Author Lewis Shiner
Lewis Shiner is best known for his works in science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism. Music figures prominently in several of his works, like the 1993 novel Glimpses which deals with the never recorded albums of Jimi Hendrix, Brian Wilson, The Doors, and The Beatles. He has six novels to his credit and several collections, including the massive Collected Stories (Subterranean, 2009).
Q: Is it true you mother claimed you stood upright arms crossed the entire time she carried you, before you came out feet first two weeks late?
A: That’s what she told me. It’s good evidence for believing our characters are pretty fully formed even before we’re born.
Q: Your mother seemed to have a terrible case of asthma. How did dealing with that affect you early on do you think?
A: We were separated for several weeks before I was six months old, and that may have contributed to the feeling that we never bonded properly. She always seemed a bit uncomfortable with me, like, “What is this kid doing here? Did I ask for this?”
Q: What were you like as a kid? Did you always feel drawn to stories and written word?
A: I was a pretty obnoxious kid, arrogant and pushy. Because I read so much, that set me apart from other kids, and I don’t think they appreciated my being such a know it all. My parents taught me to read at age three because they were tired of having to read to me all the time. So yeah, even before I could read on my own I loved books and comics. We had collections of MAD comic books and POGO comic strips when I was really young and that was some of my first reading material. Because we moved so much, I think books became one of the few constants in my life.
Q: Do you feel blessed to have learned to read at such an early age?
A: It was a mixed blessing. When I started kindergarten I couldn’t believe these other kids couldn’t read or write. So I was really bored, and by the time we got to stuff I didn’t already know, I’d already developed the bad habits of not paying attention. On the other hand, books were always an escape–I took one with me no matter where we went, and I would check out of reality at any opportunity.
Q: What is your fondest early memory?
A: I was fascinated by TV, because we didn’t have one. I loved it when the neighbors would let me come watch. I remember watching SGT. PRESTON OF THE YUKON on the neighbors’ TV. Which is funny, because I don’t watch TV at all now.
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors?
A: The older I get, the more I appreciate the classics–Dickens and Tolstoy especially. I’ve also recently gotten into the great social novelists from around the turn of the century–Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair, right up through Dos Passos and Steinbeck, though Steinbeck was my big hero in high school. I admire that mixture of
empathy for the working class, great narrative power, and passionate politics.
Among contemporary writers, I like Jane Smiley, Jess Walter (especially THE ZERO), Lionel Shriver, Martin Cruz Smith, Karen Fowler, Thomas Pynchon. That’s just off the top of my head.
Q: Why do you think you have written about music so often? Why do you think fiction and music mesh so well?
A: One easy answer is that I write about it because I love it so much. Back in the 70s it was a struggle for me to decide which I wanted to pursue more seriously, writing or music. I don’t know how well they mesh. It’s notoriously hard to write about music (I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché that it’s like dancing about architecture). The main thing I try to do is keep it grounded, and not launch into huge metaphorical ecstasies. Because I’ve been a working musician, I can write about it from that standpoint, and maybe that helps keep it a little more real.
Q: What was it like to start you first novel(though unfinished) at the age of seven?
A: It was a pretty natural progression. Once I’d learned to read, my parents had me learn to write by copying out stories. Once I started changing them as I went, my course was probably set.
That first novel was about scuba diving, and scuba diving plays a big part in GLIMPSES, so I like to think that was a kind of a consummation of my impulse as a seven-year-old.
Q: How old were you when you wrote and drew your own comics for 15 cents a piece? What was it like to make more per issue than DC did at the time? Do you think the kids you sold to realized that?
A: Oh, the kids complained about the high prices. Mostly my mother bought them so I’d have them later, even as she told me what a crappy artist I was. This would have been probably third through fifth grade, somewhere in there. So this was actually before Marvel. My competition was DC and the Dell comics like WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES. And of course they made tens of thousands of copies of each issue, whereas there were no copy machines or anything like that in those days, so each of my issues was one of a kind. They outearned me by a pretty big margin.
Q: You mention having been hit and insulted by your father in your later years. Do you have advice to offer those who might be dealing with the same thing in their own families? How do you shut out all of that and focus on bettering yourself in all areas possible while dealing with constant attacks on character and person?
A: He stopped hitting me by high school, when I was getting big enough that I might have hit back. As to the insults, coming from the person who is supposed to be your protector in the world, I don’t know how you can shut that out. The only advice I can think of is just to tell people not to blame themselves, there are screwed-up parents out there, and it’s not your fault. I think people are much more aware of that these days. In the 50s and 60s, parents were assumed to always be right.
Q: Do you feel forgiveness is an important thing to have?
A: Definitely. Maybe some day I’ll be able to manage some.
Q: I read that you started writing letters to Joe Lansdale in 1978 after meeting him at a Convention. What is he like as a person? Did those letters have a major influence on your career? Are you thankful to him for the association?
A: Those letters were great, and I think any author is going to benefit from arguing with somebody who is fiercely smart, really well read, and passionate about literature. So Joe was really lucky to have met me.
I’m just kidding, of course. Joe and I would argue about anything and everything, and thanks to email we’re back at it again. I think Joe is one of the finest human beings on the planet. He is smart, compassionate, genuinely talented, and completely loyal to his friends. He would literally give you the shirt off his back, though you probably wouldn’t want it once Joe had been wearing it. There I go again.
Seriously, Joe is an old-fashioned guy in the best sense of the word. He’s honorable and decent and raised two great kids, and is a more serious craftsman than I think some people give him credit for.
Q: Is there any one moment over the course of your career that stands out most in your mind?
A: I remember when I sold my first story to F&SF. It was spring of 1980, and I was living in a garage apartment. I saw the mailman and went out to get the mail, and I knew I’d made the sale because you could see your name on the check through the window on the envelope. The postman’s name was Mac, and I told him what had happened and he was excited for me, so it was a very cool moment, standing there in the street, feeling like I’d finally arrived.
Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?
A: Probably “Always have a plan B.” For that reason I always tried to make sure I had some salable skills to support me. Though a close runner up is something Joe Lansdale said to me once, “Your greatest weakness is your greatest strength.” It took me a while, but I’ve really come to appreciate that statement.
Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I have to have a day job, so writing is what I do in my spare time. But in the little time that’s left after that, I like to dance. My girlfriend and I go out social dancing at least a couple of times a week.Mostly salsa, but also swing, tango, and others.
Q: How do you think the business has changed most since you first started working in it?
A: Like everything else, it’s gotten harder. It was not exactly a piece of cake to sell an SF story to the magazines in the 70s or 80s, but it was easier than it is now, and there were more magazines and more readers. We’re at a weird crossroads now, where the old model of print publication is dying, and none of the new models have really found a way for the writer to get paid. It will probably sort itself out eventually, but this is a very tough time to be trying to break in. Or to be a “cult writer” who doesn’t sell much.
Q: What one thing do you think writers just starting out need to remember as they try to hone their skills and sell their works?
A: “Always have a plan B.” Seriously, I think the most important thing is to learn to write for the pleasure of it, not for any hope of fame or rewards. Because fame and rewards are hard to come by and not guaranteed to last.
Q: How do you hope to be remembered?
A: I would love to be remembered as a political writer who is working the same piece of ground as writers like Dos Passos or Frank Norris, but I don’t think I’ve earned that yet. My work is getting more political as I age, and I am moving increasingly into that territory. But really, I would be grateful to be remembered at all.
Q: Anything you’d like to say in closing?
A: I’d just like to plug the reprints that Subterranean is doing of my backlist novels. You can find them on the major Internet bookstores. I really love the designs–and why not? I did them myself. And I’ll have a new novel, DARK TANGOS, out from Subterranean sometime next year. It’s the most political novel I’ve done yet, but also a romance. With lots of dancing.