#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr

@ianscraper

Many authors incorporate their own experiences and autobiographical elements into their stories. How is it with you? Which of your works contains the most of your personal experiences?

I hate to admit it, and I know a lot of people would disagree, but I don't consider myself a particularly interesting person. It may be one of the reasons I'm so bad at parties. Small talk. Scary. They'll think I'm an airhead. My shyness doesn't help that.

That said, I will admit some of the internal dialogue in my 1st person characters greatly resembles the character of my own. (Oh noes, now people will really give me dirty looks.) I do cook; that's definitely in my stories. I am rewriting a main character in an epic fantasy to be a fine art and event photographer because I can relate. I've done it; I can give details. I've even gotten paid. An evil character in a published book was my experience of my evil† stepfather. It provided a certain verisimilitude.

I'm not going to write about being a programmer, though, or sitting at a desk writing stories, or exercising each morning. Too, blah.

To say whether or not any story is even close to being autobiographical, or having more than the most peripheral personal experiences, is impossible.

I am Walter Middy.

Well, not really, but you get the idea.

————
† He was evil.

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@RMiddleton

I would like to ask (& apologies if it's been asked) how you enjoyed today?

I thought it was fabulous. I'd do it again. It makes me a lot less afraid of getting interviewed on a podcast one day, as I'm told will be important to advancing my career. The unexpected questions by people who did know something about me really allowed me to pull together a lot of ideas and discuss them. I got to write a lot, which I love, and avoid writing a chapter I really ought to have written and wanted an excuse not to, so that worked, too.

Okay, I also like the attention!

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@sifaseven

What's the most difficult thing you had to write? (Difficult because of subject matter or how to convey what you wanted to tell)

Difficult due to subject matter. My WIP, Reluctant Moon.

English is a difficult language. So many words have so many meanings, that if I state one thing, I will inevitably state other things I don't wish to state, so I will dance around some stuff.

I am probably overthinking the issues. The story takes place in a different society with different standards and radically different gender roles. Western society and the world overlay of patriarchy sets subliminal standards we all subconsciously expect men and women to adhere to, and judge them accordingly. In many ways the story questions our view of reality.

I end up getting blocked and unable to write periodically (tho it's at 71K in length), and I question whether I'm revealing to much about my inner self and what I'd wish would be, and not the shit that is. Of course, in these times, many people feel like heretics just for being themselves.

I was recently heartened to read that Robert A. Heinlein's A Stranger in a Strange Land was written two decades before publication, and he and his wife agreed that the work was way before it's time, and waited. I'm not going to have the hubris imply that I think my work is in that league, but when you find yourself writing something you think could be labeled dangerous, you get to thinking...

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@anderlandbooks

Dear RS, could you choose one among your stories that's your favorite? Which one?

I could. It's a fan fiction novel, however, and I don't want to mix this pen name (the SF and Fantasy commercial author) with the other pen name. The good news is the plot lines and the major characters are my creation. I am rewriting many of the stories totally in my own universe, now.

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@johnyNocash

RS, you often post with authority - I mean that as a compliment

Wow. If you met me in person, the dichotomy would astound you… until I got to know you. I'm quite shy.

How would you describe the difference between your writing now and when your first work was published?

First and foremost, I wrote in 3rd person close perspective. Ideally, the narration revealed nothing the POV couldn't experience through their senses. I can't say I was perfect at it, but it got published. My grammar had issues, but frankly, it was often better than that of authors who wrote bestsellers. Remember this: Best sellers are not written, they are made. By editors, copywriters, marketing, media hype, and people spending money to make it happen. What my agent said about my writing is germane, however. He said I told great stories.

I want to believe I still do.

Now adays, I write in 1st person. My characters are the narrator of their stories, and to an extent the stories are about who they are in their head as well as their actions and adventures. I'm also less afraid of revealing their inner (possibly perceived as perverse or perverted) secrets, which, of course, reflects on their author. To the extent that I get writer block, it's what I fear other people will think about the content that stops me cold. If you look at my intro on the profile, I've a little mantra about telepathy there; in this context, that tract might be more interesting.

I've veered away from worrying about grammar. I'm a Grammar B writer, which means my high school English teacher would fail me. I write as if I were telling the story aloud, and if that means I end up rambling, halting, or making incomplete sentences… Well, that's the way people talk and tell stories. In real life. Makes my prose dynamic (except when I go overboard). I'll admit a lot of the composed Grammar B gets standardized during revision. I've some worries about THIS paragraph, so don't take it as a real example. Please. But you get the gist.

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@CA_Hawthorne

I often see it mentioned that you deal with “issues of gender.” What do you believe is your most representative, or favorite, example of that?

[If you think my answer misses your point, please restate it and I answer again. —RS]

I'd like to say it's my writing. As a shy person, it's nothing I've done physically, for sure, but I do fancy myself as the person behind the throne giving advice. I think my spouse would credit me that much, to do with my spouse's business. I don't mind being a supporting role, but that's not what you asked…

My stories often take a contrarian tack. At first about girls who fought for the privileges the boys had, but that's almost passé these days. My Reluctance Stories will ignore what we consider gender roles (and shame) completely, and seeing how it changes men and women will be the point. I've recently taken a different tack with my #RSMarsNeededWomen web-novel that has MC having an abortion despite living in a theocratic society, finding a husband, bearing five kids, fighting off men who view women as chattel, and becoming a engineer who helps an increasingly female Mars break free from Earth. Not sure if the story will end with a bang, since it is written and published day by day, but I think it works. Agency despite gender is important.

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#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD @sfwrtr @amPennyfeather

What is one thing you've always wanted to share about one of your stories/your writing experience that you've never had an opportunity to share?

I can't answer that one off the cuff, I'm afraid. But I will say that my stories are often a reflection of how much my mother's life made her a hero for me. She was a 1st generation American and a black sheep in the family. She was a bailbondswoman in the 60s (and did her own bounty hunting), participated in the civil rights movement, and even (she said) burnt her bra. She raised me, while helping run companies, often as a single mom despite multiple marriages. She didn't take shit from men, except when she did. She was far from perfect, thus so are my characters.

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