[Xfire] Phatteox: Hello! We are very pleased to welcome everyone to chat with James Patrick Kelly! Please join me in welcoming our special guest!

 

Our guest will now say a few words and start taking your questions!

jamespatrickkelly: Hi all, I'm pleased to be here, wherever it is that I am when I'm in cyberspace.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: entilza678: what would you say is the most important thing a young writer can learn?

Answer: I think that a young young writer has to master the language first. A young writer has to master the genre.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: TheShadow: What is your favourite book you have written?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: Well, my short novel BURN just won a Nebula, so that's a fave!

jamespatrickkelly: I am primarily a short story writer, so my collection of short fiction are really my best work.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: pharoah4187: Helllo =) I was wondering who your idols were/are? You know, those that got you into doing what you do.

Answer: When I was a kid, it was Heinlein and Clarke. When I grew up, it was Ursula K. LeGuin and Phil Dick.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: racer345: How many time you approximately spend for each novel?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: It varies, anywhere from a year to three years. I have one unfinished novel that I've been working on for almost ten years but I leave it and come back to it.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [SOS] HeatDrive: Do you use word processing programs or do you use good old paper and pencil (or pen) when you're writing?

Answer: Microsoft (the evil empire) Word. I like to write in odd places with my laptop.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Bram1337: How old were you when you 'really started' writing (the moment you knew for sure that writing would be your future)?

Answer: When I was a kid I wanted to be a writer, but I also wanted to be an astronaut and a guard for the New York Knicks. I thought those were all about equally likely (unlikely). I went to a writers workshop called Clarion when I was twenty-three and retired from steady work to write when I was twenty-six.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [Xfire] Phatteox: Are there any unique challenges to publishing short stories as opposed to novels?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: Yeah, they don't pay as well!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: CaLiLaTiN: Do you have any special places you like writing?

Answer: Airports. I love to write in airports.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [Xfire] Phatteox: Why do you think writers should adopt Creative Commons Licensing?

Answer: I don't think CC is for everybody, but I like it because it's a way for me to give stories to readers after I've already had them come out in print. I don't think I would be tempted to post stories to CC if I hadn't already sold tehm elsewhere.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Vossk: Are any of the characters in your books based off people you love/hate in real life?

Answer: You betcha! I'm not going to say all of them, but I did write a story once in which the main character was me, Jim Kelly.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Have you ever parts or a lot of your stories by a computer crash or other incident? How did you feel about this and what did you do to the lost story? Did you change it, did you attempt to write it exactly the same?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: Yes. AAARRRGGGGHHHH!

jamespatrickkelly: I tried to recreate it, but it never seemed to be as good as what I lost.

jamespatrickkelly: Backup, damnit!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [DB] g0dd13: What is the best part of having your first book published?

Answer: Holding it in my hand for the first time -- except that it had a really ugly cover!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Vertimyst: When in a situation when you are unable to write down your ideas on paper, or on a computer, do you/would you write on your hands?

Answer: Good question. I'm never far from paper, so it doesn't happen that often, but I have written on napkins, credit card slip, other people's business cards -- you name it!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Vertimyst: When in a situation when you are unable to write down your ideas on paper, or on a computer, do you/would you write on your hands?

Answer: Surreal. I had never really won anything before that and when they called my name (in front of 3000 people) I swear to God I teleported to the stage. I actually don't remember how else I could have gotten there.

jamespatrickkelly: ooops. here is the question that goes with that last answer.

[Xfire] Artaxs: What was it like to win the Hugo award the first time?

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [DB] g0dd13: What sort of goals should the beginning SF writer have in mind?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: It depends. Do you want to make a living or do you want to be the best writer you can be?

jamespatrickkelly: The pressure to earn money means that you will have to take on projects that you might not necessarily chose for yourself.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: pharoah4187: How do you combat writer's block?

Answer: I don't get it (knocks on his own wooden head).

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: entilza678: what is the most difficult plot point in a novel to master?

Answer: Another good question. For me, it is that long middle part of the novel, say around the 3/4 mark. You have all this plot going but you haven't got the ending and you're still a ways away. Sometimes writers get discouraged here.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: pba.FuZ3en: Mr Kelly. do you have to finish a book before a deadline? thanks

Answer: Gulp. I am terrible at deadlines as any of my editors will tell you. I am always asking for extensions. On a couple of occasions I think I could've written a better story if I hadn't had to press to make the deadline.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: TheShadow: Earlier you mentioned the short story BURN as (one of) your favourite, What inspired you to write it?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: BURN by the way, was six months late!

jamespatrickkelly: I wrote it because I wanted to write a story about the singularity and forestfirefighting and (gulp) Henry David Thoreau.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: tallgeeselll: Have you ever changed a key part in one of your novel's and totally regretted it later?

Answer: I certainly have regrets about stories that have been published (and even some that have won awards) but it has never been because I screwed up something. It is always because what I turned in wasn't as good as what I had imagined.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: ►AA Cat̠ ☆: Do you have any pets?

Answer: Two new black kittens. Thelma and Louise. I am a cat person.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Vertimyst: Do you often write more than one book at once?

Answer: Nope. Although I might write a short story and a novel at the same time.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: ___!!'`w__Fz`': does picking the initial title of the book always a hard decision ?

Answer: It is, Almost all of my novels have started out with different titles. Sometimes the title changes because the editor tells me it has to!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Lista: How do you prevent mixing up what characters have done when you are writing a complex plot?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: Good question. I can always go back and read what I wrote.

jamespatrickkelly: Sometimes I go back and change what happened previously because it has become inconvenient for me at the point I'm at in the plot.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: pharoah4187: Do you ever find yourself carried away during the writing process, ignoring everything else?

Answer: Oh yeah. I don't play many games these days -- sorry, no time! -- but when I was really into a computer game hours would slip by and I wouldn't know it. When the writing is going good, it's just like that,

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: entilza678: what project gave you the most problems and how did you overcome them?

Answer: The hardest part -- also the most fun -- is the research. I wrote a story about a cave man and had to radically limit my vocabulary without making the story sound like Dr. Seuss. And I had to read up on what people lived like back in the earliest time of humankind.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: #XprT! Smoreo+: Does your creativity ever get in the way of getting published because it's not believable or is that the great thing about scifi writing?

Answer: I think that I am now writing some of my strangest stories, because I'm at a point in my career where readers will follow me even if it looks like I'm NUTS!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Vossk: Do you think your childhood had anything to do with you growing up to be a writer, or even influencing the stories themselves?

Answer: Absolutely. Although I had three brothers, we lived far away from our school and in a neighborhood where there weren't that many kids. So I was often lonely and found my friends in books.

jamespatrickkelly: Also I have been writing about my childhood ever since I started writing professionally.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [SOS] HeatDrive: For the ending of the story, do you come up with different scenarios and choose the one that's convenient for you, or do you just write one ending and just go with it?

Answer: jamespatrickkelly: I often think I know the ending but when I get there, another ending jumps out of the plot and bites me. I can't tell you how often that has happened and it almost always happens with my best stories.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: tallgeeselll: Earlier, were you embarrassed with showing your works to other people? Do you have any tips on avoiding being embarrassed when showing people your work, particularly a large group?

Answer: I think this is one of the hardest parts of being a beginning writer. You feel as if you're a fraud. Why should anyone be paying attention to your writing? But this is the test that will determine whether you have the stuff it takes to be a writer -- even if nobody else cares, YOU CARE. And you want to show your writing exactly because YOU CARE so much about it.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Syber_Sid: Did you read much sci-fi as a child. If so who's work(s) did you enjoy the most?

Answer: I read all the Oz books. Several times. I read a really bad series about a boy inventor named Tom Swift. Several times. Then I read Heinlein and Clarke and Asimov and Bradbury.

 

Several times!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: entilza678: have you ever found it difficult to kill off a character or end a plotline you enjoyed?

Answer: I was just today reading one of my most famous stories for my podcast at Audible.com. It's called "THINK LIKE A DINOSAUR" and was made into an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS. And one of my favorite characters dies in it. Reading it aloud upset me all over again. When I wrote that story originally, it took me days to get through the death scene.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Rebelgecko: Where do you do your research? Online? Library? Talk to experts?

Answer: I live in NH and used to live in the same town as the University of NH and did all my research in that great library. Now I live about a half hour away from that library and I don't miss it all that much. I get all my best stuff off the net. I just have to be careful to chose my sources!

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [Xfire] Phatteox: Can you talk a bit about what you do to encourage new and young writers in their career?

Answer: I want to answer two questions here. I went to a writers workshop when I was twenty-three and met several people who helped me along the way. Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm founded this workshop, which is called Clarion. I also met Harlan Ellison there and Joe Haldeman and many others.

 

Ever since then I have tried to pay forward to young writers coming up. I have taught at Clarion myself six times and will teach there in 2008. I travel around to schools in NH and write with kids from third grade through high school. And I recently started teaching at a creative writing MFA program in Maine. I have helped in some small way several dozen writers get their starts.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: Moondog2010: which of your books would you recommend to someone new to your writing?

Answer: I think most people would be able to get into BURN without any trouble. You can listen to me reading my novel LOOK INTO THE SUN over at my Free Reads Podcast. And the two short story collection, THINK LIKE A DINOSAUR and STRANGE BUT NOT A STRANGER have most of my best work.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: #XprT! Smoreo+: Are there any universal (no pun intended) rules to writing? Is it pure creativity or are them some guidelines to crafting a plot masterpiece?

Answer: I think that in order to be a writer you first have to be a reader. You have to be familiar with the kinds of writing you are trying to do. But you have to learn to read like a writer, which is different than reading normally. It can sometimes spoil the reading experience, but there it is.

 

I also think that when you are writing, you have to be thinking about your readers. It's not about you, it's about them. If they don't get it, you're wasting your time.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Question: [DB] g0dd13: What's your opinion on how SF is being represented in the worlds of TV and film?

Answer: I'm not a big consumer of TV sf. I see most of the SF movies, although I think there are too many explosions and not enough thinking in many of them.

 

jamespatrickkelly: Hey, it looks like they're kicking me out. I guess they have to sweep up and turn the lights out. I loved typing at you, gang. Great questions! Hope there were some okay answers.

[Xfire] Phatteox: That concludes the chat with James Patrick Kelly! Thank you very much to our special guest for joining us on Xfire, and thank you everyone for participating.

[Xfire] Phatteox: Now on to prizes…

[Xfire] Phatteox: The following 10 people will receive a signed copy of Look Into the Sun.

 

 

1. tallgeeseIII

2. Moondog2010

3. Syber_Sid

4. Colonel Tempest

5. #XprT! Smoreo+

6. entilza678ll

7. Vertimyst

8. pharoah4187

9. Lista

10. Dark Phoenix

 

 

If you are one of the winners PM me for instructions on how to claim your prize!

 

Thanks again for your participation!

 

Transcripts will be posted on the Xfire Sci-Fi Week site as soon we’re able to get them out.