adelaidesean: (simpsons)
I’ve been writing hard the last few weeks (two short stories, one novel, numerous treatments of the Crooked Letter TV series pitch document), so I’ve been slack when it comes to posting to reviews of The Force Unleashed II, The Fixers, my story in Godlike Machines, and evenThe Grand Conjunction, plus a quick plug in The Australian Literary Review (thanks, Rowena). So there are some links, if you’re interested.

There have also been a ton of interviews, articles and podcasts. Most relate to The Force Unleashed II, but not all. I try to give new answers each time, which leads me to wonder if I’ve ever contradicted myself. Hopefully I have. It’d be a shame not to leave something for future scholars to argue over...

“Romantic preconceptions of sitting in an old leather chair, at a classically carved wooden desk edged by a quill pen, writing pad and a rustic typewriter quickly dissolve as Sean talks about balancing his writing duties with literary boards, international travel, publicity interviews, phone calls to an accountant, phone calls to editors, phone calls to publicists, washing clothes and the occasional trip to the shops.” (ABC) 

“I like to shake things up a bit, creatively. Doing the same thing over and over again is the quickest way to kill the excitement one should feel when working on a novel.” (Titan Books)

“[T]he character of Nitram was originally a Clantaani, but he was changed to the more familiar Bothan. In a galaxy so huge and varied, it seems a shame to me to default to the least unusual, but it doesn’t always happen, and being obscure sometimes comes with its own risks.” (Total Sci-Fi Online)

“My stepsons think I’m a total geek because I don’t like sport and love shows like Doctor Who. My study is full of remote-control Daleks, Colonial Vipers, steampunk Godzillas, and so on. I also have an Energy Dome, which probably gives me a bigger claim to geek status than anything sci-fi-related. I mean, sci-fi is so mainstream now. You have to dig deep to find something that people will really find odd.” (Geek Syndicate)

“Ultimately I’m writing an adaptation of the game–the canonical version, to boot–so getting the book right isn’t entirely a matter of aping what happens on the small screen. It’s about telling the right story.” (Blogomatic 3000)

“James talks to Sean Williams, author of The Force Unleashed II novelization.” (Rebelscum) - 

“As we continue our conversation we look into what happens to a story when major villains are brought into it and the consequences following. Why sometimes it's easier to omit something than change the entire course of a story. How these figures formulate the design or even alter the story itself.” (Galactic Holofeed)

“The staff of Star Wars Action News are excited for the return of Starkiller, and so this week they ... talked to Sean about the writing process of the books, as well as Sean's other Star Wars tie-in novel, The Old Republic -- Fatal Alliance!” (Star Wars Action News) 

Sorry to dump it all in one huge lump. I'll try to be good from now on!
adelaidesean: (unleashed)
Well, The Force Unleashed hit the stores in the US today, and I'm excited by that, even though it might be a while before I see it on the shelves here. I half-joke that it's the book that gave me RSI--true, I had to write it in four weeks, and true also that I'd written at that speed in the past to no ill effect--but we sometimes make similarly rebukes of our children, and that doesn't mean we love them any less. I really enjoyed writing TFU II and I hope readers will enjoy it too. It definitely wasn't something I knocked off for the money. I thought there was some value to it, otherwise I would've saved my time, and my wrist. That's all.

I've been posting interviews to Twitter and Facebook but have saved a few for here, just to mark the occasion. So:

"Anything that broadens people's experiences, makes them aware of what goes on outside the little boxes they live in, opens their eyes to the fact that there may actually BE something outside their little boxes, is automatically a good thing, I think. A story doesn't have to be true to be effective in this regard; it just has to be convincing, to have an impact, to leave an impression. When someone manages that, the world has become a better place." (Angus & Robertson Edwardstown)

"It would have been easy to write TFU as a by-the-numbers slash-and-hack adventure, but I think it deserved more than that. As to how I do it…? There’s no specific technique.  One tries to put oneself in another’s shoes, to feel compassion for them no matter how monstrous they behave. This works for real life as well as novels. When you’re in, you know it, and you start writing." (EUCantina)

"Sometimes I get into trouble with my editors for being too obscure, but I figure it’s a risk worth taking. And always, among the millions of fans of the EU, there’s at least one who appreciates the effort." (Literary Clutter part one)

"I have been offered other franchises that would have been fun and high profile, but always it’s a juggle between original work and tie-ins. I don’t want to do one at the expense of the other. I want to have my cake and eat someone else’s too." (Literary Clutter part two)

And now, enough typing. Time to eat some celebratory cake!

worldcon

Aug. 23rd, 2010 10:13 am
adelaidesean: (south park)
UPDATE: Due to illness sudden (not serious, but sudden and dreadfully inconvenient) I am unable to attend Worldcon. Apologies to everyone I'd planned to meet up with or appear on panels with. This is the first time that I've had to pull out of anything at last minute, and it's a biggie. :-(

PS. Au Contraire was terrific, and is in no way to blame!


Here's my Worldcon schedule. In addition, I'm presenting at the Hugos, going to at least one other launch, and even hosting a party (there's probably going to be a bash in the SFWA suite after the Voyager party on Friday; more on that later). I'll also be in and out of the SFWA suite, so stop by and say hello. It'll be great to see you there!

THURSDAY
5:00 - Film, TV and spec fic (I arrive late Thursday, so I'm a maybe for this one)
(Note: I'm down for a kaffeeklatsche at 3:00 but won't have landed yet. Sorry!)

FRIDAY
3:00 - What is SFWA?
4:00 - Macabre launch & reading
5:00 - What can the mystery teach science fiction?

SATURDAY
10:00 - Building a bigger galaxy
2:00 - Kim Stanley Robinson interview
3.00 - Deborah Kalin Shadow Bound launch

SUNDAY
12:00 - Classic Australian SF
1:00 - Q&A: Writing YA speculative fiction
4:00 - Partners in crime: How to collaborate
5:00 - Objects in space (this clashes with the Hugo pre-event, so I'm a maybe here too) 

MONDAY
11:00 - Reading
12:00 - Signing;
2:00 - Shared universes and united visions

Of course, prior to all this I'll be in New Zealand as GOH of Au Contraire. Will post that program soon. Exciting times!
adelaidesean: (silent p)
Music is my other love. In a parallel universe, I chose composition over novels and am now writing soundtracks for TV or strange electronic music for an audience of, say, twenty. So you can imagine my delight to be the first ever author interviewed for Tracksounds: the Film Music and SoundtracksExperience! The interview was ostensibly to promote The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, but inevitably drifted. You can download my excited ramble as either a podcast or a transcript and marvel at what might have been...

adelaidesean: (russian egghead)
"This is where I heal my hurts." (thanks, Faithless)

Actually, it's just my study, revealed in all its glory. Kinda. Enjoy!
adelaidesean: (TOR banner)
Pity poor Pawel at Galactic Holofeed, who copped an earful this morning when he Skyped to talk about my upcoming Old Republic novel. I neglected to warn him that this was my first interview on the subject, and that I've been busting to talk about it for months. It's been such a unique and exciting project to work on. I'm really excited it's about to burst forth upon the world.

Anyway, here are the links, to the story notes and podcast. The latter runs for well over an hour. As well as Fatal Alliance, we cover The Force Unleashed (original and sequel) so there's lots to listen to!
adelaidesean: (south park)
Awesome Angela Slatter tackles the great choclit conoisseur (that's me, right?) on her blog. Over here. We discuss many things, and I try to channel the voice of Rich Fulcher, but without the potty mouth. (What's left? Go find out!)

I'm the first of many she's lined up for her drive-bys, so watch out--you could be next.
adelaidesean: (kittens)
No, not my latest deadline (that's a very short write, alas).  The Long Write is a new blog created by a bunch of the most excellent Clarion South 2009 survivors.  I think it's going to be fun--and not just because they interviewed me.  Take a look and save the kittens!

And now, back to the writing I go.  (3500 words/day schedules hurt my brain.)

five links

Dec. 19th, 2009 11:17 am
adelaidesean: (gedosenki A)
I'm juggling two projects at once this weekend, which always hurts my brain.  Here are some recent happenings: If I hear one more Christmas carol, I swear I might have to kill someone.  Unless it's this one, of course:
adelaidesean: (movember - wolfman)
Meanwhile, Charlie Jane Anders over at io9 asked the question: "Your awesome novel is firing on all thrusters... except one. A major character, who's important to the story, isn't clicking. She's dull, or he doesn't play well with others." What to do?

Eileen Gunn, Rachel Pollack, Kelley Eskridge and I answered. (Hint: it has nothing to do with feeding them to the Movember Wolfman.)

outa here

Sep. 25th, 2009 08:46 am
adelaidesean: (destination moon)
I'm on the road again for the next ten days or so.  Here are some things I've been meaning to post properly about but hadn't got around to.  My apologies.  See you when I get back!
(It's raining here in Adelaide at the moment, and I'm really going to miss it.  Could be the last we see for a while.)
adelaidesean: (pink pills)
Once upon a time, I used to think being a writer meant, well, writing.  All the time.  If only that were true!  When between books, as I am at the moment, I don't even attempt to stick to my 1500 words/day target. There just isn't time.  Here's what I got up to in the last week (Monday 5 to Sunday 12), for anyone interested in what I actually spend most of my time doing.
  • I delivered re-writes of all four Fixers books to my editor at Scholastic;
  • re-wrote outlines for The Resurrected Man and The Crooked Letter TV shows, as per feedback received while in LA;
  • reread the story notes of Magic Dirt, seeking inspiration for a podcast about my fifteen year-old story "A Map of the Mines of Barnath";
  • ditto my story "Ungentle Fire" in the forthcoming Dragon Book;
  • was interviewed live on ABC radio at the Royal Adelaide Show (and ate a large amount of junk food afterwards);
  • attended the Ruby/ABAF Awards;
  • had a Skype conversation, transcribed some notes, and looked over an outline for a project I haven't mentioned here yet (ooh, mysterious!);
  • attended a meeting of the SA Writers' Centre Board;
  • took Christobel Mattingley's place on the SA Writers' Festival "Fact or Fiction" panel, down at the beautiful Wirra Wirra vineyards in the McLaren Vale, and chaired the "First Book" panel;
  • read and annotated submissions for a retreat I'll be co-taking in a few weeks;
  • signed up to sit on a grant assessment panel doling out money for young South Australian writers;
  • suggested some spec fic titles for the Big Book Club's December/January selections;
  • caught up on the parallel import situation for the Australian Society of Authors;
  • revived my LJ and wrote this post. :-)
I also bought the new Steve Roach album, Destination Beyond, and Deepspace's World Ocean Atlas. (That's not really work, I know, but these albums will probably comprise my main writing music for the coming weeks, so it's kinda related.)

This wasn't an exceptional week, but it probably was a little busier than normal, thanks to the awards night and the festival. 

How was yours?  Did you manage to get some writing done?  If so, well done.  I am jealous!
adelaidesean: (bert)
Lynne Jamneck fired off six quick rounds from Suite101 over the weekend.  You can see the results here.  Comes with bonus floating head!


adelaidesean: (cenotaxis)
The second and final instalment of my piece on Geodesica has been posted at the Voyager blog. Part One talked about where the ideas for the series came from, the original titles, and so on. Today is more concerned with how to get those ideas across through real people with real problems--ever a challenge when writing space opera.
adelaidesean: (squid)
A while back I was interviewed by Valerie at the Sydney Writers' Centre. The podcast and transcript are now available right here.

It's handy having a transcript because sometimes I forget what I've burbled on about. This time I can tell you with 100% confidence (and reveal via the tabs below) that we covered pretty much everything. :-)
adelaidesean: (south park)
The lovely Rowena Cory Daniells has put up an interview with me over at The Mad Genius Club. I know I post links to a lot of interviews, so I don't expect anyone to read them all, but this is one of my favourites. We talk about the Zeroth Commandment, SF as a "genre of the gaps", my love for Deepspace's "Another Empty Galaxy", and the possibility of retiring to study maths.

It also provides the official version of how I came to write nine books in two and a half years. Funny how these things happen...

too harsh?

Feb. 26th, 2009 07:59 am
adelaidesean: (inflatable dalek)
Thanks to John De Nardo and SF Signal, I'm part of another awesome Mind Meld: "Who are Your Literary Influences in the Ongoing Conversation of Science Fiction?"

Somehow this slipped out: 'anyone who thinks "media" sf and "serious" sf don't deserve places at the same table simply hasn't read widely enough'.

That's bound to offend someone. But am I right?

(The thought was prompted in part by [livejournal.com profile] angriest's post over here.)
adelaidesean: (earth ascendant UK)
Gary Reynolds has revamped his already awesome Concept Sci-Fi site, in the process making Earth Ascendant the book of the month for December. He also reviewed it, saying nice things like: "Earth Ascendant is one of the best space opera releases of 2008. It is well-written, enjoyable and leaves you wanting to find out what happens next! Roll on book three!"

The legendary Matthew Tait also reviewed Earth Ascendant, this time over at HorrorScope: "...Earth Ascendant is a remarkably good ride. The prose is how first-rate space opera should be: lyrical, philosophical and poetic. ... Truly unexpected villains greet us toward the conclusion as the story runs riot with Doppelgangers, parasites, and a broken higher intelligence. The third in the series, The Grand Conjunction, promises to be an epic thrill ride tapering off a remarkable journey that might well be the author’s greatest achievement."

I am extremely chuffed.

Meanwhile Shawn Speakman, mastermind of Del Rey's new Suvudu site, put five questions to me the other week, and the answers are at the other end of that link.

The Force Unleashed was reprinted ahead of the paperback release next year.

And doesn't this look like fun?
adelaidesean: (dirt 1)
So I discovered last week that bits of roasted cacao beans taste really, really nice when mixed with Old Gold, and ever since then I've been making my own chocolates. But in the meantime, work goes on:

Stephen Baxter, Pamela Freeman, Pat Rothfuss and I compare notes on SF vs F over at The Second Bookgeeks SF and Fantasy Author Panel.

Voyager online has published some of my thoughts on Clarion (here and here) among a host of others, all thanks to the hard work of [livejournal.com profile] jasoni.

My LibraryThing page is up and running, but it needs some work. So many books, so little time!

I discovered a couple of short interviews on YouTube: here, where I talk about how the Writers of the Future contest changed my life for the better; and here, on the Force Unleashed experience.

Bookseller + Publisher liked The Scarecrow, months ahead of its release: "everything you would expect from a good YA book [but] also quite different from most of its contemporaries. ... There is something in this series for both reluctant and confident readers." The review talked about the positive relationship between characters ("sometimes confused, often frightened but never pathetic"), magic ("another positive point of difference") and landscape, which Black also touched on in its review of the previous book in the series: "A short novel that will appeal to a broad spectrum of readership, The Dust Devils is Sean Williams tapping into the naive youngling in all of us. The villains presented here are the stuff of nightmares, and hold up to the strangest dangers being presented in fiction, today. But more appealing is the landscape itself, a scarred wasteland where not only Dust Devils lay in wait for the hapless traveler. The book bristles with a faint gothic undertone reminiscent of his grandest Space Opera..."

Lastly, Ansible published a letter in which complained about the Gender Analyzer, which responded to my request to analyse this journal with the error message: "Sorry, we can only classify web pages written in english." I can't imagine what I've been writing in instead all these years. Klingon, perhaps?

Oh, and I started a new book.

We're gradually coming to the end of my list of ill-advised odes. Another recording soon. Today's is in "The Demesne of the Deaf (a Song Without Words)".

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