the very end that links the story nicely to others in the book).
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
No question about it, the most difficult part was finishing, and raising the quality of the stories as much as I could. The plots were done, the characters had been selected, the speculative science ideas were done, and what was left was to trim the plot, develop the characters fully, and bring the story to life. Now that I¹ve done that in this book, I hope finishing up will be easier for me in my forthcoming endeavors. Going through all the proofs was also a big challenge.
What other works are you writing? What’s next?
I have in mind at least one novella and possibly three, the first one being “Come the Childhood Monsters”, which is an extension of the three stories in my book, and which I am currently working on. This novella will be complete on its own. The two follow-up novellas will take the full story further. There are surprises in store, some of which are hinted at in the stories in this book. I also have several short stories in mind, and I might develop them into a second book of short stories.
What advice would you give writers just starting out?
Never give up. Don’t force your stories or your characters. Let them come to you. Be willing to work very hard and learn things you would never have thought of on your own. Writing well is much harder to do than you think, until you’ve done it. Writing the fourteen stories in “Remembering the Future” ranks as one of the most difficult works I have ever done.