Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 54

by John Joseph Adams

  How about the future of the Laundry Files series? I see the next two books are The Armageddon Score and The Nightmare Stacks. You want to tell us about those?

  Change of title. It will be The Annihilation Score, and we still haven’t worked out the title for the seventh book. I probably shouldn’t say too much about them, except that they will be coming out next July and the July after. The series is going annual for now.

  I guess someone needs to update Wikipedia on that one. Why did you change the title for The Armageddon Score?

  Okay, this is going to sound really silly, but one of my editors is hip to search engine optimization and the web, and it turns out that if you google “Armageddon Score,” you come up with a lot of links to the soundtrack to a Bruce Willis movie. Unfortunately, Bruce Willis is probably more famous than I’ll ever be, so we decided the best way to avoid a namespace collision with Bruce Willis is not to go there to begin with. So, new title needed.

  I’ve heard you say online what perspective those books are going to be written from. Is that something you want to talk about, or … ?

  Oh yeah! All the Laundry book up until this point have been narrated by Bob, who is a famously unreliable narrator. He’s a bit self-serving, a bit self-deceiving. What Bob tells you is not necessarily true; it’s just the way Bob sees it. The next novel, The Annihilation Score, is going to be told by Mo, Bob’s wife of about a decade. Her view on Bob will hopefully be a bit of an eye-opener for those readers who’ve been taking what Bob says at face value. As for the novel after that, I shouldn’t say too much about it, except that my current plans are that it’ll be narrated by a guy called Alex, who shows up for the first time in The Rhesus Chart, and funnily enough, he’s the sort of guy who gets a really, really, really bad sunburn if he goes out without a burka in daylight.

  That does it for the questions. Are there any new or upcoming projects or anything you want to mention?

  Right now, no, because I am currently juggling finishing a Merchant Princes trilogy and two more Laundry novels. I’m taking a rain check on new projects until I’ve actually got these under control, although who knows what the future will bring?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction/fantasy talk show podcast. It is hosted by David Barr Kirtley. Dave is the author of thirty short stories, which have appeared in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, and Lightspeed, in books such as Armored, The Living Dead, Other Worlds Than These, and Fantasy: The Best of the Year, and on podcasts such as Escape Pod and Pseudopod. He lives in New York.

  Artist Gallery: Jeremy Wilson

  Jeremy Wilson was born in 1986 in Manhattan. He received a BFA from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and a Masters Equivalency from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has done illustration work for trading cards and books, and concept work, as well as shown his original paintings in galleries. His clients have included companies such as Square Enix and Cryptozoic Entertainment. His work has been shown at the Allentown Art Museum and featured in Spectrum and the ARC Salon. He also teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. His website is www.jeremywilsonart.com.

  [To view the gallery, turn the page.]

  Artist Spotlight: Jeremy Wilson

  Henry Lien

  Talk to us a little bit about your technique. Are all your works traditional oils?

  All my work is oil. After graduating, I found myself a part of an art community that seemed predominantly digital. I began to experiment with digital with the intention of changing mediums until I went to Illuxcon for the first time in 2010. After seeing the community surrounding traditional work, I made the choice to put an emphasis on the traditional while still using the digital on the back end of production.

  You have traditional fine art training and it shows in your technique. What are some of your influences from traditional painting? Am I correct in catching aromas of Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth?

  Absolutely. All of the “golden age” illustrators like Pyle, Wyeth, and Cornwell have a major impact on me. I grew up around art. My father is an acclaimed gallery artist. I gained a lot from him concerning technique. Both he and I are also heavily influenced by John Singer Sargent. I have most recently been surrounded by some amazing editorial illustrators. Sterling Hundley has had a major influence on both my life and work.

  There’s an interesting subtext of Orientalism in a lot of science fiction/fantasy illustration. While 18th-and 19th-century Orientalist painting was often used as propaganda for imperialism, to justify the conquering of other countries by depicting them as exotic and barbaric, the images also ended up captivating the public’s imagination by offering people views into alien and beautiful worlds. It seems like you are consciously trying to strike a balance between painting a view into an alien world and not exoticizing or objectifying it. This issue’s cover painting, Desert Guardians, is a great example. The warriors are women, but there aren’t boobs bursting out of iron bras. One face is unveiled and it is the face of a beautiful woman, but it is unveiled to show that these warriors are women, not for us to ogle her beauty, and the figure seems to be doing it to catch a moment of cool air. What are some of the considerations that go into gracefully negotiating between showing something strange and new and objectifying in an Orientalist manner?

  I have always painted what attracts me in regard to aesthetic. Overt sexualization doesn’t fall into my aesthetic, unless it carries an air of elegance. I want to capture classical beauty and mystery through light. In regard to objectification, I strive to capture the same ideas regardless of sex. The “negotiating” is better described as a conversation I have with my characters and the intent of that dialogue. In my mind, my female characters are considerably deeper and richer in story development, regardless of their covering. They tend to be more deadly as well.

  I think I see a lot of orbs occurring in your work. Is this a conscious motif in your work? Is there significance in it?

  Again, this is simply aesthetic. The execution is very intentional, though the concept can be looser and more driven by instinct to balance the harshness and weight of my color scheme with visual appearances of shapes that are softer and a source of light. There is no specific symbol to the circle other than what it represents in the painting.

  What’s your relationship to and opinion of digital science fiction/fantasy illustration?

  I like all kinds of art, regardless of medium. There are some amazing digital artists whose level of work I’ll never achieve that I drool over. I find that ultimately it’s the quality that matters. So rather than point out shortcomings in mediums, I’ll ask you to consider our social interactions. We are a generation raised on shortcuts they tempt us daily. Entire business models are built on shortcuts. Pop culture has reduced the hard work behind success into a montage. Interactions in the art world are cold and numerous, emails and subscriptions are the “preferred” contact method. Considering all this, I see the accessibility we have being potentially detrimental. So, to answer the question: Any artist, regardless of medium, who loses sight of the quality of their communication, visual or otherwise, is doomed to mediocrity.

  What are some of your other influences besides traditional fine art painters?

  Writing and movies are big for me. I love American Horror Story. Everything in that show fits its theme. The attention to detail, down to the credits and advertising, is fantastic.

  What is your dream project?

  Currently, I would love to do comic covers, to define the visuals of a whole series. However, as an artist, I am constantly reaching for the next success and validation, outward and inward. This is a double-edged sword, though. We cannot rest on one success, and are forced to refine and seek our next potential. In other words, I have many dream projects, and always will.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Henry Lien is an art dealer in Los Angeles (glassgaragegallery.com). He represents artists fro
m North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. His artists have appeared in ARTnews, Art in America, Juxtapoz, the Huffington Post, and Time Magazine, and been collected by and exhibited in institutions and museums around the world. Henry has also served as the President of the West Hollywood Fine Art Dealers’ Association and a Board Member of the West Hollywood Avenues of Art and Design. He is also the Arts Editor at Interfictions. Henry also has extensive experience as an attorney and teaches at UCLA Extension. In addition, Henry is a speculative fiction writer. He is a Clarion West 2012 graduate. He has sold stories to publications including Asimov’s, Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and Interfictions, and been nominated for the Nebula. He is originally from Taiwan. Visit his author website at henrylien.com.

  AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS

  Author Spotlight: Sunny Moraine

  Jude Griffin

  How did this story come about?

  I’ve actually been trying to write this story for a while. I started with my fear of flying—which I’ve always thought is a bit of a misnomer, because I’m fine with flying. What I’m actually afraid of is the constant potential of falling. But I believe in trying to write about what scares you, so I tried to turn the idea of free fall into a story. I scrapped several versions and nothing quite worked out, so I started thinking about what really frightens me about falling from that height, and the answer at which I arrived is the fact that—provided you’re conscious—you have time to think about your extremely impending death and your utter inability to do anything about it.

  So then I started thinking: What if you could communicate in those final moments? What if you could send a message to a loved one—maybe even have a conversation with them? What would you say? How would that go? That was the missing piece I needed to make this thing work. I stuck it all in space—which of course automatically makes everything cooler—and it all came together.

  What is the “first horrible exit”?

  Birth. That was a quick throwaway line that came to me and then pretty much got lost in the rest of the story, but in retrospect I think it’s important; the moment you begin to live is the moment you begin to die. It’s the moment you start falling. I seriously doubt anyone wants to be born while it’s happening, but everyone who gets a lifetime, however short, goes through it. And then everyone dies. What matters is what happens in the moments in between, however many or few.

  What drove the choice of second-person point of view?

  I’ve made a lot of use of second person lately, and I think one of the reasons why it attracts me is that it’s direct communication with the reader in a way that no other POV is. I know a lot of people aren’t overly fond of it, and I think a lot of the time it’s not done particularly well, but as a stylistic tool I love it. This story felt very immediate, and of course it’s an old idea that one thing that happens in the moments before death is a turning-inward, a taking of inventory. You have your last moments of communication with yourself as well as others. So it felt natural to go that way. I didn’t really think about the specifics of why until now, honestly.

  Whose SF writing do you return to?

  There are naturally a number of people, but I think the one writer I always come back to in the end is Ray Bradbury. He’s written what is probably my favorite short story of all time—“There Will Come Soft Rains”—and his stuff was my earliest model for writing that really hurts, that gut-punches you with how beautiful and vital it is. He was one of the first writers who made me truly want to write, and he never stops amazing and inspiring me.

  Any upcoming projects/news to share?

  I have a couple of novels coming out in the next couple of months that I’m very excited about. The first is Rookwar, which is the third and final book in my Casting the Bones trilogy—in addition to featuring blood magic, Corvid shapeshifters, trans-dimensional travel, and the magically reanimated dead, I think I’ve managed to do some neat things in it with gender and sexuality, which is cool. That one is due in December from Masque Books. The second novel, Labyrinthian, is coming in January from Samhain Publishing and is a queer retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in spaaaaaaaaace. It was a lot of fun to write—it’s a bit goofy, but I think there are also some genuinely interesting things going on in it. Looking forward to its birthday!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jude Griffin is an envirogeek, writer, and photographer. She has trained llamas at the Bronx Zoo; was a volunteer EMT, firefighter, and HAZMAT responder; worked as a guide and translator for journalists covering combat in Central America; lived in a haunted village in Thailand; ran an international frog monitoring network; and loves happy endings. Bonus points for frolicking dogs and kisses backlit by a shimmering full moon.

  Author Spotlight: Susan C. Petrey

  Debbie Cross & Paul M. Wrigley

  “Spidersong” by Susan C. Petrey first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in September of 1980, just two months before the author’s death. Of Susan’s stories published in that magazine, it is the only one which does not take place in the universe of her gentle healing vampires, the Varkela. It is also the most reprinted of her stories, though it has not been in print for decades. “Spidersong” was nominated for the 1981 Hugo awards and she was nominated, posthumously, for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. The story reflects her great love of animals, albeit a tiny spider; music; and her rather romantically sad outlook on life.

  In addition to being a writer, she was an accomplished mandolin player and often jammed with local musicians. She had a degree in microbiology, worked as a medical technologist, and was involved in the Portland, Oregon science fiction community.

  Susan, like many of us, was confused about her life. Her diary and doodlings reveals this. But she sought counseling from her church, from professionals, and her friends. She lived her life, no matter how confused, with direction and intent. Much of her energy was funneled into the study of languages and history. She was a student of Turkish and Russian and many of her notes and story ideas were written in those languages. She used this knowledge extensively in her writing, and it is evident in most of her stories. She began writing as a means to combat depression, but it became much more. Her dedication to it was unquestionable.

  We only knew Susan for a few years and don’t have much knowledge of her earlier life. There was a failed marriage, of which she spoke very little. Her love of horses is reflected in the golden-eyed mare of the Varkela stories. Her favorite pet was a boa constrictor named Baby.

  Susan died in December 1980. Earlier in that week, she had received the letter accepting her fourth story for publication. She was very upbeat about this, finally admitting that she was a professional writer. Her death was caused by a fatal error in judgment—the combination of prescription tranquilizers, cough medicine with codeine, and alcohol.

  Fortunately for readers, friends of Petrey and fellow science fiction fans were able to submit and sell four additional stories after her death. Eventually, all known stories were collected into the book Gifts of Blood in 1990. It was originally printed in a limited edition with contributions by Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda M. McIntyre, and Kate Wilhelm. Baen later published it as a mass market paperback.

  The Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund was created by Portland, Oregon friends of Susan to honor her and to keep her memory alive. Here, thirty-four years later, her work is still being published and read. Fifty-four scholarships have been awarded to Clarion and Clarion West writers’ workshops. Nine instructors have been sponsored as Petrey Fellows. This is some small measure of how much she is missed.

  To support the Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship or to purchase copies of Gifts of Blood, visit osfci.org/petrey/index.html.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Debbie Cross & Paul M. Wrigley are the directors of The Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund.

  Author Spotlight: Roz Kaveney

  Lee Hallison

  What
inspired this story?

  I’d been working on a big space-opera called “The Lacing”—a chunk of which is on my website (glamourousrags.dymphna.net/thelacing.html)—and it died on me. The editor who was interested in it—Richard Evans—died and I was more and more involved in political activism; I also ceased to believe that I was, or could be, a writer of SF rather than fantasy. So I bundled up every single good SF idea I had ever had—except for the ones which were allocated to “The Lacing,” in case I ever went back to it—and thought of a story in which I could use them all.

  Did you come up with the three instructions first, and weave the story around them, or did you start with the worldbuilding of the Hoaxer peoples?

  Actually, neither. I started off with Helena and Philip and the improbable love story between them. The rest came from that, partly, and partly because I wanted to explore the idea of telling as vast a story as possible in as few evocative words as I could—I wanted to do something Stapledonian, but with heart, even sentimentality, at its core.

  There is an undercurrent of utopian vision in several parts of the story—the hyper-civilized races that the traveling Hoaxers meet, the theme of kindness, Helena herself, and of course the final resolution/realization. Have you continued to explore utopian ideas?

  Not so much in my work as in my activism. I don’t think of it as utopianism so much as a fascination with ethical behaviour, “right conduct” if you will—I suppose you could argue that my big fantasy novel Rhapsody of Blood is about ethics.