The genre of science fiction boasts many fine authors whose works have received awards. One of the biggest awards in this genre is the Nebula Award, given by the Science Fiction-Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) organization. Another big one is the Hugo Award, given by the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). Even being nominated for the award is a major accomplishment, and is a justifiable source of pride for an author.
This update's interviewee, author Elizabeth Moon, received such a nomination for her novel, Remnant Population, now in holding in the Archive. If you haven't read the review yet, just follow the links.
A full list of everything Ms. Moon has written would take too long to display, so follow the link at the end of the interview to her website. You can also learn more about her there than here, so please visit her pages.
The interview that follows comes from e-mail messages sent back and forth between myself and Ms. Moon. I've filtered the interview down somewhat, but all with her approval. Enjoy!--XS
Note: all images depicted here are copyrighted by Ms. Moon and posted her only with her approval.

XS: Not to be overly personal, but is "Elizabeth Moon" your real name?

EM: Yes, it is.

XS: Have you ever thought about using a pen name?

EM: I might use one someday. I've been told that publishers often want writers to use a different pen name in different genres to avoid reader confusion. I personally like not using a pen name because it helps me feel a direct connection to my published work.

XS: What was your family life like as you were growing up?

EM: I grew up as an only child in a single-parent family. Despite the myths about such families, it was a warm, loving, nurturing home in most ways.

XS: Which parent did you live with?

EM: My mother.

XS: I guess she was a big influence on your life as you grew up, then.

EM: Yes, she was. Certainly her values and methods affected me...though her engineering grasp of organization never quite overcame my innate gift for chaos. But, my grandfather (though he died when I was four), my step-grandmother, and my mother's closest friends were also very strong influences.

XS: What is your family life like now?

EM: My family now is small but as warm as my family life then. My husband and I have been married almost 29 years, and we have a teenage son.

XS: That's right, your webpage mentioned you had a son. I meant to ask later, but I'll ask now: what effect did motherhood have on your career?

EM: Motherhood is both enrichment and distraction. Becoming a parent opens the door to experiences which are simply not possible for the non-parent.

XS: I hear a "but" coming.

EM: Well, it's also very demanding in terms of time, energy, and creative thought...and this time, energy, and creative thought are necessarily unavailable for writing.

XS: Speaking of experiences, I recall your website listing numerous previous occupations. Could you talk about some of them?

EM: Well, my mother taught me drafting, and in high school and college I worked as a draftsman. I enjoyed turning ideas into clear, understandable drawings. Tutoring kids in math and science developed the ability to see alternate ways of teaching, based on the individual's specific talents. It was problem-solving, but using someone else's brain. The medical stuff--working on the ambulance, and in the clinic--put me in direct touch with life and death, literally from births to deaths, and was challenging mentally and physically as well. And then serving on the city council gave me political experience, as well as practical knowledge of the infrastructure it takes to support a small town...how many miles of street to be maintained, how many thousand gallons of wastewater to be treated. There's been something to learn from everything I've done.

XS: Wow--that's a lot of experiences to draw on! Do you have an occupation besides writing now?

EM: I've needed every bit of that experience, in both writing and real life. At present, I'm homeschooling our autistic son, which is definitely a full-time job.

XS: Homeschooling, homeschooling...that reminds me, what are your views on education?

EM: We don't have world enough and time...Briefly, as someone who loves to learn, has taught, and was often frustrated by the educational system, my views are intense and controversial. I'm convinced that almost all children can learn--humans are born to learn. Education should open doors and remove barriers, should enable learning. Too often, educational systems are focused on control issues and not on learning. Education can be--should be--a lifelong process of discovery. This requires that the individual take over responsibility and control of his/her own education. Whatever formal education the individual has had should have provided the tools for going on alone: the abilitiy to locate the sources needed and assess their quality, for instance.

XS: Ahem...where is "home" for you now?

EM: Home is a small town in central Texas...a town in the process of being swallowed by swelling cities to the north and south, unfortunately.

XS: As someone who's grown up in the city--in the suburbs, anyway--I'm having a little difficulty understanding the appeal of a small-town lifestyle.

EM: I liked it when we moved here because it was small, quiet, and informal. I find it much easier to concentrate in quiet surroundings; I can carry the story in my head while doing other things. I've always liked rural areas--open land, open sky, a long view, and a place to keep animals. It's the best compromise between my desire to live in a remote rural area and my husband's need to be where he can work.

XS: Are there any drawbacks to living in a very small town?

EM: There's always a tradeoff. I don't have a big research library in town, or a symphony or opera or acting company, but people have different needs, and I need a small town's advantages more than a large city's. And I can always get to the large city when I suddenly need a fix of live music.

XS: How important is success to you in regards to yourself and your family?

EM: It's hard to quantify how important success is. It is important, but it's not as important as other things...or, perhaps, I would define success as other than simply professional sucess.

XS: What is your greatest goal or dream?

EM: To grow, and keep growing, mentally and emotionally and spiritually.

XS: And your worst fear?

EM: The opposite of my dream: that I'll stop at some point--freeze, dry up, quit growing.

XS: I see. Now, what drew you towards writing? Did you just wake up one day and say, "I'm going to be a writer"?

EM: I have been writing since before I can remember...at least, my mother said I was writing things well before I started school. I loved making up stories, and was the person who made up the stories we acted out, or the ghost stories that kept everyone awake at sleepovers. However, the idea of "being a writer" came late, in part because I knew no writers, and could not imagine writing as a way of supporting myself. As the child of a single working parent, being able to earn a living came first in any discussion of occupations.

XS: Understandable. What are your favorite genres to write in? I know you've done science fiction. What else have you done?

EM: Most of my published fiction has been fantasy or science fiction. I've also written plays for school and community productions, nonfiction articles, and poetry. As far as fiction goes, at first it seemed I was writing fantasy books and mostly science fiction short stuff. Now that seems to be reversed: the last six books have all been sci-fi, and quite a few of the recent stories have been fantasy.

XS: Have you ever considered writing horror novels or short stories? I imagine the "ghost stories that kept everyone awake" could offer inspiration.

EM: No, I've never deliberately written horror. I've accidentally written a couple of horror stories that started out as fantasises.

XS: Interesting. I've encountered a similar situation: everytime I try to write something scary it becomes fantasy. But enough about me. When is the easiest time for you to write?

EM: Early morning is the easiest time for me to write, probably because I'm naturally more awake then. However, interruption in the early morning bothers me more than at other times of the day.

XS: Late night is my time. Oh, well. Since you write science fiction--and fantasy doesn't escape unscathed--I imagine you need to do a lot of research. Do you find the research process as boring and tedious as I do, or are there benefits to working so long and hard?

EM: I find research so much fun that it's sometimes a struggle to quit and start the story. Perhaps because of my education, I don't find the background research for stories difficult, though getting the right resources via Interlibrary Loan through our small town library can be an exercise in patience.

XS: Maybe that's where my trouble is. All my research tends to be for essays. Sorry. I expect there are also times when you don't need to do formal research, right?

EM: True. Writers acquire personal expertise through activities other than formal research. If I'm writing about someone riding a horse, or making bread, or starting an IV...I don't have to look it up: I've done it.

XS: I just have to ask this: what are your feelings about writing classes? Do you think they are good ideas?

EM: Writing classes come in all varieties, from excellent to worse than useless. The good ones can help anyone grow, but a mismatch between a writer and a class can do substantial harm.

XS: Peg Kerr said something similar when I interviewed her. She wasn't accepted into a writing class because the instructor didn't know anything about fantasy and her submission was fantasy. Is that about what you meant?

EM: Yes. It's important for the student to know enough about the class to make an informed guess about it, to avoid classes where the kind of writing he wants to do is ridiculed or ignored.

XS: Ms. Kerr stressed that herself. Now, has writing become easier or more difficult for you since you started writing?

EM: Some things are easier; my technical skills have, of course, increased with practice. I no longer worry about handling a multi-viewpoint story, for instance, or panic at the thought of writing to a specified length. But as my skills have improved, I find that I want to do more...so I'm always pushing myself somewhere.

XS: What's the easiest thing about writing?

EM: Coming up with ideas. If I could write as fast as the ideas flow, I'd have twice the output...no, three times the output.

XS: Well, what's the most difficult thing, then?

EM: Writing very short stories. I'm a natural novelist, whose ideas proliferate and intertwine and behave, in general, like an over-fertilized row of pumpkin vines. Telling a short story and keeping it short and unadorned is very hard.

XS: I think I have that same problem. Did it cause you any problems when you first started out as a writer?

EM: Yes, because I'd been told that writers should all start with short stories--and my natural length is long--I couldn't ever finish anything. All my short stories got long. In addition, I had no confidence that anything I wrote was good, or could be good, or that even if it were, it would be published. Several times in my adult life I tried to stop writing, thinking it was a waste of time and I should be doing something practical and realistic.

XS: Exactly what do you mean by "practical and realistic," and what kept you going?

EM: What kept me going? The pressure of the story inside. The need to write. And it's not how I would define "practical and realistic" to exclude writing, but how my background so defined it. A practical occupation was one that provided a regular paycheck, a predictable income based on hours worked. You could have a budget, plan for the future, make regular contributions to your savings, all the things that a regular income allows.

XS: And writing isn't like that.

EM: Hardly . I've sold a story that I wrote in a couple of hours for as much as one that I sweated over for two years. I've had years where all my writing income arrived in two months out of the twelve, years when it veered from year to year so wildly that it was impossible to guesstimate correctly for the self-employed income tax payments. Writing is aerial acrobatics with no safety net--it's leaping out into a void and wondering if someone will be there on the other side. There are no guarantees, not even a month's worth. So, to my practical and realistic mother, writing was not practical or realistic as an occupational choice. A hobby...fine, though sewing would be more practical. And she was right: the chances of any given person actually making a living from writing are very, very small.

XS: I've heard that having an agent makes it easier to get published. Did this hold true for you?

EM: I have an agent now, and he was certainly a big help in getting my books to publication. My writing career would not be where it is without my agent's help.

XS: And your writing career has gone far indeed. How did it feel to have your first novel published?

EM: Wonderful. Amazing. Unbelievable. I remember getting the cover flats, and taking one to a friend's bookstore. She slid the back end behind another book, and suddenly it looked like my book right there on the shelf. I was speechless with delight.

XS: Tell me, what sort of awards or accomplishments have you received?

EM: In 1989 Sheepfarmer's Daughter received the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. Remnant Population received the nomination for a Hugo Award in 1997.

XS: How did it feel to know Remnant Population had received the nomination?

EM: As wonderful, amazing, and as unbelievable as having my first novel published, only more so. I didn't really believe it when they first called me. I had been proud of this book, in particular, and had fought for it...so to see it recognized was special.

XS: Now let's talk about Remnant Population. When I first read it I felt somewhat ashamed of Bartolomeo--and of myself--when the novel opened. It made me remember that I wasn't as nice to elderly people--my grandparents included, I'm afraid--as I could have been. Did you intend for some sort of message, say, "Respect your elders," to come through? If so, you did a good job of it.

EM: I was thinking about how societies and individuals interact...how they construct each other, how roles are learned, how communication depends on perceived roles...stuff like that. I certainly wasn't thinking about "respect your elders", but I was thinking about who doesn't get respect--how old women, in particular, are perceived as useless baggage, and how much is missed when you define someone, anyone, as useless, trivial, beneath your notice. If there is anyone you don't hear, don't look at, don't notice, then you will miss whatever wisdom or knowledge or grace that person has to share.

XS: Ofelia was a very interesting character, and she had a great deal of wisdom to share. I had to make an adjustment to accept her as the heroine of the novel. She's very much unlike any other heroine I've encountered--most of them are much younger women. Could you describe Ofelia in your own words?

EM: Well, that's what the book is, an extended description of her. She is an old woman who, throughout life, has been shaped by other peoples' expectations and limits--until she decided there's time for one last attempt to escape. She is dour, ironic, tricky, stubborn, brave, and entirely imperfect.

XS: She's a strange choice for a protagonist, but I like her anyway. When you burdened Ofelia with all sorts of responbilities with regards to the People, were you deliberately taking her through the functions of motherhood--which she had experience in--or was it simply the way it all turned out?

EM: Ofelia had escaped one society's constraints, and found parts of herself long hidden, long suppressed. But it is the nature of societies to shape roles and urge individuals into them. Faced with the People, she could either be defined as the outsider...the role-less...or she could (at first unwillingly, later willingly) engage them in one of their roles. She chose the latter course. But although she used skills honed through motherhood, she was not acting as their mother: she was always aware of their difference, and their adulthood. Although she thought they acted childish, she was aware that this was because of their ignorance. And remember: she had considered some of her fellow colonists childish too; most old people do find younger people childish at times--and we are.

XS: I have one mild problem with Remnant Population. Some other sci-fi books have colonists scrounging about to scavenge every last bit of technology they can collect before they leave their adopted world...I can't think of any titles right now, but I know those books are out there. You left Ofelia with nearly all of the technology that the colony began with. Why?

EM: It wasn't economic to lift all that technology; the stuff was heavy, basic, and old. After all, the colonists had used it hard for over forty years. They left it the way you might leave an old refrigerator that's been out in the garage for years.

XS: Do you have any plans to revisit Colony 3245.12--I can't remember if you ever gave the place a name--in the future? It might be interesting to learn how well the humans and the People got along after Ofelia passed away.

EM: No, probably not. I have other stories I want to write more.

XS: What was the hardest thing about writing this novel?

EM: Staying in Ofelia's voice, the voice of someone very unlike myself. First, it's always hard to write an older character convincingly: the writer cannot have experienced those extra years. And Ofelia came from a very different social background than I did. I found that my "educated" voice kept wanting to intrude, but Ofelia was a strong character and bopped the inside of my skull regularly.

XS: In that case, what was the easiest thing about writing Remnant Population?

EM: The book didn't get stuck in the middle the way most of my books do. It rolled out fairly smoothly.

XS: Are there any parts of the novel that you're dissatisfied with now?

EM: No, but ask me again in ten years.

XS: So, what lies in store for you now?

EM: My next novel, Rules of Engagement, will be released in December 1998. It is a sequel to last year's Once a Hero and continues the adventures of Esmay Serrano. I have an alternate history coming out in a month or two in the anthology Alternate Generals; it's a naval history story set in the Mediterranean in World War I. I'm presently working on a novel and some short stories.

XS: Do you feel you are where you want to be in life?

EM: No--never. Never will be. That's part of the excitement of the journey.

XS: Any final comments?

EM: No--the books are what matter. Go read 'em .

I hope you enjoyed learning more about this outstanding author. I know I did. Please visit her site at Elizabeth Moon: Home Page. You'll find a full listing of her published works there, as well more biographical information about her that I could only touch upon here.

Comments? Suggestions? Just click here to send me e-mail.
Also, if this interview prompted you to read Remnant Population or some of Elizabeth Moon's other works, then let me know. I appreciate knowing I made a difference in somebody's life.

You are the th visitor to this page since August 10, 1998.

Back Home Back to Starfire Reviews Back to Corridors of Communication

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page