Issue 10; Vol. 3, No. 1 (Fall, 2006)
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SSOOMMEE FFAANNTTAASSTTIICC Issue #10, Fall, 2006 An Interview with Elizabeth Bear Vol. 3, No. 1 by Matthew Appleton http://www.somefantastic.us/ Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1971, Elizabeth attended the ISSN # 1555-2241 University of Connecticut, studying English and Anthropology, but Features did not graduate. She worked in a variety of occupations during the An Interview with Elizabeth Bear, 1 ‘90s, selling a few stories to small‐press publications along the way. by Matthew Appleton She began writing earnestly in 2001 and has produced numerous King Kong as Reality Television, 19 novels and short stories since. by Sara K. Ellis In 2005, she won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and A Double-Take on V for Vendetta, 21 by Richard Fuller saw the publication of Jenny Casey trilogy—actually a single novel broken into three volumes: Hammered, Scardown and World‐ Book/Graphic Novel Reviews wired—which collectively won the 2006 Locus Award for Best Sex in the System, edited by Cecilia 8 First Novel. Her first short story collection, The Chains that You Tan; reviewed by Rose Fox Refuse, was released earlier this year as well as the first book in her Shuteye for the Timebroker, by Paul Di 10 sprawling Promethean Age fantasy series, Blood & Iron. A new Filippo; reviewed by Danny Adams science fiction novel, Carnival, will arrive in stores at the end of Monster Island, by David Wellington; 13 reviewed by Matthew Appleton November and the next Promethean Age novel, Whiskey & Water, A Shadow in Summer, by Daniel 15 is due out in 2007. Abraham; reviewed by Chris Elliot Her website notes: “Elizabeth Bear shares a birthday with Grease Monkey, by Time Eldred; 17 Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. This, coupled with a tendency to read reviewed by Hawk the dictionary as a child, doomed her early to penury, intransi‐ Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches, 39 edited by Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari; gence, friendlessness, and the writing of speculative fiction. She... reviewed by Christopher Garcia grew up in central Connecticut with the exception of two years Lost District, by Joel Lane; 40 (which she was too young to remember very well) spent in Ver‐ reviewed by Mario Guslandi mont’s Northeast Kingdom, in the last house with electricity be‐ World War Z, by Max Brooks; 41 reviewed by Matthew Appleton fore the Canadian border… The Chains That You Refuse, 43 She’s a second‐generation Swede, a third‐generation Ukrainian, by Elizabeth Bear; reviewed by and a third‐generation Transylvanian, with some Irish, English, Jessica Darago Scots, Cherokee, and German thrown in for leavening. Elizabeth Invincible, Vol. 6: A Different World, 44 by Robert Kirkman & Ryan Ottley; Bear is her real name, but not all of it. Her dogs outweigh her, and reviewed by Hawk she is much beset by her cats.” Her official website is at www.elizabethbear.com and you can DVD Reviews read her blog at matociquala.livejournal.com. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 26 Two-Disk Special Edition; reviewed by Caroline-Isabelle Caron Matthew Appleton: You dedicated Scardown to your par‐ The Hills Have Eyes (2006); 31 ents and grandfather “for the run of their science fiction col‐ reviewed by Alex Esten lections.” How did those collections first shape your taste in Nanny McPhee; 34 science fiction while growing up and then influence your de‐ reviewed by Edna Stumpf velopment as a writer? The Omen, Two-Disc Collector's Edi- 37 tion (1976); reviewed by Sara K. Ellis Elizabeth Bear: Oh, wow. Really, it should have been Brothers Grimm; 46 both of my grandfathers—I’m a third‐generation SF fan on reviewed by Caroline-Isabelle Caron both sides—but I didn’t spend as much time reading my Night Watch; 49 grandfather Wishnevsky’s books as I did in the other piles. reviewed by Matthew Appleton My dad’s taste runs to Jack Vance, Cordwainer Smith, Poul Anderson, and so on; my mom’s to Joanna Russ, Well, if she reads this, she’s going to know Joan D. Vinge, and Peter Beagle. now. It’s also been my experience that writers are I was a precocious child, and my mother made pretty cool, but did you ever find yourself turning a point of buying me books every payday. We all fan‐girl at getting to converse with an author were pretty poor, but I had books. I come from whose work you read and admired during your immigrants on both sides, and the two core values teen years? in my family were: one, You Shall Read, and, two, Because I didn’t come up through fandom, You Shall Vote. Other people had grew up in the I’m at the disadvantage of not already knowing church. I grew up in a household where nobody many of my favorite writers. I almost burst into thought it the least bit odd that I would sit on the tears when I met Peter Beagle, and I nearly gave floor reading the Encyclopedia Britannica for hours myself an ulcer before I met Steve Brust for the when I was in grammar school. first time. I think I may have really embarrassed So in addition to all the highly inappropriate myself the first time I met Ellen Kushner, but she literature I borrowed from adult libraries, I had seems to have forgiven me. (I still can’t be in a my own books, most of which were room with Ursula LeGuin without so far above my grade level it stammering like a teenager with a wasn’t funny. crush, and the first time I met Con‐ Kids, I think, will self‐censor nie Willis I was attempting to eat a and self‐select. I read Jo Clayton’s lobster. She averted her eyes. Grin.) Diadem From The Stars when I was, But everybody is usually quite for‐ oh, I can’t have been much more giving of each other’s neuroticisms. than eight or nine. It’s a brutal book, What’s weird is that one finds with repeated rapes and bloody one’s self doing this all the time. And deaths and parental abuse and just then one finds one’s self, six months horrible stuff. I just tracked down a later, referring to these people by copy recently, because I wanted to first name, because of course they own it, but I dunno if I will ever are just people. Which does not, in read it again. Photo © S. Shipman any way, denigrate their achieve‐ Anyway, when I was younger, that stuff ments. It’s just always a little shocking to realize didn’t bother me at all. It was just more of the hor‐ that Great Books are written by ordinary humans. rible crap that grownups seemed to do to each Do you still make the time to read SF, and if other all the time, which seemed rather like the so, which current writers do you enjoy reading? horrible crap my peers did to each other all the I absolutely do. I write it because I love it. It’s time. I remember admiring the courage with not the only literature of my heart, but it’s defi‐ which the protagonist dealt with what seemed like nitely near and dear to me. grindingly inescapable situations. In one of those good news bad news deals, I also read Suzy McKee Charnas around the what happens when one has been publishing for a same age, and I also recall that the horribly de‐ while is that one gets to know the other ten people tailed descriptions of the awfulness of preg‐ in the SFF industry pretty well (that’s a joke; it’s nancy made a much, much, much deeper im‐ really more like a couple of thousand—which is, pression on me than the notorious horse sex. I for perspective, about the size of my high know Suzy casually, these days (wow, writers school)—and pretty soon any list of what one is are realpeople! And frequently pretty cool peo‐ reading starts to sound like another round of plug‐ ple! Did you know that?) and I’ve never told her my‐friends. that she may be partially to blame for my child‐ So, I’m going to plug my friends. I’m reading lessness. Because those passages are still burned Hal Duncan’s Vellum right now. I’m not done with into my brain, twenty‐five years later or what‐ it yet, and I’m not sure it’s the work of profound ever it is. genius it’s been hailed, but it’s the best damned Some Fantastic 2 FALL, 2006 first novel I’ve read in a long time. Other recent more natural. reading that absolutely blew me away was Ellen Short stories are bonsai. One perfect little Kushner’s Privilege of the Sword, which I loved the thing; not a needle out of place. way I love a very few other books—Little Fuzzy, Why the choice of Canada as the leading The Door Into Fire, and The Last Unicorn. I also got western superpower in the Jenny Casey novels? an advance copy of Peter Watts’ Blindsight, which Did you just need the excuse to name the space I’ve been talking up for a Hugo nomination to shuttle craft after Canadian folk‐rock singers anybody who will hold still long enough for me to from the 1970s? (Tongue planted firmly in cheek as grab their ear. I ask the second part of that question.) Geoff Ryman’s Air, which was nominated for or Heh. Hey, some of those folk singers are cur‐ won just about every award in the industry last year, rently producing! it seems, is just as good as everybody says it is.