Author interview
Steven Erikson
Author bio:
Steven Erikson is an archaeologist and anthropologist and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His Malazan Book of the Fallen series, including The Crippled God, Dust of Dreams, Toll the Hounds and Reaper’s Gale, have met with widespread international acclaim and established him as a major voice in the world of fantasy fiction. The first book in the series, Gardens of the Moon, was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award. The second novel, Deadhouse Gates, was voted one of the ten best fantasy novels of 2000 by SF Site. He lives in Canada.
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Hi
Steven, welcome to The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few
questions for us.
BP:
First off could you give us a short introduction as to who Steven Erikson is?
What do you like to do in your spare time? What are your likes and dislikes?
SE: ‘Steven Erikson’ is the pen-name an early publisher of mine insisted I
invent to distinguish my ‘Fantasy’ writing from my ‘serious fiction.’ They never understood that I took writing
Fantasy seriously (most of the time).
Since then, Steven Erikson has waged a relatively quiet but sustained
campaign for the legitimacy of the genre.
Epic Fantasy is at the core of all literature. It’s where it all began. As for spare time, what spare time? As for likes and dislikes, well, I tend to
express those in the stories I write.
Best place for it.
BP: Your
first book, Garden of the Moon, was published back in 1999, did you know when
and where you decided that you wanted to become an author?
SE: It was back in ’83 that I first entertained the notion of becoming an
author. That was the year I got accepted
into an undergraduate creative writing degree at the University of Victoria,
and on the heels of that acceptance, I dropped out of a Master’s program in
archaeology. Incidentally, I got the
news (re UVic) from my mother, over a bad phone line, with her in Winnipeg and
me in a sweltering phone booth at the Telephone Station in Belize City – at
loose ends after the dig I was working on wrapped up. That was a perfect moment.
BP:
Why did you choose to publish your books under the pseudonym of Steven Erikson?
SE: See above.
Curiously, after Gardens of the Moon came out and gained some notoriety,
that previous publisher came back to me and said that they’d changed their mind
and were not happy for me to use my real name.
By then, alas, it was too late.
BP:
You wrote the first book in the Malazan Empire of the Fallen series,
transforming the Malazan World from table top to a book. This must have been a
daunting task, how did you go about planning and starting to write it?
SE: It took a number of iterations,
first as a possible world-book for roleplay gaming, then a film script, and
finally a novel. At that youngish age,
nothing is daunting. Ambition blazes,
impatience consumes, and all you want and need is permission to do it (which is
what a book deal gives). Granted, it
took a while for all of that to happen – eight years before I found a publisher
for Gardens of the Moon.
BP:
The Malazan Empire of the Fallen books have garnered a lot of success, had you
ever dared to imagine that it would be such a success?
SE: I don’t really know how to
measure success. It’s still a rather
polarizing series (and Willful Child is going to be the same, I’m sure). In terms of outward symbols of success, there
are virtually none: Gardens of the Moon was shortlisted for a World Fantasy
Award, but didn’t win, and none of the other books in the series even got that
far. The tenth and final novel was
released without much fanfare – I didn’t even get a US tour on that one. So, the whole thing felt as if it had dropped
off the edge of the earth. And yet, so
far at least, it continues to find readers, which is in the end the only
worthwhile recognition a writer could want.
BP:
Now for the last question on the Malazan series, who is your favorite
character?
SE: They all are, and I miss them.
BP:
OK, your latest book, Willful Child is something completely different. Space
Opera and Science Fiction. Why? What gave you the idea to write it?
SE: I have been a Trekker since
before the label ever existed. As a
child I watched the first run of the Original Series. As a published author, I have always wanted
to write in that universe. I always read
SF while writing Fantasy (to keep away any possible influences in tone and
voice and story; and because I love SF), but I always found the idea of writing
SF somewhat intimidating. I don’t have a
physics background beyond high school (and that was a long time ago!). I’m not the guy to invent an FTL drive, or
talk about vectors and momentum and mass and all that hard-core stuff. But I love the idea of space and exploration
and encounters and all the rest. Willful
Child came about in the wake of a Star Trek novel I began and then abandoned,
and an SF series I co-wrote with some friends called The Dark, originally
intended to air on the web. But even
that isn’t really where it all began. I
have an irreverent streak, especially when it comes to things I dearly
love. Having lived in the UK, I observed
first hand that very British style of humour that takes the piss out of the
things one likes. Anyway, Willful
Child’s been in the works for about a decade, as an idea, until eventually I
dropped everything else and wrote the damned thing, more or less inventing
details on the fly. The deplorable and
irrepressible character of Captain Hadrian Sawback more or less barged onto the
page, in all his cringing glory, and he gave me permission to let loose.
BP:
With The Malazan series being such a success, did you have any added pressure
when you were writing Willful Child?
SE: Not particularly. The pressure
that exists regarding Willful Child is the sure knowledge that it’s going to
trigger very strong opinions. Humour’s tricky business, it’s very
personal. I wrote what amused me and can
only hope that it amuses someone else, too, enough of them to make the novel a
success, which in turn gives me permission to write more adventures in
Hadrian’s universe. I’m hoping that it
finds an audience, especially since I have two follow-up novels already
planned.
BP:
You have been writing mainly Epic, heroic fantasy, was it hard for you to
switch to writing Science Fiction?
SE: No! It was a blast. The book pretty much wrote itself, barreling
along at light-speed. Seventy-five
thousand words in three weeks. I find
that when I’m writing for laughs, it goes fast.
It’s all off the cuff, in a way, once I decide on the angle of humour
I’m going to take. Willful Child is
cringe comedy. Laughter with a wince.
BP:
Willful Child will be published on the 6th of
November, if you would have to sell your book with a single sentence, how would
it go?
SE: What if a starship captain’s only
role model was James Tiberius Kirk?
BP: Did
you encounter any specific problems when you were writing Willful Child?
SE: Well, we’re dealing with a sexist character, a creature of the
‘Sixties. But of course the sexism of
the ‘Sixties has never really gone away.
If anything, it’s gotten uglier (thanks to the anonymity of the
internet). So, Hadrian was going to be
offensive, and that was going to hit or it was going to miss, and reactions
were likely to be extreme. The only rule
I held to with him was that with respect to sexual encounters, whatever he did
and whatever happened to him was going to be consensual (even when it goes
horribly awry). The man’s an eternal
optimist. He just wants to get
laid. All the time. With anyone.
Hadrian owes more to the literary legacy of Flashman than Buck Rogers,
along with a blend of the Stainless Steel Rat, James Bond, and Maxwell Smart
(and for you anglophiles out there, Allan Partridge).
BP:
Which part of Willful Child did you find the hardest to write about?
SE: Nothing!
BP:
Besides the hardest part of Willful Child, which chapter, scene or character
did you enjoy writing about the most?
SE: Well, I had a lot of fun with the ship’s alien doctor, Printlip. Basically a giant beachball with lots of arms
and lots of eyes-on-stalks and two feet clad in Dutch clogs, who deflates when
speaking. Hadrian’s not very nice to
him, but then, just maybe, Printlip’s not very nice to Hadrian either.
BP: If
you would be given the chance to retract any passage from Willful Child or make
one final adjustment, would you do so? And if yes, which part and why?
SE: Hmm, that sounds like a leading
question. You fishing here? The key to writing a novel like this one is
that the restraints need to be shucked off – there is no way I could write it
being fearful of what might offend people or disgust them, or whatever. In fact, there’s so much that’s offensive
about Hadrian, it’s kinda the point of it.
Besides, if Hadrian’s got a hate on for kittens, that’s his problem, not
mine.
BP:
Now that Willful Child will be published soon, do you have any other projects that
you wish to pursue in the near future? Can we expect more non-Malazan books?
SE: I hope to do more Willful Child novels (The Wrath of Betty, The Search
for Spark, etc); and I have in mind a non-comic Earth-based military SF novel).
BP:
Everyone enjoys fantasy and science fiction in their own way, what do you like
most about it?
SE: I like a story well-told and well-written, and I like to feel that the
author’s done some serious thinking about what they’re up to.
BP: If
you would have to give your top 5 favorite books, which would they be?
SE: I’ll select five that are
relevant to Willful Child. Chesterton’s
The Man Who Was Thursday; any of the Flashman novels (but especially Flashman!
And Flashman and the Great Game), as well as Frazer’s The Pyrates; and
Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
BP:
And just lastly, can you give us a sneak peek as to what will be in store for
the readers of Willful Child?
SE: “We humans have been the butt
end of galactic jokes ever since we stumbled into space. Well, that ends now. Space … it’s a helluva place to kick some
ass!” -- Captain Hadrian Sawback, AFS
Willful Child.
BP:
Thank you very much for your time Steven and good luck with your future
writing!
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