We’re kicking off our latest series of blog posts with an interview featuring acclaimed author Garth Nix! Read on to find out how he started writing, whom he writes for, and what he believes is the best kind of writing practice. Nix’s latest story for Asimov’s, “Showdown on Planetoid Pencrux,” appears in our [July/August issue, on sale now!]
Asimov’s Editor: How did this story germinate? Was there a spark of inspiration, or did it come to you slowly?
Garth Nix: I had the two main characters in mind early on, and as is usual for me, they lurked there for quite some time before I started writing. I didn’t know a lot beyond that they were survivors of a lost war, and differently human, and it wasn’t until I started actually putting words down I realized I wanted to write it as an SF Western. Also part way through, when I needed some small genetically engineered animals, I was reminded of the character Eet from Andre Norton’s novels The Zero Stone and Uncharted Stars, so I named my eets after Eet, in an homage to one of my favourite authors from my childhood and teenage years.
AE: Is this story part of a larger universe, or is it stand-alone?
GN: This is a standalone story, or at least it is now. But I have a tendency to set up everything I write as if it could be part of something bigger, while still being satisfying on its own. It is quite possible I might revisit the characters and the setting in future stories.
AE: How did the title for this piece come to you?
GN: I usually come up with titles very early, sometimes before I write anything else. In this case, I wrote the first few paragraphs and knew it would be an “SF planetary adventure/Western” and so I wanted a kind of classic Western-style story title, and “Showdown” is such a good word, I had to use it.
AE: How did you break into writing? My first paid writing pieces were role
GN: playing game articles and scenarios (for D&D and Traveller) written in my teens, and then short stories. I had a great early start where I sold the first story I sent out when I was nineteen years old, but it was rather illusory, as I wrote maybe twenty stories over the next few years but couldn’t sell them, and in fact sold my first novel when I was 25 before I ever had another story published. But it is all good practice, writing a story is never wasted time, no matter what happens (or doesn’t) with that individual story.
AE: What inspired you to start writing?
GN: Reading. I started writing simply because I wanted to emulate the writers whose work I loved, I wanted to write stories like they did. This has largely driven my entire writing career, I want to write the kind of stories I want to read.
“…Writing a story is never wasted time, no matter what happens (or doesn’t) with that individual story.”
AE: What other projects are you currently working on?
GN: I usually have multiple projects underway. I am finishing a children’s dark fantasy/horror novel right now, which is scheduled for publication in 2024; and noodling away on an adult SF novel due out in 2025; and making notes for a fantasy novel in one of my existing series which if all goes well will be out in 2026. But I also have several stories partly written, and no doubt will finish them and start some new ones, and I have some screenwriting work as well.
AE: What are you reading right now?
GN: I read very widely across all kinds of fiction and non-fiction, but in terms of SF/F, I just read and enjoyed: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh, and Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott. I also caught up with the third novel (which I’d never read) in Alexei Panshin’s highly entertaining Antony Villiers series from the 1960s, now collected with the first two in New Celebrations.
AE: Do you have any advice for up-and-coming writers?
GN: There is no writing advice that works for everyone. Try out different things, don’t take one approach as gospel. That said, if you have something out on submission, or have self-published, don’t sit around waiting for something to happen with acceptance or sales, get to work on something new. It will take your mind away from worrying about that past work, and whatever happens for good or ill, a new work will give you new opportunities. Every new story, book, play, poem, screenplay, gets you another spin of the wheel. You can’t make things happen, but every finished work creates possibility.
AE: How can our readers follow you and your writing? (IE: Social media handles, website URL…)
GN: @garthnix on Twitter
facebook.com/garthnix
http://www.garthnix.com
From Earth to the Stars 