You’ve seen the Thursday interviews, yeah?
Well, we’re gonna do more.
I’ve already got a couple lined up, but — but!
Your help is requested.
Here’s how the interview process works. I ask a pre-established set of questions and then, from those answers I ask some follow-ups specific to each author. What I want to know from you is:
What other questions do you want me to ask? Anything in particular?
Second thing I need: who do you want me to interview? Suggest some people. Sweet Jeebus only knows if they’ll answer my plea to be strapped into a chair and have electrodes strapped to their temples, teats, and fiddly bits, but you don’t get anywhere by not asking for things. Who should I approach for said interviews? Shoot me some names. Not just novelists, but writers and storytellers of all stripes.
Alternately, if you’re an accomplished storyteller and you want an interview here, speak up.
Alan Baxter says:
I’ll leave my level of accomplishment for others to judge, but I like electrodes strapped to my temples, teats, and fiddly bits. If that counts for anything…
September 8, 2011 — 1:04 AM
Quinn says:
Since I can’t offer much in the strap electrodes to my fiddly bits department, I’ll go with the other suggestions. (Unless you have a thing for interviewing sixteen year old brats. Then more power to you I guess.) No, but seriously, you should interview Collin Landis. He’s a freelancer with a fabulous, if not odd sense of humor. He can be located here: http://strangities.com/ That’s just my piddly suggestion though. Feel free to blast it with piss.
Oh! I have a bit of an obsession with character design and how people go about that as well. It’d be nifty to see that sort of thing around.
September 8, 2011 — 1:22 AM
Sparky says:
Refining interrogation? Well I suppose the easiest way would be by attaching something to the other end of the electrodes.
When it comes to the questions I like your list, but I am always curious as to what storytellers inspired the ones you are talking to. It comes up in a roundabout way but I would love to know it directly.
Can’t think of any interviewees off the top of my head I fear.
September 8, 2011 — 5:53 AM
Ben K. says:
If you could get Kevin Brockmeier, that’d be pretty great. He’s written ‘The Brief History of the Dead’ and Most recently, the captivating ‘The Illumination’. Plus, like me, he’s a good Arkansas boy, so that ought to count for something.
Speaking of Arkansas boys, my old high school classmate John Hornor just published ‘Southern Gods’, which I’ve yet to read. However, he, in a roundabout way, turned me on to this site, so my recommendation is a pay-it-forward kind of thing.
I’m alway up for an interview myself, but my fiction remains unaccomplished as yet. My political writing has been better received, but who wants to talk politics?
September 8, 2011 — 6:54 AM
BA Boucher says:
I had an odd moment wherein I read your interview with Will Entrekin and an article on io9.com both reccomending Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series.
So I nooked it up and it is goooooood.
That is a dude I’d like to see given the terribleminds treatment
September 8, 2011 — 8:09 AM
Kirsten says:
Have you had a chance to interview Michael Northrop yet? He wrote Gentlemen and Trapped, two gritty YA suspense stories with fantastic character and voice.
September 8, 2011 — 8:13 AM
Josh says:
I hear Russ Pitts is leaving his EiC position at the Escapist. I say hit him up for an interview. He’s a clever individual.
September 8, 2011 — 9:05 AM
J.C. Arth says:
Might I suggest J.R. Rain, author of “The American Vampire” series? He’s quite the established author on the e-books circuit and selling quite well on Amazon. His books are definitely not YA material as his characters run the gamut from Dead Elvis, to vampire Housewives, to the P.I with a “problem.” Interesting guy with a background as a freelance writer.
September 8, 2011 — 9:13 AM
Laura says:
I’d love to hear an interview with Karen Traviss.
September 8, 2011 — 9:23 AM
Jonathan says:
You mentioned in a previous post that you harangued Christopher Moore a bit at a point in your newbie past and that he was a stand-up guy about it. I’d love to see an interview with him. I can’t think of a clever question to ask him, but you seem cleverer than I am, so, you know, cleverify something.
September 8, 2011 — 12:25 PM
Amy Tupper says:
I’d love to see what some of the old dogs from the first online scifi/fantasy writing communities like Usenet/ BBS/ GEnie SFRT think of the new indie guard. Might start with Cory Doctorow, Joe Haldeman, Dean Wesley Smith, J. Michael Straczynski, heck Daniel Pinkwater too.
Damn, I miss GEnie.
September 8, 2011 — 1:44 PM
Dan Wright says:
Being a big WW fan, it’d be fun to see you interview some other WoD alumni like Howard Ingham or Justin Achilli.
September 8, 2011 — 3:09 PM
Jason Myers says:
Hey Chuck. Can you list out the questions you already are asking? Tough to come up with some winning alts if I don’t know the others.
September 8, 2011 — 7:57 PM
terribleminds says:
Jason, I don’t have those handy, but you’ll see the ones I generally ask by clicking that interviews link.
— c.
September 8, 2011 — 7:59 PM
David says:
I wouldn’t mind seeing Ari Marmell drop by here. He is fond of orcs and filthy language.
As for questions: “What’s the best passage you’ve ever read? Conversely, what’s the worst passage you’ve ever read?” Which might spread a little hate around, but I am curious.
September 8, 2011 — 8:13 PM
Mark A. Rayner says:
I’d love to volunteer for an interview.
And have you thought about interviewing stand-up and improv comedians. I think writers can learn a thing or two from them. Some, like Patten Oswalt, even the cross streams.
(Yes, that was a Ghostbuster reference.)
September 8, 2011 — 8:14 PM
Jess Hartley says:
I’d love to see you interview some folks about transmedia and how/why to self-publish successfully. (And when folks shouldn’t do so…) About incorporating more-than-print media into electronic products, how aspiring e-pub writers can learn from what other folks are doing, standing on the shoulders of the (admittedly newly-growing) giants, as it were.
As for naming names… Eddy Webb maybe, for what he’s done/doing with White Wolf’s e-pub products, and folks like JC Hutchins?
September 8, 2011 — 8:28 PM
terribleminds says:
@Jess –
I’ve got The Mighty JC on deck already. 🙂
But Eddy, heck yeah.
— c.
September 8, 2011 — 8:30 PM
Liz Staley says:
Would you consider comic writers/artists to be interviewed?
September 8, 2011 — 8:42 PM
terribleminds says:
@Liz:
Oh, totally.
— c.
September 8, 2011 — 9:44 PM
oldestgenxer says:
There are a few published writers that come around here–you should chloroform some of them and strap them to a table for interviews, maybe.
(And I don’t mean me, obviously. First of all, I’m not published, in the strict Biblical sense. Secondly, I already know me. Several of me. Them. Us. You know what I mean.)
September 8, 2011 — 8:58 PM
DeAnna says:
I’m always looking for more graphic novels and superior webcomics.
I’m a foodie, so any writers who deal with food…I want to know what inspired their meals.
For some reason, asking the writers what they recommend strikes me as particularly awesome. Good job, that.
Ah…I want something that evokes the writer to speak pretty intimately about that particular story. Not “where did you get your ideas” but something like, “Why THIS story? What’s your history that made it resonate with you?” I love hearing the story behind the story. I suspect that’s what people want to hear when they ask about the ideas, but don’t know how to ask.
And you can interview me anytime 🙂 Especially after the kids’ book comes out.
September 8, 2011 — 10:29 PM
Lee Robson says:
Well, I’m available and will have a graphic novel to start plugging soon-ish. 🙂
I think it’d be interesting to see some interviews with writers from other mediums (such as comics, games, TV/film), and see their own personal views on the many branches of the tree we fondly call writing.
September 9, 2011 — 5:04 AM
Laura W. says:
To be honest, I find reading interviews tedious. But I agree with Lee; it would be interesting to see some interviews from writers of other mediums. Even the occasional actor, since you write screenplays. Well, maybe. It’s up to you, of course.
Nina L. Diamond (journalist, humor columnist) might be a good person to interview. She’s @ninatypewriter on twitter. Also, I’ve noticed that you mostly interview guys (or at least, that’s what it seems like). Perhaps interrogate a few more gals…? Especially since your blog audience is pretty equally split. Gender can and does play a part in how someone writes and looks at the world.
September 9, 2011 — 2:38 PM
Steph says:
What about lyricists/songwriters? They tell some of my favorite stories.
September 9, 2011 — 3:55 PM
margaret y. says:
Questions? There’s really only one pertinent one that comes to mind.
“What skills do you bring the world to help the humans win the coming zombie wars?”
Because really, that’s what it all comes down to.
September 9, 2011 — 4:46 PM
Ellie Ann says:
I’d love to hear from your cover design artist/artists. They rock.
September 10, 2011 — 10:18 AM
Roger Kilbourne says:
Questions about what draws the author to their genres/subject matter are always interesting. Ones about their first publishing experiences too.
September 11, 2011 — 10:52 AM