No, not Andrew I. Porter, nor that other Andrew Porter, nor this guy, Andrew Porter (a la The Zombie Feed) is a man of an apparently common name but of incredibly uncommon and awesome ideas. Doubt it? Then check out his story in The Zombie Feed Vol. 1, “Zombies on the Moon.” Zombies. On the Moon. Come on, doesn’t that sound like fun?! And what is more terrifying than getting trapped in an isolated biodome with a hungry hoard and nowhere to run? You’ll never look up at the moon the same way ever again. Check it out now! If you do, you’ll be able to say you’ve read something by Henry Clark Porter (before he was Henry Clark Porter. BTW, Andrew–I searched that name, and besides a few old family trees, Google says you can totally have it if you want it! Just sayin’. :D)
You can pick up your copy of The Zombie Feed Anthology on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, or from The Zombie Feed directly. Get it on your Kindle or your Nook (or in any e-format from Smashwords) for just $2.99! Seventeen awesome zombie stories for $2.99? Yes, please! :D
1. The Writing Question: What is your typical writing routine? Do you write every day, some days, only when inspired?
I’ll answer this in reverse. I do write every day, religiously, if term can apply, given the kinds of writing I do. I certainly don’t write well every day, nor do I achieve big word counts with any regularity, but even if it’s a snippet of doggerel on a napkin, I write daily. Inspiration is more of a continuum with me, an idea heats up and gets its own steam and if I give it the attention it needs I can get three, four, even five thousand words down in a sitting. A couple of weeks ago I wrote six stories in five days with a total count of roughly 27K. Were they all good? Hell no, but I’m glad they’re around. In the last two weeks I’ve written about a page and a half that’s about as compelling as the phone book. I only have a routine when I’m hitting a very productive period and that routine is: wake up, coffee, write, coffee, write, coffee, write, sleeping pills, repeat. That goes until something breaks my stride- work, family, personal hygiene failures; outside of these periods I just keep a notepad nearby and jot down notions.
2. The Horror Question: What used to scare you the most as a child?
I was a very fretful child from an inordinately young age. I was phobic about spiders, but that doesn’t really seem to have the zest of my other fears. The hollers of rural Kentucky have a lot to be fearful of, so did the rocket filled skies of Cocoa Beach, but my brain ranged far afield for terror. At ten I think my fear list would have run like so:
1. Meteor Extinction Event
2. Hell
3. Heaven (eternal boredom, I was certain.)
4. Viral Extinction Event
5. This weird, gaunt thing that was wrapped in a ratty, colorful quilt that I swear I saw one time
in the woods while deer hunting.
6. That they would make me go deer hunting again.
7. That there was no God.
8. That my mother would get tired of me and smother me in my sleep.
Two things about this, I had a wonderful mother, she had a weird son. Also I grew up as the last generation to live under the shadow of the Red Bomb, with Ronny Rayguns and his Star Wars defense program and that pate-stained Czar that always seemed just barely in charge. There was a lot to be afraid of for a kid. One last fear, clowns. I hated clowns, nothing special there I know, but I had the unique experience of having been accosted by a clown at a circus. I’m not kidding, this clown yelled at me for getting up for cotton candy too many times. I didn’t say anything to my dad about it, just sat there in shivery, six year old terror. Then came the film Poltergeist which I reacted to with abject horror. My mother made hay with this fear. After turning out the lights in my room she would say, “Goodnight my bonny boy,” then, almost under her breath so I was never sure I’d heard her, “…and watch out for the clown under your bed,” then the door would quickly shut. Maybe I didn’t have such a wonderful mother…
3. The Oddball Question: What, in modern society, do you consider to be the biggest waste of people’s time?
Key words: modern, society. I have peculiar views on history that revolve around endless repetition and the ever upward spiral of computational capability. I am making rare statement of faith here when I say that I believe in the coming Technological Singularity and thus the end of human history. In that context, when speaking about the entirety of society, there is not waste of time. I’m frightened by the implied determinism in my own thinking on this, but there we are. On a more personal note, I guess browsing Facebook and, I don’t know, Wii Bowling? (I just bowled a 249 by the way, a score that I am certain will impress our imminently arriving machine god.)
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Andrew Clark Porter is a science fiction writer that lives with his wife Laura, dachshund Wesley, and “thing” Jolene in Oklahoma City. He likes to spend his time digging for things that were once alive, planting things that always die, nurturing his childhood fears, and playing geochemist. He is terrified of clowns, spiders, and swarms of things. Andrew is not a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America because he doesn’t have the eighty bucks to spare for his dues, and his first professional sale was in Apex Magazine. You can read about his progress, publications, and problems at www.silverstairs.wordpress.com.
