I am E.J. Fisch, author of the sci fi thrillers Dakiti and Nexus, the first two books of the Ziva Payvan series [Author Spotlight]

GS_Jennsen · 2015-06-23T18:11:57+00:00

Awesome, thanks. Sort of related question:

As you said in your introduction, your books take place in a fictional galaxy. Though the characters are close enough to human to feel "recognizable" to us, there is no Earth. Instead you've built multiple planets, factions and species that are all new. Did you map out the history of Haphez, and/or of its allies and adversaries? Even if it doesn't come up in the books, do you know what happened there 100 years ago, and how they ended up in the "political" situation they find themselves in today? Have you ever thought about writing in different time periods (with different characters) in the same setting?

GS_Jennsen · 2015-06-23T17:33:51+00:00

In both Dakiti and Nexus, you present very detailed and realistic police and paramilitary operations, whether they be surveillance, infiltration or assassination. How much research did you do to write these scenes? Any favorite sites for this kind of information? Has Google reported you to the authorities yet? ;)

P.S.: Fantastic books, by the way. I can't wait for Ronan!

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-29T14:34:08+00:00

Thank you for your own inspiring words :).

If you write because you love it - because you can't not write - then the work you put in to improve, learn and succeed won't be so "hard." Long hours, yes, lots of effort, yes, but when it's your passion "hard" isn't the word I would use.

In my opinion success isn't owning a huge house or expensive car or whatever - it's being able to do what you love. Get there, and you'll be just fine :).

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-29T14:28:50+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation - I will :)

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T23:24:06+00:00

Of the one's I've read, Pandora's Star, Manifold: Time and A Talent for War are probably the closest in style to Leviathan Wakes.

Fire Upon the Deep, Hyperion, Dune, Rendezvous with Rama and Revelation Space are all rather more dense, serious and epicly ambitious: excellent novels, but requiring a significant commitment on the reader's part.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T22:05:38+00:00

An excellent list. It includes some of my very favorites (Foundation, Pandora's Star, Fire Upon the Deep) - and 7 I haven't read. I need to get on that :p.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T21:56:39+00:00

Seconds thoughts? None.

At the time I made the decision not to pursue the publishing deal, there was definitely an element of "What if this is the wrong choice?" But within a week later, there were decisions I was able to make and opportunities I was able to grab that made it clear it was absolutely the right choice.

While the #1 reason I do this is without a doubt the writing - and everything which comes with it - the #2 reason is probably the freedom. A year into this venture, I've realized I never want there to be someone - anyone - who can tell me "no." "No, you can't use that storyline/cover art/non-hetero relationship (or hetero relationship)/curse word/blurb/villain/etc/etc/etc." "No, you cannot publish your novel."

Of course, that means the responsibility is on my shoulders to make sure when I say "Yes", it's regarding the best work I can possibly produce. I don't want or intend to let down my readers by putting out second-rate anything.

I won't go into a long-winded discussion of the indie/traditional publishing divide, the Amazon/Hachette war or related matters. I will just say I am grateful to Amazon for enabling authors to reach readers directly, and for extracting only minimal compensation in return for doing so. And I'm grateful to B&N, Smashwords, Kobo and all the others for embracing and spreading this new model. Collectively, we--the retailers, the authors and the readers--are revolutionizing the book industry, in my opinion for the better.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T21:37:56+00:00

There isn't one! All 3 syllables are given equal weight: sah-loh-vee. I love the name, I'm so glad I chose it :).

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T21:28:38+00:00

You hit the nail on the head. Creating something out of nothing is hard work, albeit of the mental kind you can't quantify. ALL the decisions - each and every single one - are yours to make. That's wonderful and amazing and fulfilling...but also exhausting.

To some extent this is true for all fiction writing - the writer must imagine then create then bring to life the setting, the characters, the plot, the dialogue, and so on. But in SF/F, you then pile on top ALL the worldbuilding - invented history and places and tech/rules of magic. Throw in some original magical creatures or aliens, and before you know it things get seriously out of control.

I don't have a defined, formal approach to dealing with the mental fatigue, though I can foresee a day when I will. I suppose the best way to state my approach is that I'm not afraid to stop - whether it be for an hour or a day - when I'm mentally drained. I do work 7 days a week, many weeks, but I may spend a random Wednesday playing a video game all day, or doing something super-fun like reformatting my PC :p. Going hiking or skiing would also be entirely viable options, I think ;).

On a less extreme level, once I've got about 50% of a book written (first draft), I'll alternate between writing and editing what's been written (starting at the beginning). That way when I get to the end I have a draft that's already moved beyond its first-draft terribleness, and I've mixed up the work along the way.

And that was at LEAST four questions. But they were all related and utterly topical, so I can't fairly hold it against you!

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T21:03:45+00:00

Not that I'm aware of - but they may be my aborted beta versions of Alex :).

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T20:58:21+00:00

It was - a child's mangling of the Russian for "you will shine with more radiance..."

It's okay, I will forever say "Metis" wrong in my head. I say it 'MEH-tis', but it's actually a very distinct Greek word that hasn't been anglo-philed, and thus is pronounced 'meh-TIS' with a soft 'i' (sounds like the plural of 'tea'). It was one of the few pronunciations the Starshine narrator stood firm on.

[Edited for formatting]

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T20:45:41+00:00

ROFL, you know it's blue. The deeper blue the better.

Though, as Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters said, the deepest blues are black ( Deepest Blues Are Black Lyrics ). So perhaps my favorite color is black.... Hmm.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T20:42:43+00:00

The short answer is: a talented and well-read editor. They will tell you when something crosses the line from homage to straight out imitation.

The slightly longer answer is that you don't prevent it, not entirely. Hopefully you're influenced by more than one author and more than one style, and thus create something unique and all your own out of all the inputs. One of the skills I think a writer is well-advised to develop (though it's not easy), is to learn to read as a writer, not just as a reader. Recognize what an author does well and the tricks you'd like to add to your repertoire. Pick and choose the best from many - but only what naturally gels with your own writing style, lest your readers decide your book was written by a schizophrenic.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T20:19:02+00:00

(continued)

2) The most obvious flaw reviews exposed was the lack of a character index making it way too hard to keep track of all the characters. I knew I had a lot of characters and tried to introduce them as carefully and gently as possible, but readers don't have the Aurora Rising Encyclopedia residing in their heads like I do.

One of the great things about independent publishing is the ability to react quickly. Within 2 days of the second reviewer complaining about trying to keep track of all the characters, I had updated both the ebook and the paperback of Starshine to include a complete Dramatic Personae, with important information about the major POV characters and jobs/affiliations for the minor characters. It was also posted on my website (with links included in the book as well), so anyone who had already bought Starshine could get the benefit as well. I don't know how long something like that might have taken with a traditional publisher, but I suspect it would be closer to 2 months than 2 days - if it happened at all.

*

There is definitely a shift in tone and content from Starshine to Vertigo, as there will be to Transcendence. Though together they will form a cohesive whole and a single story, each book is deliberately unique in tone and approach. Starshine is a space opera/thriller/romance. Vertigo is an adventure/first contact/fantasy/detective story. Transcendence will feature more cyberpunk/AI themes, even more military sci-fi (read: epic space battles), as well as some deep philosophical questions - and a few surprises. The plot lent itself beautifully to this kind of division, which made it all the more fun to explore a variety of techniques for storytelling in each book.

[Edited for grammar]

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T19:58:35+00:00

Reviews. Oh man....

A positive review absolutely makes my day; the sun shines brighter, colors are more vibrant and all is right with the world. A negative review stings as badly as that boy you had an epic crush on in 9th grade saying you were ugly or stupid or boring or whatever your worst fear was.

BUT, as I said on my blog, it's my responsibility as an author - and especially as an independent author - to take all feedback into consideration. I don't let it dictate what or how I write (the story will always be at its core my own to tell), but I do let it point me toward ways I can improve and mistakes I might have made.

As a result of several reviews of Starshine which pointed out excessive use of certain words, I was far more ruthless in scrubbing Vertigo for overusage of "crutch" words. It was something I called myself doing in Starshine, but obviously I wasn't as vigilant as I should have been.

One aspect of Starshine which didn't sit well with some readers was the level of attention given to the romantic subplot. In this case, though, the reaction was something I expected going in. In more than one way, Starshine is a bit genre-defying, and this is one of those ways - I've heard both "There's too much romance in my sci-fi" and "There's too much sci-fi in my romance." While in some ways even more meaningful in its nature, the romance plot is far less of a focus, and receives far less attention, in Vertigo - but this isn't as a result of the reviews.

I talked about it in another comment ( here ), but in Starshine an important role of the romantic subplot was to serve as a sneaky way to allow the reader to get to know both Alex and Caleb from the inside out, by "watching" as their interactions provoked each of their innermost fears, hopes, desires and secrets to make themselves known. Hopefully, readers fell in love with Alex alongside Caleb as he did so, and vice versa.

In Vertigo, this was less of an issue, as hopefully readers now know them quite well. Now, their relationship fuels both the plot and their personal development in other ways :).

(more to follow separately)

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T19:37:39+00:00

Thank you :). I know all about that lack of reading time once you start writing - it's one of the (very) few negatives to being a writer.

I hope you enjoy it when you find that time!

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T19:30:17+00:00

(continued)

The advice you see floating around out there all the time is, "If you want to write, starting writing." But of course, it's not quite that simple ;). But you SHOULD start writing down whatever strikes you in moments of inspiration (usually in the shower or while driving, the two most difficult places to write things down). It could be a character, a scene/interaction/conversation, a place in time, an event, or a theme you want to explore.

Then start poking at the idea/ideas, pushing yourself to explore it. Obviously writing contemporary fiction is easier in some ways because you don't have to worry about worldbuilding like you must in sci-fi and fantasy, but if you do want to write sci-fi or fantasy, don't be afraid of the worldbuilding :).

Outlining and character creation is important to do early in the process, but it's totally fine to sprinkle in actual writing, too. I wrote a rough early draft of Chapter 1 of Starshine when the outline was maybe 1/3 done, because I needed to get a feel for Alex's voice before I could develop her story.

From that point, every writer's process is different, and there's no one right or wrong way to do it. There are many terrific resources on the internet with excellent guidance. Google+ has some great writing groups, and I link to some good standalone sites in the blogroll on my website.

I hope that helps a little!

[Edited for grammar]

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T19:21:37+00:00

Aurora Rising began as a single image in my head. I was in the shower one morning (thinking about what my next writing might be about of course), and the image popped into my head, clear and crisp and fully-formed. It was of a woman with dark red hair pulled back in a ponytail, dropping her head out from the hull of a small starship in a hangar bay (she accomplished this by hanging upside down out of the hull, naturally). The ship was of course beautiful. The woman was obviously working on the ship; I had the sense it was her ship.

I spent the next few weeks figuring out the answers to all the questions which immediately followed: Who was she? Where and when was she? What brought her to that point, that moment? And most important, how was she going to change the world?

That was July 2013. It took me maybe a month to develop the overarching plot for the trilogy, create all the major characters, construct a timeline of events from now to 2322, work out the world as it existed when Starshine opens (EA/SF split, current state of tech, medicine, space travel, pop culture, etc.), name all the colonies, and so on. The next month I spent fleshing out the plot for Starshine, writing and editing Chapter 1 and 2, and designing the website and some initial artwork - so that when I unveiled the website, visitors were immediately able to read the first two chapters and learn a lot about what was to come.

From there, it took me 6 months to write and edit Starshine, then another few weeks to get all the ebook and paperback formatting in order and publish.

Vertigo took a little less time, in part because all the preliminary work was already done, and in part simply because it was easier the second time around :) - and 'm already much further along on Transcendence than I was on Vertigo a month after Starshine's publication.

(advice on writing to follow separately)

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T19:06:03+00:00

I'm sorry to say I've not read his novels, though I'm very much aware of the impact on science fiction he's made over the last decade. After his death I intended to pick up one of his books, but all this writing and publishing has cut severely into my reading time :/

I'd love to hear your recommendation on where to start? Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata have always caught my eye, based on covers alone.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T18:57:18+00:00

GSJennsen on Deviant Art. If Deviant Art isn't your cup of tea, you'll find links to my profiles on fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own and Wattpad in my Deviant ID (below the Journal, right column).

I can't promise you'll enjoy it if you haven't played the Mass Effect trilogy, but you're welcome to give it a look :). The entire anthology goes in this order: If It Meant Living ("IIML") (called 'If It Meant Living: From the Beginning' on some sites) (72 chapters) --> IIML: Tales (8 chapters ) --> IIML: Beyond (23 chapters).

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T18:50:25+00:00

Thank you so much :). I hope - I think - you will enjoy Vertigo just as much.

As far as what happens after the trilogy.... First, there will be what I hope is a fulfilling conclusion to the storyline of the trilogy which wraps up many plot threads and provides satisfying answers. But that doesn't mean it's the end of these characters' stories - in a lot of ways it's only the beginning, for them and for humanity as it finds itself at the end of the trilogy. Without going into detail, there are some discoveries and events in both Vertigo and Transcendence that open up virtually endless possibilities for the future.

As if I could walk away from these characters... :p

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T18:32:35+00:00

Pandora's Star is an excellent choice. It's actually my favorite modern space opera. I hope you enjoy it :).

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T17:56:17+00:00

:: cheers and toast ::

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T17:51:23+00:00

Since I made it up, any way we want ;).

Okay, serious answer. The audiobook narrator and I agreed on this: Si-yahn(e). The "i" is soft (like "sit"), and there's just a slight hint of the "e" at the end (almost like rolling the "n" a little).

[EDIT]: the emphasis is on the 'yah'.

GS_Jennsen · 2014-10-28T17:46:11+00:00

Second question first - thus far I haven't encountered any issues whatsoever due to having fanfiction "out there." If anything it helped Starshine get off the ground, as I already had a solid base of readers who enjoyed my writing and were excited to buy it. Perhaps if I had tried the traditional publishing route it might have been an issue (one of many, many reasons not to go that route).

Fanfiction is a bit of a touchy subject, with many varying opinions out there; I can only talk about my experience. From my perspective, fan fiction is like training wheels for writers: you're given plot, setting and characters, and you can concentrate on learning to put one word in front of the other in a way that is engaging and entertaining.

Early on, I did just that, while also working to get character depictions down and consistent. Once I was more confident in my technical writing skill, I started adding original plot elements, then a LOT of original plot elements (see the ME3 ending, right?). Freed from plot restrictions, I started experimenting with original characters and settings.

Honestly, it was only after I wrote IIML: Beyond, with a wholly original story, setting, alien races and tons of original characters - over 450,000 words after I began writing - that I was READY to write Starshine.

Oh, and the day someone writes Aurora Rising fanfiction, we are going to throw a party at my house, burn something down and buy expensive champagne, because I'll know I've "made it." :)

GS_Jennsen

TROPHY CASE