FAQs
Interview with Michele Lang, author of Netherwood |
|
| By Ian Randal Strock | February 25, 2008 |
| Michele Lang’s first novel for Dorchester Publishing, Netherwood, is a March release for the new Shomi imprint of action/speculative romances. Netherwood tells the story of Talia Fortune, an intergalactic sheriff on the offworld colony Fresh Havens, rife with danger, sabotage, deception, and destruction, where she falls into the clutches of her quarry, outlaw and cyber-lover Lt. Robert Kovner.
SFScope: Is Netherwood science fiction with some romance, or romance with science fiction elements? Michele Lang: Netherwood crosses all kinds of lines, so I suppose the answer is a resounding “yes”! It is definitely a novel of ideas, where Talia (and the reader by proxy) explores the question of what, if anything, sets human beings apart from non-carbon-based sentient beings—that is, if the human soul can exist in a post-Singularity world. And it is an action thriller, which doesn’t let up until the very end. Also, the relationship between Talia the sheriff and her outlaw cyber-lover drives home Talia’s internal conflict: she identifies heavily with her role as the face of the law, but her passion for a man who is hellbent on subverting the existing order makes her question her world and everything she thought she knew about herself. SFScope: Is this your first novel? What can you tell us about you as a writer and as a person? Michele Lang: This is my first novel for a New York publisher. My previous publisher released three other novels and a novella of mine, but it went under last year, and I’m now considering what to do with my previous books. As a writer, and as a person, I am a multitude of contradictions. For instance, I am not a technophobe as much as a menace to technology—cell phones burn out, computers jam up, elevators get stuck more often when I am around. And yet, technology absolutely fascinates me. These products of the human imagination have transformed our physical world, our society, and will shape our future. I love to look at how people shape technology and in turn, how life adapts and transforms technology on an organic level, in ways the creators often don’t predict or expect. SFScope: OK, then—does the inspiration for a book like Netherwood—where technology appears to be a force for evil—come out of your own experience? Michele Lang: Oh, I’ve known a few evil computers in my time, haven’t you? The kind of infernal machine that consigns your senior thesis to cyber-oblivion four hours before it’s due, or the email program that shoots emails to the wrong people with a perverse, gremlin-like pleasure. Argh! But, no, Netherwood doesn’t come from that frustrating emotional place. It was first inspired by Robin Hood. It’s really a story about Robin Hood set in a futuristic Sherwood, where the sheriff hunts and falls in love with the outlaw. But as I set about writing the story, the futuristic Sherwood became an important character in its own right, a country of the mind as much as the body. I think that internet/cyberspace technology has the potential to connect us, or to isolate us. The choice is up to us, and in my book, the characters explore all of the possibilities, in both cyberspace and in the surface world. SFScope: Who are your favorite authors, or who do you think has influenced your work? Michele Lang: I am an omnivorous reader, and will devour anything I can get my hands on. Just to name a few: Ursula K. Le Guin, Stephen King, Suzanne Brockmann, Jennifer Cruisie, Neil Gaiman, Marjorie Liu, John Scalzi, Thomas Disch, Jim Butcher, Evelyn Vaughn, Cheyenne McCray, Holly Lisle, S.L. Viehl, and history books by the likes of Barbara Tuchman and David McCullough. I was influenced as a younger writer by Robert Graves, Madeleine L’Engle, and especially Richard Adams—I must’ve read Watership Down half a dozen times in seventh grade, and wrote three volumes of fanfic with a friend in high school, by hand, in spiral notebooks—the first novel-length fiction I ever wrote. I also like to read poetry when I can’t sleep, especially Yeats. Kovner quotes Yeats in Netherwood… SFScope: What’s next? (Novel, short stories, essays, whatever). Michele Lang: I’m working on another novel set in the Netherwood universe, with the tentative title, Nightwind. I am also working on a fantasy series. SFScope: Anything else you’d like to say to all your potential viewers/readers? Michele Lang: Hello, and thank you for reading this far! Please visit my website at michelelang.com, and say hello. I always enjoy connecting with readers. And thank you, SFScope. |
|
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do you get your ideas?
I’m a dreamy person…a movie of another world plays in my head through much of my day. Fragments of daily life – a red leaf, a strong cup of coffee, a face on the subway – will trigger memories, daydreams, and “what if” questions. Most of these fleeting thoughts are ephemeral, like soap bubbles, and they float away, no harm done. But once in a while, a big fish will swim up and swallow me whole. Then I’m in trouble! I have to write that story or it won’t leave me alone. And if I don’t get it right the first time, it comes back to make sure I finish the job to its satisfaction.
What is your writing process like?
Like Jo March in Little Women, I write in furious bursts and get sucked into the writers’ vortex. Once I get down there I can write pretty quickly, but afterwards I need fallow time to recover. I need to learn (as a survival mechanism) how to work at a more serene, consistent pace. Or maybe not! My method has gotten me this far with no permanent damage to date.
What does your writing space look like? Do you write in absolute quiet or with background noise?
I write in the middle of preschooler chaos. My computer lives inside a corner hutch in my living room…I can close it up and it looks like an armoire, or open it and I’m ready to roll. If I need a more peaceful environment (or caffeine) I go to a local coffeehouse to write.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
For a long time, I was an aspiring writer too. In retrospect, it was too long a time. I dreamed of writing, read voraciously, wrote long journal entries about writing. At some point, you need to stop analyzing and dreaming, and commit. Embrace the inevitable suckage of your early efforts. You have no idea how horrible some of my early fiction was, and you never will, because I’ve murdered all those darlings…
Despite the suckage, believe. Have faith in your ability to improve and have the humility to admit how much you have to learn. Your love for words will take you everywhere you need to go. Please don’t wait any longer.
Finally, if you write romance or women’s fiction, do yourself a huge favor and join the Romance Writers of America. You will learn so much…if you can’t afford to join, haunt the blogs of your favorite authors and learn from them. But please don’t stop yourself from writing while you learn, because the best way to learn is to set yourself free and write.
Do you have a writer’s mantra?
In a word, believe…
Anything is possible. My goal as a writer is to entertain, amuse, and inspire my readers. The stories that have changed my life all involve elements of the supernatural or spiritual, told through the life stories of brave, flawed, unforgettable characters. Those are the books I seek to write.