Nice interview - would've appreciated a brief writeup/intro to the person, to set some context for the interview.

The universe as a reflection of Americana is too common a thread of scifi to be considered terribly imaginative, but it sells.

thanks Co, very nice, agree with Aaman that a bit of context would be helpful. Being ignorant, I had no idea who the guy was

Danke gents, the point is that you read anyway. Besides its over 1500 words as is and i didn't want anything much larger.

Aaman, I'm curious as to where the "Americana" comment comes from? I'm British born, Canadian raised, and an immigrant. And Freehold is a composite of the US, feudal Japan, the Icelandic Republic and Switzerland. So it's hardly "Americana."

Besides, I believe most of my comments were regarding character and interaction, not any specific background.

If you're referring to something specific you read, please do elaborate. I find feedback from readers useful to improve my writing.

Thanks much

Mike

Mike,

No offense meant - great books, and I lumped the entire 'universe as a macrocosm of sociopolitical Earth events" into 'Americana' - as opposed to, say, 'cephalopods ruminating on the gustatory pleasures of Medakis'.

As for specifics, I will post some constructive comments shortly - bit busy

thanks very much for the interview Mike, best wishes

Understood, Aaman, but that sort of Americizes the rest of the world, don't you think?;-)

Actually, one of the things from my experience that cropped up in Freehold is the cultural assumptions one makes based on societal experiences. Identical words with identical meanings can be perceived differently. For example:

When I first moved to North America (Toronto area), we went to an A&P grocery store. It was totally alien to me. Here was fresh food, lying around so you could help yourself and bag it, no need to haggle and barter for better price or quality than the crap the shopkeeper was trying to push on you. And 100 feet of meat. Entire aisles of fresh fruit.

I'd never seen anything like it before. Yet most Americans take it for granted, and some even despise the system that makes so much food cheaply available.

The term "Alien" applies to foreigners because it fits.

I think you're referencing things like Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant, and I agree. That's not the type of thing I'm trying to write.

I appreciate the discussion. Do feel free to continue or drop me an email.

Thanks much.

Mike

TheCo - You might want to consider breaking up longer posts into two or more installments -- that way you would be able to fit in all the background that you wanted, etc.

Thanks for the suggestion, i do have a tendancy to go a wee bit overboard when talking about books, so this is probably as good a format as any.

We're all about the overboard up in here, so have at it!

Eh, i try not to take up to much of the authors time. There's also plenty of MZW's information and views on his site, and he's one of the habituates over at www.bar.baen.com:8080. I'll be doing some more of these interviews with others as the weeks go on. Convieniently for the authors i'll be posting them around the time they have a book out (hint! hint!). But since i've yet to meet an author with 'spare time'...

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