I recently participated in a blog round robin. I never knew how hard it was to find writers with blogs of their own.
Anyway, Will Delman, long time good friend, was willing to write a post for me to put on my blog. I thought my followers might enjoy hearing another voice beside my own so here is his post with his answers to the four questions.
My wonderful friend Eleanor Kuhns—the extraordinarily talented author of A Simple Murder, Death of a Dyer, and Cradle to Grave—was kind and generous enough to ask me to participate in this project. I was a little worried because, despite my current artistic direction, I don’t actually have a proper blog of my own, and sadly don’t personally know many other authors that do. Maybe this will finally convince me to take the plunge.
But now, with great thanks to my gracious (and very, very patient) host, here is my contribution.
What are you working on?
Until somewhat recently, I’d been concentrating on poetry, where I’ve had some success. My work has been published in Nimrod, The Literary Review, Salamander, The Massachusetts Review, and many other fine journals, and my chapbook The Possibility of Recovery was released by Cervena Brava Press a few years ago.
For the last few months, however, I’ve gone in a completely different direction—I’m currently writing short stories and flash fiction in the sci-fi/speculative genres. My most recent piece is currently a little too close to novelette length, but in short it’s about a post-singularity crew investigating a mystery on a hydrogen mining station orbiting Neptune.
I’ve been intrigued with the way our species is digitally evolving for some time, and I really enjoy thinking about the kinds of problems that might plague a cybernetic, post-human race. And of course, I love a good mystery.
I’m also working a piece about an android cat burglar and her gang of alien outlaws—they get hired to steal a hot-sauce recipe from a food conglomerate, hijinks ensue—but that one is still in the very early stages.
Why do you write what you write?
The short answer is that I made the move from poetry to sci-fi because I‘ve always loved the genre, wanted to have more fun at my desk, and had been thinking about a lot of things that I felt would be better worked out within larger fictional landscapes.
The longer answer involves life, the universe, my family, and everything else. Which would make it a bit long for a blog.
How does your work differ from others in the genre?
I think I get hung up in the details, perhaps too much so. For one short story I spent more than two months reading about non-carbon based biology, methane diamond formation, and quantum computing. I don’t really think of myself as a technically minded, hard sci-fi writer—after all, my background is in English and poetry—but it seems like my work has been drifting in that direction.
Honestly though, I really feel like I’ve just started out as a fiction writer, and I think it might be too early to say how my style will or won’t differ from the more familiar names working in the field. At the moment I’m just focusing on writing the best, most interesting stories I can, while
What is your writing process?
Once upon a time my process was very, very simple. It involved the basics. I carried a notebook and a pen everywhere I went. I would write whenever, and wherever, but most of these efforts were just outlines that later had to be typed up, and developed long after the initial inspiration.
Then my process “developed.” It came to involve a very specific set of circumstances: I would only work at certain, very late hours, on a particular computer, in particular fonts, etc. etc. When the circumstances that enabled my process changed, I was thrown sideways. For a long time I wasn’t writing much of anything at all.
Now, I’m trying to find a balance between flexibility and discipline; at the moment that means that I’m still using a laptop, and I still have a favorite spot, but I’m not getting hung up on things like when and where. So I guess my current process is this: I try to write for at least 30-90 minutes a day, whenever I get a window.
eleanorkuhns 