Ask the Author: Robert Reed
Answered Questions (18)
Robert Reed
I'm very familiar with the art. Another fan of mine works sends me jpegs and the like of the work. Just got my first look at llano-vibra.
Robert Reed
Maybe because I have an odd enthusiasm for life. Animal, plant. And lately, slime molds. This gives me a working knowledge for crafting organisms out of the aether. And too, I've practiced delivering just enough detail in a bare minimum of words to make it seem as if I really know what these critters are like. I don't. My most familiar aliens -- the harum-scarums -- are just big blustery characters full of unknowns. I don't know their minds, don't understand their curses. And I've never tried to learn the two-stomp greeting, should they ever show up at my front door.
Robert Reed
Sorry, Andrew. No other stories in that world. Though sometimes I think we're moving hard in that direction.
Robert Reed
Sorry, Patrick. Nothing in the small-press pipeline.
On the other hand, you've made my morning with your question. Thanks.
On the other hand, you've made my morning with your question. Thanks.
Robert Reed
Hello, Andrew. By far, the best source of my stories is on Kindle. I've been offering single stories as well as my ad hoc collections. With the collections, I'll string together the old and the recent according to some theme. Pandemics. Difficult-to-sell works. Very short stories. Right now -- and I mean today -- I'm deciding what tales to put into a couple volumes about global disasters. (It's a wonder that I am able to smile, as grim as much of my work is.)
My Great Ship stories are my most popular. By a long margin. And almost all of them are available on Kindle.
Hope this helps, and thanks.
RR
My Great Ship stories are my most popular. By a long margin. And almost all of them are available on Kindle.
Hope this helps, and thanks.
RR
Robert Reed
Thank you, Jeffrey. I'm guessing that you're writing about my local Grand Island, which reminds me of long-ago days camping in the Sandhills. Halsey National Forest, to be precise. On a clear night, I would stand on a high dune and look south at the pillars of light coming from the cities and towns along the Platte. Grand Island all the way to North Platte. A cherished memory.
Thanks again. Best.
R Reed
Thanks again. Best.
R Reed
Robert Reed
Most of my year was spent writing three rather ambitious Great Ship novellas. Novellas are tough to sell, but two have been accepted. "Best, Last, Only" to F&SF, "What>We>Will>Never>Be" to Asimov's SF. The third work was almost taken by another market, and I'm not done submitting it.
About HAMMERWING: Work was going well until I started fiddling with the novellas. Combined, they're a novel-worth of words. But I intend to get back to it soon.
"Retrograde Tales" is an ongoing project -- little stories with crazy shit ideas. I'm putting out another dozen in the same volume by year's end.
Finally, I want to republish a bunch of Great Ship stories on Kindle. "The Realms of Water" and "Flattering the Flame" to name two.
Hope that helps. And thanks for the interest.
About HAMMERWING: Work was going well until I started fiddling with the novellas. Combined, they're a novel-worth of words. But I intend to get back to it soon.
"Retrograde Tales" is an ongoing project -- little stories with crazy shit ideas. I'm putting out another dozen in the same volume by year's end.
Finally, I want to republish a bunch of Great Ship stories on Kindle. "The Realms of Water" and "Flattering the Flame" to name two.
Hope that helps. And thanks for the interest.
Robert Reed
I'd love to have the option of listening to my books being read. Preferrably by someone other than me. But MARROW and THE WELL OF STARS were published by Tor Books, and they have no plans for this to happen. (At least not that I know about.) The same holds true for THE MEMORY OF SKY, which was published by Prime Books. As for the smaller works and my DRAGONS OF MARROW (a Kindle-only work) ... well, I won't say no. But I have never thought about doing it. Sorry for that.
But thanks for the question.
But thanks for the question.
Robert Reed
A bunch of questions to answer:
I'm working on the sequel to DRAGONS OF MARROW. The working title is HAMMERWING, and I might shove it out on Kindle early next year.
What happens after "Hatch"? Billions of years of stuff that I'll probably never have time to answer. Except for the moment when the Milky Way finally catches up to the Great Ship, which is where the epic finally achieves what will have to pass for an ending.
I have no real interest in returning to Sister Alice, much as I'm fond of the old gal. It's a good instinct on your part to consider a prequel. But still, I feel that I have only so many years left in this business, and Alice would eat too much of that time.
I have been publishing new Great Ship stories in the magazines. "Flattering the Flame" is in the latest ASIMOV'S, and "Poubelle" will be coming out soon (next month?) in CLARKESWORLD.
Again, thanks for the interest.
I'm working on the sequel to DRAGONS OF MARROW. The working title is HAMMERWING, and I might shove it out on Kindle early next year.
What happens after "Hatch"? Billions of years of stuff that I'll probably never have time to answer. Except for the moment when the Milky Way finally catches up to the Great Ship, which is where the epic finally achieves what will have to pass for an ending.
I have no real interest in returning to Sister Alice, much as I'm fond of the old gal. It's a good instinct on your part to consider a prequel. But still, I feel that I have only so many years left in this business, and Alice would eat too much of that time.
I have been publishing new Great Ship stories in the magazines. "Flattering the Flame" is in the latest ASIMOV'S, and "Poubelle" will be coming out soon (next month?) in CLARKESWORLD.
Again, thanks for the interest.
Robert Reed
Sorry, no. There's a big print-on-demand paperback, and the Kindle edition.
Robert Reed
I'm putting new content up on Kindle. Among the titles: THE DRAGONS OF MARROW, which is a sequel to my THE MEMORY OF SKY. And there's a bit of revenge fiction called THE OPPOSITE OF BREATHING.
Thanks for the interest.
Thanks for the interest.
Robert Reed
If you mean far-future settings, bizarre settings and humanish characters, then I would recommend any of the my Great Ship stories. All but one or two are available now from Kindle.
Which of those stories feels most like "Good Mountain?"
Try "Eater-of-bone."
And thanks for the interest.
Which of those stories feels most like "Good Mountain?"
Try "Eater-of-bone."
And thanks for the interest.
Robert Reed
I would tell you the answer if I knew it. I don't. But now I'm curious and might do some research into Hilbert Space.
Thanks for the question.
Thanks for the question.
Robert Reed
I was new to the world of games, and to streaming music. But I hit on Pandora and listening to music in the category "Halo," as in the music by Marty O'Donnell.
One of my projects was writing words to go with a MUSIC OF THE SPHERES project of his. Everyone was happy with my end. At least that's what I was told. And then the project kind of vanished.
Turmoil is the nature of the gaming world.
One of my projects was writing words to go with a MUSIC OF THE SPHERES project of his. Everyone was happy with my end. At least that's what I was told. And then the project kind of vanished.
Turmoil is the nature of the gaming world.
Robert Reed
The dreaded "block" can mean that nothing gets done. The page or the screen remains stubbornly empty. But more likely for me, the trouble is that I write without being ready to write. I churn out bad sentences and make wrong plot turns and then fail to see the flaws until I've invested days and many thousands of words in an embarrassing mess.
Hard physical activity helps me. And sleep. And best of all, the willingness to throw out the awful as soon as I see it.
My career has its limitations. But as a rule, being "blocked" is not much of a factor.
Hard physical activity helps me. And sleep. And best of all, the willingness to throw out the awful as soon as I see it.
My career has its limitations. But as a rule, being "blocked" is not much of a factor.
Robert Reed
I remember very little, sorry.
But then again, the terminology was nothing special. It's just the names they put into the game that they were still building. The aliens and their quirks. The Tower. Character names. And so on.
They were dealing with a non-game person. I had zero skills with a controller, and just to walk me through the story, they made my avatar invincible. Otherwise, it would have been months before I was able reach the final challenge and win.
I bought the game when it came out. (By then our business relationship was done.) On my own, I managed to max out all 3 of my avatars. Then Destiny 2 came out, and I gave up the hobby completely.
I miss Destiny. There were parts of those worlds that felt more real to me than my own backyard.
But then again, the terminology was nothing special. It's just the names they put into the game that they were still building. The aliens and their quirks. The Tower. Character names. And so on.
They were dealing with a non-game person. I had zero skills with a controller, and just to walk me through the story, they made my avatar invincible. Otherwise, it would have been months before I was able reach the final challenge and win.
I bought the game when it came out. (By then our business relationship was done.) On my own, I managed to max out all 3 of my avatars. Then Destiny 2 came out, and I gave up the hobby completely.
I miss Destiny. There were parts of those worlds that felt more real to me than my own backyard.
Robert Reed
Thanks for the question.
Bungie hired me to generate ideas that were never used, and building plot scenarios and locations that might or might show up someday. The only works of mine that were published are a few of the grimoires from the first Destiny. I don't know which ones, though another player once contacted me to say that some of them sounded like. Whatever that means.
Writing these tiny, tiny stories was fun. My boss let me go crazy: "As many as 500 words, and then I'll cut it down." Which means that every word has to matter. Good training for an aging author.
Simple answer: A couple dozen grimoires are mine -- at the most -- and though I played the game hard after it came out, I never bothered to track down what was mine.
Bungie hired me to generate ideas that were never used, and building plot scenarios and locations that might or might show up someday. The only works of mine that were published are a few of the grimoires from the first Destiny. I don't know which ones, though another player once contacted me to say that some of them sounded like. Whatever that means.
Writing these tiny, tiny stories was fun. My boss let me go crazy: "As many as 500 words, and then I'll cut it down." Which means that every word has to matter. Good training for an aging author.
Simple answer: A couple dozen grimoires are mine -- at the most -- and though I played the game hard after it came out, I never bothered to track down what was mine.
Robert Reed
Yes, I am. The sequel to "Dead Man's Run". Also published in F&SF.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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