At what age did you start writing? How many years of writing experience do you have?
Middle school. I can't honestly remember the exact year, though it was eighth grade. 14/15.
...god, has it really been that long? That's over a decade.
What kind of phases did your writing go through? What's the most important lesson you have learned from each?
There was the early days, among the Battle Tech and Gundam Wing fans. (To an extent, I never left BT.) I learned that the first x words I'm going to spew out when I create a new story are bad, and should be regarded as a form of filter-cleaning rather than something to be preserved. I also discovered my counterrevolutionary side.
After exiting that phase there was a period of wandering in the wilderness that lasted years, where nothing was completed nor published. Through high school, most of college. The only works of note were my two Free Space campaigns, Cleaning Crew, and the experimental (devise, write, FRED, and release in 24 hours) campaign Operation Savior. Which was actually delayed three weeks due to a bug I discovered in the process. In reality, this was more of an oasis along the way. The campaigns were not good; nor, really, were they meant to be. They were quick, relatively unique ideas, relative unique implementation of some things (nobody worked so hard to treat warships as actual warships again until the Blue Planet guys), but ultimately not that long or well-done. What I learned, if anything, from such an Out-of-Genre Experience, I could not say. What I learned from the numerous failed works along the way was that I hadn't found the setting to hold my interest or the method to sustain writing over a long term.
Today, the current phase, is most probably marked by the release of Monsters about a year and a half ago. Trying to sum it up is obviously premature.
Which genres do you deal with? What medium? What do you reckon is your target audience?
I have traditionally been a writer of science fiction, but by now most everything has been tried once. I am unsure of what you mean by "medium" in this context, I suppose it's for the comics sorts among us, but I can't be sure.
Target audience? What's that? No, I'm not quite that bad, but I have counterrevolutionary tendencies when it comes to writing. Many of my first works resulted from identifying a current trend and writing something opposed to it. My current works, too, were counterrevolutionary in some ways, though they have outgrown it.
What are your influences?
I started with Stackpole and Loren L. Coleman, I expect. (I probably still owe something to the former.) Today, there's more owed to Stuart, Banks, Zahn,
What do you think are the most important things to get right in a work? What do you think a writer should keep in mind if they want to actually get those things right?
I tend to be stickler for basic continuity over other things, but only as it reaches the audience. (As long as they don't see you breaking the rules, you're not breaking the rules.)
Did you let any friends read your work? Family? Internet pals? What did they have to say?
I don't know that anyone who knows me personally has read my work. I don't make a deal of it to people who actually know me and never have.
What do you think is your biggest failing as a writer? In all seriousness, put yourself in place of someone reading your work and, to the best of your ability, complete the sentence: "Wow, this sucks, because _____".
I'm not sure. I suspect it'll come down to "this is not the style in which this should be treated". Or they'll be annoyed with my counterrevolutionary bit. (God knows that's happened before.)
(Extra Credit, 5 pts.) Which commonly-given writing advice do you hate the most?
I don't know. No, really. I go through cycles of hating pretty much each in turn, but it's never particularly intense.
List the full names of four of your male characters and four of your female characters.
Micheal Sanderson; Samuel al-Faddil, Muhammed al-Faddil, Bei.
Nara Rajinderpal; Carolyn Altima, Kate Sentri, Samanatha Heinrichs.
Copypaste a short excerpt from your work where you introduce a character.
Leon and Daley, and some other ADP sorts, were sitting at a table near her. Leon half-rose, drawing Linna's attention, and yelled to someone in the crowd. “Sanderson, you jackass! You nearly got me killed!”
The man who replied was easy to pick out, he was wearing a USSD uniform. That definitely made him stand out in the crowd here. “Mc Nichol, if I'd known you were going to do something as stupid as strap into a Twelve-sh*t, I'd have stayed on!” Twelve-sh*t was the not-very-affectionate nickname the ADP had for their K-12S armored troopers. Linna thought something about the man's voice familiar.
He spoke with Leon briefly, and then sat down across from her. Linna's head came up to rebuke him, and she froze. He wasn't looking at her, really paying much attention at all, still talking to Leon. His voice was even more familiar now. Add a hint of electronic distortion and...
He turned to regard Linna, steadily, a flicker of interest, but that was all. No hint of recognition. “Leon told me nobody was using this seat. I see he was wrong.”
Not really handsome, Linna thought. He might be reasonably photogenic, but not that handsome in person. But he had strikingly, intensely blue eyes that added a touch of electricity to meeting his gaze. He was a dirty blond. She'd never pictured him as blond.
He started to stand. And as she'd always feared she would do if she met K-11-2 face-to-face instead of faceplate-to-faceplate, Linna didn't let him walk away. “No. That seat's not taken at all. What's your name?”
Copypaste a short excerpt from your work where you describe a scene.
A house, two-story. Rustic charm as a design ethic instead of suburban efficiency, with a porch along the front and white half-timbering with yellow siding. It sat in a large cleared area covered in grass that seemed impossibly neatly trimmed to both newcomers. The road itself approached no closer than fifty meters. The nearest treeline was yet further, maybe a hundred.
Some thought had been given to security here, Samuel saw, though whether the gaps were meant to keep others from slipping in or the residents from slipping away wasn't immediately clear. Samuel stepped out of the car and Agito flitted after him, assuming her habitual position about one centimeter above and two to the right of his left shoulder.
Copypaste a short excerpt from your work where you drop a big plot twist.
I could pretty much use the one below this, but I won't.
K-11-2 hit his suit jets out of desperation, trying for a leap back in a room that wasn't quite high-ceilinged enough to allow it, counting on the fact that most corporate space has a false ceiling to hide the ductwork and the like. Ceiling tiles flew everywhere, fluorescent lighting shattered, and the K-11's head broke at least one sprinkler line. The landing wasn't steady and there was a ringing in his ears from hitting the pipe, but he'd bought a precious two and a half meters to blow the boomer's head clean off.
“Two is clear. How's the fire?”
“Burning the wrong way so far-” The transmission cut off in an earhurting squeal. Jamming, his suit's comm had squelched the noise a moment later.
“sh*t.” K-11-2 muttered. Not good.
Moments later Liquid Natural Gas Tank Number Three, about two hundred meters off, exploded.
Copypaste a short excerpt from your work where a character is facing some kind of difficulty.
“Because the K-12S is coming in. It's heavier and the jets aren't as powerful, so it's less mobile. The guns are shorter-barreled, meaning you have to be closer to the target for accurate fire. I've been asking for, demanding, more responsive and more mobile armored troopers since I started this job. The Chief ignored every report I ever wrote. The K-12S still isn't tough enough to stand up to the worst stuff that gets thrown at us, and the fusion ability doesn't matter if we don't get close.” K-11-2 was still less animated than normal, even angry. A bad sign, Leon knew. The man wouldn't have been the first ADP officer to go around the bend or simply burn out. “The first K-12S deployment will kill the whole team, because they couldn't jump the hell out of the way when they got charged by a Fifty-Five. It doesn't have to fuze with them, those bastards can tear you limb from limb. To say nothing of what happens when they get lased in the face.”
If he goes now... Best to just say it. Leon wasn't a subtle man and he didn't do subtle well. “If you leave, the armored trooper unit will fold. Total morale collapse. Total disciplinary collapse. After the fire and pulling off seven Fifty-Five kills on a basic ammo load, plus you pulling off the perfect deployment last night...do you have any idea what a disaster area this place is going to end up as when you quit it protest? You're a lot of people's hero around here, man.”
There was a definite note of sadness in K-11-2's voice, but also sardonic humor. “If I die, they fall apart harder. And I'm dead.” His tone softened. “Mc Nichol, I'm still alive because I'm very good at seeing the danger coming and getting out of the way. That's it. I wasn't smarter or faster or luckier than any of the folks we've lost. What I did have was sharper eyes and more paranoia, to see the danger coming and get out of the way.” A shrug, almost helpless. “There's danger coming. I'm getting out the way.”
Copypaste the first line of one of your works...
Night Life.
“Stop the truck!”
...And the last line of that work.
One way or another, Genom always found a way to profit.
edited 25th Feb '12 1:08:55 PM by Night
Nous restons ici.
