insight that Ariel and Caliban could be seen as the house Negro and the field Negro, and I proceeded to mess with the story from there.
Someone once defined a language as a dialect with a navy. Would you agree?
I don’t know if I agree, but it’s hilarious! Whoever it was has a point.
Do you read poetry for fun? How about science? History?
Although my father was a poet and I know much of his work, I used to think that I didn’t read a lot of poetry. But then I had occasion to check my bookshelves and discovered that I owned more poetry than I thought, and had read most of it.
I’d forgotten about children’s poetry (“The more it snows, tiddly pom …”), not to mention Louise Bennett and Kamau Brathwaite, and Marge Piercy and Homer, and Lillian Allen and Dennis Scott, and, and, and …
There are poems I can recite by heart, and as a kid I read
The Odyssey, The Iliad,
and Dante’s
Inferno
for pleasure; read them over and over, in fact. I don’t think I could struggle through Homer nowadays, but I was more persistent as a child.
I do end up hearing a fair bit of poetry, as readings or spoken word or dub poetry performances, and as music. It’s rare that I’ll read a whole book of poetry from end to end as fun, but in sips and nibbles, I do read it. AndI read science and history for fun as well as for research. Michio Kaku.
African Fractals. Death in the Queen City.
I also read critical theory for fun, and to find out what the hell it is that we writers are doing when we write. When it comes to fiction, I mostly read science fiction, fantasy and comics, plus the occasional mystery or erotica/porn piece. But my nonfiction reading is more catholic.
Do you think the World Fantasy Award should be a bust of someone other than H.P. Lovecraft?
I have one of those. In appreciation for the merit of my work, the World Fantasy Award committee has given me a bust of a man who publicly reviled people of my primary racial background and who believed that we are by nature inferior to other humans. It is way creepy having racist old H.P. Lovecraft in my home looking at me.
I don’t like the fact that the bust is of him, but I love having the award. So I console myself in a number of ways: it was designed by Gahan Wilson, and how freaking cool is that? Lovecraft’s own (part-Jewish) wife and his friends thought his racism was over the top. I gather his wife frequently called him to heel when he made anti-Semitic remarks; and I like imagining that Lovecraft is spinning in his grave as he’s forced to view the world through the eyes of his statuettes placed in the homes and offices of the likes of Nnedimma Okorafor, Kinuko Y. Craft, S.P. Somtow, Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, and me.
I think the award should represent a fantastical creature, perhaps a different one every year. (I know that’s probably too expensive, but since I’m fantasizing here …) A kitsune. A troll. A chupacabra. Anansi. A fat, happy mermaid with fish in her hair.
Do you outline plots, or just wing it? Ever write in longhand?
Nowadays, I have to write proposals for unwritten novels in order to sell them. I don’t outline, at least not whole novels at a time. I tend to do it when I get stuck. I rarely write longhand. I type much more quickly. Plus I lose paper, whereas I rarely lose my computer or laptop.
Do you have trouble with copy editors, or rely on them?
Both. Being copyedited is an occasion for taking a lot of calming breaths when I encounter wrongheaded or ignorant suggestions, but also for gasps of relief when the copy editor catches something unfortunate in my text, or makes a suggestion that lends a clumsy line grace. It also gives me an early insight into how my story is being understood, which means I still have time to make small adjustments. In my new young adult novel,
The Chaos,
I invented (I thought) the name of a pop star. The copy editor thought to Google the name, and discovered that it’s the performance name of a porn
Someone once defined a language as a dialect with a navy. Would you agree?
I don’t know if I agree, but it’s hilarious! Whoever it was has a point.
Do you read poetry for fun? How about science? History?
Although my father was a poet and I know much of his work, I used to think that I didn’t read a lot of poetry. But then I had occasion to check my bookshelves and discovered that I owned more poetry than I thought, and had read most of it.
I’d forgotten about children’s poetry (“The more it snows, tiddly pom …”), not to mention Louise Bennett and Kamau Brathwaite, and Marge Piercy and Homer, and Lillian Allen and Dennis Scott, and, and, and …
There are poems I can recite by heart, and as a kid I read
The Odyssey, The Iliad,
and Dante’s
Inferno
for pleasure; read them over and over, in fact. I don’t think I could struggle through Homer nowadays, but I was more persistent as a child.
I do end up hearing a fair bit of poetry, as readings or spoken word or dub poetry performances, and as music. It’s rare that I’ll read a whole book of poetry from end to end as fun, but in sips and nibbles, I do read it. AndI read science and history for fun as well as for research. Michio Kaku.
African Fractals. Death in the Queen City.
I also read critical theory for fun, and to find out what the hell it is that we writers are doing when we write. When it comes to fiction, I mostly read science fiction, fantasy and comics, plus the occasional mystery or erotica/porn piece. But my nonfiction reading is more catholic.
Do you think the World Fantasy Award should be a bust of someone other than H.P. Lovecraft?
I have one of those. In appreciation for the merit of my work, the World Fantasy Award committee has given me a bust of a man who publicly reviled people of my primary racial background and who believed that we are by nature inferior to other humans. It is way creepy having racist old H.P. Lovecraft in my home looking at me.
I don’t like the fact that the bust is of him, but I love having the award. So I console myself in a number of ways: it was designed by Gahan Wilson, and how freaking cool is that? Lovecraft’s own (part-Jewish) wife and his friends thought his racism was over the top. I gather his wife frequently called him to heel when he made anti-Semitic remarks; and I like imagining that Lovecraft is spinning in his grave as he’s forced to view the world through the eyes of his statuettes placed in the homes and offices of the likes of Nnedimma Okorafor, Kinuko Y. Craft, S.P. Somtow, Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, and me.
I think the award should represent a fantastical creature, perhaps a different one every year. (I know that’s probably too expensive, but since I’m fantasizing here …) A kitsune. A troll. A chupacabra. Anansi. A fat, happy mermaid with fish in her hair.
Do you outline plots, or just wing it? Ever write in longhand?
Nowadays, I have to write proposals for unwritten novels in order to sell them. I don’t outline, at least not whole novels at a time. I tend to do it when I get stuck. I rarely write longhand. I type much more quickly. Plus I lose paper, whereas I rarely lose my computer or laptop.
Do you have trouble with copy editors, or rely on them?
Both. Being copyedited is an occasion for taking a lot of calming breaths when I encounter wrongheaded or ignorant suggestions, but also for gasps of relief when the copy editor catches something unfortunate in my text, or makes a suggestion that lends a clumsy line grace. It also gives me an early insight into how my story is being understood, which means I still have time to make small adjustments. In my new young adult novel,
The Chaos,
I invented (I thought) the name of a pop star. The copy editor thought to Google the name, and discovered that it’s the performance name of a porn
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