Concept Sci-fi

Interviewed by Gary Reynolds (September 2008)...

In less than thirty words, can you sum up how you got into writing?

I wrote stories and submitted them to magazines. Eventually I wrote a novel and submitted it to a publisher. That was the system we had then.

How do you go about writing a novel (from initial planning through to revising/editing)? Are you a planner, or do you improvise?

I'm an improviser and a planner. First I improvise a little, then I plan a little. Sometimes I improvise and plan at the same time. I don't see those strategies as opposites.

What are you currently working on?

Short stories.

 What's the worst piece you've ever written and why?

Hard to say. I don't much like anything I wrote before 1980. Too scrappy and not enough who I was at the time. The earliest thing I wrote that I still like is the short story “The Ice Monkey”.

You write both short stories and novels. Which form do you prefer and why?

I like both. Short stories can be very technical, and you can tangle up the content and surface. I enjoy that. Sometimes they can take as long as a novel to write. Short stories are for yourself, especially these days. Novels have to be for other people too.

Neil Gaiman describes Light as 'easily my favourite sf novel in the last decade'. That's quite a compliment. Why do you think so many people hold Light in such high-regard? Did the novel take longer than any of your others to write?

It was nice that Light  impressed so many writers I admire. Neil Gaiman has precision of touch, nerves of steel and one of the best hearts in fantasy; so I don't take that reaction of his lightly. Light  took me less time to write than anything except The Pastel City. It was successful because it picked up on something of the zeitgeist, but what that was I don't know.

At the moment I understand Light  less well than any of my other books.

 What do you see happening to the sci-fi genre over the next ten or twenty years?

I haven't a clue. Maybe a new form of data management will come along, commit all this digital stuff to the dustbin of the past and provide brand new content as well as brand new media! People will realise that it’s not just a way of managing data, but a quantum change for human beings. The 40 to 50 year old digitistas will be swept away. It will be the end of history. Sf will rediscover its aboriginal values and sense of optimism and live again, and the winners will be those who cleft to the new technology when no one else had the smarts--their triumphalism will begin to bore the tits off us about four years later but we will have to live with it for much longer. Something like that could happen.

Can you tell us something interesting about yourself that isn't related to writing or science fiction?

I bought a Honda this week. It’s silver with black leather seats. Cars like this, with their VTec engines & onboard computers, will change the meaning of the term “human”. People’s brains will actually be rewired by their interaction with the technology. For instance, they will flock to the out-of-town malls to buy orange things from China. They will sit in their car on their own. They will phone each other up while driving at 80mph to say, “I’m on my way home. Pardon ? No, I said ‘home’!” 

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

In the UK we've had a "science and the arts" sensibility since the mid-90s. When even Ian McEwan has jumped aboard a bandwagon it's embarrassing to find yourself still sitting there. So I was thinking of having another look at the sleep of reason.

If you could offer one piece of advice to those starting out in writing today, what would it be?

If you want to be a top professional taking down six figures for a book, I'm not the one to come to for advice. Otherwise, look for the traces of the unknown in yourself. Try to guess what language they want you to speak. Maybe a good guess will net you six figures, maybe it won't: but it will make you interesting.

For further information, why not check out M. John Harrison's website. Light is available to buy now.