Ask the Author: William X. Adams
Answered Questions (3)
William X. Adams
Right now, I’m editing the next volume in my philosophical psychology (“Philo-Psych”) nonfiction series. It’s tentatively titled “Mind, Body, World.”
Why do this? I ask myself. Who reads philosophical psychology? Well, somebody might, and anyway, for me, the nonfiction series is the intellectual foundation that stimulates the novels.
That's why I call my work "psi-fi" (for psychological fiction) rather than sci-fi. I stick to scientific plausibility where I can, but the truth is, scientists don't have a clue about how the mind works and psychology is not a real science (don't tell anyone I said that).
Fiction is the perfect art form to explore the labyrinth of the mind. Once I finish "Mind, Body, World," who knows what new characters might start talking to me.
Why do this? I ask myself. Who reads philosophical psychology? Well, somebody might, and anyway, for me, the nonfiction series is the intellectual foundation that stimulates the novels.
That's why I call my work "psi-fi" (for psychological fiction) rather than sci-fi. I stick to scientific plausibility where I can, but the truth is, scientists don't have a clue about how the mind works and psychology is not a real science (don't tell anyone I said that).
Fiction is the perfect art form to explore the labyrinth of the mind. Once I finish "Mind, Body, World," who knows what new characters might start talking to me.
William X. Adams
I just released #3 in the “Phane” trilogy: Alien Dream Machine (sci-fi, 83,500 words). It features my favorite alien, Phane Vikos, who has been stranded on Earth since the first book in the series. This installment includes his partner, Flooma, and their adorable green, tentacled “baby” (or would that be a puppy, or cub, or what?).
They live in Las Vegas, where Phane makes a living as a professional gambler using psychokinesis to control the dice. A young PI, Gunnar, tracks him down, but instead of busting him, he agrees to work for Phane to find out why motorcycle gangsters are stalking the alien family. It’s a lot worse than it looks, he will discover.
Every novel I’ve written has been a joy and a disappointment. It’s a miracle that the characters come to life, but despite their shenanigans and jawboning, I worry if I conveyed what I wanted to say. That’s been my experience each time. Maybe that’s why we keep writing.
Is this the end of the Phane series? Never say never. I used the device of an alien who looks very different from us to explore important features of our own psychology, such as our sense of embodiment, unconscious lookism, the empathy with others that we take for granted, and our almost invisible reliance on subjective judgment to make sense of the world.
In in this third Phane novel, I wanted to excavate my intuition that we have a secondary mind. It isn’t rational and doesn’t use language. It uses intuition, feelings, and dreams to express itself. See if you can spot which character in “Alien Dream Machine” stands for that backup mentality.
They live in Las Vegas, where Phane makes a living as a professional gambler using psychokinesis to control the dice. A young PI, Gunnar, tracks him down, but instead of busting him, he agrees to work for Phane to find out why motorcycle gangsters are stalking the alien family. It’s a lot worse than it looks, he will discover.
Every novel I’ve written has been a joy and a disappointment. It’s a miracle that the characters come to life, but despite their shenanigans and jawboning, I worry if I conveyed what I wanted to say. That’s been my experience each time. Maybe that’s why we keep writing.
Is this the end of the Phane series? Never say never. I used the device of an alien who looks very different from us to explore important features of our own psychology, such as our sense of embodiment, unconscious lookism, the empathy with others that we take for granted, and our almost invisible reliance on subjective judgment to make sense of the world.
In in this third Phane novel, I wanted to excavate my intuition that we have a secondary mind. It isn’t rational and doesn’t use language. It uses intuition, feelings, and dreams to express itself. See if you can spot which character in “Alien Dream Machine” stands for that backup mentality.
William X. Adams
The Reluctant Android is Andy Bolton, a software engineer in Seattle. He thinks he's just an ordinary guy, but he discovers he's a robot, made of circuit boards instead of organs. Would people still accept him if he revealed the truth? I'm not sure of the answer. It's hard for us to accept a machine as an ethical being. This issue haunted the remake of Blade Runner. So I thought, why not tell the story from the android's point of view and see what happens?
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