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| Cover Artist: Jeff Minkevics |
1). To start off, Michael, tell us a bit about 88 in a brief description: 88 is an autistic eight year old girl who is turned into a computer to serve the business needs of the South American mafia. She's bright, but her autism makes it difficult for people to realize just how frighteningly intelligent she really is. Griffin Dickinson, a Special Agent for the North American Trade Union (Mexico/US/Canada unified under a single government for purely economic/corporate reasons), is tasked with shutting down the black market crèches where children like 88 are raised. Joined by Nadia, a state-sanctioned reporter and Abdul, the ghost of a dead Marine inhabiting a combat chassis, Griffin is drawn deep into the shady underbelly of the brain trade.
2). How would you describe 88 in terms of genre? A lot of people are describing it as dystopian, so I suppose I'd have to
go with that. I don't see the world I created as hopeless, just a natural and
(sadly) logical progression of current events.
3. What was the inspiration for the book? The initial inspiration was
born out of a three-day drunk in Matamoros, a small town in Mexico just across
the border from Brownsville, Texas. While lying on the roof of a rented car I'd
put 2,861 kilometres on, I noticed the street was lined with
dentistries. At the time, I thought it odd,
but the visual stayed with me.What if all those dentistries were neurosurgeries instead? What if an
epidemic of brain cancer drove neuroscience at a fantastic rate? Though none of
that made it into the book, that was the original inspiration. During the course
of writing the novel, I also listened to an awful lot of death metal. I wanted the book to be fast, to move. Each time I found myself writing
an action scene, I'd put on the most blistering angry metal I could find. And
then I tried to keep up with it.
4). When did you start to write 88, and how long did it take you to finish it? I started writing
88 back in 2008, while my soon-to-be wife planned our wedding (totally
brilliant on my part; I might still be in trouble). At the time I was
working nights as a studio and front-of-house sound engineer, recording albums
and mixing bands at clubs, going deaf, and losing my mind. I worked nights
mostly and had my days free to write. The first draft took about a year to
complete and was written in classic manic/depressive style. I'd crank out a few
thousand words a day, and then write nothing for days or weeks. My writing
(quantity, not quality) was very much influenced by what I read. If I read
something amazing, I'd get depressed and think, I can't do this, and stop
writing. If I read a garbage book, I'd get excited and know I could do better. I
probably spent the best part of six months editing and pestering friends and
family to read it. When I felt it was ready, I went after the biggest
publishers first. That was an eye opener. Most wouldn't even look at it unless
I had an agent. I'll get an agent, I thought. Easy! Right. I'd
never been published—not even a short story—and I'm not sure agents took me (or
88) seriously. I spent a year writing and rewriting plot synopses and
cover letters...and got nowhere. Obviously I needed to be published to get
published. How hard can it be? I wondered. I'll just write a bunch of short
stories and then try to get 88 published once I've got some credentials. A year later, when I was about to call it quits on short stories
and writing in general, On Spec bought one of my stories, a little
tale called Artificial Stupidity. It took almost another year to sell my
second story, Intellectual Property to Interzone. After
that, I sold stories to Daily Science Fiction (Character is What You Are),
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly (Death at the Pass, and Death and Dignity),
and the Arcane II Anthology (Fire and Flesh). Ha! I thought.
Now they'll look at my book! Wrong! I spent another year chasing agents and
getting nowhere. Eventually, I decided to completely change my approach. Instead
of chasing the big money, I researched small publishers, trying to find which
would be the best home for my book. During my search I discovered Five Rivers
and immediately liked Lorina's views on the publishing world and how it is changing. The rest, as they say, is history. Over the course of roughly a year,
we bounced the book back and forth several times during the editing process.
The Five Rivers editors were amazing, never willing to say, 'it's good enough.'
They wanted the best book I could write and they were willing to break me—and incidentally, to teach me how to write—to get it. I'm still
learning.
5). What
were some of your most difficult moments when writing the book? What were some
of your best? Doubt was my biggest hurdle. Never having previously
written anything—much less a novel—I had serious doubts I could finish
something of that magnitude. Then there was the question as to whether I could
write something anyone would want to read. I was reasonably sure I had a neat
idea, but that's such a small part of any book. I have two favorite moments: the first occurred about halfway into writing the novel. I suddenly realized
I'd lost control. I didn't know how the book would end and who (if anyone)
would survive. 88 had taken on a life of its own and from that point on
I was just along for the ride. Very exciting! The second favorite moment happened on the day I
typed The End. I'd done it, I'd written an entire book. It was an
amazing feeling of accomplishment. I knew then I had more books in me.
6). 88
is smartly written, the world extremely believable in terms of the future
technology presented, the span of global big business (both legitimate and
otherwise), and the potentials of military and para-military forces. What did
you bring to the book in terms of your own background and life experience? What
kind of research did you have to do to give the book such a high level of
believability? Thanks! I am an imaginative thief and blessed with some
very smart friends. I stole a lot from them. One is a
tinfoil-hat-wearing-conspiracy-theorist-nuclear-physicist who works for a
massive financial institution. I picked his brain mercilessly for ideas on
where our civilization might go in terms of politics and economics. And then I
muddled it all up with my complete lack of understanding (and total lack of
interest) in those topics. I'm also a research junkie. Google is my friend. I
researched the mafia and their structure. I researched current military
hardware and made guesses as to where it might go based on what I thought
sounded coolest. I researched the military to make sure I got the ranks and
pay-grades correct. I used Google maps to make sure I got all the streets and
directions correct. I wanted a high degree of realism and was willing to spend
the research time to achieve it. I have two monitors hooked up to my computer,
one for my word processor (Libre Office) and the other for research. I probably
spent more time researching than writing. In short, I know nothing about
anything and researched everything. Anything that didn't come from research I
made up.
7). You
make many references to 16th century Japan and the way of the samurai. Your
writing reflects a solid understanding of combat and martial arts. Do you also
have a background in these areas? I'm a Black Belt in watching MMA
on TV. If the combat scenes work, it's because I saw them in my head before
writing them. After that, it was just a case of capturing that vision and
making it understandable. I wanted the reader to see what I saw. I started the
novel with very little knowledge of 16th century Japan, but one of the
characters, Archaeidae, demanded it. To make him the character I wanted him to
be, he had to know a lot about feudal Japan, warlords, and tea ceremonies—which meant I had to know it too.
8). Combat
chassis, walking battle tanks where Scans like your character Abdul inhabit
robotic hardware, are the perfect killing machines. Many of your future tools
of destruction (jumping spider mines, etc.) are vivid and evocative. In terms
of the military technology we now have, can you comment on what is cutting edge
in terms of intelligent present-day combat hardware? Were any of these an
inspiration for you, or was it more of a case of letting your imagination lead you to create these future weapons of mass destruction? Definitely
a little bit of both. Most of my friends are physicists and engineers. I wanted
to write a book they'd read and think was cool. That meant I had to get the
technology right; they're merciless. Most of the tech I used is based on stuff
that already exists (the Jumping Spider Mine is the future Bouncing
Betty). Some of it, like hyper-kinetic flechette weapons, already exists
but isn't yet common knowledge or is still in the R&D stage. Occasionally,
if I wanted something a little crazy, I just made stuff up like the
ShivaIV—designed to knock suborbital weapons out of the sky by disrupting their
atomic and molecular structures. Even then, I did research and had conversations
with very smart, educated people so as not to come up with something silly or
totally unbelievable.
9). Your character, NATU Special Investigator Griffin Dickinson, seems to me to
be a perfect foil for your antagonist Mark Lokner. I feel as if they are
symbols for the best and worst that humanity has to offer. Was this a conscious
decision on your part, or did they just evolve that way as characters? The
funny thing is, I created the character Miles to be that foil. His fear of
choices and commitment and general unwillingness to get involved was to be a
balance for Lokner's iron certainty. Miles however had very different ideas as
to where his character should go. All of the characters evolved very
organically, which might not be as good as it sounds. I suspect a little
planning would have made things easier. My character notes for Griffin, for
example, said something like He has grey hair and drinks too much. That
was it. And then I dropped the drinking part because I forgot to write it in.
I hate good versus bad stories. The idea
is silly. No one is the bad-guy in their story. Everyone does things for
reasons that make sense to them. The difference between a visionary and an
evil tyrant (or political/historical figure of any kind) is who writes their
press releases. I suppose
the answer to your question is no, this wasn't a conscious decision. I
certainly wasn't thinking of either character as a symbol. I wanted Griffin to
be imperfect, to have issues. Not even a flawed hero, just some guy who hasn't
done much with his life and is painfully aware of the fact. I hoped by the end
of the book he'd be someone else, changed by his experiences.
10). I
love that 88 begins as a crèche child. I immediately feel sympathetic and
protective towards her, and yet, as the story progresses, she becomes so
powerful that she could be described as a formidable no-longer-human
intelligence. Normally, such alien-like intelligences are seen as threats to
humanity, but I still root and hope for her. What was your inspiration in
creating 88 as a character? Why did you choose to make her a highly functioning
autistic little girl? This one is a little difficult to
talk about without giving too much away, so I'm going to be vague. The autism
was useful because it hid who and what 88 really was. Many people with
Autism/Asperger's have difficulty processing sensory information; too much and
they shut down/retreat inwards. When 88's keepers removed those distractions so
as to make her a better computer, they freed her. Had they left her a little
girl, she would never have been a threat and would have spent her life in poverty,
examining cracks in the floor and thinking thoughts no one would ever guess.
I like that humanity creates its own worst enemy out of sheer greed and
ignorance.
11). Are
you working on the sequel? If so, can you tell us a bit about it and when its
release might be? I'm currently
working on a skeletal plot outline and putting far more effort into planning
the book than I did with 88. I'm hoping this will make the actual
writing part a little easier, but I have serious doubts. The sequel, 88.1,
will start July 8th, 2034, the day after 88
ends. Beyond that, I'd rather not say. I have a lot less writing time these
days—being a work-from-home father is amazing but time consuming, often
leaving me with very little Brain—so I can't even begin to guess at how long it
will take to write the sequel. I'm currently editing Beyond Redemption,
a very messed up dark fantasy novel, and that is my focus. My hope is to get it
ready to send to Five Rivers within the next month or two. After that, I should
have a few months to focus on 88.1 while they slaughter my fantasy novel
and send me the tattered and bloody remains to fix. It's funny. I thought, Ha!
I've written a book! I'm finished! I couldn't have been more wrong. It's
all about the rewriting. This time, when I finished the first draft of Beyond
Redemption, I thought, Ha! Now I can start rewriting.
(Thanks, Michael. For those of you who like dark and gritty dystopian science fiction, I can't recommend 88 enough.)
Next Post: Happy 25th On Spec! Announcing our 25th Anniversary Anthology through Tyche Books!
Stay tuned.
(Thanks, Michael. For those of you who like dark and gritty dystopian science fiction, I can't recommend 88 enough.)
Next Post: Happy 25th On Spec! Announcing our 25th Anniversary Anthology through Tyche Books!
Stay tuned.
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