Interview with Michael Z Williamson aka MadMike.
TheCO: What can readers of the first book expect in this one?
MZW: It's more streamlined. Freehold had too many plot elements--it was my first. This has a better focus.
TheCO: Who is the main character of this novel?
MZW: Cpt Kenneth Chinran, who led the Freehold ground attack on Earth.
TheCO: What is the 'point' of this novel? Is it just good escapist brain candy, or is there some underlying ethical imperative?
MZW: I'd actually written a large part of it before Sept 11. The cautionary tale therein is even more important now. It's a comment on the fragility of large systems. To an extent, they are self-repairing around accidents, much like any organism. But a sufficiently large attack requires external medicine to prevent maiming or death.
TheCO: What were some of the differences you noticed writing structure wise between this and the first novel?
MZW: I switched to first person for this one, to capture the flavor of the character. There are lots of things that can't be covered from a
single, focused POV, but it also gets the single point emotions to hit
harder, I think. Some writers caution against it, and I even had one
tell me that nothing good had ever been written first person. I guess
Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Double Star and The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress are no good then, not to mention a large number of Ellison's
work, Niven's, Donald Kingsbury and Dean Ing...
TheCO: As you write more is it getting easier for you to drive the plot and keep things moving?
MZW: I've never had a problem with that, actually.
TheCO About how many words do you do per day?
MZW: I try for at least 1000. Some days I do 5-7K. More than that and I think any writer loses focus and is just filling space. Fine for roughing things on a deadline, not good for a self-consistent, polished final product.
TheCO: What if any book that you've read would you compare this to?
MZW: I hate doing that. I'm not trying to be anyone else. I'm trying to be
me. There are obvious Heinlein influences in all my stuff, and Pournelle. But I don't want to be compared to them as far as style.
TheCO: Can you describe your typical workday writing?
MZW: I either write very early or very late, when my brain isn't engaged in mundane matters like bills and such, so right after my daughter leaves for school and my son isn't awake, or after 11pm until whenever. Unless the bug bites me and I pick some other time.
TheCO: What does the future have in store for this world? And for this character?
MZW: This character? A very, very busy life. First as ultimate killer, then as ultimate target for the threat he is, then a frustrated attempt to be normal. Lots of stuff in the Freehold universe-development and basis of it, the war, eventual decline and stagnation, numerous side issues, human stories and economic and political matters.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
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.
2 - Eric Olsen
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
3 - TheCO
Danke gents, the point is that you read anyway. Besides its over 1500 words as is and i didn't want anything much larger.
4 - Mike Williamson
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
5 - Aaman
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
6 - Eric Olsen
thanks very much for the interview Mike, best wishes
7 - Mike Williamson
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
8 - Eric Berlin
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.
9 - TheCO
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.
10 - Eric Berlin
We're all about the overboard up in here, so have at it!
11 - theCO
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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13 - Ramona
Great book!!!