{"id":726,"date":"2023-04-20T20:12:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T20:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/?p=726"},"modified":"2024-02-20T21:23:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T21:23:31","slug":"special-feature-tobias-s-buckell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/special-feature-tobias-s-buckell\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Feature: Tobias S. Buckell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tobias Buckell, author of Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories,<\/em> NOW AVAILABLE<\/a> from Apex Book Company, joined us for a feature interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Apex Books: <\/strong>What was the inspiration for bringing these particular stories together? How did the collection come about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tobias Buckell<\/strong>:  I love the space stuff! I fell in love with the genre because of riveted starships hugging the edge of lightspeed, pitted and scarred with micro-impacts. When I looked at all the stories I had that took place off-Earth, I realized I had enough to create a whole collection around the theme. And then, really, how could I not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB: <\/strong>What is the worst piece of writing advice you ever received? The best?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB<\/strong>: At a famous author\u2019s forum, back in the 90s, I was told I should never write black characters in my fiction because white readers would hate it, and black readers didn\u2019t exist, so I would kill my career before it could even start. Said author even lamented the one time they had a black main character and their book flopped. They said it was sad, because they were liberal and tolerant, but clearly writing black characters meant a book would fail. I started writing even more stories with Caribbean, black characters after that. So in a way, it was the best advice for me, because I cocked my head, shook it, and did the opposite and I am grateful for understanding that the advice had nothing to do with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB: <\/strong>What is your writing process like? Are you a pantser or a plotter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB<\/strong>: I do all of the above. I\u2019m a student of process, and as a writer, I head out to try any process I hear about or discover because I\u2019m always insanely curious to see how it works for me. I\u2019ve tried it all, and I\u2019ve learned that I am a sort of hybrid creator. I like having some framework, some end in mind, but I do also like to make up a lot in the scene or I get bored by a sort of \u2018paint by numbers\u2019 feeling that comes from overly-planned projects. My favorite approach was to write off a light outline, while heavily filling in the outline as I went so I could refer back to it to job memory, see where I was going, and have a scaffold to help me with revisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB: <\/strong>If you could only have one book to read for the rest of your life, which would you pick? Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB<\/strong>: I always feel conflicted by scenarios like this. It\u2019s made up, but it makes me anxious because no matter what I answer I\u2019ll second guess it for the rest of the day. I should say something wise and pick a massive, dense, literary tome of some kind. But likely, the book I\u2019ve read the most is A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I\u2019d probably be happy with that one for a year. Then I\u2019d go mad, cut up the pages, and start trying to use the words to refashion some kind of new narrative because being stuck to one story for the rest of my life sounds kinda hellish, to be honest\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB: <\/strong>What do you do when you’re not writing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB<\/strong>: I spend some time playing Ultimate Frisbee on the weekends, or I\u2019m playing Minecraft with my kids. The last two years I\u2019ve started a new job as a Creative Writing Prof at a local university, so a lot of my time these days goes into that. Since I took a break from social media I\u2019ve been sinking that time into some new projects, which I\u2019m hoping will go interesting places. The latest is writing-adjacent, but a system for keeping all my notes organized has been one of my geeky side-quests. I\u2019ve also been trying to learn Python, the computer language, better. I have some ideas for two programs I want to create, some day. With all that copious free time we all have (not so much).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AB: <\/strong>What are you working on next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB<\/strong>: I\u2019m working on revising a big fat fantasy novel I\u2019ve been fighting with one way or another for\u2026 almost seven years now? I love the core idea of it, the world, the characters and their stories, but the first iteration of it didn\u2019t sing. I\u2019ve had my head deep in revising it, off and on, for the last few years. It\u2019s the longest I\u2019ve ever worked on something (the idea for my last novel lived in my head for a long time, but in terms of active fiddling, this current book is my longest time investment on a project). It\u2019s hard not to talk about it all the time because it lives in my head so much when I\u2019m away from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite recipes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TB<\/strong>: This curry recipe at Nora Cooks is a pretty decent curry that puts coconut milk in there, which I like, to make a more Thai-like curry. I use this recipe as a base, and then adjust the spices to my needs in the moment. I keep it more or less as written when company comes over, as Midwesterners seem to prefer a blander curry, but even the way I make it tends to be \u2018complex\u2019 not \u2018spicy\u2019 and gets accolades. I tend to triple the amount of curry, double the garlic, double the ginger, and add in Frank\u2019s hot sauce instead of the red curry paste. I probably make this once a week or more as we have a rice cooker and this recipe takes 20 minutes and I usually toss in whatever veggies I have lying around rather than follow the recipe: https:\/\/www.noracooks.com\/vegan-curry\/<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also a big fan of a tofu alfredo sauce, which sounds gross, but if you have vegans in your life, or people who can\u2019t do dairy, it has been a hit in my parts. I started experimenting with using silken tofu as a cheese sauce alternative. This is a popular sauce for when I\u2019m in a hurry to make dinner. I can toss on a pot of pasta quick, then in a blender toss in a carton of silken tofu, some vegetable stock, a whack of a garlic, a little nutritional yeast and some spices, and in 7 minutes, the blender\u2019s friction gives me a warm alfredo-like sauce. I then adjust the spices to my preferred taste. It is another go-to recipe for me. https:\/\/www.food.com\/recipe\/tofu-alfredo-sauce-50064<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for dessert, the recipe I get asked for the most is a vegan pecan pie made from mostly dates and maple syrup. Takes me 7 minutes to prep and is my main contribution when asked to bring a plate of something. https:\/\/detoxinista.com\/vegan-pecan-pie\/<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is my office right now, we just built a new house, so I am still in the processing of unpacking pictures and setting the office up, so it\u2019s a little sterile still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My desk sits in a window that looks out over the back yard:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It makes for some striking views while I\u2019m writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is Smokey, a Siberian low-allergy forest-type cat. He doesn\u2019t look that big in this pic as he\u2019s all bundled up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But he stretches from my knee to my chest when he sits on me, and weighs almost 15 pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the author (and Smokey) for joining us! Check out Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories<\/em><\/a> to read more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tobias Buckell, author of Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories, NOW AVAILABLE from Apex Book Company, joined us for a feature interview. Apex Books: What was the inspiration for bringing these particular stories together? How did the collection come about? Tobias Buckell:  I love the space stuff! I fell in love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","ph_site_tiers_settings":[[{"Price":"0.00","Tier_name":"Public","Tier_id":"public","Selected":"","Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"1.00","Tier_name":"Emotional Support Alien","Tier_id":"prod_Pb8w6aaOteiO8X","Selected":false,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"3.00","Tier_name":"Apex Minion","Tier_id":"prod_Pb8xrfBc6WUlUl","Selected":false,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"5.00","Tier_name":"Bookish Alien","Tier_id":"prod_Pb8za4D1QaNUur","Selected":false,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"8.00","Tier_name":"Cyborg Patron","Tier_id":"prod_Pb8zynifOgBo4H","Selected":false,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"15.00","Tier_name":"Paper Alien","Tier_id":"prod_Pb90BfYjojkqc5","Selected":false,"Tier_status":"publish"},{"Price":"20.00","Tier_name":"Super Minion","Tier_id":"prod_Pb90pqVGbOflWT","Selected":false,"Tier_status":"publish"}]],"_ph_post_tiers":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[200,194],"class_list":["post-726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-special-feature","tag-tobias-buckell"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/apex-publications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}