These are notes from an interview 2012-04-11 with
John "Bud" Sparrhawk. A shorter version of this interview was published in the Summer 2012 issue of the Maryland Writers' Association newsletter
Pen in Hand. Video of the interview appeared in a four-part series:
part 1,
part 2,
part 3,
part 4.
Among other awards, Bud Sparhawk's stories have been a finalist for a Nebula Award three times (Primrose and Thorn, 1996; Magic's Price, 2001; Clay's Pride, 2004) and have been selected for several "Years Best SF" anthologies. His first short story appeared in 1976 and he has published about 90 short stories and novellas since then.
He writes about writing on his blog,
Musings.
This third and last part discusses Bud's ideas on the scifi publishing industry. The first part of the interview is
here, and the second part is
here.
Q14: Your Analog story "Encounter in a Yellow Wood" seems less about a specific situation than about the relationship between two people and how it mirrors events in the story. Do you agree?
A: There were three ideas in that story. One was idea I read about in Discover magazine about micropipettes. I used that to explain the technology of the artificial trees in the story which performed the waste removal. To get that into the story, I invented a character - an engineer who had to travel to a location to consult on these trees. Another idea was on the difference between the various environmental communities. Environmentalists in one camp emphasized sharply different goals than environmentalists in another camp. It was about environmental protection verses preservation verses purification. All have noble objectives but come into conflict. This is mirrored in the conflict of the two main characters in the story.
The readers of Analog are primarily engineers, not just science fiction fans. The majority of the readership are in applied technical fields and, if you get a fact wrong, you are toast! Absolutely, fricking toast! Example: I've heard of very intense arguments over something like a figure used, say 0.06572. Was that accurate or was that a guess? Shouldn't there be another significant digit if you really want to get the point of the story across?
Q15: As far as the number of characters involved, your story "Encounter in a Yellow Wood" seemed like a simple one. There are exactly three characters. Is that unusual for you?
A: There used to be six! (Laughter.) I wrote one story, "Primrose and Thorn", a Nebula finalist, with basically three characters in it. There are also some minor characters, but the story is set on a big planet with some really advanced technology. The plot in "Magician" revolves around four main characters - a protagonist plus three strangers. I don't like big group scenes. Dialog is too difficult to deal with.
Q16: Of all your stories, do you see one that is more cinematic than others? One you would like to see on screen or would make a neat TV series?
A: You're putting me on the spot here! (Pause.) Recently, I think the best one would be either "Bright Red Star" which was a short story that got published in Asimov's, or its sequel called "The Glass Box". Both of those would be really neat scifi stories to see on screen.
Q17: Speaking of cinematic, when you sell these, do you keep any rights at all?
A: Always. A group of us, back in the mid 1990's, took on Dell magazine. We told them we are going to stop submitting unless they changed your contract terms with regard to electronic rights. We got the Science Fiction Writers of America to back us up and Dell basically took out the electronic rights clause from their contract. That is now the pattern in the entire industry. The publisher only has the rights to the first North American serial publication for a period of 30 days after publication. Most contracts specify that they will pay this much if they include it in an anthology, that much if they sell foreign rights, and so on. I can put my stories up for sale on my website.
I've published just under 90 short stories. However, I have resold a number of those - audio rights, foreign publications, and so on - so, my actual sales are over one hundred.
Q18: Can you talk about your work with SIGMA?
A: There was a book that Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven wrote back in the 1970s called "Footfall". It was about a group of aliens threatening Earth and was written largely from the point of view of the aliens. Very well-done book. In the story, the government didn't know how to deal with the aliens. They called together a bunch of science fiction writers together to advise them, since they've been writing for years and should have thought about these things. This was a McGuffin in the middle of the story. In the story, they weren't very successful but they gave the government some ideas on how to approach things.
Arlen Andrews was very taken with this idea. He suggested we start organizing such a group and offer our services to the government. He acquired a group of science fiction writers, most of whom have PhDs, all of whom are incredibly smart, and all of which have a certain dedication to moving the United States forward technically. SIGMA is a specialized group but there are people of every possible political persuasion. There are guys far right of Genghis Khan and on the other end of the political spectrum, we have some flower children. SIGMA gets called on by Homeland Security and other security agencies. They might throw a scenario at us and ask us how we would deal with it. We try to give them ideas or approaches. They thank us very much and we walk away and never hear anything about it again. Sometimes we do it pro bono. Sometimes they pay us a stipend. Sometimes we are reimbursed for travel and we get a meal out of it.
Q19: Do these conversations spur on any new science fiction stories?
A: Once it did. There was a meeting near Washington DC and they had gathered 8 of us. Michael Swanwick and Walter John Williams were there. We we discussing what would happen if thus and such occurred. Immediately they whipped out their notebooks and started writing like mad. At that point I knew we are going to get two stories out of this! (Laughter.)
Q20: About your own evolution as a writer, some people believe there is a 10 year rule, or 10000 hour rule, on how long it takes to become an expert at something. Do you believe that is true in your writing?
A: I've had a number of arguments with writers about this. Some of whom have said there is no such thing as talent and success is just raw persistence. Others say "It is all talent, because I just write this stuff, hardly ever edit, and just send it in." Immediately on hearing that I say to myself there is a strong smell of bull-shit in here! (Laughter.)
This is something I discuss in my blog. Don't kid yourself, writing is hard work. I think it was Houseman who said "The essence of having the perfect line in poetry is
to know precise word needed on the 56th revision." (Laughter.) It is true. In some sense, the writing doesn't start until you begin editing. Everything else is just throwing words down.
Q21: It does seem though that with all your experience, you now can at least say "Here's a cool idea for a story" whereas someone with less experience might say "I don't know if that idea would make a good story." In other words, you know how to begin.
A: I have as a many false starts as I do successful ideas leading to a finished work.
Right now, I am trying to learn how to write somewhat shorter pieces. I used to be able to write a 5000 word story in a weekend. But it is more natural for me to write novellas, which are 17000 up to 40000 words. However, you can't sell anything over 20000 words to a magazine, as they just don't have the space. Once I started paying attention to the elements of a novella - the story idea, the roles the characters play, description, dialog, exposition of technical ideas - I found it was easy for me to get to 10000-17000 words. So I found that I can reach 17000-18000 words by following a process which felt natural to me. Unfortunately, a few years ago the bottom fell out of the novella market. And most of the e-magazines, the online magazines, rarely want anything over 5000 words. So I said, do I write to my natural length or do I write to market? So I very deliberately started trying to write short works, works in the 5000-10000 word range. On the other hand, I also want to write stories with a social impact, one which addresses some serious themes. I am looking for stories which require more thought and have a strong moral tone to them, ones that had a lesson to teach. For example, "Yellow Wood". So far this year, I've written 45000 words, all short stories, and sold three stories and had four soundly rejected.
Q22: What do you mean "soundly rejected"?
A: I have a tracking tool that I developed. It has a list of editors, maybe 100 or so, at the top are Analog and Asimov's. Analog has a turn-around time of 42 days. So 42 days after submission, I'll get a letter of rejection. Asimov's has a turn-around time of 38 days. On the same day that I get a rejection, I will send it to the next editor on the list.
Q23: Do you get a suggestion for revision?
A: You never get that. If they offer a suggestion of a revision, then that really means "re-write and re-submit". A rejection will say something like, "not for our magazine." I've know all the editors and have been around long enough to earn a little courtesy, so the rejection letters will include a few nice words.
After Asimov's rejects it, I will send it to Gordon Van Gelder at Fantasy and Science Fiction. He has a turn-around of 7 days. "Alas ... " is his codeword for a rejection.
Q24: Is it verboten to send it to two places at once?
A: Yes. That is okay for novels but not short stories. I have done that accidentally once but never intentionally.
Q25: You mentioned Wodehouse in your blog. Which Wodehouse story inspired which short story of yours?
A: I love Wodehouse! I don't remember which Wodehouse story it was. There were two twins and they were supposed to go to to school but they went on holiday instead. There was a mad Aunt and the twins were trying to stay out of her way. It was in a Wodehouse collection I read. I really liked the twists and turns in the story. I laid out the structure of the story using a package called "Inspiration", a diagramming package for school children. I laid out the story scenes in block diagrams. I took the "facts" out but wrote my story with the same twists and turns. It was one of the Sam Boone stories. I steal from the best! (Laughter.) In some sense, there is no original story. Every story copies something from a previous one.
Q26: What is the most unusual thing that has happened to you as a writer?
A: I think the strangest thing that has happened was when I was on a panel discussion at a scifi convention with other writers and an audience member said "Where do you get your ideas?" I answered, "I used to think them up on my own but a couple of years ago I found this guy in New Jersey. I send him five bucks a month and every week he sends me a postcard with a story idea. And a lot of them are pretty good! (Laughter.) The crowd laughs. The other panelists laugh. Michael Flynn, who was also on the panel, said "I hope that guy doesn't send you the same ideas he sends me!", and
everyone laughs again. I had fans come up to me afterwards and whisper "Can I have his address?" They were serious! I was talking to a fellow writer and we figured we could easily come up with sixty or seventy story ideas. If we just got a fake address in New Jersey we could start our own business!
Q27: It sounds like you have a lot of fun writing.
A: It is a lot of fun.
