Get three lonely and verbose writers to answer your questions, and you get a really long interview. LOL!

Verene over at The Pale Tree blog threw us some excellent questions, and Bobby Stein, Peter Fries, and I did our best to blather all over her blog.

Writing your story: An interview with the writers of Guild Wars 2

Woo hoo! An anthology containing one of my stories is on the final nominees list for a Sir Julius Vogel Award. These awards are given to works published in 2012 by New Zealand publishers and authors.

The publisher of Tales for Canterbury (Random Static) resides in New Zealand. It was edited by Cassie Hart and Anna Caro.

This is the benefit anthology put together as a fund-raiser to help those people affected by the terrible earthquakes in New Zealand last year. I contributed “Pipsqueak,” one of my favorite little urban fantasy stories.

Other contributors to the anthology include: Neil Gaiman, Gwyneth Jones, Juliet Marillier, Helen Lowe, Jeff Vandermeer, Jay Lake, and many more!

Angel’s Adjectives: Hoary and honest

KNOCK KNOCK comes off the pages with all the menace of an old cautionary tale that has yet to be watered down for a modern, more tender culture. There’s nothing tender about Miskowski’s treatment of her characters. With bald honesty, she paints a picture of rural America that leaves you shivering. I hesitate to call any of her characters heroes. They are, rather, antiheroes, examples to future generations–who probably won’t do anything differently either–of curious, careless children who go too deep into the woods to ever find their way out again.

There’s a classic atmosphere to this horror novel. It reads more like Stephen King than Charlaine Harris and has none of the trappings or traps of recent horror. No vampires, no werewolves. No sweet romance. The relationships detailed in Knock Knock are hard, cold, and as disconcerting as a nosebleed–each irrevocably warped by its brush with the darkness in the woods.

The plot itself sneaks up on you while you’re distracted by the lives of the three core characters. Before you know it, the evil has reared its head, and the story has twisted again.

I found myself overcome with nostalgia while reading KNOCK KNOCK. Its style took me back to a time when I was first discovering horror and devouring it as wholly as I could. For me, it was the equivalent an old music box tune that brings back memories of fear–fear inspired long ago by a haunting presence I thought was gone for good. And yet, there it was again.

I savored it all.

I loved this book.

• Genre: speculative fiction
• Year written: various
• Year first published: 2012

Where You Can Find It

• Paperback: Amazon.com (12.95)

• Ebook formats, including Kindle, PDF, etc. Smashwords in numerous e-book formats including Kindle and PDF.

The futures of which we’re now dreaming are taking on new twists and turns of the imagination. One could easily say that each of the stories in this volume take place in the future where magic has returned, technology has abandoned us, aliens have invaded us, or we ourselves have evolved—or devolved—beyond our ability to predict.

This volume collects Year #2’s best of the best speculative fiction published in 2010 at WilyWriters.com.

It includes the following stories:

• “Loathsome Alyce” by Sheila Crosby
• “Memory in the Time of Bones” by Nathan Crowder
• “Complete Artistic Control” by Bruce Boston
• “Miriam’s Song” by Larry Lefkowitz
• “9 Curzon Place” by Daniel W. Powell
• “She’s a Liquid” by Ever Dundas
• “Aftershocks” by Craig D.B. Patton
• “Outsourced” by Shelly Li
• “Absolution” by Matt Adams
• “Grandmonster” by Sasha Janel McBrayer
• “The Tunnel” by Matt Cowens
• “Reckoning” by Bruce Golden
• “Stuff of the Elder Gods” by K.C. Ball
• “The Time-share” by Fred Warren
• “A Necessity of the Present” by Jeremy Zimmerman
• “Puppet Play” by Kelli D. Meyer

Also check out Night-Mantled: Best of Wily Writers, Volume One.

Someone contacted me recently with this question. He wanted to know how to get his novel turned into a video game.

Here’s my response:

I’m afraid I don’t have very good news for you. There are certain novels that are made into mainstream top-shelf games, but they’re typically big-name series. A grade-A game costs millions of dollars to make, so it’s like the film industry. Don’t call us; we’ll call you. Most game companies develop their games through internal talent.

There is, however, the equivalent of “small press” in the games industry. These companies tend to produce smaller, casual games that don’t cost nearly as much. They are sometimes open to submitted ideas. You can take a look at Big Fish Games, for example, and see what they’re doing. These are relatively low-budget productions, so don’t get your hopes up too high. Most of them have 8 hours of gameplay or less.

Alternatively, if you know anyone, or can cold-contact anyone, who is doing mobile apps, that’s another possible way to diversify into small casual games. You might try poking through the forums at a place like DevX or look around at GameDev.net for a hook-up with a programmer seeking a writer.

Good luck to my questioner and to anyone else who wants to turn their novel into a game!

Genre: fantasy
Year written: 2009
Year first published: 2011,
Publisher: Nevermet Press
Art by: Steven Austin

Where You Can Find It

• Paperback ($11.99) or Kindle ($0.99)
• Stories in the Ether, e-zine, by Nevermet Press, September 2011.

History

2009 marked the 200th birthdays of Charles Darwin (February 12), Abraham Lincoln (February 12), and Edgar Allen Poe (January 19). The most remarkable element of this momentous occasion is that these three historically significant men were born within one month of each other. When I discovered this, I started wondering what could possibly have influenced these three men toward such greatness. Was it astrological? Was it socio-political? Or was it something far less expected?

The Story

Three young boys, pulled from their beds in the middle of the night, find themselves on a magical airship en route to an undocumented land where they are to entertain a princess. As it turns out, there’s much more going on, and the boys may never make it home again. Their fates hang in the balance. Working together, nine-year-old Charlie Darwin, Abe Lincoln, and Eddie Poe have to outwit their captors and escape back to their own world.

Excerpt

“What in tarnation?”

“That remains to be seen,” Charlie said.

Guest Blogger: Morva Shepley

Here are a couple of tips I thought I’d pass along to fellow writers. They’re from no less a person than Jane Espenson, who has written for such TV shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, and the new version of Torchwood, Torchwood: The New World. She was in Australia during September to talk about writing genre TV.

When she spoke to The Age she passed along these two tips in an interview with Karl Quinn:

Don’t write for an audience. Write what you want to see.

By ‘audience’ here she means marketplace. Personally, I agree with that. There’s something satisfying about writing that comes from the heart, and something messy about second guessing the audience, about, for instance, putting in a cute dog for no reason, or bringing back characters who do nothing but it’s felt the fans will love to see them.

Her second bit of advice was:

Work backwards. If there’s a TV show you really like, watch your favourite episode and re-create the outline. Now you’ll know what a good outline looks like. That’s how I taught myself.

That sounds like an amazing piece of advice, especially as it’s something that anyone can do at home, for free, and even if you decide that TV writing is not for you, you’ve still learned a little bit more about the craft of writing.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Many games include races that are non-human, and these are the toughest to write for. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking like a human writer, which you are, and writing dialogue that your fictional race would never say.

In order to write for any character, you have to activate your imagination and become that character. For example, when writing for the sylvari race in Guild Wars 2, we have to imagine what it’s like to awaken for the very first time in a dream realm with a flood of data entering your brain from somewhere unknown. You’re an adult already, emerging into a world that’s new to you, with no memory of ever existing before now.

You have no place in that world, yet, but you know so much about it. You know faces and names, but none of those people have never met you. You come from a tree, and you have no concept of family or the complexities of friendship. All you have are images that fill your head and give you the basics you need to survive, language, goals for your future, and a guiding presence in the Mother Tree and those caregivers waiting to welcome you into the world.

How do you write dialogue that sounds real for a creature like that when you have had no such experience?

1. Flesh out your race in advance.
   Some would say this is the fun part—sitting down and letting your imagination work its magic. Putting yourself in the head of a non-human character can be difficult, but it’s worth the effort. Think, really think about what it would be like to be that character, to be born the way she was born, or to grow up as she grew up. Think about what influence these experiences would have on their culture, on their relationships, and on their views about other races.

   The more you know about your race in advance and the more time you spend thinking through the mundane and extraordinary elements that make up their daily lives, the easier it will be to write for them. You’ll gradually find a list of defining factors or keywords that will help you keep the race’s dialogue in line.

2. Patrol yourself and your words.
   It’s so easy when you’re writing, especially at high speeds, to fall into writing from a human perspective. You have to be ever vigilant against it.

   Here are some examples of things that a human might say, but that a sylvari wouldn’t, except perhaps as a way of mocking or mimicking a human:

• God have mercy.
• That gave me goosebumps.
• My family is all that matters.
• All right, brother.
• When I was little, I…
3. Have others who read what you wrote and critique it.
   It doesn’t matter how good a writer you are, we all need a good editor. In video game development, we work at a very fast pace, turning out volumes of dialogue every day. It’s so easy to fall out of a racial voice and back into comfortable humanity.

   Game writing should always be a team effort, even if that team consists of only a writer and an editor—or two writers watching each others’ backs. At my job, at ArenaNet, I’m extremely fortunate to have several layers of safety net. The people on the writing team watch over each other, and we also have a highly skilled and alert Quality Assurance (QA) team that catches whatever slips through the cracks.

   The reality of game-writing is that no man (or woman) is an island. Or, to squeeze another cliche, it’s a team sport. That’s why it’s important to document your race and make sure everyone who’s evaluating the writing knows the race’s quirks and perspectives. We use a wiki to do this, and we also discuss the races quite a lot. Part of the writer’s job is to educate others on the lore and social aspects of each race.

If everyone on the team does a good job, then when you play through the game, you won’t have to work hard to get into the character’s head. We’ll have done that for you, and you’ll find support for your imagination in every word you hear.

I specifically remember the moment I started reading “The Salt Line,” by Grant Stone. I was immediately transported to a strange landscape whose mood carried me through to the end. Everything about the story evokes a connection with ancient cultures and sources of power that go back even before humanity walked the earth. I found myself thinking about the story long after I put it down. His Māori characters would not stop haunting me.

Grant is a writer to watch in coming years. I had the great honor to not only publish one of his stories, but to interview him as well. Here are his responses. You’ll have to imagine the Kiwi accent yourself. But, if you listen to his story, “The Salt Line,” you’ll hear New Zealander Tim Jones reading it, accent and all, for Wily Writers.

What made you become a writer?

I’ve always loved reading. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I spent hours as a kid hacking out Conan pastiches on a manual typewriter and drawing maps of unknown lands. So I don’t think anything made me become a writer. I was born that way.

What is your next big goal, as a writer, and how are you working toward it?

Until now I’ve only written short stories. This year I’ll be tackling a novel for the first time. I’m immersing myself in research at the moment. At the same time I’m trying to write as many short stories as I can. I figure if I can get them out of my head it’s going to give me more room in my head for the novel. Which probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, but does seem to be working for me.

What’s the one thing you want people to know about your story in Night-Mantled?

The first part of the story came to me at an ANZAC day ceremony a few years ago at Stockade Hill, Howick — just round the corner from my house. It’s a fairly steep hill with a war memorial at the top. Some WWII veterans laid wreaths then walked back down the hill. People were packed on both sides of the path and as the veterans passed, the applause was deafening. Kiwis aren’t given to many outward signs of patriotism, but that day I had tears in my eyes.

The path walked in “The Salt Line” exists in the Abel Tasman National Park in Nelson. I’ve traveled all over the world. It’s still the most beautiful place I’ve seen.

When and how do you write?

I’ve got a very busy day job and three small kids. I’m learning to write in small bites, whenever I can find the time. You can get 250 words out in ten minutes. Sometimes that’s enough.

I write on both Windows and Linux, generally with a basic text editor — Notepad ++ and gedit work well for me. For longer work, I’ve found yWriter to be very useful. I use Dropbox to make sure all my work is backed up to various other computers.

What’s it like where you live?

I’m in a suburb in the south-east of Auckland. It’s hilly, green, and the beach is only a few minutes away. It’s not a bad place to be.

What do you think about the trend toward multimedia storytelling?

My daily commute is about an hour, so I’m a huge fan of audio fiction podcasts (the police tend to frown on reading in the car). I’d recommend StarShipSofa, Escape Pod, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the New Yorker fiction podcast.

Which authors have influenced your writing the most?

Stephen King was a huge influence when I was younger. I’m still learning from him. Michael Moorcock showed me there are absolutely no limits to what you can imagine. Richard Price showed me the miracles you can perform with dialog. And I’m still in awe of Raymond Carver.

Writers spend long hours alone. Does this bother you, and how do you overcome it, if so?

It really doesn’t bother me. I’ve always been a bit of a hermit and I’m happy with my own company. When the writing’s flowing, I get lost in the story, and time disappears.

From start to finish, do you have a process you follow when writing a new story?

No. Sometimes I plan out a structure, sometimes I just start writing. Sometimes I just start at the beginning, sometimes I just throw scenes in at random and figure out the details later. The story I’m writing at the moment I started with the last scene and I’m working my way backwards. The only rule I have is to make sure the words get written down. Everything else is details.

Grant Stone’s fiction has appeared in Shimmer, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Semaphore and Prima Storia. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. He has been known to blog on occasion.

• Listen to the audio podcast of Grant’s story, “The Salt Line.”
• Explore Grant’s blog.