Sean Williams

Just heard via the most excellentjennyblackford that both my humongous novellas from last year were honorably mentioned by Gardner Dozois in his Year's Best SF 28. Woohoo! That's "The Spark (A Romance in Three Acts)" and "A Glimpse of the Marvelous Structure (and the Threat It Entails)". This makes makes me very happy.

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!

If you liked my story "A Map of the Mines of Barnath", then you might also like "Inevitable", which has just come out in the Strahan/Dozois collection New Space Opera 2. It's the first glimpse into the world of the Structure since "Barnath" was published, way back in 1994. It's the last until a much larger novella in Godlike Machines, hopefully this year. The collection as a whole is awesome, with people like Garth Nix, Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Moon and many, many others crowding out little old me.  Here's the cover:

A few months back I was feeling empty of ideas for space opera novels. Maybe not surprising, since I've written quite a few of them in the last decade--and maybe not such a bad thing either, given my recent experimentation with thrillers and crime. How many genres can a guy juggle, anyway?

Then came Jonathan Strahan with a chance to write for his Godlike Machines anthology, which got me thinking about old ideas. And got me writing, too. Old ideas plus a new story led to new ideas and, like magic, here I am with a whole new space opera idea, and some more good news:

My story "The Inevitable" has just been accepted into Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan's uber-anthology New Space Opera 2. This new story is set in the same world as "A Glimpse of the Marvellous Structure (and the Threat it Entails)", which is in turn set in the same world as "A Map of the Mines of Barnath", first published in Eidolon way back in 1995 and now my most-reprinted story.

Collected in Damien Broderick and David Hartwell's Australian best-of Centaurus and Hayakawa's The Best Science Fiction of the Nineties, plus the inestimable Magic Dirt, "Barnath" is a glimpse into a world I've always wanted to revisit. Well, I've revisited it twice now, and I'm pretty sure there'll be more on the way. I picture a big fat novel simply called Structure with a cast of thousands set in a multiverse more challenging than anything I've ever tackled before...

This may be my space opera swansong, or else it's the beginning of something entirely and wonderfully new. I don't know yet. Either way, it's good to have space opera ideas again. When the stars stop shining in your protagonist's eyes, you can't help but fear that you've come back to Earth one time too many, and may never reach escape velocity again.