In the lead-up to the release of Hope: The Thing with Feathers, I’m going to be posting mini-interviews with my fellow ToC-mates! You can pre-order Hope: The Thing with Feathers here.
In “Going Home,” Dimitriy Semenov is a brilliant physicist underemployed as a teacher at a secondary school, but when he’s approached by a government official about a top-secret study examining fragments retrieved from the Tunguska meteorite region, he finds himself entangled in a mysterious force beyond his (or anyone’s) comprehension. But is finding out the truth about these strange fragments worth losing his family, his sanity, or his life?
“Going Home” is a wonderful story that has a classic sci-fi vibe that will appeal to those who love a good scientific romp and the excitement of unravelling the mysteries of the universe.
Writing Question: There are hundreds and hundreds of books on writing out there. Do you have one that you especially cherish?
I have accumulated quite a few of those books over the years! I would not say that I cherish it, but a book to which I have returned several times is Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. King’s part-autobiographical account offers consolation for those experiencing repeated setbacks at the beginnings of their writing careers, but also sternly reminds his readers that perseverance is an essential part of the author’s toolbox. Indeed, the book is strong on all the tools of the trade that an author should have or should acquire. In the same vein, Fay Weldon’s Why Will No-One Publish My Novel: A Handbook for the Rejected Writer reminds budding authors of the importance of getting the basics right.
SpecFic Question: What other writer of speculative fiction do you feel everyone should read, at least once?
The author would be Stanislav Lem and the works I would particularly recommend are Solaris and The Invincible. In a sense, they are both very well written and entertaining first encounter tropes, but they address a fundamental question that humanity would do well to think about. What if we encountered an intelligence – in one case an organic ocean, in another a mechanical swarm intelligence – with which we couldn’t communicate and which we couldn’t understand? In their Roadside Picnic Arkady and Boris Strugatsky philosophically address a similar question, though their alien intelligence is either unaware of humanity or completely indifferent to it.
Oddball Question: A lot has been written about exercise and its effect on productivity and creativity. Do you have an exercise routine you find helpful?
We have a very large and boisterous flat-coated retriever who requires a lot of exercise. Those daily walks provide excellent space in which to think through plotting difficulties and all the other knotty challenges that budding authors can face. Also, I find it helps to write every day and to understand that the process of revision is as important as the process of writing.
The only thing Martin Westlake has ever always wanted to do is write creative fiction. His short stories in various genres have been published in a number of outlets, including Metaphorosis. ‘Going Home’ was his first paid piece of fiction and Metaphorosis and its editor, Morris Allen, therefore hold a special place in his affections. Westlake’s full-length creative historical novel, Other Than an Aspen Be, is currently on submission (Bill Goodall literary agency).