Kathleen Ann Goonan was born in Cincinnati, the setting of her first novel
QUEEN CITY JAZZ, a New York Times Notable Book. Some of the vectors of QCJ
are nanotechnology, bees, chemical communication, Shakers, and American
arts, including jazz. QCJ is presently out in paperback from Tor. Her
second novel, THE BONES OF TIME, takes place in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Tibet,
Nepal, and Thailand. Hawaiian history and the present-day Sovereignty
Movement, the new science of consciousness, genetic engineering, and time
travel converge in BONES, now available in paperback from Tor.
Goonan has published over twenty short stories in venues such as OMNI,
ASIMOV'S, TOMORROW, CENTURY, STRANGE PLASMA, and SF AGE. "The String,"
which originally appeared in F&SF, was a Nebula finalist.
MISSISSIPPI BLUES, the second book in her nanotech cycle, came out in
December from Tor. She was part of the OMNI online Round Robin in
May-June, along with Liz Hand, Jonathan Lethem, and Kim Newman. Her most
recent story release is in the White Wolf anthology DESTINATION UNKNOWN.
PurpleIris: Hi Mandy I talked to you on Tuesday! I was YellowRose.
KGoonan: Oh, PurpleIris. I see what you mean about liking all flowers.
Mandy: Hi Purple ...purple is my favorite color...
PurpleIris: Kathleen. I like Sunflowers and Daisyies the best.
KGoonan: Oh, that's what you say *today* . . .
PurpleIris: LOL. Hehe. ;)
KGoonan: Say, PurpleIris, QCJ is just FULL of Very Large Flowers. On tops of the buildings. Genetically engineered to enable those in cities to communicate . . .
PurpleIris: Kathleen Really?
JanCyberC: Superb book, BTW....what got you interested in NanoTech, Kathleen?
KGoonan: Absolutely. Would I lie? Also, for that to work, you need Very Large Genetically Engineered Bees. Jan, Drexler's ENGINES OF CREATION, which is a fascinating intro to nanotech. And, at the time I read it, about the only thing around; Drexler's private crusade. Of course, now, nanotech is really hot. Nanothinc.com is an excellent web site concerning nanotech.
JanCyberC: Great...I'll have to add the URL to the Moderator's Picks....always looking for more information regarding breaking SF/Science.
Mandy: I've just been fast and furiously reading QCJ to prepare for this chat...and I was wondering what other fictions influenced this book?
KGoonan: A lot of American literature, actually. I'd been reading a lot of Hemingway, and had just finished Flannery O'Connor's WISE BLOOD. A pretty wild book. I worked to make every single artistic reference in the book, of which there are quite a few, from the American arts, whether it be literature, visual arts, music, or even comics.
Mandy: I get a sublte subliminal feeling of Alice and Wonderland...for some reason...
KGoonan: Actually, one of my main influences is HOPSCOTCH, by Julio Cortazar. He was an Argentinian who lived in Paris in the thirties, and in HOPSCOTCH you can arrange the chapters in various ways. This fascinated me when I first read it, when I was about 16--what was interesting was how, although the evens in a chapteer would remain the same, the inner life and motives of the characters would be different, depending on the arrangement of what went before. There's kind of a surrealistic, Alice-in-Wonderland feel to the book, I think.
Mandy: yes ...Ive read HOPSCOTCH great book...
KGoonan: Mandy, you are the first person I've ever met who has read HOPSCOTCH! How exciting!
Mandy: My brother had to read it in college and he put me on to it...
JanCyberC: We are a disgustingly literate bunch here.
KGoonan: Gee, I wish I'd had such a nice college. Virginia Tech in the early seventies was kind of moribound.
Mandy: Have you ever read any Raymond Rousell?
KGoonan: Stumped me. Now I'll have to. What has he written?
Mandy: Locus Solus and something with Africa in the title... He is a french surrealistic writer....
JanCyberC: I attributed the surreal feel to QCJ to the massive physical/emotional/cultural changes your heroine was put through.
Mandy: or was
KGoonan: One of the problems, if you can call it that, with getting so involved with SF (for several years I've been doing sf reviews, and last year was a PKDick award juror) that I've really neglected reading in the wider world. I'm trying to catch up now. Yes, Verity definitely goes through some changes, and from a very close pov it has a strange and dreamy feel.
JanCyberC: As it would...at least recalling harrowing times in my own life...rarely have I handled thinks like a Heinleinesqe enginue (sp). And I appreciated that realistic touch to your character. It's a long standing argument in these chats...do women write better characters than men. How important is characterization to you Kathleen?
KGoonan: I think that very few people actually think and react in a very cut and dried way, but sometimes authors use a very shallow pov because they're working on other things. It just depends on how close you want to get with the characters.
Mandy: the sense of others controlling the world around her makes me think of the UK televsion series the PRISONER... I'm only half way through QCJ
KGoonan: Hmmm. I'd say that characterization is pretty much all, for me. In my effort to get back to the wider world of literature I've been reading some Virginia Woolf, and she has a marvellous speech about someone she calls Mrs. Brown. She makes fun of how contemporary male writers would use Mrs. Brown, and in doing so she makes Mrs. Brown exceedingly real.
JanCyberC: I'm delighted to hear that you've been one of the Jurors on the P.K.Dick awards.
SnapDragon: Hi.
JanCyberC: SnapDragon...lovely new name...thanks for rejoining us.
Mandy: hi ya Daisy...
KGoonan: I think it's kind of difficult to make very hard male/female divisions in this sort of thing. Think of Proust, for instance. I think that in sf, though, part of what a writer is dealing with is writing in what until rather recently has been a male-dominated field.
SnapDragon: Thanks! Told you I would be a new flowers. ;)
KGoonan: Hi SnapDragon and Fan, again.
SnapDragon: Hi Kathleen!
KGoonan: Big Flowers, SnapDragon--I'm tellin'ya!
SnapDragon: Can't stay too long, have to do a history paper. Hehe. ;)
JanCyberC: Sorry about that.
KGoonan: Oh, darn, SnapDragon. Jan, being a PK Dick juror was rather grueling.
JanCyberC: How many stories do you have to go through?
KGoonan: Well, theoretically all the original mass market paperbacks published in the US last year.
JanCyberC: Good God! and what in fact?
Mandy: are they submitted by their publishers or what?
KGoonan: It's important to keep going until you are absolutely sure that the book is unoriginal, or badly written, or whatever, and sometimes that doesn't take long. Generally, publishers send them. My mail box was always overflowing.
JanCyberC: LOL....and I think I have a problem now with all the books in my house...I suppose the public library was glad to see you?
Mandy: So you only read a few chapters...?
KGoonan: Absolutely ! And you know, they STILL charged me overdue fines. Yes, a few chapters will do.
JanCyberC: Kathleen, I wanted to talk a little bit about your current book THE BONES OF TIME.
KGoonan: Fire away.
JanCyberC: It's set in Hawaii and deals with a couple of main characters...as a matter of fact you flip back and forth between...Century and Lynn....was there a particular reason to divy the book up between two protagonists? I could see you following each of these folks with two seperate sequels...one following Century and the other following Lynn. Is that in the works?
KGoonan: The original KAMEHAMEHA'S BONES book was almost purely a love story between Cen and Kaiulani, Hawaii's last princess. In the process, Cen becomes a mathemetician and solves the problem of time travel. The addition of the Lynn/Interspace/cloning story gave it a lot more kick. Actually, I don't have any plans for follow-ups, but who knows?
JanCyberC: I'd read them....if you'd like a vote of confidence there. As a matter of fact that last few chapters...were riveting...I had a lot of trouble putting the book down...up till 3 one night.
KGoonan: A very interesting aside to this is that I'm now in contact with the *real* Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement. They are trying to get back their land rights and they're not doing too badly--in fact, they're throwing the title insurance situation in HI into a shambles. . . . Thanks a lot, Jan. I can't think of any better compliment.
JanCyberC: Too bad Fan is having technical difficulties...I know she was engrossed in THE BONES OF TIME and had some questions.
KGoonan: Maybe she'll be back. I'm pretty lucky I haven't been bumped.
JanCyberC: In BONES...you again tackle some cutting edge science and hot SF topics...genetic engineering for one. Can you see "modifications" being made to our children as you described in the "happy child" episode Lynn had at the pre-school?
KGoonan: I was also interested to see that in GLIMMERING Liz Hand used Penrose's Microtubule Theory of Consciousness, as I did in THE BONES OF TIME. Yes, and cloning is pretty hot stuff right now too. I think that the social issues being raised are fascinating. Happy Children. So yeah, I can see parents opting for kindler, gentler children. They already have!
JanCyberC: So one day we might actually be faced with pressure from society to have "designer" children? Sorry...looks like you've just answered that. So our future may be one of an increasing loss of some of the personal decisions we now consider our rights? I'm assuming you disagree with this type of "modification" because of Lynn's reaction in BONES.
KGoonan: I think that there will be a huge fight over these issues. For one thing, right now people choose to bear Down's Syndrome children. That's their business and they are allowed to do so. But what if some sort of gene that made one more likely to be a criminal, or an alchoholic, etc.etc. was pinpointed--to give some simple examples. Eugenics. Yes, I do. We don't know enough about it. I think that it's a fascinating and complicated issue. Who wouldn't choose to have children who are smarter, better . . . or, maybe just taller? But we don't know what we're sacrificing when we do these things, just yet.
JanCyberC: Just got a message from FanofACC. She says ....
KGoonan: And we don't know enough about what intelligence really is. I think that changing the educational environment makes a tremendous difference in apparent intelligence.
JanCyberC: Tell Ms. Goonan I really am enjoying "BONES" and am looking forward to reading more of her work this summer.
KGoonan: Thanks, FanofACC. That's very nice to hear.
Ranger: Howdy!
KGoonan: Howdy, Ranger! Are you Lone?
Mandy: howdy Ranger
Ranger: Howdy KG ... not when I'm in this room ;D
KGoonan:
JanCyberC: Kathleen....a friend of mine mentioned the other night that there seem to be a lot of Irish invading the SF market these days....since you've been reading a lot of books as a juror for the P.K.Dick award...have you noticed this as well?
KGoonan: As well they should! Seriously, I'm attending WFC in London this year and I'm working on going to Ireland and try and track down my Irish ancestors. I really don't believe how many Goonans there are . . . Well, I'm not sure if you're talking about people who live in Ireland, or who have Irish names. Patrick O'Leary is pretty darned Irish, but he's an American. DOOR NUMBER THREE is a great book.
JanCyberC: Seems to me the Irish have always been concerned with the line between reality and SF...so it would seem that SF should be the national genre.
Ranger: I must be part Irish ;)
KGoonan: You would think so. They're having the Eurocon in Dublin this year. Ranger, I think that everyone is. . .
JanCyberC: Back to BONES though...another cutting edge science topic you tackle is TIME as a fractal....your book is the first in which I've seen it...
Ranger: ;)
JanCyberC: seen that theory put forth...can you tell us more about how you decided to use this tack?
Mandy: .
KGoonan: Before and during writing BONES I read every book about time, quantum physics, etc., that I could possibly find. We don't really know what time is; none of us; it is tremendously mysterious, although we know a heck of a lot about its finer grain. I wanted to make my scenario, where Cen can see Kaiulani in the present time and he can see her in her age, believable in a science fictional venue.
JanCyberC: You convinced me. Finally, I wanted to ask you a little about Interspace, the fictitious mega-corp in the Novel.
KGoonan: Okay.
JanCyberC: Do you see corporations gaining too much power today and the possibility that they may turn into such corporate monsters?
KGoonan: Hmm. I suppose in a way they are already corporate monsters. Without competition, you don't have any reason to excel. In the case of Interspace, they have a monopoly on developing viable space travel, even an FTL drive. I guess I was making a statement about power, and about how easy it is to become corrupt. None of us is free of this propensity. And without competition, you have no reason to have competitive prices . . . It's easy to have Big Corporations as kind of a straw man in the sort of scenario I set up. I hope I made it beliveable. And also believable!
JanCyberC: True. Pathological Altruism has never been high up on any Corporation's real set of rules. Yes...I believed the motivations behind Interspace's excutives.
Ranger: LOL
JanCyberC: Typo's btw, are a very important part of online chat...we wouldn't have believed you were a real human withouth them 8^7
KGoonan: LOL
Ranger: Amen to that ;D
JanCyberC: Kathleen...can you tell us a little about your new novel? The one that's due to be published very soon?
KGoonan: MISSISSIPPI BLUES is the second book in my nanotech cycle. The characters in QUEEN CITY JAZZ continue down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to Norleans--or Nawlins, as it's called as they get further south. Blaze is a first-person character for a portion of the book. I draw on a lot of the historical divisions in this country, such as slave/free, and the development and history of the blues plays a large part in the narrative.
JanCyberC: Oh! Excellent! I know Mandy may be standing in line for that one!
Ranger: Well, umm, how much for an autographed copy? Bidding 50 bucks here ;)
JanCyberC: LOL...when's the book due out?
Ranger: Re's Mandy
JanCyberC: Re's Mandy.
Mandy: got punted again..Hi
KGoonan: I'm very excited about it--though it's really hard to tell how others are going to see a book. Ranger, when it comes out, I'll autograph yours for free. It will be out from Tor in December of '97. It is a very long book--900 manuscript pages. We worked hard on cutting it, but it's still a good long read.
Ranger: .
JanCyberC: That's a big book. Are you planning on doing a full series on this theme? Trilogy? More?
Mandy: .
KGoonan: The next book is CRESCENT CITY RHAPSODY. In order to head off such a large book, I may make two books out of this one. There was really no way to divide MISSISSIPPI BLUES. But the Crescent City story will be the final one. QCJ was the development of nan seen through the eyes of one person; MB is nanotech seen through the eyes of the nation, and CRESCENT CITY RHAPSODY will be international in scope.
JanCyberC: Yaaay! I'm sorry...but I'm a multiple-book junky. Gimme a series and I'm a happy gal.
Ranger: Are any of your books avialable on tape?
Mandy: I look forward to reading the trilogy...
Ranger: LOL .. sounds like my wife, Jan ;)
KGoonan: Ranger, no. Talk to your audiotape companies! Mandy, thanks so much.
JanCyberC: Oh it's up to 4 books now Mandy...we're beyond trilogy here.
Mandy: ah
Ranger: I could see Michael Beck doing your audio books. He's very good.
KGoonan: The thing is--nanotech really IS coming, and I think that there really WILL be vast changes because of it. And so . . . I write.
Ranger: Wasn't there a mention of Nanotech in the Discovery Magazine this month?
KGoonan: Oh--btw I should mention that in mid-July I'll be doing an OMNI online round robin with Liz Hand, Jonathan Lethem, and Kim Newman.
Mandy: Do you have an art background or interest..? .the descriptions in QCJ are so visual...
KGoonan: Whatever you want to do. I'm fine. Maybe another few minutes.
JanCyberC: Excellent! Those are a lot of fun.
Ranger: <-- Used to do OMNI
KGoonan: Whoops. Actually, Mandy, I do watercolors and I hit a lot of museums while I was writing QCJ. I lived in the DC area, and we had also recently been to the Netherlands where we saw a lot of exhibits, including the Van Gogh Centennial
JanCyberC: Kathleen..just tell us when we've made you type your fingers down to the quick and we'll reluctantly let you go...but you must know we'll keep you here as long as we can. 8^)
KGoonan: Ranger, I think that Discover has probably had more than one nanotech piece in it. And--you should do OMNI again. It's online now at Omni.com. There's a link from my page. I like Omni a lot--and not just because they've published two of my stories! Their interviews with scientists are fantastic. Okay, Jan. A few more minutes, as long as there are questions.
Ranger: LOL!
JanCyberC: I know this is a goofy question...but I'm really curious...what first interested you in Science Fiction. How did you first get hooked?
KGoonan: Actually, I thought that Science Fiction was without boundaries--that mainstream literature was limited, but that in writing sf, I could do all the things I dreamed of doing as a writer. As a child, I read a lot of fantasy, but I didn't read a whole lot of sf, except the real biggies during the seventies, until I subscribed to F&SF and ASIMOV's in the early eighties.
Mandy: Is the flower city for the cover of QCJ how you would have envisioned it...?
KGoonan: Mandy, good question. Not exactly. Not even close. The buildings look like THEMSELVES, only with large flowers at the top. I don't know. Maybe that doesn't come through clearly in the book, but I love Cincinnati and I wanted it to look like Cincinnati, not some warped place.
Mandy: that's how I saw them too, I think .
JanCyberC: Hmmm...interesting. We've had chats with SF artists and they often complain they don't get enough information from the publisher. It will be a good day, I think, when the artists and writers get to talk before hand....on a regular basis.
KGoonan: Oh, I'm sure that's true. Nick Jainshigg did a wonderful job with Roebling's Bridge, the Bee, and with the part of Cincinnati outside the Seam. I'm sure that the artists are rushed, and also that the Marketing Department plays a part in what's happening.
Mandy: would you ever consider submitting drawings for covers yourself..ie watercolor reference...
Ranger: Artist and writer like Rogers and Hammerstein
KGoonan: Well . . . I would if I thought it would make a difference . They really don't know what kind of covers sell books, so they just have to guess. Right, Ranger. Dream on .
JanCyberC: LOL.
Mandy: yeah ...i guess so...
JanCyberC: Mandy, Ranger...any last questions for Kathleen?
Ranger: Well, the old saying withstood, the cover does sell the book sometimes. If you're not familiar with the author. When are you coming to Houston?
JanCyberC: Ah! Yes! When are you coming to Chicago! Planning on any book signing tours?
Ranger: Tours, yeah
Mandy: Your'e in Florida yes...
KGoonan: Yes, true. And it can also cause the book not to be picked up . I'll be in San Antonio for Worldcon. Is that, er, close? (I have driven across Texas). And I love Chicago! Soon, I hope. When MISSISSIPPI BLUES comes out, I hope to do some signings. Yes, I live in central Floriday.
Ranger: Touche ;)
JanCyberC: Superb...be sure to let us know when you come to Chicago...sure you'll be dropping by TSOD and we'll get all of our books singed. Ranger...going to WorldCon this year?
Ranger: When is it?
JanCyberC: Labor Day.
KGoonan: Alice is great! I'll definitely let you know. Worldcon is Aug 28-Sept 2
Ranger: Remember, I'm doing the Roswell Live chat in July ;) Oh, I can make that
KGoonan: Oh! I'll have to check in. Email and remind me when the Roswell chat will be.
JanCyberC: Superb....You'll have to say "Howdy" to Kathleen for us if you get to meet her F2F first.
Ranger: Will do. Are you going to be in Roswell?
KGoonan: No, I don't think so. I lived in Yuma for a while . I'm sure some strange things have happened there that we don't know about . ..
Ranger: I'll give her one of the special Texas howdy's };>
JanCyberC: LOL!
Ranger: LOL! I understand
KGoonan: I think I'm winding down. This has been great.
JanCyberC: Thank you so much for joining us tonight Kathleen.
Ranger: It sure was nice getting to meet you.
KGoonan: Absolutely. Thanks so much for dropping by.
Mandy: yes thanks KG
JanCyberC: In December, if you still like us, we'll have to grab you and get you back out here again.
KGoonan: Will do.
Ranger: Oh, that's a good idea Jan
KGoonan: I'll have Andy the Great Tor Publicity Guy put you on his list.
JanCyberC: Thanks....I'll give him a call myself this week. Seems you've hooked up with one of the better publishers.
KGoonan: They've been great. I'm going to untie my horse now and mosey off--oh, sorry, Ranger--that's YOUR horse . . .
Mandy: lol
Ranger: LOL .. that's High Ho Silver ;D
KGoonan: Away!
JanCyberC: LOL! Goodnight.
Ranger: LOL! I'm Kathleen Goonan's straight man now ;)
Mandy: bye KG
JanCyberC: And a lovely suit it is too, Ranger.
KGoonan: Goodnight, all, and pleasant dreams. Ranger, straight men are always welcome.
Ranger: Again, thanks Kathleen .. it was very nice meeting you
RedCyberC Okay, the doors are wide open and we'll get this show on the road. Today's chat features author Kathleen Ann Goonan, author of MISSISSIPPI BLUES , the sequel to QUEEN CITY JAZZ! Welcome, Kathleen! Goonan Hi. It's great to be here. RedCyberC It's great to have you, too! How about telling us a little about yourself: how long you've been writing, your bank account number and balance... :) (I'm kidding) Goonan I've been writing for about ten years exactly. I wrote a trunk novel, then short stories, and since I wasn't selling them I went to Clarion. I then got sidetracked into short stories for a few years before getting involved in Queen City Jazz. RedCyberC LOL! Well, at least you're in good company. :) Kathleen, QUEEN CITY JAZZ deals with a future in which nanotechnology plays a major part. Do you have a background in the sciences, or is this a particularly interesting subject for you? Goonan I was not very interested in science in school. It seems strange to me now. I only cared about literature. So I've been catching up in a very big way. For The Bones of Time, for instance, I investigated quantum mechanics, the nature of time, physics, and mathematics. Nanotech makes for good metaphors and for interesting predictions, and wild speculation, and possible terror--all good for science fiction. RedCyberC Very much so. Question from Angela: Really loved Queen City Jazz, does Mississippi Blues have nano-tech in it too? Goonan Mississippi Blues is the direct continuation of Verity, Blaze, and the Cincinnatians down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. America has been weirdly changed by nan and by the Information Wars. So--yeah!
I'd say that's a definite "yes." It's very much a story about control of future technologies, including genetic engineering--and about whether they might perhaps come to control us. RedCyberC Question from crJanice: Is Verity still the main character? (from Red: Or has the focus shifted to another QCJ character?) Goonan I envisioned the book being Blaze's book, and there are several chapters from his first person pov. But I'd say that Verity is probably still the main character--yet I've added others, such as Mattie, a twelve year girl who has been in infected with a latter-day Mark Twain--the Twain who was cynical and embittered and extremely critical of imperialism, religion, and just about any other kind of insincerity he could get hold of. RedCyberC LOL! Okay, I said before that MB was a definite must-buy, but that just sealed it! Goonan (g) RedCyberC I have GOT to see how you enfuse a Mark Twain personality into a 12 year old girl. :) Goonan I don't know if you've ever read True Grit, but Mattie's kind of like that Mattie. Tough and resourceful. RedCyberC Read, no. Watched the movie, yes. Good point to make. Question from TechCyberC: Does writing transfer well to communicating online? Let me rephrase please. Other than the obvious of getting books/content/product to the consumers, hows this "cyberspace" go Goonan She's from a little town maybe in Oklahoma, on a train line where the Last Transcontinental Maglev passes several times a week. I'm not sure how cyberspace is going to affect writing. I seem to be doing a lot of things on the Internet, such as this chat, but the problem with putting writing on it is that so far it's still free. RedCyberC Yeah, that's what we find so attractive about it, Kathleen. ;) GoonanI've had two stories online from OMNI, which are linked to my web page at http://home1.gte.net/mansy/index.htm--as well as sample chapters, essays, and a few of my Washington Post travel articles. Very! RedCyberC Question from John: Hello, Kathleen Question: Who was your biggest influence? Goonan Wow. In terms of writers I'd say that Julio Cortazar with his novel Hopscotch. I suppose this is rather obscure, but you can rearrange the chapters to create different stories, and in effect play with time. Time has always fascinated me, and one of the things writers do is play with time. RedCyberC :::adding yet another to my must-read list::: Question from Angela: Will there be a third book? Is this a trilogy in the making? Goonan Hi, Angela. I'm calling it a Quartet, because there will be four books. The next two, Crescent City Rhapsody, and another as yet unnamed book, will be published by Avon in their new Eos line. RedCyberC Have Mercy!!! YAAAAAAY! Goonan The first book actually begins in the near future and chronicles the international development of nanotech and, eventually, the Flower-Cities. The final book will take place directly after Mississippi Blues. RedCyberC So, QUEEN CITY JAZZ is actually #2? Goonan Yes, RedCyberC. RedCyberC Wonderful! Goonan I just went over to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab yesterday and saw a cool "nanotech" device--a sensory visual chip. RedCyberC Comment from Angela: Excellent! So glad someone has decided to give 4 book groups a name...and a good one too! A bio-implant, Kathleen? TechCyberC The one that fits on the head of a pin? Did I get that right? Goonan No, it's not a bio implant--it's like a very very tiny motion picture camera. It senses light and translates it into images. RedCyberC Hmmm. I'll bet Langley's watching the dev on that closely. Goonan Oh, absolutely. RedCyberC Question from TechCyberC: So Kathleen, the camera is the next step after CDI? Goonan Well, of course they are madly thinking of commercial applications for the camera as well as for the audio chip they've developed. RedCyberC Question from crAtvar: Being female, do you feel you have to work twice as hard as males to get your work published? TechCyberC Interesting! Goonan Angela, not really, though having spent my formative years in the sixties, not to mention being told that "girls don't belong in mechanical drawing" and then the next year, "girls don't belong in architectural drawing" I was kind of braced for that attitude. I don't think that there is any bias against female writers in the editorial or publishing world. I'm not sure about book buyers, though. Robin Hobbs (Megan Lindholm) gave a Locus interview a few months ago and said that she deliberately picked Robin because it was not gender specific. RedCyberC Still the "stigma" that female authors can't write hard SF, perhaps? Goonan These things are kind of hard to pin down. But Linda Nagata, for instance, writes wonderful hard SF. RedCyberC Question from TechCyberC: So maybe the authors like Andre Norton did a good job of paving the way? Goonan Yes, absolutely. Goonan And a pantheon of women sf writers such as Ursula LeGuin and Joan Vinge. RedCyberC Kathleen, have any female authors influenced *your* work? Goonan The above
. RedCyberC :) Fair enough! RedCyberC Question from TechCyberC: So Kathleen, the camera is the next step after CDI? TechCyberC Good answer. (G) Goonan In the seventies I read Elizabeth Lynn and Patricia McKillip, and thought that I would write fantasy. But after a few fantasy stories, none of which were published, my subconscious just gravitated to sf . RedCyberC Is Fantasy a "safer" genre for the female author? (unfair question) Goonan Not really--I don't think that writers are quite as deliberate as you might think. I read lots and lots and lots of fantasy as a kid. Oz, fairy tale books, you name it. A strong backgrouind in fantastic. RedCyberC And (it sounds like you and I are of the same generation) the female characters that were around during that period were, oh, like window dressing? For example, almost all of Heinlein's female characters. Goonan I've come round to sf because the world is so amazing, and because science gives us the most interesting worldview possible. Contemporary "literature" really doesn't take the overwhelming effects of information we have now, and the applications of that information. RedCyberC You can say that again. At last! Goonan Male writers are now MUCH more aware that women exist in the same mind-space as them. And that they buy books and like to be able to identify with the characters! RedCyberC So the male of the species is finally getting smart? ;) Goonan It has taken a while (g). RedCyberC LOL! Question from crJan: Ms. Goonan...do you have ideas about where you'll go after the quartet is finished? Another Time story like the Bones of Time or something else? Goonan I'm not sure, crJan. I feel as if I exhausted contemporary physics with Bones--or that it exhausted me! But the World of Stories is endless. It probably won't have strong nanotech elements, though
(g) RedCyberC Time for a nano-break? ;) Goonan Yeah, maybe I'll concentrate on Geology or something (g). TechCyberC ROFL! RedCyberC Question from Angela: You mentioned that you went to Clarion. Do you really feel that was the turning point in your writing career? Goonan At that point, anything would have been a turning point. I'd been writing full time for a year, having left a thriving Montessori school I'd established ten years earlier. I was getting personal rejection letters from Gardner Dozois and Ellen Datlow very early on, after sending out five or six stories. I'd sold travel pieces and a children's story, but realized that I didn't really understand some aspects of the writing process. One of those aspects is the very important critique phase, in which you get a chance to hear what other people think you were saying. This is often quite different from what you thought you were saying. I also had no idea that a Science Fiction Community existed. Really! So in that sense it was tremendously helpful. I always pictured writing as something solitary, and thought that writers were hermits RedCyberC May I ask who else was in attendance at the Clarion workshop you attended and if you maintain a professional relationship with any of them to date? GoonanMary Rosenblum and Sage Walker, to name two. And yes, I am still in touch with them. RedCyberC Okay, another thing I'm curious about regarding writers: do you bounce ideas off one another? Are "colleagues" an important source of pre-editorial commentary? Goonan Yes, absolutely. Hi, Arwen. Sounds Welsh. Anyway, I usually talk to friends about proposals, or problems I'm having with a particular work. RedCyberC Great! Okay, here's another question from crJan: How important is research to your writing...for instance I know you went to Hawaii for Bones of Time...did you travel down the Mississippi? Goonan I travelled down the Mississippi with Sam Clemens and with numerous books and documentaries and many maps. In New Orleans, I got to see the pilot house of a steamboat. And I lived in the south--Knoxville TN and SW Virginia. RedCyberC Oh, please tell, where in SW Virginia did you stay? Goonan I went to school at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, and lived out in Craig County and beyond for a year or two. I've set one of my characters in Crescent City Rhapsody in Blacksburg--he's a Radio Astronomer. RedCyberC :::swooning::: NE Tennessee/SW Virginia is the place I call home and get back to at every opportunity. Goonan It's really beautiful and I miss it tremendously. There are no mountains in Florida! RedCyberC Had you had the opportunity to attend Storytelling Days in Jonesboro, TN, before you left? Goonan Are you from Bristol, RCC? No, but I've heard an awful lot about Storytelling Days--I'd like to go there some time. And I'd like to see Burke's Garden too, which is a "valley" with no real pass into it. RedCyberC Actually, yes! :::grinning like a fool::: Question from AdmlSisco: Hi Kathleen, along the same topic, does the solitary nature of your craft ever get to you? Goonan Ha! It's straddling two states that gives it away. RedCyberC LOL! Goonan Actually, I LOVE solitude. I wish I had more of it. Some people find this strange. But it's true. RedCyberC Cool! ROFL!!! Goonan Reading and writing are two sports that almost require solitude. RedCyberC I'd have to agree, Kathleen, at least as far as reading is concerned. Do you feel the need, mid-story, to just get out and reestablish your humanity? Goonan Coming out of a long spell of writing, or reading, for that matter, is like emerging from a dream. When you're writing, you really want the dream to last, at least until you can get it's shape fixed on paper.
RedCyberC And a question from Arwen: How much medical/technical research do you do for each book? Goonan Quite a bit, Arwen. My husband is a medical doctor with a degree in chemistry, so he's a great resource for things like that. He can check things and also suggest things. But my book bill shows that books are my main research tool.
RedCyberC One final question from the gallery then we'll open the floor to Open Chat with Ms. Goonan. Question from GailW: Will you be attending any local conventions if FL? Goonan Yes, Gail--I'll be at Oasis the weekend of May 15th, and actually quite soon -- March 18th or so -- at the Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts in Fort Lauderdale (doing a signing at a Borders there. Oasis is in Orlando at the Harley Hotel downtown. RedCyberC Cool! Want to pop out your URL one more time for us, Kathleen? Goonan And I'll give my web page address again: http//home1.gte.net/mansy/inex.htm---it's on just about all the search engines too, just look for Goonan. Goonan That's index.htm TechCyberC Cool everyones conected these days. RedCyberC LOL! Okay, gang, moderation has been turned off and Kathleen's been prepared for the onslaught... so have at it! :)
crJan Yaaaay!
crJan Love the Books Ms. Goonan!
crAtvar waves at everybody in the room!
GailW Yes, this is more like it!
John I can speak! Goonan Thanks so much. It's always great to hear that. Hi, Hi, everyone! GailW ACTION stretches...pulls gag off mouth! crAtvar ACTION waves to Goonan Goonan Waves to everyone--
AdmlSisco Huh, what? Cool! RedCyberC LOL! Everyone stretch and take a big hit off the communal Dr Pepper bottle... Goonan I needed that.
crAtvar YUMMY
crJan Eeew. LOL.
Arwen Whew.
GailW HHi Kathleen, welcome to Florida!
crJan So...Crescent City is already at the publishers? RedCyberC It has a special UV mouthpiece, Jan. No germs. ;) Goonan Thanks Gail--where are you?
crJan 8^7 thanks Red.
crAtvar <---New York City
GailW Flagler Beach, north of Daytona. Goonan CCR has just been bought and I am hard at work on it. It is due in October and I don't know what the pub date will be.
crJan Thanks. Goonan I know Flagler. Come to Oasis, Gail, and introduce yourself.
GailW I was part of the Oasis crew, Kathleen. Unfortuantely, I won't be coming in this year. Goonan Oh, Darn. You are the Gail I know from Oasis?
GailW Not sure. My husband is Ron Walotsky, artist. Ron was AGOH there last year.
GailW It's a new crowd running Oasis, good bunch! You'll have fun! Goonan Oh, yes. Sure, I know Ron. He's a fabulous artist.
GailW Thanks, I think so! RedCyberC :)
crAtvar :)
crAtvar TMTA, RED RedCyberC As usual, At!
GailW Please feel free to look us up in flagler, Kathleen.
crJan Sorry...gotta runawayrunaway for a bit...brb. RedCyberC Kathleen, what do you like to read, recreationally?
John bye Jan Goonan Okay, Gail. I'd love to.
GailW bye Jan. RedCyberC Seeya soon, Jan!
GailW Your living in Cresent Beach? Goonan Bye, Jan. Tell you what, folks--my Mom has just showed up and tells me I have a dinner date with my sister and nephew. So I have to go soon. Gail, my sister Susie once lived in Crescent Beach, but I live in Lakeland.
Arwen Bye Kathleen, thanks for chatting with us!
John Bye Kathleen
crAtvar Bye Kathleen
GailW bye Kathleen, nice speaking with you! Goonan Bye--and many, many thanks for inviting me. Hope I'll see some of you in realtime, sometime. RedCyberC Alrighty then! Kathleen, let me just say that's it's been a true pleasure having you as our guest today and I certainly hope you'll return!
AdmlSisco Bye, keep writing! TechCyberC Thanks Kathleen! RedCyberC I have enjoyed our time together beyond belief! Goonan Can't seem to stop writing--talk to you later. Bye now.\ RedCyberC LOL! Take care!
