ristine Kathryn Rusch
is as renowned for her own world-building as she is for her ability to be perfectly at home within the world of someone else's making, namely forays into the worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars.
She has gained notice not only for her writing, making her first impact in 1990 by
winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author, but also for being an experienced editor, working with her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, for Pulphouse: A Hardback Magazine (for which they shared a World Fantasy Award in 1989) before moving on to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1991 to 1997, winning the Hugo in 1994 as Best Editor.
With over 20 acclaimed novels, such as The Fey series, Hitler's Angel and The Black King, Rusch will be following up with the release of her latest work, The Disappeared (Roc), this year, which takes place in the same world as her novella, The Retrieval Artist. Rusch is also known for working in different genres under different pen names, writing romance and mystery novels.
Is it easier to write using someone else's characters and universe?
Rusch: No. It's harder. You don't have freedom of choice. You must follow the dictates set up by the owner of the universe—and by the fans' expectations. If you're not a fan of that universe, don't even try to write in it. It doesn't work.
How have media tie-ins affected publishing?
Rusch: Media tie-ins in this form have been around for nearly 100 years. Our local antiquarian bookstore has cartoon and movie tie-ins from the 1920s—independent, original stories and novelizations.
So that's a long way of saying that tie-ins have always been with us and haven't affected publishing at all. For a while, they're more successful, and then they fade. (There was a big spate of tie-ins in the early 1970s, then it dropped off, only to resurge in the 1990s.)
The fact that tie-ins have hurt "regular" books is a complete and total myth.
When writing tie-ins such as Section 31: Shadow, are you concerned what the reaction of the fan base will be?
Rusch: As I said above, a tie-in writer must always be concerned about the fans. The books are for the fans. Of course, if the writer is a fan herself, as I am, it's not a problem. Just please yourself, usually, and you've pleased most of the fans.
You can't please all the fans because, well, you can't please all of the people all of the time.
How have the duties of an editor in the speculative field changed over the years?
Rusch: Haven't changed at all, really.
What are the pitfalls publishers should be trying to avoid?
Rusch: Well, it depends on what point of view you're asking from. If you're asking
me as a former owner of a publishing house, I'd have a different answer than if you asked me as a former editor. And of course as a writer, I have a completely different opinion.
Right now, I think publishing is the most difficult for short-fiction magazine publishers. The distribution system has changed and getting to the newsstand is difficult. Once there, it's hard to attract attention. Publishers have to look to new venues to find subscribers—not just the Net,
but places like an independent bookstore (put the digests on the racks by the paperbacks), comic books, etc. I think publishers must expect to spend some money advertising in new venues.
Trek and the Dell magazines have a co-advertising deal going. I hope it works for them because I'd like to see the magazines advertise in games like Tomb Raider (maybe insert a subscription card) and in other areas that teenagers pay attention to. The readership of the short-story magazine is getting older, and that's a bad thing. We need to appeal to more readers—and we're not, because of business constraints.
What's the best way for a beginning author to get a foot in the door of publishers?
Rusch: In SF, write short fiction. Write a lot. Then write more. Mail everything you write with an SASE. The way to get published is to be persistent. Talent is not everything. Persistence is.
Horror and science fiction have seen peaks and valleys over the years. Have you seen the same for fantasy?
Rusch: No. Fantasy has been a mainstay for hundreds of years (think
Shakespeare). It will always appeal.
Why do you think fantasy has this timeless appeal?
Rusch: Because you can deal with universal subjects and since you're using a made-up world that is never going to come true, readers don't argue with your details. I had a discussion with friends about the Big Three of SF: Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke. Heinlein's details are dated—all the
computers are large, the spacesuits bulky. Asimov's characterization is dated, particularly his women (hell, that was dated in 1970 and is worse now—and shouldn't be, since he's writing about the future), and Clarke—well, Rama might live on. Maybe.
But if they were writing fantasy, no one would care that Heinlein's computers were large, because the world didn't exist. They wouldn't care about the female characterization in Asimov, because he made up the world and maybe he's making a point about sexism. Same with Clarke.
What do you qualify as fantasy, as Shakespeare isn't a name usually connected to fantasy?
Rusch: All fiction is fantasy, ultimately, since it isn't true. But come on. Have you read Shakespeare? Take A Midsummer's Night Dream. It has Oberon, king of the faeries. That's classic fantasy. Hamlet has the ghost of Hamlet's father in the opening scene. Shakespeare was a brilliant fantasist.
Fantasy has a long tradition in Western literature. (It does in other literatures as well, but we're dealing with the Western tradition here.) A Christmas Carol by Dickens is fantasy. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain is time travel, for heaven's sake. And let's not forget Spenser's Faerie Queene—one of the classics of literature and one of the first fantasy novels. Or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the first SF novel in English ...
These are just from the top of my head. I could give you a long list, but I won't. I have a life.
The problem is that English professors in the past 50 years have relegated fantasy to children's literature. (But not the classics I named because they're—well, classics.) And most fantasy written in English is written for adults. Always has been, always will be.
This is why I get such a kick out of Harry Potter's critics, who think it "amazing" that adults like the books. Of course we do. Rowling is working in the very British fantasy tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, whose novels were written for adults.
Is the small press producing authors the larger publishers can become interested in?
Rusch: It always has and always will. Right now, there's an excellent collection of short fiction out by Ray Vukcevich from Small Beer Press. Ray is one of the best short story writers around—and no mainstream publisher would touch his short fiction, because he's not a bestseller—yet.
Do you think we will see the return of the mid-list?
Rusch: Not as we knew it. And frankly, speaking as a mid-list writer, why should we? The bulk of the books weren't memorable. They were product designed to fill a slot. The slots have become fewer, so the writers who survived were the ones who were doing memorable work.
This is not a fair business—and it shouldn't be. Writers who aren't selling these days should look to their own writing. How can they improve it? What's wrong with it?
I've had trouble selling some books. Some are off-market (fall between the marketing cracks). And some are simply flawed books that would have been published 10 years ago.
How do you feel about self-publishing?
Rusch: I think it's foolish in the extreme.
Why "foolish in the extreme"?
Rusch: Because, in all the years that I've been writing (not publishing—writing), I've only seen three self-published books go on to have regular publishing sales. That's three in 20 years. Or better yet, three in probably tens of millions of self-published books. And those three books had
special circumstances—i.e., they were actually good.
Sorry to say that most self-published literature is crap. There's a real reason that publishers won't take the books. Publishers are always looking for good material. If your material is good, it will sell. Bottom line. If it isn't selling, generally the problem is with your writing, be it your
sentence structure, grammar, plot, characters or something.
Rather than spend the money to self publish, save the money, use it to work a little less at your real job, and write more. That's the only way you'll improve.
Vanity presses are called "vanity" presses for a reason. They appeal to the writer's vanity, not the writer's sanity. Stay away if you want to be a serious writer.
Do you prefer working on a long series or stand-alone novels?
Rusch: I like both equally.
In your collaborations, are there any unique problems because you're working with your husband?
Rusch: We fight when we brainstorm. And I mean fight. So we don't brainstorm. He comes up with the idea and plot and I do the "coloring"—i.e., the characters and setting. Much easier—and safer—that way.
Does your writing technique differ with the genre you're writing in?
Rusch: My voice changes. My technique does not.
Which current writers are you reading, both in and out of SF/F?
Rusch: Ian Rankin (mystery), Dead Souls; Nora Roberts, Midnight Bayou; Connie Willis, Passage; Andre Dubois, From Paris to the Moon; Tony Hillerman and Otto Penzler, eds., The Best Mystery Stories of the Century; The Best American Essays 1999; J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; and Don DeLillo, Underworld.
What motivates you to continue writing?
Rusch: I adore it. I'm addicted to it. I can't do anything else.
What feeling do you want readers of Stories for an Enchanted Afternoon to walk away with?
Rusch: That they'd like to pick up a novel of mine or read the next collection.
Is there a subject or genre you haven't written about that you'd like to?
Rusch: Historical romance intrigues me. I imagine I'll get to that someday. I'm moving into the genres that I've always wanted to write in—historical mysteries and mystery in general; stand-alone SF (for NAL); and just something I think of as Kris stories, which are very hard to define. You find a lot of those in Enchanted Afternoon, I think.
If you could change anything in your career, would you?
Rusch: Honestly, I would have stopped editing much earlier than I did. I should have been more aggressive in asking for pay equal to my ability when it came to editing. (My husband gets paid as much for one anthology as I did for a year's work at F&SF.) I should have written more short stories in the mid-'90s.
But, oh, well ...
What do you think of how women have been, and currently are, represented in SF/F?
Rusch: I think women SF writers are the, best in the business, as evidenced by the fact that we've won the most awards in SF in the past decade. That said, it's amazing how many women SF writers are ignored or dismissed by the SF critical establishment for dealing with "women's issues" like hearth and home. I think once women start reviewing more SF as well as writing it, that problem will go away.
I think the idea that women are discriminated against in SF goes completely against reality. It used to be true about 30 years ago. It is not now. There are more female SF writers than male SF writers, and we're getting published in larger numbers. There are also more female editors.
What most concerns you as a writer in today's publishing market?
Rusch: The fact that no one seems to know how to market SF to the folks who buy SF games, go to SF films and watch SF TV.
Any advice you'd like to give new writers?
Rusch: To quote Galaxy Quest: Never give up, never give in, never surrender. In other words, write a lot, mail it all to different markets (one at a time, of course), and keep trying. Remember that it will take you about 10 years from the moment you become serious about writing as your chosen profession until you become a professional writer.
What particular challenges have you faced because you're a writer?
Rusch: Most of them have to do with real-world finances, like banks and places like that. I don't fit into the accepted mode—I don't have a job with a salary and I'm not obviously self-employed (I don't have a storefront). It got easier when I had books out and I could bring them to a meeting with a bank rep to prove that indeed, I do write.
The question I hate in the real world is this:
Person: "What do you do for a living?"
Kris: "I'm a writer."
Person: "Oh, have you sold anything?"
How the heck do they think I made a living if I hadn't sold anything? Grrr ...
What's next for you?
Rusch: I'm finishing my next Kris Nelscott book and I'm also working on SF/mysteries for NAL. Then I'll do a stand-alone thriller that's been in the works for years. Not to mention more short stories. ...
Your new work, The Disappeared, is set in the same world as your Hugo-nominated novella, The Retrieval Artist. What made you visit that world again rather than another?
Rusch: The idea for Retrieval Artist, the novella, came to me as a series, not
as a single story. So I've been planning this from the start. He's my continuing SF detective. This series (featuring Miles Flint from The Retrieval Artist) will be loosely connected to each other instead of forming a continuous story throughout several books.
What made you choose that route?
Rusch: I want this to be structured like mystery novels are structured. They aren't one long story. I've had trouble with readers being unable to get book four of The Fey—which was the first taken out of print (one, two and three are still in print—go figure), so no one could finish the series. I don't want that to happen here. If the fourth book becomes unavailable for some reason, then the reader can skip to five or read them all out of order.
The characters will grow and change, of course. That's half the fun. But the stories will stand alone.
Book one is the origin story. It comes long before the novella.
Will this series be your primary focus for the foreseeable future?
Rusch: Good heavens, no. I'm too prolific for that, I'm afraid. I'm still doing short fiction—I have a collection coming out of Five Star this year (to go with last year's collection from Golden Gryphon). I'm doing a fantasy series for Pocket Books. The first book is called Fantasy Life and it'll be out in 2003.
I'm also writing under many pen names. The well-known ones are Kris Nelscott in mystery and Kristine Grayson in romance. The romance books are really fantasy novels. They're in a loosely based series too. In romance, the series go like this: minor characters from one book become major characters in the next. I'm doing that in this series.
So I'm staying busy and happy and writing a lot, which pleases me to no end.
Also in this issue: The cast and crew of Men in Black II.
