People interest me a lot: why we are kind, why we are cruel, how we learn the difference, what makes us act in ways contrary to those we've been socialized with.
— Kameron Hurley
This is the biggest trick of the sort of thing I write: creating fun, powerful stories with tons of interesting stuff going socially and culturally that doesn't overly confuse the reader.
I can't change the preconceived notions a reader brings to a work, but I can do my best to be aware of, address, and subvert tropes and expectations that readers may have as best I can and hope I don't screw it up too much.
The reality is that much of the stuff you see in film, television, comics, and children's cartoons got its start inside the inspired, disruptive halls of science-fiction and fantasy literature.
As for the best '80s action movie, I'm going to be predictable here and say 'Die Hard.' I watch that movie at least twice a year. Perfect script.
Short fiction isn't my natural form. It's taken a lot of work over the years to finally feel more comfortable writing stories under 80,000 words!
I started writing 'God's War' knowing that I wanted to write about real people on a resource-strapped planet at perpetual war.
Historically, science-fiction and fantasy literature is no stranger to controversy, but it has learned how to adapt and endure.
Being a writer, writing for a living, is one long persistence game. Everyone wants you to quit. Quite often, you want to quit. You get kicked down. You come up swinging. You keep going. Either you are committed to it, or you aren't.
I think anger of any kind is valuable. It's all about learning how to channel it. The worst thing we can do is get bored or complacent or worse - suppress our anger and then see it burst forth in unhealthy ways.
I've always been interested in the politics of war. War is one of those things that, the longer I studied it, the more illogical it seemed.
