Ask the Author: Thomas Watson
Answered Questions (8)
Thomas Watson
Middle Earth, more than likely. I'd go to the Shire and watch Gandalf set off fireworks. I'd need to drink extra ale, though, since I don't smoke.
Thomas Watson
I'd go with the characters Vala Mal Doran and Daniel Jackson, from Star Gate SG-1. There was a clear and strong bond between them, even though they bickered constantly. As their story unfolded, it never became just another romance, but instead remained a complicated and contentious relationship between a man and a woman who wouldn't know how to live without each other.
Thomas Watson
My most recently published book is the third in a series, so I'll have to answer from the perspective writing a series. The War of the Second Iteration has its roots in two places. First was my interest in Navajo culture, which in a sideways sort of fashion inspired the Leyra'an - who no longer resemble the Navajo to any degree. There was also the interest in examining the way so much science fiction assumes that the future will be a replay of past or current history, which is why the two Human civilizations - the Commonwealth and the Republic - are so starkly different.
Thomas Watson
That's a hard one to answer, really. For me it isn't so much inspiration as compulsion. Or maybe obsession. It's difficult for me NOT to write. I was born with an over-active imagination, and it all wants to come out! Right now!
Thomas Watson
At the moment I'm working on a draft of a nonfiction book aimed at amateur astronomers. While this is going on, beta readers are working on the completed draft of The Courage to Accept, the fourth book in my sci-fi series, The War of the Second Iteration.
Thomas Watson
Obtain outside opinions of your work before publishing. No writer is qualified to be his or her own editor.
Thomas Watson
Sitting back after getting some work done and realizing the words have done just what you wanted of them. It's a source of satisfaction that is, ironically, difficult to put into words.
Thomas Watson
I've been extremely fortunate - this does not happen to me very often. When it does, I walk away from the work and do other things. There's always work in the garden, new things to see with a telescope in the night sky, and I'm always behind in my reading, to name but three of my non-writing interests. And of course, in the summer, there's usually a baseball game on MLB network or ESPN. I divert myself, and the Muse eventually resents the lack of attention.
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