Bloggasm

Greg van Eekhout has published around two dozen short stories in places like Starlight 3, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Asimov’s. His story “In the Late December” was a Nebula Award nominee. He lives in Tempe, Arizona.

Simon Owens: You’ve recently completed a young-adult novel. How does writing young-adult fiction compare to writing adult fiction? Did you constantly find yourself analyzing and weighing the reading-level of your prose as you wrote the novel?

Greg van Eekhout: “Down the River Havoc” is about a 14-year old Kung Fu student who travels to an alien world for a cryptozoological expedition, and I did make a conscious effort to write a character who thought and acted like a 14-year-old, based on my recollections of having been a 14-year-old. I tried to include elements that would have appealed to me as a 14-year-old reader, like Kung Fu, humorous dialog, sarcasm, and squid monsters. On the other hand, at no point did I ever try to dial down the level of sophistication, not in terms of the vocabulary, the themes, the ideas, nor the relationships among the characters. Teenagers sometimes have different concerns than adults, and they don’t necessarily perceive or experience the world in the same way as adults, but I wouldn’t define those differences in terms of degree of sophistication. Kids live in a different world, and they’re adapted to that other world. They may be imperfectly adapted to their world, but then, I’m imperfectly adapted to the my world, too. I think an adult forced to live in their world would seem hopelessly awkward and weird and unsophisticated. If the book lacks sophistication, it’s probably due to my lack of sophistication as a writer and a thinker, and due to the fact that this was my first book, rather than the result of an effort to keep the reading level to less-than-adult. That being said, I hope my next book will be more complicated in every way, reflecting my growth as a writer and as a human being.

SO: Your story “In the Late December” is arguably one of your best. When you wrote it, did you just set out to write a Christmas story or was the story idea there first?

GvE: I knew I wanted to write a story about the end of the universe, and I wanted to portray it as a really bleak, cold, wintery place. I figured the environment itself could be the antagonist, like in a Jack London novel. Then it was a matter of deciding who might be around to struggle against this environment, and the answer was pretty obvious: Santa Claus would still be around, and he’d be trying to deliver toys, even if there weren’t any little boys or girls left to bring Christmas to, because, you know, Santa’s like that. I didn’t want to play Santa for laughs, or Christmas itself for laughs. I’m certainly capable of cynicism, but I didn’t want this to be a cynical story, or a satirical story. I wanted it to be a heartfelt Christmas story, which brings with it certain expectations of poignancy and warmth and all that stuff that can be really corny and nauseating if you’re not careful. I truly felt that Santa was important, that even after all the commercialization and saturation, there was still a mythical grandness and a nobility and a poetry to the figure. I’m still waiting for a phone call from Rankin-Bass.

SO: It seems that there’s a small close-knit group of speculative fiction bloggers you’re a part of. How has this helped your writing in terms of support and encouragement?

GvE: I used to say that, though it’s possible to write without the support and encouragement of a peer group, it’s just so much more fun when you have the camaraderie. But now I actually think socializing with a peer group is essential, as much as friendship itself is essential. If I tell someone at the day job that I sold a story to Asimov’s or got nominated for an award, they’ll be happy for me, but the people I connect with through blogging really understand, so maybe their “woots” mean a little more. Blogging is a congenial and enjoyable way to find conversations about the industry, to find first readers, to help me feel like I’m not the only person in the world who cares about the stuff I care about. And I’ve made actual friendships through blogging, and I feel immensely privileged to be writing at a point in the history of technology where it doesn’t have to feel like such a lonely occupation. So, I guess my answer is that blogging hasn’t just helped my writing, but it’s helped me in general as a person.

SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

GvE: Like many people, I depend on BoingBoing to keep up with cool tech and products and social phenomena. Bookslutis great for finding out what’s going on in the world of publishing. Over at ESPN.com, I read My So-Called Career, a blog by Paul Shirley, a pro basketball player who reveals a little of what life is like for the guys who aren’t stars, who play most of their careers for minor league teams or overseas. I don’t think he’s quite found his legs as a writer yet, but his blog is a good reminder that people are more interesting and complex than their stereotypes. At Shaken & Stirred, Gwenda Bond posts a lot of little items, many related to writing and publishing, and she has just the best list of links to other blogs. And I read Making Light, Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s blog. They were instructors of mine at the Viable Paradise Writers’ Workshop, and they’re both superb writers with broad interests, and it’s rare that I read one of their entries without learning something about something.

You can find Greg van Eekhout’s blog over here.