Excerpts from the interview:
‘‘I had a ‘career pause’ from ’93 to about a year and a half ago—Nick Gevers came up with that description, and I thought it was very genteel. There were a couple of reasons. One, I was doubting myself as a writer. I didn’t really understand what I wanted to write. I kind of came into this whole business by accident. The way I went to Clarion in 1980 is, my wife sent in a bunch of stuff I’d written. I think she was trying to get me out of the house! I was writing stuff that didn’t really engage me and wasn’t going anywhere. I have about half a dozen unfinished novels. Actually, now I might go back and finish a couple of them. I have the first 200 pages of one called The End of Life as We Know It, which I think is really good, the best thing I ever did, but I was living in New York while I was writing that, and it was a very troubling time for me.’’
*
‘‘I’m trying to finish two novels. One is the ‘dragon’ novel, which is almost done. This is one of the reasons for my ‘career pause.’ I had a contract, back in 1988 or so, to write a fourth dragon story. They offered me quite a lot for The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter, then came back with this other idea: ‘Why don’t you write a fourth story? Or a novel?’ I said, ‘All right. Whatever.’ After a while, I realized I really didn’t want to write about it again. I’d mined that vein for The Father of Stones, ‘The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule’, and The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter. I made a few false starts—it was just lying flat on the page. At one point, I just blew it off. ‘I don’t think I can do this.’ They said, ‘You’ve got to do it.’ So we went around like that for a while. But now, the one I’m finishing actually turned out to be a novel on its own, The Grand Tour. It’s about a guide who runs tours of the dragons.’’
*
‘‘I’ve got 200 pages of another novel I’m really hot on. The working title is Guy Stories. It’s mainstream, I guess, but it’s weird. It’s about a gun dealer who sells historical weapons - guns owned by famous people, used in famous incidents, or whatever. His name is Jimmy Roy Guy (hence the title), and he tells stories about guns that move him to tell stories. ... I’ve also got a short novel, Valentine, coming out next year on Valentine’s Day. It’s a sort of love story about a serious affair, set in a small town in Florida where something really weird may be going on in the background. But these two people are so absorbed in one another, they don’t know what’s happening, except that the event isolates them there. It was an experiment in telling a story with maybe a science fiction ambiance somewhere over there. ... Eventually I’m gearing up to write what Gardner Dozois calls a ‘bug-crusher,’ set in Los Angeles. All these little bits are starting to gather again. I’m accreting another book.’’
*
‘‘Two things have changed in my writing. I’ve stopped caring about things I was supposed to care about. When I was writing science fiction, I used to think I had to have the plot set in advance. Now I’m just gonna write what I want, let it fly or sink. That’s made me a lot happier, so consequently I think I’m writing characters with more depth, more fully developed. In a strange way, the plots, the structure, are evolving more naturally, not as jury-rigged as they used to be. They’re rising more from character. It’s like when they train high school basketballers and make them wear weights around their ankles. I feel like I’ve taken the weights off.’’
*
‘‘As far as writing, I don’t have anything philosophical to say about it. To me, it’s very much a craft, and I’m basically a carpenter right now. That’s what I feel like. Once you get into it, it’s just like banging nails. If you like it, it’s really a lot of fun to bang those nails. That’s what I’m doing now. I’m not really thinking about writing. What is it, ultimately? I have no clue. On the Hindu wheel of professions, where you’re supposed to work on your way through to Nirvana, writer is right below thief. I always figured that was about where a writer should be ranked. And of course, writers are thieves too! ’’
