Interview at Genreville
Posted on August 4, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Publishers Weekly speculative fiction reviews editor Rose Fox has a new blog at PW’s Web site called Genreville, and from time to time she interviews science fiction publishing folks about their jobs, in a series she calls “Nuts & Bolts.” This week, she’s interviewing me, talking about how I put together Zoe’s Tale, and in particular how I worked on creating a protagonist who isn’t just some iteration of me, and what it means for my writing going forward. Check it out, and check out the rest of the blog, too. It’s interesting stuff.
There’s an LJ RSS feed here if you’re interested.
I’d say go to the actual site — it’ll be a nice way for the PW bosses to see people are reading.
Also (to Josh), the RSS feed (at least, according to LJ or my Google Reader) hasn’t updated yet.
You might have said this before and I might have missed it. But since this book is about Zoe’s version of events of a book that we have already read, other than putting away to some of the plot holes from TLC, are we going to learn any new events of the aftermath from TLC? Or is it striclty her point of view leading up to the end of TLC?
It’s in the same time frame as TLC, but features rather a lot of information not in TLC.
Adam – I’m showing it as having updated on LJ.
“for the first time, here was a protagonist in my book who was not some direct variation of me.”
So, which John Perry is a variation of you, the old man who joined the army, or the semi-superman who tells the rest of the story?
The guy who lives at my address, actually. That is, until he leaves Earth to fight aliens.
Thanks for the link and for doing the interview! I’m glad you like the new blog.
Zoe isn’t you as a little girl?
I’m interested in the difference between writing in the voice of a 30+ male and a 20- female. You mention that your wife & other women helped you get it to the point of plausibility. What are the most important things you learned about this (if it’s not asking to give away the secret recipe)? Does this give you any insight into M/F relationships that you didn’t have before?
Where do they teach you to talk like this? In some Panama City sailor wanna hump hump bar? Or is this getaway day in your last shot at his whiskey?
How much did the females in your life help you voice Zoe? By the time you were nearing completion of the book did you find thinking like a young lady easier? Did you even find yourself thinkng like a little girl when you weren’t writing?