Q: With all your successes, are you more careful with what you publish these days for fear of offending your fans? Or are you still experimenting and exploring writing and stories for the fun of it?
OSC: I have very good readers: With the exception of Empire, I've never had any kind of heated response. And even with Empire, it wasn't my fans, it was those who have declared themselves my political enemies who chose to detect political bias in it. (There wasn't any - I simply created the characters as I believe they would be, and the overall "message," insofar as there was one, was absolutely non-partisan.)
So I never write with any kind of fear of offending. My readers may not care equally for all that I write, but neither do they condemn. Some books sell lots of copies; other books sell less; but I have to write the stories I believe in or care about. I wouldn't know how to write any other way. Each book and story then must find its own audience.
Of course, I'm not an idiot. If I can think of a story in the Ender universe and write it well, it will go a lot further toward feeding my family. But I can't write endlessly in that universe - I need to write other things, too, or my soul would dry up. So I write those. And I have such wonderful publishers that all the different stories get published.
Q: You are a prolific writer with a long career. Where do you find the inspiration for your various stories and settings?
OSC: All stories come from the relationship among people and between them and their communities. I get excited about writing in a milieu to exactly the degree that it allows me to tell stories in which those relationships are compellingly interesting and truthful.
Q: With the Internet in all its forms (blogs, websites, Twitter, wikis, etc.), what role does it play in how you pursue your writing and do research? And what would you recommend to other writers as they pursue their own writing goals?
OSC: I exploit the folks who come to my website at Hatrack.com. With their help, I'm able to be reminded of what story threads I've left hanging between sequels; they also help me avoid inconsistencies among the books. It's a great help.
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