Still searching for Philip K. Dick

Recently, I was lucky enough to interview Anne Dick, Philip K. Dick's third wife, about their life together and the recent publication of her revised memoir Search for Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982. The interview appears in this week's Orlando Weekly.

The project itself grew out of a need for answers. “[It] was an attempt to understand what had happened to our relationship at the time of our divorce,” she says. “Actually, writing things down turned out to be therapeutic. In words I could go back and feel more in control during those chaotic times.”

As explored in Search and later books, Philip Dick famously used aspects of his real life in his surreal and often outlandish stories. “He wrote Confessions of a Crap Artist [one of his earliest and perhaps most successful ‘autobiographical non-science fiction mainstream’ works] on our honeymoon! I was stunned and somewhat dismayed, but I didn’t say anything except that I thought it was a good book. Privately I thought to myself, ‘I guess this is what writers do.’ There were a number of other Point Reyes books in which the principal female character is more or less based on me.”

Dick revealed several arguably unflattering aspects of her ex-husband. “Many people know now how eccentric Phil’s life was. Many great writers had strange and unsettling lives.” She explored several of his positive traits as well. “He always tried to help people throughout his life. His books are full of light. I think most people are different and strange way down in their psyches, and in some people their unusual characteristics are closer to the surface.”

After the interview, my brief piece "The essential Philip K. Dick: a beginner’s guide" gives some reading tips for the PKD neophyte.


Check it all out at the Orlando Weekly.

Baker`s Dozen: Bossa Nova Robot Creator Sarjoun Skaff

As part my Baker's Dozen series at RevolutionSF, I chatted with Bossa Nova Robotics chief developer Sarjoun Skaff about apes, penguins, cockroaches, Pittsburgh, and of course robots.

Why were an ape and a penguin chosen for the initial releases?

Both characters were chosen to highlight each product's most important feature. Prime-8 emphasizes power and speed, and the power of a gorilla was eminently fitting. In addition, just as gorillas have large arms, Prime-8's prominent arms are a showcase of Bossa Nova's biped running technology.

As for Penbo, she is unique in the way she creates an endearing connection with the user. Penguins have always captured the imagination of the public, and Penbo is no exception. The locomotion technology makes her waddle like a cute penguin, she is cheerfully animated and interactive and even communicates with her baby.

Why Rhex?

A research robot, RHex exhibits an extraordinary set of locomotion abilities, including walking, running, pronking, bounding, jumping, flipping, climbing stairs, and even swimming and diving. RHex's design was inspired from observing the way cockroaches were able to overcome varied terrain with ease. The lesson was that mechanical compliance was more important than sensor feedback, so RHex is equipped with carefully designed legs and requires little sensing to locomote.

But RHex also moves with grace, and has been confined to the laboratory for too many years. It is this life-like motion that we seek to capture in our robots, and we aim to get the technology out of the lab and share it with as many people as possible. This means reducing the cost of the technology, designing compelling products around it, and mastering mass-distribution channels. Prime-8 is the first product that is powered by this technology, and as with RHex, he rotates his arms to move fast, does not need sensing to move, and can run over multiple surfaces.

Most creative types have some unusual idiosyncrasies when creating.(For example, I can't write with my shoes on.) Does this hold true for robot designers? What is your typical day like?

Not sure that we have had the luxury of idiosyncrasies. Until recently, there were only three of us and a handful of contractors, and we had to build both products by ourselves, so our days were full and intense. We needed to learn and execute every single aspect of product and business development, including fund raising, IP protection, product definition, design, technology development, programming, testing, problem solving, safety, certification, production in China, packaging, user manual, sales, distribution, toy fairs, etc. Juggling all this has forced us to create on the go.

This said, we have most fun when we brainstorm in groups. Our best ideas came from these sessions, and we have them as frequently as possible.

What do you think of the contemporary portrayal of robots in movies and books?

I think they are great at stimulating the public's imagination. It certainly helped create my fascination childhood with robots. The caveat is that robots are portrayed as advanced automatons with capabilities far beyond today's technology. This has raised the public's expectations of robots to unattainable heights, and this has probably slowed down the adoption of robots.

Fortunately, more and more robots are being built for the consumer market, some for entertainment and other to solve practical problems, so people are increasingly becoming familiar with real-world robots. This helps re-calibrate expectations and people learn that robots have limitations but can still be incredibly exciting.

Check it all out at RevolutionSF.

From the Cutting Room Floor: Joe R. Lansdale Part II

A month or so back, I interviewed Joe R. Lansdale for the San Antonio Current ("Crazy sort of folk" July 1, 2009). As is common with interviews, a lot of it didn't end up in the final publication. This won't be a big surprise to anyone who has interviewed Joe, but I had enough left over for two blog posts.

In this second and final installment, Joe discusses story collections, young adult fiction, and other things Lansdale.


How does the recent Chicken Fried and Sanctified: The Portable Lansdale differ from the forthcoming Best of Joe R. Lansdale?

Instead of calling it The Best, I think they're gonna call it Selected Stories. They will differ dramatically. Probably, two or three stories will overlap, but it will have a lot of stories.



What other collections are forthcoming?

The next independent collection will contain stories that will never be reprinted again because I got the rights to reprint a Hellboy and couple of other things I don't own.

People say, “I kinda resent you having these short story collections that have the same stories.” My answer to that is “Go [filk] yourself.” The reason for that is very simple: Just because you bought it doesn't make you have to buy the next one. Also. every two or three years there is a whole new group of readers and those books are no longer available. I'm not just trying to appeal to the people who already enjoy the work. I'm trying to appeal to the people who have not had the opportunity. A lot of new readers are just starting to be interested in my work. They'll go to buy a collection and you won't find Writer of the Purple Rage or By Bizarre Hands. A lot of these things were small printings to begin with and some of them are way out of print or nearly out of print. So every few years, [the stories] are valid to be re-released.


What's next for you?

I just sold a young adult novel to Delacorte. It's set in the 1930s and called All the Earth Thrown To the Sky. Same [time] period as The Boar and The Bottoms. The novels takes place in Oklahoma for a large part and moves toward East Texas.

Also, Keith [Lansdale, Joe's son] and I edited the Son of Retro Pulp Tales. It's suppose to be out at the end of July.


Do you find it difficult to write for young adults in terms of violence?

No. I always see them as different. It's not that I can't write without violence, but I don't want. Depends on the book. When I wrote The Bottoms, there is violence in it but there's almost a young adult feel to that novel. And The Boar is an example of what I can do. A lot more of the modern young adult books isn't like See Spot Run or the Hardy Boys. I'm getting an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a really long time. If this goes well, I'm planning on doing more.


More in Part I.

From the Cutting Room Floor: Joe R. Lansdale Part I

A month or so back, I interviewed Joe R. Lansdale for the San Antonio Current ("Crazy sort of folk" July 1, 2009). As is common with interviews, a lot of it didn't end up in the final publication. This won't be a big surprise to anyone who has interviewed Joe, but I had enough left over for two blog posts.

This first entry focuses on the unpublished questions pertaining to Hap & Leonard.


Why did Vanilla Ride first appear in Italy?

There are two reasons. First of all, Italy has been very good to me, so my last three books have appeared there first. I purposely wanted that to happen. I'm a bestseller over there. This book is a bestseller over there. I made an effort to give them that little bit extra. The other reason is their publishing schedule works much quicker than ours. I will probably go back to America first then Italy second depending on publication. But the last three I purposely did that.

Is Black Lizard planning to reprint all of the Hap & Leonards?

They are. They've reprinted four of them and the other two are due this fall.

What about the shorter stories such as “Veil's Visit”?

I've actually thought that particular section with Veil could possibly go into one of the novels. I think that's a possibility. I also have another one “Blue to the Bone” that is often erroneously thought to be Vanilla Ride with a title change. It was one that I started that was farther into the series than I originally anticipated. I don't know if I'll do a novel or it'll become a novella or what. I feel certain that'll eventually come to pass.



Do you have Hap & Leonard's lives mapped out?

No, not really. I have ideas and I borrow things from my own life, but I also borrow from people I know. I have a general idea of where they are going, but it's a very general idea. I do some things on instinct. The stories come out of the characters— little revelations and little ideas. The little things will change the whole course of the novel. The characters themselves redirect my plans.

What's the status of a Hap & Leonard film?

There's been a lot of film interest in 'em. I've been offered two deals [recently], neither of which I've accepted. They just couldn't meet the terms I wanted.


The violence in Vanilla Ride seemed extreme even for you.

I never can tell. To me, I don't notice any difference between this one and the others. I really don't. When I look at Bad Chili, I think “Whoa! That was pretty violent.” I always think of it and Two Bear Mambo has the most violent of the Hap & Leonard series. Nightrunners and Waltz of Shadows, those are VERY violent. I never think about that. I never think that I'm going to make this scene violent or what. It just sort of arrives. I'll read these others books and this book is just a violent as my books. Why don't they talk about these people? As other people have told me: “But they don't write violence the same way. They don't have that kind of poetic description.” I appreciate that.


More in Part II.

Crazy sort of folk: Lansdale takes a 'Vanilla Ride'

My interview with Joe R. Lansdale appears in today's San Antonio Current.

“[The Hap and Leonard stories] are crazy sort of folk tales mixed with reality, but it’s always the social and cultural issues and the two characters that drive the series.”
— Joe R. Lansdale

“Vanilla Ride was written under the influence of the [G. W.] Bush period. I was probably a little bit harder on some of the things going on then,” said Lansdale. “Religion, I’m often very hard on. That doesn’t mean I believe everyone who is religious are evil people. You talk about the extremists.”

In March, the University of Texas Press issued Chicken Fried and Sanctified: The Portable Lansdale, which conferred upon him some literary cred.

“Rightly or wrongly, I seem to be transcending just this genre label and [am now] being thought of just as an American writer. I think it’s because my themes are so American, even if I’m writing something that has a more of a genre construct or feel to it. There is something to the way I do it that appeals to people who might not ordinarily read genre fiction,” he says.

STAPLE! and Alan J. Porter interview

My latest Nexus Graphic column over at SF Site centers on my visit to the 5th STAPLE! con.

Subtitled "the independent media expo," STAPLE! began in March, 2005 after Chris "Uncle Staple" Nicholas, co-creator of You Chose Right The First Time, realized that the Austin area offered enough talent "to put on a pretty good indie comics show" but none in the region. By combining a focus on independent, alternative, and small press media with independent-friendly comic book shop sponsorship and an affordable entrance fee, STAPLE! succeeded like none before. Each successive show, while staying true to Uncle Staple's vision, has attracted more fans and required a larger venue.

More than sixty exhibitor tables showcased a multiplicity of works in both content and medium. The creators and fans present varied in age, race, and gender. In an unusual and welcome change, young adult women represented a large percentage of the attendees. Long seen as a key to the industry's survival, the need for inclusion of women in the field as both creators and fans led to the 1997 creation of the Friends of Lulu, whose "purpose is to promote and encourage female readership and participation in the comic book industry." From where I stood, the group has made serious inroads over the past twelve years.

I then go on to talk about several of the people I met. This issue's reviews all tie in with STAPLE! including coverage on Alan J. Porter's James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007 and the anticipated The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910.


Speaking of Porter, the latest edition of my Baker's Dozen interview series focuses on Mr. Porter, James Bond, comics, and Cars.

The bottom line is that neither of the property owners; Ian Fleming Publications who hold the rights to the literary Bond, nor Eon Productions, who hold the rights to the cinematic Bond, seem interested in granting a license to do comics. I know of at least one US based publisher who applied a few years ago and was refused. I am working with another US publisher who has a strong track record with high profile licensed properties, to see if we can get something off the ground, but so far have had no response from either license holder.

Believe you me, I would love nothing more than to be writing an ongoing James Bond comic series.

From the Cutting Room Floor: Brode meets Serling

Usually due to space limitations, some of the more interesting elements of many of my interviews end up on the cutting room floor before publication. For example, in my recent interview with Douglas Brode about the book Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone: The Official 50th Anniversary Tribute, I couldn't include the entire story about his first meeting with Rod Serling.

Here is the complete unexpurgated tale:

“As he was getting ready to leave, I just walked up to him,‘Mr. Serling, I’m Doug Brode. I’m one of the new professors here. I would love to do an interview and article with you.' [At the time, Brode was a regular contributor to the now-defunct Premiere-style publication Show Magazine.] Without a moment’s hesitation, he quickly pulled out a piece of paper — didn’t have a business card — wrote down his home phone number, and said, ‘Doug, I’m gonna be busy for the next month. If you can call me one month from today at this number, I’d love to set something up.’ Just like that, and he left. A month later to the day, I dialed the number, and an unmistakable voice picks up at the other end. I started to say, ‘Mr. Serling, you probably won’t remember me.’ ‘Yeah, is this Doug?’ That's the kind of guy he was. 'Are you free for lunch next week?' 'Yeah. Sure.' 'Can you get down to Ithaca?' 'Sure' 'Great. Meet me at the Ithaca spa.' 'Fine' Ithaca spa. So I packed up a swimming suit and a towel since I was going to the spa, right? Well, the Ithaca Spa is a little a diner. It's just a name. I walk in with a wrapped up towel and a bathing suit I didn't need. We sat and talked. He couldn't have been more wonderful and open about everything. Like we were best friends. He mentored me as a writer. And just a few years later, he was dead.”

Tripping through the ‘Twilight Zone’

My interview with Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone: The Official 50th Anniversary Tribute author Douglas Brode appears in the Feb. 4 San Antonio Current.

Using Carol Serling’s words as a framing device for each chapter, Brode reviews and analyzes some 80 of the show’s 156 episodes. Since several books, most notably Marc Scott Zicree’s exhaustive The Twilight Zone Companion, have explored the entire run, Brode decided to take a different approach. “I wanted to do a book where I only focused on the great ones and put the other ones aside.”

Not merely a puff piece, Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone portrays a complex view of the famed auteur. Brode is the author of more than 30 books, and this delicate balance is central to his body of work.

“I try to show in all my books, beginning with Shakespeare — even going back to Sophocles — to Spielberg today with Disney and Rod Serling in-between, the people I consider the great artists, popular entertainers, the ones who reached the masses — they are the ones who have a very balanced view,” says Brode. “Their politics are not easy. The artists who most move the masses are the ones who have that Yin/Yang between progressivism and traditionalism. And as I show in the book, Rod Serling is exactly that way.”

Baker's Dozen with Patrice Sarath

For my 13th Baker's Dozen interview, Gordath Wood novelist Patrice Sarath and I discussed first novels, horses, day jobs, and why it's okay to suck.

As an active member of the Slug Tribe, an Austin writers group, and a workshop teacher, what advice do you offer for newer writers attempting their first novel? Do you find that teaching and working with other writers helps you with your own writing?

Just write. Writing is hard, but it gets easier.

Be consistent. Write every night or on a schedule you can live with. You don't need eight hours of empty time to write. You'll just end up wasting about seven hours of that.

Know the difference between rituals that get you in the right frame of reference to write, and mere procrastination.

Dare to suck. Everyone does, and everyone gets better.

Something I have seen novices do over the years (and have done myself) is they write below their ability. If you think that a particular market will be "easy" to break into, you'll waste your time writing down to that market. You won't sell anything that you think is dreck, so why write it and submit to a market you hold in contempt? Write up instead. Stretch yourself and your abilities.

I love teaching because it's a way to pay it forward. I know that people say, "you can't teach writing," and I think that's true, that writing can't be taught. However, writing can be learned, and workshops are a great way to learn. I like the camaraderie of workshops too, the sense that you're all in it together. And everyone learns how to critique their own work by critiquing others, so I highly recommend getting into a writer's group or workshop to learn that skill.

Rick Klaw Talks about Irving Klaw

An interview with me about my famous grandfather appears on the BettiePage.com blog.

How has your own life, work and passions been shaped by experiencing the "cult" audience of Bettie Page?

The cult of Bettie enabled me to learn more about a part of my family history that I thought lost. I didn't learn about my grandfather's famous history until I was 21 and at the 1992 San Diego ComicCon. I remember the event clearly.

"Are you related to Irving Klaw?"

I stood dumbfounded. I knew the name but never expected to hear it at 21 while attending a comic book convention. Irving Klaw was my grandfather.

Irving died about 16 months before I was born. His death is the stuff of family legend.

The grey-haired man in front of me was Ray Zone. As a comic book and magazine publisher, Zone was single-handedly responsible for the 3-d boom of the late 80's.1

"He was my grandfather. Why?"

Zone proceeded to show me examples of my grandfather's work: Images of Bettie in black leather and leopard print bathing suits bound in a variety of positions. Some of the pics had Bettie with a whip. In some she was spread in doorways or suspended from a ceiling, bound and gagged. A few even had other women, but none had any nudity at all.

So you could say the "cult of Bettie" changed my life but not in the way most expect. I became curious and over the years and learned as much as I could abut his life and work. It's enabled me to re-establish a relationship with my Uncle Arth. Turns out we have a lot more in common than Irving.

Interview with The Damned

Creators, that is. My latest Baker's Dozen for RevolutionSF is with The Damned writer Cullen Bunn and artist Brian Hurtt.

It's been said the in order to get anything published, you must sell your soul. How much of Eddie comes from your personal and professional life experiences?

BH: The process of doing this comic has been entirely painless. We have a great relationship with Oni (I’d done several projects with them prior to this) and when they said yes to the pitch they more or less cut us loose on the book. Their input has been minimal and always put forth as questions rather than edicts. The Oni philosophy has always been to hire the creators they like and trust and then let them do what they do. It’s a great way to work.

Eddie is a bitter, tired, and pessimistic soul. He’s entirely based on Cullen.

CB: I tried to sell Brian’s soul on eBay, but the highest bidder failed to pay. I didn’t get a single bite on it when posted to Craigslist, either. I finally gave his soul away on Freecycle so it wouldn’t clutter my garage.

Working on The Damned seems a bit surreal, because it has been so easy, and I’m grateful every day for the experience. Brian and Oni Press are great to work with. My only fear is that I’ve been spoiled by how well this has gone. I can only hope that all the other projects I work on will be as rewarding.

Continued...

A Dark Forces Double Team

Peggy Hailey and I double teamed for the RevolutionSF coverage of Terry Moore's latest series Echo.

I interviewed Terry about life after the very popular Strangers in Paradise (which ended last year), his new series Echo, and science fiction.

What new themes has the science fiction setting allowed you to explore that you were unable to tackle in your previous works? Do you approach the writing of an sf concept different than a super hero or slice of life story?

The imagination is liberated, yet spawned from the practical laws of physics and life. I think it's advanced stuff to try and pull off, because you have to be good at the other genres to incorporate them into your sci fi story in order to establish setting and sense of place.

You could specialize in slice-of-life and be lousy at everything else, but you can't write good sci fi without being good at other genres as well.

Continued...

Peggy had the task of reviewing the first two issues of the new series.

A lot of this comic is vintage Moore: a female protagonist with some personal issues gets caught up in a much larger story and has to deal with the fallout. But it’s new, too.

Julie Martin isn’t Francine or Katchoo; she comes from a different background and has different issues to deal with. And while SiP could occasionally bust out into full on spy thriller mode, it was essentially the story of Francine and Katchoo: their day-to-day story was the heart of the piece, not the theatrics around them.

Echo is a science fiction comic, and while I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time with Julie and her daily life, I suspect that the bigger outside story will have more prominence.

Continued...

Norman Partridge interview and book review

Since Norman Partridge's Dark Harvest is our next book, my interview with the author and Peggy's review of the book should be of interest to y'all.

From the interview:

What made you decide to use a second person narrative in Dark Harvest? Is this a style you will continue using?

I'm sure I'll use it again someday, but it's not the kind of style that would fit every project. With DH, I really wanted readers to hear me talking from the other side of the page, the way you do when you listen to a campfire tale.

I wanted to yank them into the book and make them part of it, too. I had that intention from the first paragraph: "A Midwestern town. You know its name. You were born there." That was kind of the wham bam welcome to my world moment.

From Peggy's review:

I came to Norm Partridge's Dark Harvest with high hopes: I'm a big fan of his collection The Man With the Barbed-Wire Fists, so I already knew he could write. But even having read him before, I wasn't prepared for how quickly this book sucked me in.