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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. 

Imaginarium Author Profile: Helen Marshall

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 Helen Marshall, who appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best of Canadian Speculative Fiction with the poems “One Quarter Gorgon” and “Beautiful Monster”.

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

I remember sitting in the garden when I was about five, trying to write a sonnet about flowers. I don’t recall much from that particular poem, except that one of the rhyming words was "flair" (which I believe might have rhymed with "air"?). I would like to say this startling piece of childhood genius was published in The New Yorker. Alas, it was not. I believe it made it onto the fridge though.

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

“Write your weird.” That's it. That’s the piece of advice that has stuck in my mind most over the last six months: whatever obsessions, kinks, and strangenesses you’ve been storing away, the things that you ought to never bring up at the dinner table, those are the things that people want to read. That’s the authentic you. That’s the thing that only you can write.

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

 I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently: what I love in speculative fiction is the possibility of surprise. I get bored very easily, and I read enough that I can often map out a story from it’s premise. I love the moments when you’re following a plot and there’s that beautiful left turn that seems to come out of nowhere, but that also seems so entirely natural. I love not knowing. I love the mystery of it, the way in which the playing field is opened up. I love seeing strangeness turned human, and humanity turned strange. 

What do you do when you’re not writing? 

When I’m not writing, I spend my time studying medieval manuscripts in order to finish off my Ph.D in medieval studies, not the beautiful illuminated, gold-leaf ones but the scrappy bits of parchment that most people ignore: measuring punctuation marks, comparing fourteenth-century handwriting, studying dialect change. That either sounds incredibly banal or incredibly exciting, and, honestly, it’s a little bit of both. But I love books — old and new — and my obsession with them has been a huge part of my writing. There’s something glorious about the idea that a guy with quill and ink and a bit of paper could make something that would last six hundred years. There’s a sense of perspective it gives you. History is the great leveler and we never know what’s going to make it through. What’s going to matter. But we do it anyway. I like that.

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

I think every book that we read with an open mind changes us: when I was in England two years ago, my sister gave me a copy of Scarlett Thomas' Popco, which, nestled amidst an excellent discussion of code-breaking, number puzzles and family secrets, argues persuasively in favour of vegetarianism. It argued so persuasively that it worked for about two months: after which I came home, and my sister declared that she wouldn’t cook for me if I didn’t eat bacon. Well. I confess I was weak. But what was interesting about the whole experience was my own resistance to the book. I didn’t want to change. Change is scary. Even change in favour of a good that is well-articulated. But that being said, I’m the sum of all the books I’ve ever read. Books shape the discussion. They give us something to react against, and they can speak for a helluva long time. 

The Hulk is now a character in your Imaginarium poem “One Quarter Gorgon”: how would it change?

     When we make love, it is in darkness 

     or in the aftermath of an experimental detonation of a gamma bomb.

But I’m not sure I can honestly say that it makes better poetry: but, hey, I think you’re more likely to find me writing The Love Song of Robert Downey, Jr:

LET us fly then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like Loki laid out by the avenging fists of Thor;

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Aurora-winning poet Helen Marshall  is an author, editor, and self-proclaimed bibliophile.

Her poetry and fiction have been published in ChiZine, Paper Crow, Abyss & Apex and the long-running Tesseracts anthology series among others. She released a collection of poems entitled Skeleton Leaves from Kelp Queen Press in 2011 and her collection of short stories Hair Side, Flesh Side was released from ChiZine Publications in 2012.

Currently, she is pursuing a Ph. D in medieval studies at the University of Toronto, for which she spends a great deal of her time staring at fourteenth-century manuscripts. Unwisely. When you look into a book, who knows what might be looking back.

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

Imaginarium Author Profile: Ada Hoffmann

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 Ada Hoffmann, who appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best of Canadian Speculative Fiction with the story “Centipede Girl”.

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

I pretty much wrote creatively as soon as I could write at all. I remember being in grade one and writing all sorts of little things on the computer at school, blithely indifferent to spelling, grammar, or anything else but the fun I was having. Oddly, I didn’t realize I wanted to do it professionally until partway through college — before that, it was just a thing I did in the background because I felt like it.

When I was seven I wrote “Samuel and Alice,” which was my first “novel”. It somehow had four chapters but was only two pages long, plus a title page. It had two children disguised as knights, plus a dragon who spoke in a weird font. My younger brother was so impressed that he wrote his own, “Rachel and Jonathan,” which was really just mine with the names changed.

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

The first real author I ever met told me I needed to join a writing group. Now, not every writer believes in writing groups, and not all of the advice you’ll find in them is helpful. But personally, that was exactly what I needed. I had to develop my skills, but even more than that, I had to learn to deal with showing strangers my stories — and knowing they might not enjoy them very much. Writing groups throw you right into that.

The first time, even in a cushy newbie part of the group, it was TERRIFYING. I actually couldn’t do it on my own, and had to enlist friends to badger me into it. But I gradually learned to thicken my skin, and nowadays I’m hard to faze. I have trusted betas who can rant about how my characters are too stupid to live and I’ll just laugh and work out how to fix it. But every once in a while, I still do something new that brings the nervousness back, and I have to deal with it again. It’s a process.

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

I think in some respects our culture is very blinkered. We’re taught to think of our bills, our waistlines, and whatever’s in front of our faces. Spec fic reminds us that there are whole UNIVERSES of other things to think about, and some of them have never been thought before. That can be a comforting thing or it can be deeply unsettling, but either way I love it.

What do you do when you’re not writing? 

I go to school. I’m studying up for a M.Sc. and researching things only data miners and social psychologists will care about. I sing soprano and help out with church music. I navigate a set of strange and unusual personal relationships. I read, needless to say. I worry about every topic it is humanly possible to worry about. And I run an online freeform RPG where the players are fantasy steampunk police. (Before that, it was D&D with a sentient planet.)

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

I kind of think every grownup should read Jung. And every five-year-old should read The Sneetches. But I also think that there are way too many different kinds of people and not all of them will benefit in the same way from the same books, so when I take over the world, I will not impose such rules! The best change would be if everyone just read, full stop.

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

Centipede Girl and Centipede woman are suddenly interrupted in their hunting by a large green angry man! (How did he get into the sewer? By smashing, of course.) Hulk tries to smash Centipede Woman, but finds that Hulk fists are strangely ineffective against nebulous clouds of centipedes. Centipede Girl runs away. Centipede Woman is not afraid of Hulk; she turns him into Centipede Hulk. Centipede Hulk crawls on and/or eats the entire world. Then eventually he stops freaking out and turns back into Centipede Bruce Banner, and Centipede Girl finally has someone to hug. Happy ending!

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Ada Hoffmann is not Ada's real name. She's also not really an elf, kitten, robot, Burgess Shale type fauna, snow leopard, space pod, or disembodied intelligence drifting through the Internet at any given time.

She's not sure what she actually is, but it involves being autistic, going to a Canadian university, messing with computers, tabletop roleplaying, singing soprano, petting cats, and having uncannily low self-esteem. Oh, and writing speculative fiction.

Ada's writing has appeared in Imaginarium 2012: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Ada thinks this is probably a good sign!

Ada's most recent published story was "Mama's Sword" in the Blood Iris 2012 anthology by Red Iris Books. Her most recent poem was "Finding Shadow" in Eye to the Telescope, Issue #5: LGBTQ. Others are upcoming.

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