small WORLD interview with Paul Di Filippo, scifi writer

[bazookajoeshow]

Interview with Paul Di Filippo. We discuss winters in Rhode Island; the influence of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft; Brian Aldiss; Clifford Simak; his love for “girlyâ€Â� books when he was a kid; writing children’s literature; his collection of fantasy stories, Little Doors; mixing historical characters in his book Lost Pages; is it cheap way out to use existing characters?; using Robert Frost and Camus as protagonists; the amount of research involved in writing stories featuring historical characters; the most difficult historical figure he had to incorporate into a story; his Steampunk Trilogy; Robert Heinlein becomes president of the U.S. in “Mairzy Doatsâ€Â�; surprises that came up while researching Heinlein; the relationship between Heinlein and Theodore Sturgeon; how he develops his fictional characters; New Yorker stories about how police officers have reacted to hurricane Katrina; the flexibility of his literary voice; William Gibson; his short story, “Stone Livesâ€Â�, which appeared in the Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology; Bruce Sterling; the cyberpunk literary movement; the 1960s “The New Waveâ€Â� of science fiction; Alfred Bester; Neuromancer; how he came to write Ribofunk; Googling ribofunk; comparing The Jam to the Sex Pistols; James Brown; the appeal of writing short stories; J.K. Rowling; why he decided to expand his story “Spondulixâ€Â� into a full-length novel; thiking about the concept of money; Stranger in a Strange Land; when he decided he could make a living as a writer; working as a computer programmer for Rhode Island’s Blue Cross; A Mouthful of Tongues and the return of erotica to mainstream science fiction; Cecilia Tan; Circlet Press; the erotic science fiction of Philip Jose Farmer and Samuel Delany; Delany’s Equinox; Wildside Press; the difference between print on demand and vanity publishing; dealing with the tension of writing A Mouthful of Tongues; writing in the style of magical realism; Gabriel José GarcÃÂ*a Márquez; why writing hybrid stories are more appealing than novels set in a monoculture; the artwork that appears on his book covers; Four Walls Eight Windows; Thunder’s Mouth Press; how his relationship with Four Walls Eight Windows began; John Oakes; why he does not have an agent; being a stringer for Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird; the most bizarre story he came across for News of the Weird; Viking funeral pyres; the work he’s the most proud of; where his writing is taking him now; his forthcoming release, Shuteye for the Time Broker.

Featured song is “Deity� by Screaming for Emily.

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Bazooka Joe