Ask the Author: Caldon Mull
Answered Questions (9)
Caldon Mull
No, I cannot. I have no thoughts or ambition beyond my next meal and that is enough for me.
Caldon Mull
The 'Gates' Universe of the CJ Cherryh Morgaine Saga. I don't know why this particular set of worlds, but right now the idea of being able to move on to something completely different if you tire of this world is very attractive. The world doesn't necessarily have to be better, just different.
Caldon Mull
The first thing about writers block club is not to talk about writers block club. I'm not sure I experience this the same way as other authors. What I seem to have, on occasion is a 'failure to launch'. By that I mean that design is done, characters have worked out, plot is going to a place and then... fingers not move. Over the next few weeks, the capsule of the story will stay in the fore-front of my mind twisting and changing and being examined from every angle... but fingers not move. When I can't bear it anymore, I'll bolt a pint of my favorite ale, start with '"It was a dark and stormy night" and let 1000 words flow in a rubbish dump. Then I'll go and get some sleep and the next morning my inner author... aghast at what has happened resolves to correct the 1000 words and remove the trigger phrase and things get back to normal. Usually the work is completed as intended sometime after that. I have to trick myself to avoid membership in the writers block club.
Caldon Mull
In different cycles, "Eternity" and "Talus" and "Mirrored Myrrh". Two of them are in post-production, and one is being slowly completed.
Caldon Mull
Gazing into my navel... figuratively! I love the word "omphaloskepsis" and I've always wanted to use it in a story. Now I'm finally getting my wish.
Caldon Mull
Resurrection and Evolution. It is difficult to author a dimension and time-spanning series without dealing with the 'big' issues. I didn't want the books to be a 'series' where it became imperative to read a specific one before the next one made sense. Each book I write has to be a 'stand-alone' in my mind... but that doesn't mean I can't tie them together with themes. So "Omnipresent Occultation" dealt with life and sex and death, so it was logical that another one dealt with resurrection and evolution. I've decided to tie that all together in "Mirrored Myrrh". Obviously there will be pain, granted there will be weirdness... Let's just do it!
Caldon Mull
I guess. 'Shards' , 'Fragments' and 'Talus' all started with a collection of short works, novellas and chapters that were lying around gathering dust. Some of them had started promising, and then turned out not to be. So in the end I punked out under pressure from my publisher. Shards got all the best short works, those that had been entered into competitions, honorable mentions and suchlike over the years and were mostly complete stand-by-themselves works. I then thought to take one from each decade of writing, and make one of them a novella; so four short stories and a novella, spanning forty years. I was careful to balance SF, SpecFic and Fantasy and maybe some contemporary Lit in the mix.
Then came Fragments, a little more muddy. same time frame and same balance. I had a gap there though in the latest work, I had nothing from the last ten years and so without changing anything, I put in a bonus novella which had just been published called El D'Or Dieux and it felt right. Fragments felt a little 'smaller' than Shards, a little bit more intimate, perhaps. Talus so far looks to be a little smaller than Fragments and mostly Fantasy and SpecFic and should be my last Anthology for awhile. Since moving on to the larger novel form, I don't really write short pieces anymore. Hope that answered your question.
Then came Fragments, a little more muddy. same time frame and same balance. I had a gap there though in the latest work, I had nothing from the last ten years and so without changing anything, I put in a bonus novella which had just been published called El D'Or Dieux and it felt right. Fragments felt a little 'smaller' than Shards, a little bit more intimate, perhaps. Talus so far looks to be a little smaller than Fragments and mostly Fantasy and SpecFic and should be my last Anthology for awhile. Since moving on to the larger novel form, I don't really write short pieces anymore. Hope that answered your question.
Caldon Mull
I am tempted to return, I must admit. I don't think so for awhile, though. It may come as a surprise (or may not) that the actual 'Future History' grew from different locations and stories based around projections of where will be in five hundred years time with what we know right now. The earlier parts fell into a tome called 'The Estuary Tales' and the later part of the Tale fell to 'The Sphinx.' There are other pieces that didn't get included for style purposes (The Folk and the Shellmen springs to mind) but are still buzzing around in the Archives. If any of those Tales get a new injection of creativity, I'll be sure to put them out.
Caldon Mull
Yes, I think you will be surprised. Yes, I think it is as 'trippy' as the first. I think you will find it raunchier, grittier, longer (double the size) and horrific in some parts. I wanted to focus on the 'do' parts (the occultation) with this novel and less on the 'is' parts (the omnipresent). I wanted this novel to roll up its' sleeves and get to work on what Arteus is all about.
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