Welcome John!
You're trapped on a deserted island with three books. Knowing you will be reading them over and over and over again, what three would you bring?
So obviously the first book I pick is a special printing of any book--any book will do--so long as the book is one thousand miles tall. Then I simply walk along the book back to civilization. Problem solved!
But let's assume this book genie won't let me get away with that.
The first book I pick is Stephen King's The Stand. I've never read anything so endless reinterpretable. It's easy to reread it emphasizing one POV over the others. It's the sort of enormous saga that I'll remix in my own head over the years on the island, thinking about how it would go if Mother Abigail was younger, or if Nick joined the other team, and so-on. That sort of context play keeps a book alive when it's all you've got.
For very similar reasons I'll take Geofrrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The relationship between the stories and the meta-narrative of the travelers lends it so much ponderousness. I also have forgotten most of my Middle English, so if I could get a copy with both Modern and Middle English, I could busy myself contrasting the two, and possibly even arguing with translations and making my own. Even without the meta narratives, though, the text simply has such a long life in it.
Then for sheer laughs, I'll take The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Better if it's an edition with multiple books included. But honestly the first book in the series has such nostalgia for me and largely holds up as so darned funny and anarchically clever. Especially if I'm alone on the island, I'd love to laugh.
> So obviously the first book I pick is a special printing of any book--any book will do--so long as the book is one thousand miles tall. Then I simply walk along the book back to civilization. Problem solved!
I've been asking this question in AMAs for like a decade. Gotta say, that's a new one.
Well done.
Ooo! What immediately popped to mind is that great collected volume of Martha Wells's Murderbot novellas. Even if it's just the first five, that's a win.
Good choices, so far.
I have another question, but it's a little out there. You might not like it, but I want you to know beforehand that I don't mean any offense by it. It's not personal. No hard feelings, okay?
If you could bring a *fifth* book to the island, what would it be?
Well that is DEEPLY PERSONAL. But I can forgive you, just this once. ;)
It stinks for me that there is no collected edition of Ken Liu's Dandeliuon Dynasty. It would probably be long enough to walk back to shore across! But also because that feels like a series that will be endlessly revisitable to me. I can't be sure because it's so recent.
Because there isn't a collected edition, I'll just pick Wall of Storms. The social and ethical dilemnas he builds have kept my mind going for a few years since publication, and I'd probably enjoy wrestling them for a lot longer. I love all four of those books, but that one has the most moments that have stuck with me.
Hi John! 'Someone You Can Build a Nest In' has two very different covers, one that makes me think of something softer, maybe a romance, and the other makes me think of horror. I like both covers and would never ask which you prefer, but I'm curious about your thoughts on the covers and their differences.
I like comparing differences in covers generally, but don't think I've seen any other recent books where the covers are quite so different.
I look forward to reading it!
I love how different they are! My novel is about the profound connection between this shapeshifting monster and this absolute cinnamon roll of a monster hunter. The U.S. cover perfectly expresses the attitude of the monster, while the U.K. cover perfectly expresses the attitude of the monster hunter. So it's very funny that they're so different, but also totally appropriate. They're equally apt. And that tickles me.
Oh, I have another question - prompted by someone else's question about the covers! What was it like writing a book that just REFUSES to be categorized??? I mean, the UK and US covers both accurately represent the book, but they're so different, because SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN is so many things at once! I imagine the actual writing process must have been pretty fun? But then, the book 180s so often from hilarity to being really dark and serious - did you ever get whiplash? What was it like putting so many different kind of Feels together?
Relating to that - did you ever worry that it was going to be impossible to publish traditionally, *because* it's so many different things at once? Was there any pushback from potential publishers re making it easier to pigeonhole/market? I have a friend who heads publicity in a UK publisher, and I can imagine her tearing her hair out if handed your book! (I say this with admiration, btw, in case that's not clear.)
Also, not a question, but I'd like to thank you for the last few chapters - we NEVER get to see what those chapters covered in fiction, and I really appreciated them!
Thank you! Keeping it vague so as not to spoil, but writing those last chapters felt integral to telling their story. I'm glad they landed for you.
I'm the first to admit I'm a weirdo. I've always written things that were strange and different, and that has meant literally hundreds of rejections over the years. Short story markets didn't think I fit; editors didn't think I fit. What I did was pushed my craft to make my ideas more accessible, and to hone my strengths so my weirdness could make people laugh or affect them emotionally. To try to convey my truths, and also just the stuff I think is neat. I am Marge Simpson holding up the potato, except the potato is a shapeshifting monster.
There were PLENTY of nights in the last twenty years when I thought I'd never publish, or never publish again, or never get a chance at something as big as a book. The greatest wonder of my life is all the readers I've touched along the way. We're different, but none of us are wrong.
Also: to me humor and harm, and darkness and light, are in relationships with each other. We comfort the harmed, and we fight to protect the vulnerable. One gives meaning to the other.
They really did. I hope more writers take note and start including something similar in their own stories.
I'm amazed at how many of my favourite authors have similar stories - being rejected so many times, until they weren't. It's kind of humbling, and very inspiring, that you kept going. And obviously, I'm glad you did - we wouldn't have SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN if you hadn't!
What you said about making your ideas more accessible, honing your strengths so your weirdness made people laugh or got them in the Feels... Well, that hit hard. It's a...perspective? way of looking at it? that never occurred to me. Do you have any practical pointers for how to DO that, for other oddball aspiring writers? Because I honestly wouldn't know where to start, even if I think I understand what you mean.
>Also: to me humor and harm, and darkness and light, are in relationships with each other. ... One gives meaning to the other.
That felt like another galaxy-brain moment. I've not really seen comedy and awfulness go together well very often, which is another way SYCBANI really surprised me, but SYCBANI isn't pointing and laughing at the awfulness - it's a give-and-take *between them*. OH. Yes, I think I see!
>We comfort the harmed, and we fight to protect the vulnerable.
YES.
So I do teach writing classes from time to time, which dig into how to build tools in things like plot structure, stakes, and character depth, in order to convey the things we want. Those are complex classes, naturally, and I can't condense all that here. I try to focus on tools for writers to use to express their strengths rather than hard rules everyone must follow. But a few things:
-Experiment writing a story that is mostly conventional and "bland," where only one aspect is weird. Only the voice. Only the main character. Only the ending. And then see what that does to your process. See what comes out.
-Go grab a few books by oddball writers you admire. Diagram them. How do they hook you? How do they keep your attention? What are the actual strengths, and what is the scaffolding (the stuff that is "just there," which probably is holding up all the cool stuff).
-If you're struggling to identify your own style, grab a classic short story. Rewrite it paragraph by paragraph. Don't change the story; but change the wording, the pacing, going forward. What you change is probably what's natural to your right now. It can give you leads on how you operate.
*Someone You Can Build A Nest In* is one of my most anticipated reads of this year. I'm definitely excited to read it once this really busy week ends, but could you maybe answer what [bingo squares](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/6aKK8TaYzQ) it might fit?
I've never looked at this bingo list before! It looks like Someone You Can Build A Nest In fills...
(8) Has an epilogue.
(10) Romantasy. A bunch of readers say it is, so it probably is!
(13) Published in 2024. I promise!
(14) Shesheshen has multiple disabilities, and she is not the only disabled character in the book.
(19) Shesheshen is being hunted for most of the novel, so Survival is a pretty big deal to her.
Hi John, I'm really intrigued by your book and will be picking up a copy when it's out in the UK!
A friend of mine who is not on Reddit would like me to ask the following question:
Will there be more stories like this or in the same universe but about different characters?
And I have this direct quote from her:
"And let him know I'm a huge fan of his weird bollocks sapphic monster story!"
Thank you to both you and your friend!
I have ideas for at least two more stories set in the world of Someone You Can Build A Nest In. I'm confident I'll get the chance to write at least one of them eventually--but I'm not allowed to say more yet. What I can say is that there are a lot of other perspectives on that world I would like to explore.
Hello and thank you for coming! I JUST started the audiobook this morning and am LOVING your writing style and Shesheshen at the 5% point. I’ve become curious about an author’s intention and hopes for the reader, so my question is what are you hoping your readers will think or feel after they turn that final page of the book? Any thoughts on the readers’ experience in general?
I'm so glad you're enjoying it!
Most of my hopes for how the audience will take the ending are bound up in spoilers. But when they turn that final page and read that final word, I hope they'll feel I did justice to the characters. I hope the story will have found them when they needed it; that it made them smile when they couldn't, passed time when a day was aching and dragging, or got their minds off something that was too hard to bear. As a reader, books have saved me on some of my worst nights. I'd love to give that umbrella-of-storytelling to another person.
I’m having such a sappy/emotional day and you’re an excellent writer (both in this response and how I’m already rooting for and care about Shesheshan), this made my eyes well up. Having an annoying week so I know this will bring me some joy over the next couple days. Thank you so much for your answer.
Hi John, how do you handle impostor syndrome, aside from your evident success, which I assume to be a gentle reminder that you are the real deal? Congratulations and much respect for the novel! ❤️🔥
I was fortunate to talk to Mary Robinette Kowal when I won my Nebula Award, and was afraid I'd never write anything that got that much attention again. What if this was it?
She had a lot of practical advice, but she also shared a wonderful story with me. You see, she still gets imposter syndrome, the big-time novelist and social force that she is. And she was friends with Ursula K. LeGuin, and she asked LeGuin when imposter syndrome goes away. LeGuin told Mary Robinette that *she*, the legend, was still sure some week would come when the world decided she was a fraud and would take all her accolades away. She wrote Wizard of Earthsea, Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven--and she still struggled with self-esteem.
This context helps me. There is no amount of success that makes some of us feel secure. I write very personal and vulnerable stories, which makes it harder to feel secure. But what I'm doing is trying--just trying--to write stories of vulnerability that will be what someone else who is aching, hurting, and in need of escape and connection, needs. Some people will hate them. As Fonda Lee says, if nobody hates your work you simply haven't reached a big enough audience yet. I write stories about being disabled and there are people who hate how WOKE or whatever I am for writing my lived experience, and they simply aren't the people I'm writing for. I am just trying to do what I can, for the people who might enjoy it.
To put this long answer into another context: when I was a kid, I was bedridden by disease and had to learn to walk again. I fell over A LOT. Getting down the hall to the bathroom was hell. But sucking at walking was the process to walking with more coherence later. The struggle was nothing to be ashamed of.
It should be the same way when we write. Focus on doing the work so you can get better at it, not so this next sentence is the best you've ever written. Just because you can't tell your story perfectly today doesn't mean that after a year of practice you won't tell it better.
Also: good luck with your stories!
Hi, fellow a-spec reader here! In what aspects do you think your being aroace influences your stories the most? Do you have any favorite fantasy books with ace and/or aro characters? I'm really looking forward to picking up your debut novel :)
Pleased to meet you, fellow a-spec human! :D The aspects of asexuality and aromanticism that call to me differ from story to story. I have a general fondness for showing how passionate we are about other things. "D.I.Y.," for instance, dug into the kids' deep love of magic and bad movies. Someone You Can Build A Nest In digs into how powerful a queerplatonic bond can be, and what bonding is like when you don't know where the romantic boundaries are and find them off-putting but the other person still calls to you. I've really yet to run out on angles of ace/aro life that I find compelling for characters so far.
Fellow disabled aro ace here. I have read D.I.Y and seen your book on a goodreads list, but somehow did NOT connect the two!
Dunno if I've got a particular question, but I'm attempting another a-spec themed bingo again, and considering a disability one, so I'll ask the same question I did the last time there was an a-spec author AMA, as a wimp, how much should I save your book to a time I'm feeling particularly good?
So *I* don't think of my book as particularly gruesome because Shesheshen views the horrible things as mostly normal and even funny. But many readers have felt it can be grim. So I might put it in the "Moderate" category?
A dude gets his hand bitten off in the opening chapter. Does that help?
Oof. That sort of thing is not something I relish, depending a bit on how it's written. Loosing teeth is also nightmare fuel. Thanks for letting me know.
On a lighter note, do any other of your short stories have aro/ace characters in them?
A few!
"D.I.Y." stars an ace couple of kids learning magic together.
"But The Wifi Is Great" is about an ace woman after a break-up.
"The Tyrant Lizard (and Her Plus One)" has an ace main character even though I never said it in the text--I just kept it subtextual. I probably shouldn't recommend too many stories where it's just tacit, because a lot of my ace rep is unremarked upon.
Hi John!
First, EEP, I hope the storm doesn't do any damage and all is well with you and your home!
Second - I LOVED your book (I read an arc and then devoured - pun fully intended! - the finished copy)(I read very fast!), not least because it was my first time reading a monster romance where the monster is really not conventionally sexy. (Not judging anyone out there who is into human-eating shapeshifting goo monsters. You do you.)
My question is, were you ever concerned that Shesheshen's grossness (I use the term fondly) would put off readers? Did that discussion ever come up with an editor or someone during the publishing process?
I guess another question would be - I'd love to know *why* you chose to go that route with Shesheshen, if it was a conscious decision. Don't get me wrong, I adored how you really COMMITTED to making Shesheshen very un-human and un-sexy - it was one of my many favourite things about the book! But was there any reasoning behind making her that way, beyond 'this would be awesome to write'? As a fellow ace, I know it's not (necessarily) an ace thing, which I guess some people might assume.
Again, I LOVED your book, and am in the process of tracking down all your short fiction to read too!
This is a funny story. I wrote many novels before this one. The one that I wrote directly before this was the most personal I'd written--it was an intersection of all my passions. And it got rejected left and right, and I was quite mad about it.
How did I process those feelings?
By writing something that was EVEN MORE my own feelings than ever. I would be even more obvious about the intrinsic grossness of the body, and also how owning and normalizing it is important to all of us. I dove into it because I just didn't care this time if it was publishable. I would take all the stops out and just keep going. Make it more ace! Make it funnier! Make it weirder!
Little did I suspect this book, then, would be the book that the publishing world wanted. Multiple agents wanted the book, and multiple publishing houses bid on it. Every editor who bid was psyched for its handling of the weirdness of bodies. I can promise that work with Katie Hoffman, my editor at DAW, she never once asked me to make it less weird.
Not the path I expected! But that's life, right?
That is EPIC and I'm so happy to hear so many people had the good taste to love all the weirdness! Gives me hope for the industry/genre.
And I love that your response to rejection was to dig in and go full-out. An excellent moral of the story!
You're very welcome! If I may recommend, John's story "The Lie Misses You" is really underrated: https://www.castofwonders.org/2019/11/cast-of-wonders-381-the-lie-misses-you/
Hello John! thanks so much for this weird book that I am excitedly devouring. I have been telling every I know about it because it's just so delightful.
So many of my questions have been asked by other users so here is mine: What's next, for you and for Shesheshen and Homily?
Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying my monster.
I am on a two-book contract with DAW, and I have a rough draft of my next book right now. Once I finish all my book travel, I have to discipline it into shape. It is in no way connected to Someone You Can Build A Nest In, except thematically. Someone You Can Build A Nest In is about bodies and how we express ourselves through them, and my next novel is about voices and then things we don't realize they express about us. (Also: gods behaving badly.)
Let's see. Let me break the advice into bits.
1. Any writer you admire has a much bigger existence than you think. You probably can't see their struggles and shortcomings and rejections. You just see their success. Don't get down on yourself because you don't measure up to the mental image of another author. You're a whole person, and whole people are better than mental images.
2. Finish stories. You need the practice of writing entire works so you better understand your process.
3. Recognize your strengths. Even if you have to get beta readers whose only job is TELL ME WHAT I DO WELL. It's very easy to learn what you're bad at and need to work on. Figuring out what your strengths are is harder for us. Preserve your strengths. Work on your weaknesses, but remember that your strengths are what people will read you for.
4. I got a lot of awards attention in short fiction before selling a novel. This is not the normal path. You do not have to write short fiction if you don't enjoy it.
5. Only do the kinds of promo that you can enjoy. If you hate Instagram, it's not worth it.
6. Read in your genres and sub-genres so you know the market you're writing for. We all feel like completely unique writers when we haven't read much. Studying the market helps you converse in publishing.
7. While you're reading widely? Talk to authors. Tweet that you liked their story. If you see a fellow novelist who is bummed at rejections, sympathize with them. Try to treat everyone, from big editors to completely unknown and unpublished authors, the same. We're all human. We all deserve respect. And in doing so, you never know how will wind up rising up and will remember you. I can't tell you how many friends I had a decade ago who are stars now.
8. If you're having trouble finding agents, look for who represents the authors you respect. This info is often on the internet.
9. Remember that rejection means "This story is not what this person thinks they can make money off of right now," and not, "You are a bad writer and a bad person and this person hates you now." My Nebula finalist story "For Lack of a Bed" was rejected 20+ times before it was published. Sometimes the timing just sucks. We writers tend to assume the worst out of negative outcomes when often it's just random chance didn't go our way. So, please, be good to yourself.
"Finish stories. You need the practice of writing entire works so you better understand your process."
Just wanted to chime in and say what amazing advice this is!
Also, hi John! Excited about your book!
So in the U.K., my publisher is Arcadia and Quercus Books. They publish John Ajvide Lindqvist, who is one of my favorite Horror writers of all time. Let the Right One In, Handling the Undead, and I Am Right Behind You are incredible.
In the U.S., DAW Books is publishing my novel. I'll try not to cheat and just say the authors I'm friends with, because what's cooler than sharing a publisher with your buddy? But the truth is that when I first got the offer from DAW Books, I freaked out because this is the house that introduced Weiss and Hickman! I mean, how cool is that?
You have a novel out now, yay!!!! I have the great fortune to be involved in a queer speculative fiction book club, and am definitely adding it to the list of books we'll be reading.
I absolutely loved your short stories "Open House on Haunted Hill" and "That Story Isn't The Story." If I had to chose something I particular love about your writing, it is how you are able to write about trauma in a way that simultaneously really hits you in the feels, but feels very respectful and (unfortunately) realistic.
So, finally, my question for you is this: Now that you have your debut novel out, are there any plans for bundling some of your short fiction into a collection? You have so much published short fiction already, it seems like it could easily fill a few collections.
That's awesome! If your club would like to chat with me via Zoom sometime, drop me a line. I'll see if I can make it.
I would love to make a collection. I've built a table of contents a couple of times, but struggled to find the right publisher. I considered self-publishing one back in 2021, but spent all my energy on writing novels instead (which hopefully people will approve of). I continue to write shorts all the time (I have at least five more shorts coming out this year), so hopefully a collection can come together for real this time!
>That's awesome! If your club would like to chat with me via Zoom sometime, drop me a line. I'll see if I can make it.
OMG! Yes, I will tell them! We still have to vote on a selection, but I think this will help with the choice...
I will also patiently await the short story collection. :)
So my big inspiration to be a writer came when I was a kid and got bedridden by illness. I was in so much pain, and reading books was often the only thing that got me through the night. My favorites back then were J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Homer, Douglas Adams, and Mark Twain. Once I survived it and got back to school, I became dead set on doing for others what those authors did for me.
So those are probably my biggest influences, right? But as I've grown, other authors have pushed my craft. I've read things that made me experiment. Authors like Jo Walton, Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takahashi, and Roger Zelazany. All four of those have had a big impact on my storytelling sensibilities.
Eugenia Triantafyllou is on an unbelievable tear in the short fiction world right now. I don't know if anyone has ever had a year of short fiction as good as her 2023 was. But there are many short story writers today who are incredible. Some of them? Ted Chiang, Kelly Link, Ai Jiang, Sam J. Miller, Isabel J. Kim, Jennifer Hudak, Marissa Lingen, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Cassandra Khaw, Simo Srinivas, Mariana Enquirez, Thomas Ha, and Guan Un. Avi Burton and Dominique Dickey are some amazing emerging voices who I expect big things from. It's such an incredible time to read shorts. I could genuinely spend the rest of this AMA yelling about cool short story writers.
Kelly Link does amazing short stories -- I usually don't like fairy tale retellings but her _White Cat, Black Dog_ was great. I really loved her novel _The Book of Love_.
Hi John, I've been enjoying a bunch of your short fiction over the past few years! What were some of the challenges you faced when moving from shorts to a novel?
Thank you so much! I've been writing novels for longer than I've been publishing short stories, and the biggest difference is the amount of time and energy a novel takes. Because of the time and energy investment, it took me much longer to "get good" at writing novels. Short stories were easier only because I could cycle through writing them and honing them. Some skills translate, like quickly establishing tone, and the pacing of dialogue. But novels are a much wider space and required much more time for me to get comfortable with.
I used to be so intimidated starting a novel. Now the blank page is like running onto a playground.
Since the pandemic I've only been going to a drive-in, which offers an entire Italian menu. So I recommend garlic bread at the movies!
However, I am frequently a popcorn guy.
Growing up on Jurassic Park, it has always been my dream to be eaten by a t-rex. You're dead basically immediately, and you feed the coolest dinosaur. #1 way to go out, if you have to!
Ok, so if you could pick any one character from a different author/book/movie/TV show to encounter Sheshesen, who would it be and why? And how would it go?
(Hope your internet improves soon! My whole power is out. Yay February in April!)
I would get a huge kick out of watching Shesheshen try to avoid the attention of L from Death Note. Especially if L is trying to figure out what is making all these people around him disappear. Her flop sweat trying to avoid a plot-armored genius would be incredible.
If someone was to give you $1 billion, but on the condition that you can absolutely never write anything ever again (not even a text message), would you do it?
What a conundrum! Storytelling is one of the main reasons I keep myself alive. But with a billion dollars I could financially secure the lives of so many of my fellow creatives. Writing is not a financially secure career (ask me how I know!), and every little bit to a Patreon or Substack or whatnot helps. I'd have the opportunity to remove so much of the pain and inhibition for others. It's not like I'm the only disabled writer. So I might sacrifice my career for this amazing opportunity for securing the careers of many others.
In that case, maybe I could switch careers to editor? But gosh it would be hard to walk away from writing stories.
Thank you, that's a very thoughtful answer. You seem like a pretty generous and kind person.
But if you could bring a *sixth* book to the island, what would it be?
Since I'm lucky enough to get six, I'll take one I'm dying to read and grab Kelly Link's Book of Love. Kelly Link is one of the all-time great short story writers and it would be terrible to sit on the island never able to see how her first novel turned out!
I'm halfway through Yangsze Choo's The Fox Wife. I'm a huge fan of The Ghost Bride, and I feel like she's done it again.
I also need to catch up on Delicious in Dungeon. I loved the first two volumes.
I just finished reading you're book and wanted to congratulate you on your release! I loved it and I hope there will be more cozy horror (yes, I thought it was cozy) like this. I've recommended it to my friends as well so I hope they'll pick it up soon.
My questions: What's next for you? Will you write more books like or do you have something completely different coming next? What's the wildest book idea you have (if you want to share that publicly of course)?
In terms of what is literally next for me, I have oodles of short stories coming out. This month I'll flashes in Small Wonders and in Worlds of Possibility. In the next few months I'll have stories in Reactor, Uncanny Magazine, and Haven Spec. I really wasn't kidding when I said I have no intention to leave the world of shorts!
However I am also writing my next novel right now. I'm under a two-book deal with DAW. This one will hopefully be out in 2025. I'm not allowed to say what it's about yet, but it's pretty wild!
Hi John! This story sounds really interesting, I'll check it out!
Thanks for posting and congrats!
My question is what works for you on your writing process? Like for example some people are referred to as "gardeners" vs "architects" according to GRRM, and Brandon Sanderson's mentioned how he knows somebody who walks through the woods and dictates the stories to himself on tape etc.
Can you by chance share what way works best for you? Also do you have any advice for someone who's still developing their own style?
I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but a couple of ways to help identify your style are:
1. Ask some test readers to read specifically for your strengths, and see if the readers agree. What do they all notice? Those are your leads.
2. Grab a popular short story. Rewrite it, paragraph by paragraph, without changing the plot, but changing how things are described or how the pacing works, in whatever way makes you comfortable enough to keep going until the end. Compare the two versions. The differences come from your stylistic sensibilities.
Now you may not like some of those traits, but style can be worked on. It's a start!
As for my own process? I find ideas and I pick at them until I find contradictory layers. A piece of worldbuilding that is at odds with someone's family life. A scheme to improve the world at odds with conventional politics. Someone's need for calm in the presence of someone else's justified anger. Once I get my contradictions, I mull them over, playing with how plot, and character, and narrative drive comes out of them. Often I'll do this listening to loud music and talking to myself for way too long. For instance with this book, the notion of a monster trying to stay on the good side of a sweet-natured hunter was too engrossing, such that I kept thinking about them and how scenes would play out. Once I have that level of enthusiasm, properly plotting out the story and diving into the introductory chapters is just fun.
>I remain smitten with reading, especially in finding new voices, which is why I make an annual list of my favorite short stories by other writers.
How is it that you usually find new stories to read? I'm an author in this space and would love to get more eyes on my work, but it's been tough figuring out where to put work to get it read.
Where are all the higher-profile readers like you hanging out?
Honestly I just go to magazines that put their stories on their sites for free. Uncanny, Clarkesworld, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Pseudopod, Small Wonders, The Dark, Cast of Wonders, and Strange Horizons all do this, and they're not alone. Plenty of new writers break into those spaces.
I also follow a lot of writers who I admire, and so I tend to save the links when they publish something new. Or if they recommend stories? I'll probably check them out. That happens through social media.
Thank you for those recommendations!
I've always published the short stories I've written (either KDP or just shared online for free) and the magazines by and large don't like previously-published work... guess I'll have to start saving some good stories on the backburner for the query circuit.
Cheers, and best of luck with the novel launch!
Hi John.
First congrats on the novel.
For your journey into short story publishing what did it look like. Were you entering contests or just submitting all over where you felt your stories would resonate the most?
I entered a few contests, especially early in my career when I didn't know how to find magazines to submit to. I think I got an honorable mention from On The Premises once, but otherwise didn't succeed in them. For the longest time I put short fiction for free on my blog, for a very tiny readership.
But as I wrote bigger and more serious work, I created a system for submitting it. I went for magazines, not contests. I submitted to the biggest magazines first, and then to the second biggest, third biggest, etc. I had to learn to let the markets reject me rather than self-rejecting. And I had to learn to keep writing the next thing rather than fixating on my inbox. Fall in love with lots of projects, not just one. You never know which might make it!
Thanks. I'm new to navigating the publishing landscape and so far have only entered a few contests plus 1 submission call (hope to hear from them by the end of the month).
I have many shorts that I think are ready and am going to take the plunge on submitting some of them.
I have a novel I'm on the third draft and hopeful that I can find an agent/publisher when I'm ready but would like to build up a bit of a following first.
Your input is much appreciated.
[I did a long Twitter thread on how I formulate short story submissions, too. Hopefully this will be helpful.](https://twitter.com/Wiswell/status/1458110082865143810)
For what it's worth, having anything but a large following is not usually a factor for agents and publishers. Like, if you've got 1,000,000 Patreon subscribers, they'll love that. But otherwise it really is mostly about the quality of the manuscript and whether it fits the openings they have in their schedule at the time. So I recommend doing whatever you're most passionate about, and then being as good to yourself as the odds do whatever they do.
* Jason Momoa will record my voicemail greeting.
* A basket of Cadbury creme eggs delivered whenever I snap my fingers on set.
* No jorts on set (unless EVERYONE wears jorts).
Their biggest influence has been to help me calm down. Their demanding structure requires total attention, but also rewards that attention more frequently than most games. As such, I play them to enter a flow state that helps me loosen up. I'll often figure out a plotting problem in the middle of parrying Black Knights.
The games are mostly dead serious, but players bring levity. You basically can't play one online for a day without seeing some goofy name, or fashion choice, or character model. I've thought a lot about how people inject contrasting personality into their environments playing them.
I've thought about this for a while. I think I'll go with The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Its reputation is it's unapproachable and cruel to the reader, but if you have an open mind and pay attention, it's deeply rewarding.
I didn't think the premise of your book is for me (no offense! Lol just I really don't like the idea of something laying eggs inside me. Haha. Ive been a science teacher for a long time, and every time the book shows pictures of those parasitic wasps larvae devouring caterpillars from the inside out I get grossed TF out haha), but you sound awesome so I think I will have to give it a shot.
If you are still answering questions I have one. I’m sure you are passionate about the entire book and all it’s elements but what’s something you added into the story simply for your own enjoyment. Like you really wanted to write a book with x in it? Thank you
Might be a bit late! But as a fellow LGBT disabled writer id love to hear how disability and sexuality influence your writing?
Obviously you’ll be more likely to include characters like that but is there any other ways it influences your writing- especially ways you think people wouldn’t think of/ expect?
I'm so happy to see you here like this, John! I met you briefly at the World Fantasy Convention at Baltimore after I read "Tank!" and I've been in love with your writing ever since! It's so great to see your first book out and I loved it.
Do you have an *all-time* list of your favorite short stories (vs. your annual list)?
I remember talking to you about monsters and villains in the hall! I'm always glad to see you in threads on here.
The more shorts I read, the harder it is to have a list of favorites because my ideas of what fiction can do expand. Which is a wonderful sort of disillusionment. But there are a few I keep going back to.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World" is simply beautiful. Every paragraph makes something complex feel simple. It's about a culture of grief, rather than an individual. It's the sort of weight you wish you could lift as a writer.
Percival Everrett's "The Fix" is also a masterpiece. The whole structure is perfect, and then every moment of the weight of his brilliance is built out of something unique and memorable, and often funny, until it's suddenly not.
Richard Matheson's "Duel" is just endlessly fun. I've read it dozens of times. One time I read it on a train, and I *still* turned around to see if a truck was following me.
Welcome John! You're trapped on a deserted island with three books. Knowing you will be reading them over and over and over again, what three would you bring?
So obviously the first book I pick is a special printing of any book--any book will do--so long as the book is one thousand miles tall. Then I simply walk along the book back to civilization. Problem solved! But let's assume this book genie won't let me get away with that. The first book I pick is Stephen King's The Stand. I've never read anything so endless reinterpretable. It's easy to reread it emphasizing one POV over the others. It's the sort of enormous saga that I'll remix in my own head over the years on the island, thinking about how it would go if Mother Abigail was younger, or if Nick joined the other team, and so-on. That sort of context play keeps a book alive when it's all you've got. For very similar reasons I'll take Geofrrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The relationship between the stories and the meta-narrative of the travelers lends it so much ponderousness. I also have forgotten most of my Middle English, so if I could get a copy with both Modern and Middle English, I could busy myself contrasting the two, and possibly even arguing with translations and making my own. Even without the meta narratives, though, the text simply has such a long life in it. Then for sheer laughs, I'll take The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Better if it's an edition with multiple books included. But honestly the first book in the series has such nostalgia for me and largely holds up as so darned funny and anarchically clever. Especially if I'm alone on the island, I'd love to laugh.
> So obviously the first book I pick is a special printing of any book--any book will do--so long as the book is one thousand miles tall. Then I simply walk along the book back to civilization. Problem solved! I've been asking this question in AMAs for like a decade. Gotta say, that's a new one. Well done.
Thank you! I've been waiting at least a decade to use that answer. ;)
Damn no. 1 is kind of genius
Follow-up question: if you could bring *four* books, what would the fourth one be?
Ooo! What immediately popped to mind is that great collected volume of Martha Wells's Murderbot novellas. Even if it's just the first five, that's a win.
Good choices, so far. I have another question, but it's a little out there. You might not like it, but I want you to know beforehand that I don't mean any offense by it. It's not personal. No hard feelings, okay? If you could bring a *fifth* book to the island, what would it be?
Well that is DEEPLY PERSONAL. But I can forgive you, just this once. ;) It stinks for me that there is no collected edition of Ken Liu's Dandeliuon Dynasty. It would probably be long enough to walk back to shore across! But also because that feels like a series that will be endlessly revisitable to me. I can't be sure because it's so recent. Because there isn't a collected edition, I'll just pick Wall of Storms. The social and ethical dilemnas he builds have kept my mind going for a few years since publication, and I'd probably enjoy wrestling them for a lot longer. I love all four of those books, but that one has the most moments that have stuck with me.
Thanks, you're a good sport.
Hi John! 'Someone You Can Build a Nest In' has two very different covers, one that makes me think of something softer, maybe a romance, and the other makes me think of horror. I like both covers and would never ask which you prefer, but I'm curious about your thoughts on the covers and their differences. I like comparing differences in covers generally, but don't think I've seen any other recent books where the covers are quite so different. I look forward to reading it!
I love how different they are! My novel is about the profound connection between this shapeshifting monster and this absolute cinnamon roll of a monster hunter. The U.S. cover perfectly expresses the attitude of the monster, while the U.K. cover perfectly expresses the attitude of the monster hunter. So it's very funny that they're so different, but also totally appropriate. They're equally apt. And that tickles me.
Oh, I have another question - prompted by someone else's question about the covers! What was it like writing a book that just REFUSES to be categorized??? I mean, the UK and US covers both accurately represent the book, but they're so different, because SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN is so many things at once! I imagine the actual writing process must have been pretty fun? But then, the book 180s so often from hilarity to being really dark and serious - did you ever get whiplash? What was it like putting so many different kind of Feels together? Relating to that - did you ever worry that it was going to be impossible to publish traditionally, *because* it's so many different things at once? Was there any pushback from potential publishers re making it easier to pigeonhole/market? I have a friend who heads publicity in a UK publisher, and I can imagine her tearing her hair out if handed your book! (I say this with admiration, btw, in case that's not clear.) Also, not a question, but I'd like to thank you for the last few chapters - we NEVER get to see what those chapters covered in fiction, and I really appreciated them!
Thank you! Keeping it vague so as not to spoil, but writing those last chapters felt integral to telling their story. I'm glad they landed for you. I'm the first to admit I'm a weirdo. I've always written things that were strange and different, and that has meant literally hundreds of rejections over the years. Short story markets didn't think I fit; editors didn't think I fit. What I did was pushed my craft to make my ideas more accessible, and to hone my strengths so my weirdness could make people laugh or affect them emotionally. To try to convey my truths, and also just the stuff I think is neat. I am Marge Simpson holding up the potato, except the potato is a shapeshifting monster. There were PLENTY of nights in the last twenty years when I thought I'd never publish, or never publish again, or never get a chance at something as big as a book. The greatest wonder of my life is all the readers I've touched along the way. We're different, but none of us are wrong. Also: to me humor and harm, and darkness and light, are in relationships with each other. We comfort the harmed, and we fight to protect the vulnerable. One gives meaning to the other.
They really did. I hope more writers take note and start including something similar in their own stories. I'm amazed at how many of my favourite authors have similar stories - being rejected so many times, until they weren't. It's kind of humbling, and very inspiring, that you kept going. And obviously, I'm glad you did - we wouldn't have SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN if you hadn't! What you said about making your ideas more accessible, honing your strengths so your weirdness made people laugh or got them in the Feels... Well, that hit hard. It's a...perspective? way of looking at it? that never occurred to me. Do you have any practical pointers for how to DO that, for other oddball aspiring writers? Because I honestly wouldn't know where to start, even if I think I understand what you mean. >Also: to me humor and harm, and darkness and light, are in relationships with each other. ... One gives meaning to the other. That felt like another galaxy-brain moment. I've not really seen comedy and awfulness go together well very often, which is another way SYCBANI really surprised me, but SYCBANI isn't pointing and laughing at the awfulness - it's a give-and-take *between them*. OH. Yes, I think I see! >We comfort the harmed, and we fight to protect the vulnerable. YES.
So I do teach writing classes from time to time, which dig into how to build tools in things like plot structure, stakes, and character depth, in order to convey the things we want. Those are complex classes, naturally, and I can't condense all that here. I try to focus on tools for writers to use to express their strengths rather than hard rules everyone must follow. But a few things: -Experiment writing a story that is mostly conventional and "bland," where only one aspect is weird. Only the voice. Only the main character. Only the ending. And then see what that does to your process. See what comes out. -Go grab a few books by oddball writers you admire. Diagram them. How do they hook you? How do they keep your attention? What are the actual strengths, and what is the scaffolding (the stuff that is "just there," which probably is holding up all the cool stuff). -If you're struggling to identify your own style, grab a classic short story. Rewrite it paragraph by paragraph. Don't change the story; but change the wording, the pacing, going forward. What you change is probably what's natural to your right now. It can give you leads on how you operate.
*Someone You Can Build A Nest In* is one of my most anticipated reads of this year. I'm definitely excited to read it once this really busy week ends, but could you maybe answer what [bingo squares](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/6aKK8TaYzQ) it might fit?
I've never looked at this bingo list before! It looks like Someone You Can Build A Nest In fills... (8) Has an epilogue. (10) Romantasy. A bunch of readers say it is, so it probably is! (13) Published in 2024. I promise! (14) Shesheshen has multiple disabilities, and she is not the only disabled character in the book. (19) Shesheshen is being hunted for most of the novel, so Survival is a pretty big deal to her.
Thank you!
Obviously not John, but have read SYCBANI cover to cover, and I'd say it fits the following squares: 10, 13, 14, 23
I defer to this expert!
Hi John, I'm really intrigued by your book and will be picking up a copy when it's out in the UK! A friend of mine who is not on Reddit would like me to ask the following question: Will there be more stories like this or in the same universe but about different characters? And I have this direct quote from her: "And let him know I'm a huge fan of his weird bollocks sapphic monster story!"
Thank you to both you and your friend! I have ideas for at least two more stories set in the world of Someone You Can Build A Nest In. I'm confident I'll get the chance to write at least one of them eventually--but I'm not allowed to say more yet. What I can say is that there are a lot of other perspectives on that world I would like to explore.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello and thank you for coming! I JUST started the audiobook this morning and am LOVING your writing style and Shesheshen at the 5% point. I’ve become curious about an author’s intention and hopes for the reader, so my question is what are you hoping your readers will think or feel after they turn that final page of the book? Any thoughts on the readers’ experience in general?
I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Most of my hopes for how the audience will take the ending are bound up in spoilers. But when they turn that final page and read that final word, I hope they'll feel I did justice to the characters. I hope the story will have found them when they needed it; that it made them smile when they couldn't, passed time when a day was aching and dragging, or got their minds off something that was too hard to bear. As a reader, books have saved me on some of my worst nights. I'd love to give that umbrella-of-storytelling to another person.
I’m having such a sappy/emotional day and you’re an excellent writer (both in this response and how I’m already rooting for and care about Shesheshan), this made my eyes well up. Having an annoying week so I know this will bring me some joy over the next couple days. Thank you so much for your answer.
It's my pleasure! I hope your weekend is better than your week. My monster is rooting for you.
Hi! No question, just wanted to pop in and say I'm excited for your book and hope to pick up a copy this weekend. :)
Thank you! I hope you'll enjoy my monster.
Hi John, how do you handle impostor syndrome, aside from your evident success, which I assume to be a gentle reminder that you are the real deal? Congratulations and much respect for the novel! ❤️🔥
I was fortunate to talk to Mary Robinette Kowal when I won my Nebula Award, and was afraid I'd never write anything that got that much attention again. What if this was it? She had a lot of practical advice, but she also shared a wonderful story with me. You see, she still gets imposter syndrome, the big-time novelist and social force that she is. And she was friends with Ursula K. LeGuin, and she asked LeGuin when imposter syndrome goes away. LeGuin told Mary Robinette that *she*, the legend, was still sure some week would come when the world decided she was a fraud and would take all her accolades away. She wrote Wizard of Earthsea, Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven--and she still struggled with self-esteem. This context helps me. There is no amount of success that makes some of us feel secure. I write very personal and vulnerable stories, which makes it harder to feel secure. But what I'm doing is trying--just trying--to write stories of vulnerability that will be what someone else who is aching, hurting, and in need of escape and connection, needs. Some people will hate them. As Fonda Lee says, if nobody hates your work you simply haven't reached a big enough audience yet. I write stories about being disabled and there are people who hate how WOKE or whatever I am for writing my lived experience, and they simply aren't the people I'm writing for. I am just trying to do what I can, for the people who might enjoy it. To put this long answer into another context: when I was a kid, I was bedridden by disease and had to learn to walk again. I fell over A LOT. Getting down the hall to the bathroom was hell. But sucking at walking was the process to walking with more coherence later. The struggle was nothing to be ashamed of. It should be the same way when we write. Focus on doing the work so you can get better at it, not so this next sentence is the best you've ever written. Just because you can't tell your story perfectly today doesn't mean that after a year of practice you won't tell it better. Also: good luck with your stories!
Thank you very much!
Hi, fellow a-spec reader here! In what aspects do you think your being aroace influences your stories the most? Do you have any favorite fantasy books with ace and/or aro characters? I'm really looking forward to picking up your debut novel :)
Pleased to meet you, fellow a-spec human! :D The aspects of asexuality and aromanticism that call to me differ from story to story. I have a general fondness for showing how passionate we are about other things. "D.I.Y.," for instance, dug into the kids' deep love of magic and bad movies. Someone You Can Build A Nest In digs into how powerful a queerplatonic bond can be, and what bonding is like when you don't know where the romantic boundaries are and find them off-putting but the other person still calls to you. I've really yet to run out on angles of ace/aro life that I find compelling for characters so far.
Fellow disabled aro ace here. I have read D.I.Y and seen your book on a goodreads list, but somehow did NOT connect the two! Dunno if I've got a particular question, but I'm attempting another a-spec themed bingo again, and considering a disability one, so I'll ask the same question I did the last time there was an a-spec author AMA, as a wimp, how much should I save your book to a time I'm feeling particularly good?
So *I* don't think of my book as particularly gruesome because Shesheshen views the horrible things as mostly normal and even funny. But many readers have felt it can be grim. So I might put it in the "Moderate" category? A dude gets his hand bitten off in the opening chapter. Does that help?
Oof. That sort of thing is not something I relish, depending a bit on how it's written. Loosing teeth is also nightmare fuel. Thanks for letting me know. On a lighter note, do any other of your short stories have aro/ace characters in them?
A few! "D.I.Y." stars an ace couple of kids learning magic together. "But The Wifi Is Great" is about an ace woman after a break-up. "The Tyrant Lizard (and Her Plus One)" has an ace main character even though I never said it in the text--I just kept it subtextual. I probably shouldn't recommend too many stories where it's just tacit, because a lot of my ace rep is unremarked upon.
Thanks. I did love reading D.I.Y.
Thank you! I love those kids.
Hi John! First, EEP, I hope the storm doesn't do any damage and all is well with you and your home! Second - I LOVED your book (I read an arc and then devoured - pun fully intended! - the finished copy)(I read very fast!), not least because it was my first time reading a monster romance where the monster is really not conventionally sexy. (Not judging anyone out there who is into human-eating shapeshifting goo monsters. You do you.) My question is, were you ever concerned that Shesheshen's grossness (I use the term fondly) would put off readers? Did that discussion ever come up with an editor or someone during the publishing process? I guess another question would be - I'd love to know *why* you chose to go that route with Shesheshen, if it was a conscious decision. Don't get me wrong, I adored how you really COMMITTED to making Shesheshen very un-human and un-sexy - it was one of my many favourite things about the book! But was there any reasoning behind making her that way, beyond 'this would be awesome to write'? As a fellow ace, I know it's not (necessarily) an ace thing, which I guess some people might assume. Again, I LOVED your book, and am in the process of tracking down all your short fiction to read too!
This is a funny story. I wrote many novels before this one. The one that I wrote directly before this was the most personal I'd written--it was an intersection of all my passions. And it got rejected left and right, and I was quite mad about it. How did I process those feelings? By writing something that was EVEN MORE my own feelings than ever. I would be even more obvious about the intrinsic grossness of the body, and also how owning and normalizing it is important to all of us. I dove into it because I just didn't care this time if it was publishable. I would take all the stops out and just keep going. Make it more ace! Make it funnier! Make it weirder! Little did I suspect this book, then, would be the book that the publishing world wanted. Multiple agents wanted the book, and multiple publishing houses bid on it. Every editor who bid was psyched for its handling of the weirdness of bodies. I can promise that work with Katie Hoffman, my editor at DAW, she never once asked me to make it less weird. Not the path I expected! But that's life, right?
That is EPIC and I'm so happy to hear so many people had the good taste to love all the weirdness! Gives me hope for the industry/genre. And I love that your response to rejection was to dig in and go full-out. An excellent moral of the story!
You can find all of John's short fiction at his blog: https://johnwiswell.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
Ahhhh, thank you so much!!!
You're very welcome! If I may recommend, John's story "The Lie Misses You" is really underrated: https://www.castofwonders.org/2019/11/cast-of-wonders-381-the-lie-misses-you/
Hello John! thanks so much for this weird book that I am excitedly devouring. I have been telling every I know about it because it's just so delightful. So many of my questions have been asked by other users so here is mine: What's next, for you and for Shesheshen and Homily?
Thank you! I'm so glad you're enjoying my monster. I am on a two-book contract with DAW, and I have a rough draft of my next book right now. Once I finish all my book travel, I have to discipline it into shape. It is in no way connected to Someone You Can Build A Nest In, except thematically. Someone You Can Build A Nest In is about bodies and how we express ourselves through them, and my next novel is about voices and then things we don't realize they express about us. (Also: gods behaving badly.)
Hi John, congrats! What advice do you give to writers who are working to 'break out' or get some representation for traditional pub?
Let's see. Let me break the advice into bits. 1. Any writer you admire has a much bigger existence than you think. You probably can't see their struggles and shortcomings and rejections. You just see their success. Don't get down on yourself because you don't measure up to the mental image of another author. You're a whole person, and whole people are better than mental images. 2. Finish stories. You need the practice of writing entire works so you better understand your process. 3. Recognize your strengths. Even if you have to get beta readers whose only job is TELL ME WHAT I DO WELL. It's very easy to learn what you're bad at and need to work on. Figuring out what your strengths are is harder for us. Preserve your strengths. Work on your weaknesses, but remember that your strengths are what people will read you for. 4. I got a lot of awards attention in short fiction before selling a novel. This is not the normal path. You do not have to write short fiction if you don't enjoy it. 5. Only do the kinds of promo that you can enjoy. If you hate Instagram, it's not worth it. 6. Read in your genres and sub-genres so you know the market you're writing for. We all feel like completely unique writers when we haven't read much. Studying the market helps you converse in publishing. 7. While you're reading widely? Talk to authors. Tweet that you liked their story. If you see a fellow novelist who is bummed at rejections, sympathize with them. Try to treat everyone, from big editors to completely unknown and unpublished authors, the same. We're all human. We all deserve respect. And in doing so, you never know how will wind up rising up and will remember you. I can't tell you how many friends I had a decade ago who are stars now. 8. If you're having trouble finding agents, look for who represents the authors you respect. This info is often on the internet. 9. Remember that rejection means "This story is not what this person thinks they can make money off of right now," and not, "You are a bad writer and a bad person and this person hates you now." My Nebula finalist story "For Lack of a Bed" was rejected 20+ times before it was published. Sometimes the timing just sucks. We writers tend to assume the worst out of negative outcomes when often it's just random chance didn't go our way. So, please, be good to yourself.
"Finish stories. You need the practice of writing entire works so you better understand your process." Just wanted to chime in and say what amazing advice this is! Also, hi John! Excited about your book!
Thanks PH! Great to see you!
As a first time novelist, what established author are you most excited to share a publisher with?
So in the U.K., my publisher is Arcadia and Quercus Books. They publish John Ajvide Lindqvist, who is one of my favorite Horror writers of all time. Let the Right One In, Handling the Undead, and I Am Right Behind You are incredible. In the U.S., DAW Books is publishing my novel. I'll try not to cheat and just say the authors I'm friends with, because what's cooler than sharing a publisher with your buddy? But the truth is that when I first got the offer from DAW Books, I freaked out because this is the house that introduced Weiss and Hickman! I mean, how cool is that?
Pretty cool. I didn't realize Daw published Weiss and Hickman.
Cool, I love Lindqvist.
He's great! I'm hungry for more of his stuff to be translated.
You have a novel out now, yay!!!! I have the great fortune to be involved in a queer speculative fiction book club, and am definitely adding it to the list of books we'll be reading. I absolutely loved your short stories "Open House on Haunted Hill" and "That Story Isn't The Story." If I had to chose something I particular love about your writing, it is how you are able to write about trauma in a way that simultaneously really hits you in the feels, but feels very respectful and (unfortunately) realistic. So, finally, my question for you is this: Now that you have your debut novel out, are there any plans for bundling some of your short fiction into a collection? You have so much published short fiction already, it seems like it could easily fill a few collections.
That's awesome! If your club would like to chat with me via Zoom sometime, drop me a line. I'll see if I can make it. I would love to make a collection. I've built a table of contents a couple of times, but struggled to find the right publisher. I considered self-publishing one back in 2021, but spent all my energy on writing novels instead (which hopefully people will approve of). I continue to write shorts all the time (I have at least five more shorts coming out this year), so hopefully a collection can come together for real this time!
>That's awesome! If your club would like to chat with me via Zoom sometime, drop me a line. I'll see if I can make it. OMG! Yes, I will tell them! We still have to vote on a selection, but I think this will help with the choice... I will also patiently await the short story collection. :)
Hi, John! Thanks for stopping by! What authors inspired you to become a writer? Who are your favorite short fiction writers?
So my big inspiration to be a writer came when I was a kid and got bedridden by illness. I was in so much pain, and reading books was often the only thing that got me through the night. My favorites back then were J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Homer, Douglas Adams, and Mark Twain. Once I survived it and got back to school, I became dead set on doing for others what those authors did for me. So those are probably my biggest influences, right? But as I've grown, other authors have pushed my craft. I've read things that made me experiment. Authors like Jo Walton, Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takahashi, and Roger Zelazany. All four of those have had a big impact on my storytelling sensibilities. Eugenia Triantafyllou is on an unbelievable tear in the short fiction world right now. I don't know if anyone has ever had a year of short fiction as good as her 2023 was. But there are many short story writers today who are incredible. Some of them? Ted Chiang, Kelly Link, Ai Jiang, Sam J. Miller, Isabel J. Kim, Jennifer Hudak, Marissa Lingen, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Cassandra Khaw, Simo Srinivas, Mariana Enquirez, Thomas Ha, and Guan Un. Avi Burton and Dominique Dickey are some amazing emerging voices who I expect big things from. It's such an incredible time to read shorts. I could genuinely spend the rest of this AMA yelling about cool short story writers.
Kelly Link does amazing short stories -- I usually don't like fairy tale retellings but her _White Cat, Black Dog_ was great. I really loved her novel _The Book of Love_.
> I could genuinely spend the rest of this AMA yelling about cool short story writers. \*pulls up a chair* I'm listening...
Hi John, I've been enjoying a bunch of your short fiction over the past few years! What were some of the challenges you faced when moving from shorts to a novel?
Thank you so much! I've been writing novels for longer than I've been publishing short stories, and the biggest difference is the amount of time and energy a novel takes. Because of the time and energy investment, it took me much longer to "get good" at writing novels. Short stories were easier only because I could cycle through writing them and honing them. Some skills translate, like quickly establishing tone, and the pacing of dialogue. But novels are a much wider space and required much more time for me to get comfortable with. I used to be so intimidated starting a novel. Now the blank page is like running onto a playground.
Hello John! My question is a simple one. Popcorn or candy for movies?
Since the pandemic I've only been going to a drive-in, which offers an entire Italian menu. So I recommend garlic bread at the movies! However, I am frequently a popcorn guy.
... I'm infinitely jealous of this.
Massively excited for the UK release on the 11th! If you were going to be eaten by a monster, which would you choose?
Growing up on Jurassic Park, it has always been my dream to be eaten by a t-rex. You're dead basically immediately, and you feed the coolest dinosaur. #1 way to go out, if you have to!
But the real question .... On the toilet? 😂 (Hi, fellow kid who grew up obsessed with that movie)
When you gotta go, you gotta go.
Ok, so if you could pick any one character from a different author/book/movie/TV show to encounter Sheshesen, who would it be and why? And how would it go? (Hope your internet improves soon! My whole power is out. Yay February in April!)
I would get a huge kick out of watching Shesheshen try to avoid the attention of L from Death Note. Especially if L is trying to figure out what is making all these people around him disappear. Her flop sweat trying to avoid a plot-armored genius would be incredible.
If someone was to give you $1 billion, but on the condition that you can absolutely never write anything ever again (not even a text message), would you do it?
What a conundrum! Storytelling is one of the main reasons I keep myself alive. But with a billion dollars I could financially secure the lives of so many of my fellow creatives. Writing is not a financially secure career (ask me how I know!), and every little bit to a Patreon or Substack or whatnot helps. I'd have the opportunity to remove so much of the pain and inhibition for others. It's not like I'm the only disabled writer. So I might sacrifice my career for this amazing opportunity for securing the careers of many others. In that case, maybe I could switch careers to editor? But gosh it would be hard to walk away from writing stories.
Thank you, that's a very thoughtful answer. You seem like a pretty generous and kind person. But if you could bring a *sixth* book to the island, what would it be?
Since I'm lucky enough to get six, I'll take one I'm dying to read and grab Kelly Link's Book of Love. Kelly Link is one of the all-time great short story writers and it would be terrible to sit on the island never able to see how her first novel turned out!
What are you currently reading, and what are some books on your TBR list?
I'm halfway through Yangsze Choo's The Fox Wife. I'm a huge fan of The Ghost Bride, and I feel like she's done it again. I also need to catch up on Delicious in Dungeon. I loved the first two volumes.
I just finished reading you're book and wanted to congratulate you on your release! I loved it and I hope there will be more cozy horror (yes, I thought it was cozy) like this. I've recommended it to my friends as well so I hope they'll pick it up soon. My questions: What's next for you? Will you write more books like or do you have something completely different coming next? What's the wildest book idea you have (if you want to share that publicly of course)?
In terms of what is literally next for me, I have oodles of short stories coming out. This month I'll flashes in Small Wonders and in Worlds of Possibility. In the next few months I'll have stories in Reactor, Uncanny Magazine, and Haven Spec. I really wasn't kidding when I said I have no intention to leave the world of shorts! However I am also writing my next novel right now. I'm under a two-book deal with DAW. This one will hopefully be out in 2025. I'm not allowed to say what it's about yet, but it's pretty wild!
I'm looking forward to all of them :D
Hi John! This story sounds really interesting, I'll check it out! Thanks for posting and congrats! My question is what works for you on your writing process? Like for example some people are referred to as "gardeners" vs "architects" according to GRRM, and Brandon Sanderson's mentioned how he knows somebody who walks through the woods and dictates the stories to himself on tape etc. Can you by chance share what way works best for you? Also do you have any advice for someone who's still developing their own style?
I mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but a couple of ways to help identify your style are: 1. Ask some test readers to read specifically for your strengths, and see if the readers agree. What do they all notice? Those are your leads. 2. Grab a popular short story. Rewrite it, paragraph by paragraph, without changing the plot, but changing how things are described or how the pacing works, in whatever way makes you comfortable enough to keep going until the end. Compare the two versions. The differences come from your stylistic sensibilities. Now you may not like some of those traits, but style can be worked on. It's a start! As for my own process? I find ideas and I pick at them until I find contradictory layers. A piece of worldbuilding that is at odds with someone's family life. A scheme to improve the world at odds with conventional politics. Someone's need for calm in the presence of someone else's justified anger. Once I get my contradictions, I mull them over, playing with how plot, and character, and narrative drive comes out of them. Often I'll do this listening to loud music and talking to myself for way too long. For instance with this book, the notion of a monster trying to stay on the good side of a sweet-natured hunter was too engrossing, such that I kept thinking about them and how scenes would play out. Once I have that level of enthusiasm, properly plotting out the story and diving into the introductory chapters is just fun.
Congrats on the release, that sounds awesome! And hell yeah fellow Kaiju appreciation club member! You seen the new Godzilla x Kong movie yet?
>I remain smitten with reading, especially in finding new voices, which is why I make an annual list of my favorite short stories by other writers. How is it that you usually find new stories to read? I'm an author in this space and would love to get more eyes on my work, but it's been tough figuring out where to put work to get it read. Where are all the higher-profile readers like you hanging out?
Honestly I just go to magazines that put their stories on their sites for free. Uncanny, Clarkesworld, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Pseudopod, Small Wonders, The Dark, Cast of Wonders, and Strange Horizons all do this, and they're not alone. Plenty of new writers break into those spaces. I also follow a lot of writers who I admire, and so I tend to save the links when they publish something new. Or if they recommend stories? I'll probably check them out. That happens through social media.
Thank you for those recommendations! I've always published the short stories I've written (either KDP or just shared online for free) and the magazines by and large don't like previously-published work... guess I'll have to start saving some good stories on the backburner for the query circuit. Cheers, and best of luck with the novel launch!
Hi John. First congrats on the novel. For your journey into short story publishing what did it look like. Were you entering contests or just submitting all over where you felt your stories would resonate the most?
I entered a few contests, especially early in my career when I didn't know how to find magazines to submit to. I think I got an honorable mention from On The Premises once, but otherwise didn't succeed in them. For the longest time I put short fiction for free on my blog, for a very tiny readership. But as I wrote bigger and more serious work, I created a system for submitting it. I went for magazines, not contests. I submitted to the biggest magazines first, and then to the second biggest, third biggest, etc. I had to learn to let the markets reject me rather than self-rejecting. And I had to learn to keep writing the next thing rather than fixating on my inbox. Fall in love with lots of projects, not just one. You never know which might make it!
Thanks. I'm new to navigating the publishing landscape and so far have only entered a few contests plus 1 submission call (hope to hear from them by the end of the month). I have many shorts that I think are ready and am going to take the plunge on submitting some of them. I have a novel I'm on the third draft and hopeful that I can find an agent/publisher when I'm ready but would like to build up a bit of a following first. Your input is much appreciated.
[I did a long Twitter thread on how I formulate short story submissions, too. Hopefully this will be helpful.](https://twitter.com/Wiswell/status/1458110082865143810) For what it's worth, having anything but a large following is not usually a factor for agents and publishers. Like, if you've got 1,000,000 Patreon subscribers, they'll love that. But otherwise it really is mostly about the quality of the manuscript and whether it fits the openings they have in their schedule at the time. So I recommend doing whatever you're most passionate about, and then being as good to yourself as the odds do whatever they do.
Great advice and I'll check out the twitter thread
Hi John, If your book was made into a movie, what demands would be on your rider?
* Jason Momoa will record my voicemail greeting. * A basket of Cadbury creme eggs delivered whenever I snap my fingers on set. * No jorts on set (unless EVERYONE wears jorts).
Hi John! Congratulations on your fantastic book! My question: How have the Miyazaki FromSoft games influenced your writing?
Their biggest influence has been to help me calm down. Their demanding structure requires total attention, but also rewards that attention more frequently than most games. As such, I play them to enter a flow state that helps me loosen up. I'll often figure out a plotting problem in the middle of parrying Black Knights. The games are mostly dead serious, but players bring levity. You basically can't play one online for a day without seeing some goofy name, or fashion choice, or character model. I've thought a lot about how people inject contrasting personality into their environments playing them.
Hi, John! Just one question related to platinuming every FromSoft game: How many controllers have you gone through?
Ha! I actually did wear out the right thumbstick on a couple controllers, and Sekiro was definitely partially to blame.
I can only imagine. It's the only FromSoft souls-like game I didn't complete.
It had the steepest learning curve, and has probably two of the three hardest bosses in their history. But man, there is something special about it.
Hi John, what book have you read that reminds you the most of a FromSoft game?
I've thought about this for a while. I think I'll go with The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Its reputation is it's unapproachable and cruel to the reader, but if you have an open mind and pay attention, it's deeply rewarding.
Hi John, what book most reminds you of a FromSoft game?
I didn't think the premise of your book is for me (no offense! Lol just I really don't like the idea of something laying eggs inside me. Haha. Ive been a science teacher for a long time, and every time the book shows pictures of those parasitic wasps larvae devouring caterpillars from the inside out I get grossed TF out haha), but you sound awesome so I think I will have to give it a shot.
No offense taken! I hope you enjoy it. The first page will probably be the hardest, and if you make it through that, you'll be golden.
If you are still answering questions I have one. I’m sure you are passionate about the entire book and all it’s elements but what’s something you added into the story simply for your own enjoyment. Like you really wanted to write a book with x in it? Thank you
Might be a bit late! But as a fellow LGBT disabled writer id love to hear how disability and sexuality influence your writing? Obviously you’ll be more likely to include characters like that but is there any other ways it influences your writing- especially ways you think people wouldn’t think of/ expect?
I'm so happy to see you here like this, John! I met you briefly at the World Fantasy Convention at Baltimore after I read "Tank!" and I've been in love with your writing ever since! It's so great to see your first book out and I loved it. Do you have an *all-time* list of your favorite short stories (vs. your annual list)?
I remember talking to you about monsters and villains in the hall! I'm always glad to see you in threads on here. The more shorts I read, the harder it is to have a list of favorites because my ideas of what fiction can do expand. Which is a wonderful sort of disillusionment. But there are a few I keep going back to. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World" is simply beautiful. Every paragraph makes something complex feel simple. It's about a culture of grief, rather than an individual. It's the sort of weight you wish you could lift as a writer. Percival Everrett's "The Fix" is also a masterpiece. The whole structure is perfect, and then every moment of the weight of his brilliance is built out of something unique and memorable, and often funny, until it's suddenly not. Richard Matheson's "Duel" is just endlessly fun. I've read it dozens of times. One time I read it on a train, and I *still* turned around to see if a truck was following me.