Ask the Author: Gary Ballard
Answered Questions (10)
Gary Ballard
Obviously the big 3 of cyberpunk - Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy, Stephenson's Snow Crash and Sterling's Islands in the Net are great starts. I'm also partial to beat writers like Burroughs (Naked Lunch), Ginsberg (Howl) and Kerouac's On the Road. Lately, I've been into Corey's The Expanse series for hard sci-fi, Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End and Iain Banks' The Culture series, while interspersing some Thomas Hardy to get my classical literature fix.
Gary Ballard
I think I might very much like to visit the future world of Iain Banks The Culture series of books. I very much like the idea of a world where humans are long-lived and their needs are cared for by machines, allowing them centuries to achieve their greatest potential, without repression based on ideology, sexuality, gender, race or economic class.
Gary Ballard
I want to catch up on some of the classics, so I'm jumping into reading some Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd), Flaubert, Balzac and Zola.
Gary Ballard
I am such a boring person in real life that I'm not sure I have a mystery that would serve as a good book plot. Such a book, if written, might be a great cure for insomnia, but a mystery worth solving? No, not even close.
Gary Ballard
Absolutely. I'm currently working with Joe Hempel, the narrator of the Under the Amoral Bridge audiobook, on recording The Know Circuit. Response has been good on the audiobooks, so I expect I'll be releasing an audio version of all the books as time allows.
Gary Ballard
Build up a thick skin. People will savage you and your precious books without one care in the world about your feelings. I'm not just talking about reviewers, I'm talking about regular people commenting on your books on message boards or in book store review sites. Be prepared to get insulted and make sure you don't react negatively to it because there's nothing more sure to lose you readers than to accept criticism badly.
Gary Ballard
I honestly can't answer that, because it hasn't really happened to me yet, knock on wood. I have moments and writing sessions when the ideas aren't flowing as well as on others, but for the most part, I don't get blocked. It probably helps that I'm constantly writing in my head when doing other things like walking the dogs or driving to my day job.
Gary Ballard
I'm currently near the end of writing the third novella in my cosmic horror series, The Stepping Stone Cycle, a modern-day take on the Cthulhu mythos.
Gary Ballard
I get ideas in all sorts of places - watching movies, listening to music or reading other books will spark the beginnings of an idea. The idea usually starts with the question "What if?" From there, I'll write the stories out in my head while walking the dogs, driving to work or standing in the shower.
Gary Ballard
I've been a fan of heavy metal since my early teens. I have always laughed at the idea of parents suing metal bands because their children committed suicide because the kids heard "backwards messages" on the metal records. A short film I saw recently posited this kind of question, showing a death metal singer feeling guilty over one of his fans committing a heinous crime. My upbringing in small town Mississippi and that community's hostility towards challenging music converged with this idea about how music can affect children - in this case, what if the music actually did affect children, did cause them to commit a heinous murder, but not for the reasons the parents thought.
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