Imaginarium Author Profile: Gemma Files

CZP asked Imaginarium authors a few questions. See how they handle being on the spot, and how they handle The Hulk invading their stories! Between now and January 4th, 2013,
CZP is running this special feature, and today’s author is Gemma Files, who appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best of Canadian Speculative Fiction with the story “Signal to Noise” and the poem “Lie-Father”.

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When did you start writing creatively, and what was the first piece you remember working on?

I started writing creatively before I could write physically, in that I would dictate stories to my dad and he would write them down for me. We would also illustrate these stories, though his illustrations were a lot better than mine. I seem to recall them all being variations on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton.

What is the best advice you have ever been given from a publisher/fellow author/opinionated reader? 

Keep going, no matter how much you start to hate what you're doing: you can fix a bad draft, you can’t fix a blank page. Though I can’t remember who I heard that from last, I’ve heard it from a hundred  people at least, and said it to a hundred more.

What is it about speculative fiction that appeals to you, as a reader and/or an author?

Speculative fiction is magic, myth, poetry. It’s infinite possibility. As a reader, I don’t want to inhabit something just like my real life, or even reflective of it — it’s annoying enough to have to do that on my own time. For my leisure and pleasure, I want to go elsewhere and be other. Speculative fiction provides that.

What do you do when you’re not writing? 

Look after my son and attempt not to disappoint, either him or anybody else. You would think both would get easier as he and you get older, but they really don’t.

Is there a book that you think would change the world (for better or worse) if every person was to read it?

I think everybody potentially has a book like that in their life, a book that either did or might put everything in perspective for them, but I couldn’t possibly presume that what worked for me would work for everyone. For me, it might have been Randall Jarrett’s The Animal Family, a “children’”s book about nature and the cycles of time, told beautifully.

The Hulk is now a character in your Imaginarium story “Signal to Noise”: how would it change?

There’d probably be a lot less emailing and phone-work, and a lot more SMASH!ing.

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Gemma Files was born in London, Enlgand and raised in Toronto. Her short story 'The Emperor's Old Bones', won the 1999 International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Fiction. She has published two collections of short work (Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, both Prime Books) and two chapbooks of poetry (Bent Under Night, from Sinnersphere Production, and Dust Radio, from Kelp Queen Press). A Book of Tongues: Volume One in the Hexslinger Series (ChiZine Publications) was released in April, 2010, and will be followed by two sequels, A Rope of Thorns (2011) and A Tree of Bones (2012).

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Can’t find Imaginarium 2012 in your book store? Order it directly from CZP. 

Imaginarium Author Profile: David Clink

CZP asked Imaginarium authors a few questions. See how they handle being on the spot, and how they handle The Hulk invading their stories! Between now and January 4th, 2013, CZP is running this special feature, and today’s author is David Clink, who appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best of Canadian Speculative Fiction with the story “Nothing But Sky Overhead”.

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When did you start writing creatively, and what was the first piece you remember working on?

I was writing short stories when I was a kid. I charged my brothers to read them, and gave them tests, after. The first of these was a colour comic called “Dr. Change”. My first short story was set on a spaceship called the Andromeda 4.

What is the best advice you have ever been given from a publisher/fellow author/opinionated reader? Keep working on your craft. And, of course, don’t spit in the wind.

What is it about speculative fiction that appeals to you, as a reader and/or an author?

The voyage. It isn’t just spec fic that has appeal. Bananas also have appeal. As a reader, it is the act of discovery. As a writer, it is creating that world, and for those lucky enough, writing to an impossible deadline as you fight the urge to have the novel end with “it was just a dream”.

What do you do when you’re not writing? 

Working at the library to pay the bills. Spending more than I make. Poker. Jigsaw puzzles. Movies. Conventions. TV shows like: “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones” and “Primeval”. Been watching some new shows: “Falling Skies” and “The Last Resort”.

Is there a book that you think would change the world (for better or worse) if every person was to read it?
Every book changes the world. Everything in the world is connected, in some way. Try not to step on butterflies. Try not to step on books on butterflies.

The Hulk is now a character in your favourite book: how would it change?

“Cry the Beloved Country” or “The Hobbit” may be my favourite books. The Hulk would be an impactful character, for sure, in both. Stephen Kumalo could have used the Hulk's help in searching for his son, Absalom, in Johannesburg. Bilbo Baggins could have used the Hulk's help on his quest. The Hulk vs. Smaug would have been a match for the history books!

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David Clink is the Artistic Director of the Rowers Pub Reading Series, and is a former Artistic Director of the Art Bar Poetry Series. He has been writing and selling poetry since 1995, and is the author of 5 poetry chapbooks and the editor of 7 others. He is a consultant with the Heart of a Poet TV show, and is co-publisher of believe your own press, a poetry chapbook publisher. He is webmaster of poetrymachine.com, a resource for writers. His poetry has been published in Canada, the United States and Europe, including Analog; The Antigonish Review; Asimov's Science Fiction; Cicada; The Dalhousie Review; Descant, The Fiddlehead; Grain Magazine, The Literary Review of Canada; On Spec, and The Prairie Journal.

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Can’t find Imaginarium 2012 in your book store? Order it directly from CZP. 

Imaginarium Author Profile: Claire Humphrey

CZP asked Imaginarium authors a few questions. See how they handle being on the spot, and how they handle The Hulk invading their stories! Between now and January 4th, 2013, CZP is running this special feature, and today’s author is Claire Humphrey, who appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best of Canadian Speculative Fiction with the story “Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot”.

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When did you start writing creatively, and what was the first piece you remember working on?

When I was maybe three or four, I wrote a story called “The Fat Cat”, because those were the only words I knew how to write.  I have since learned more words.

What is the best advice you have ever been given from a publisher/fellow author/opinionated reader? 

In ninth grade, my English teacher, Dave Haskins, took a story of mine and crossed out all the adjectives and handed it back.  I don’t remember what he said exactly, but I remember how the story looked — lean and serious and a lot more grown up.

What is it about speculative fiction that appeals to you, as a reader and/or an author?

Powerful metaphor.  Realism doesn’t have much to say about my emotional life.  The things I’ve read that have felt most true are not concerned with literal, factual details — they’re massive metaphors that help me understand the world by looking at it through a different-coloured lens.

Aside from writing, what else are you passionate about?

I love to cook — it’s a kind of physical creativity with an immediate reward, quite unlike the long game of writing.  I love to work out, too, but really, that’s part of writing — my body has to be active in order for my brain to be active.  They don’t even feel separate.

Is there a book that you think would change the world (for better or worse) if every person was to read it?

Not Wanted on the Voyage, by Timothy Findley.  Deeply personal, political and painful.

The Hulk is now a character in your Imaginarium story: how would it change?

Hmm — I don’t think anything in “Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot” would trigger the Hulk’s temper.  I’m picturing him kind of sitting quietly in a corner of the black box theatre, trying like hell to figure out Beckett.  I wonder what he’d make of it.

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Claire Humphrey writes novels and short stories, mainly about unhappy magicians. She works in the book trade as a buyer for Indigo Books, and she is the reviews editor at Ideomancer. In addition to all things literary, she likes boxing, photography, dark coffee, well-hopped beer, and frivolous shoes.

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Can’t find Imaginarium 2012 in your book store? Order it directly from CZP. 

Imaginarium Author Profile: A. C. Wise

CZP asked Imaginarium authors a few questions. See how they handle being on the spot, and how they handle The Hulk invading their stories! Between now and January 4th, 2013, CZP is running this special feature, and today’s author is A. C. Wise, who appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best of Canadian Speculative Fiction with the story “Final Girl Theory”.

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When did you start writing creatively, and what was the first piece you remember working on?

I’m not sure what the first piece was, but there are a series of stories that stand out pretty clearly. I was probably four or five when I wrote them. My mother is a greater saver of things, so I still have them in a nice, bright blue binder. The stories are about three sentences each, tops. The spelling conforms to no known logic. In fact, there’s a good possibility I was trying to summon the Great Old Ones. Luckily, each story comes with a full-colour illustration, which gives me the general gist of what I was trying to communicate. It turns out, they’re mostly about mice. 

What is the best advice you have ever been given from a publisher/fellow author/opinionated reader? 

It’s not necessarily the best advice ever, but it’s good advice: An editor once told me to reduce my use of the word ‘and’ by about fifty percent. For some reason, it really stuck with me. It did wonders for the rhythm of my stories. 

What is it about speculative fiction that appeals to you, as a reader and/or an author?

Speculative fiction is so flexible. It can encompass other genres, and most people will never batt an eyelash. Romance? Historical? Western? Mainstream? Sure! Why not? Of course, there are some people who will freak out about chocolate getting in their peanut butter, and vice versa, but it feels like speculative fiction is much more open to fluidity and genre mashing than other types of fiction. 

Aside from writing, what else are you passionate about?

There’s nothing I’m quite as passionate about as writing, but I have been known to dabble in things like cooking and photography, with varying degrees of success. I have a tendency to voraciously devour books, so that probably falls next to writing on the passion scale. Related to writing and reading, I also co-edit The Journal of Unlikely Entomology.

Is there a book that you think would change the world (for better or worse) if every person was to read it?

Not really. No one reads in a vacuum, and every reader brings their biases and their personal experiences to a book. I doubt there is any one book that would impact enough readers in the same way to change the world. Then again, religious texts, even with the wildly differing ways people interpret them, do tend to re-write the landscape, so…

The Hulk is now a character in your Imaginarium story: how would it change?

Assuming we’re talking about your traditional green Hulk, and not any of the grey/red/purple polka dot varieties, Final Girl Theory would have been a very different story with his inclusion. (Actually, that’s likely still true for any of the Hulk’s colour variations, but I digress.) With Hulk around, the film Kaleidoscope, as it exists today, would never have been made. The story would have harkened back to my writing roots, and would have been only two or three sentences long: Everyone knows the opening sequence of Kaleidoscope. The camera tips over, and in the final (and only) moments of film, we see a big, green figure, bulging with muscle. There’s only one word of dialogue in the film, the most famous word of dialogue ever spoken (don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) — “SMASH!” just before the film fades to black. The end. 

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A.C. Wise was born and raised in Montreal, and currently lives in the Philadelphia area. She is the author of numerous short stories in print and online, and she co-edits the Journal of Unlikely Entomology. You can also find her at online at acwise.livejournal.com, on twitter as ac_wise, and on Google+ as A.C. Wise.

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Can’t find Imaginarium 2012 in your book store? Order it directly from CZP.