Aug. 20th, 2023 12:07 pm
More Asimov's Interview
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lisa_goldsteinHow did you break into writing?
I wrote a short story, and a friend of mine told me I should turn it into a novel. So I wrote the novel, which became my first book, The Red Magician. I sold it to the second editor I sent it to, Ellen Kushner, who was at Pocket Books at the time.
Beginning writers usually hate this story because it seemed so easy for me. I want to assure them that my career was just as rocky as most people’s. For example, after writing a novel I couldn’t figure out how to write a short story for a long time.
What inspired you to start writing?
I can’t remember when I started wanting to be a writer. Maybe it was when I read my first book. Creating an entire world out of your head seemed the coolest thing anyone could possibly do. It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought, though. When I was in college I took a summer between classes to do nothing but write, and I went stir-crazy. Did people really lock themselves in their rooms with only a piece of paper for company? (This was before computers.) But after a while I started to like it.
If you could choose one SFnal universe to live in, what universe would it be, and why?
Two choices, at opposite ends of the spectrum: I’d like to live on one of the islands in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea. Not only would there be the possibility of seeing dragons and wizards and magic, there’s also daily life, which in Tehanu seemed slow but fulfilling: herding goats and spinning their fleece, planting and growing crops, visiting your neighbors, telling stories by the fire, and every so often consulting with the local witch about the weather or an illness. My other choice is about as far away as you can get from that, Iain Banks’s Culture, a technological utopia where AIs fulfill most of your needs, there are amazing scientific breakthroughs, and you’re free to do whatever you want, including exploring other planets and societies.
I wrote a short story, and a friend of mine told me I should turn it into a novel. So I wrote the novel, which became my first book, The Red Magician. I sold it to the second editor I sent it to, Ellen Kushner, who was at Pocket Books at the time.
Beginning writers usually hate this story because it seemed so easy for me. I want to assure them that my career was just as rocky as most people’s. For example, after writing a novel I couldn’t figure out how to write a short story for a long time.
What inspired you to start writing?
I can’t remember when I started wanting to be a writer. Maybe it was when I read my first book. Creating an entire world out of your head seemed the coolest thing anyone could possibly do. It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought, though. When I was in college I took a summer between classes to do nothing but write, and I went stir-crazy. Did people really lock themselves in their rooms with only a piece of paper for company? (This was before computers.) But after a while I started to like it.
If you could choose one SFnal universe to live in, what universe would it be, and why?
Two choices, at opposite ends of the spectrum: I’d like to live on one of the islands in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea. Not only would there be the possibility of seeing dragons and wizards and magic, there’s also daily life, which in Tehanu seemed slow but fulfilling: herding goats and spinning their fleece, planting and growing crops, visiting your neighbors, telling stories by the fire, and every so often consulting with the local witch about the weather or an illness. My other choice is about as far away as you can get from that, Iain Banks’s Culture, a technological utopia where AIs fulfill most of your needs, there are amazing scientific breakthroughs, and you’re free to do whatever you want, including exploring other planets and societies.