Ask the Author: Mike Gullickson
Answered Questions (4)
Mike Gullickson
I'm lucky, I've never had it. What I've observed is that good days or bad days are just perception. When I've looked back on what I've written, my style, cadence, and quality, tends to remain the same. So I'd recommend less thinking and just grinding through. The great thing with a novel (versus a screenplay) is that you can toss out 50 pages and MAKE IT BETTER. So even if what you write is meandering, or in the end, not needed, who cares?
Mike Gullickson
I came out to LA fourteen years ago to become a screenwriter and learned quickly that it wasn't for me. The structure and terseness needed to write successfully just didn't work with my brain. Quickly I moved to prose and in 2008, during my honeymoon, I became very ill. I had contracted pericarditis, which affects your heart. So I was housebound for over a month. That month is what jump started my writing career and when I began The Northern Star series of novels.
Mike Gullickson
The Northern Star series is a culmination of multiple influences. While listening to "I Might Be Wrong," by Radiohead, I saw the Tank Major (bionic) for the first time (and Raimey and Glass, but in much different roles than they are now).
And with near-future science fiction, you have to take into account what is happening today. The two biggest concerns I see are resource depletion and our absolute dependence on technology.
So the question was pretty simple: how did I picture the world in 50 years? And that became The Northern Star series.
And with near-future science fiction, you have to take into account what is happening today. The two biggest concerns I see are resource depletion and our absolute dependence on technology.
So the question was pretty simple: how did I picture the world in 50 years? And that became The Northern Star series.
Mike Gullickson
The third and final novel of The Northern Star series. I wrote the series out of order, so The Northern Star: The End (I agree, my titles are exceptionally creative) was the first novel I had ever written. So diving back into it a year ago was interesting in a lot of respects. The story itself really hasn't changed, it was easy to add and subtract a bit to improve it, but my writing style has changed immensely.
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