|
|
|
Brighton, N.Y. —
Brighton resident Lois Gresh is a six-time New York Times Best Seller, and her two most recent books, “Blood and Ice” and “Eldritch Evolutions,” are now on bookshelves everywhere. Although she specializes in genre fiction incorporating science fiction, horror and dark fantasy, she has also co-written several books that look at the real-life science behind popular genres such as those of superheroes James Bond and Indiana Jones. She can be found online at www.loisgresh.com.
Q: When did you first get interested in writing?
A: Probably as a little child.
Q: What about seriously writing — submitting things, for example?
A: When I was 16, I self-published a book about poverty, and it sold pretty well, actually. When I was 17 I started writing full-time as a technical writer. When I was 21 or 22, I wrote some novels I really didn’t try to publish, but in my mid-20s I started writing a lot of short stories, and those started to sell.
Q: One of your recent books, “Blood and Ice,” involves vampires. Why does it seem that vampires are in a lot of books these days?
A: I think they are actually starting to go away, zombies have taken over in the last year or two. But the vampires certainly seem to have had surged back, probably because of “Twilight.” The book I wrote isn’t really so much a vampire story — I was specifically asked to put a vampire in it — it’s more of a dark horror, strange science fiction that takes place in Antarctica, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees of France. There’s definitely a vampire in it, but he’s not the stereotypical vampire that sucks blood and makes girls swoon.
Q: Many of your other stories seem to be “weird horror” stories; what draws you to that style of story?
A: I don’t really think I write horror fiction, although a lot of people think I do. Most of what I write is ... very hard but dark science fiction, sort of on the borderline of it. It usually has some hard science speculation in it. But I don’t write fluffy or romantic stories, I just seem to gravitate toward the dark, which is why I think people think of me as writing horror.
Q: Besides your fiction works, you’ve also co-authored several books about the science behind popular culture franchises. Do you think fiction can provide a opportunity to teach things?
A: Absolutely. In fact, a bunch of these books are used in college and high school “science 101”-type classes. Comic books are filled with all sorts of science riffs, and whether they are realistic or not they make a lot of people think about science. A lot of scientists say they read comic books or science fiction novels when they were children, and that is also certainly true in my case.
Q: How has the Internet and eBooks changed reading and writing?
A: I think eBooks are on the rise, and a lot of people are self-publishing themselves in e-format, which is certainly a new phenomenon. The traditional publishing houses are in turmoil. I think everything has changed. And piracy is widespread now; everything I’ve ever written has been pirated (chuckles). And that is true for everyone I know. I have a Kindle and I read on my cellphone, but I still like paperbacks.
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A: Just keep writing. The only key to anything is to keep doing it, so if you are a aspiring writer, the only thing you can do is to just keep writing. There is no gimmick or magic potion or key, it’s really simple.
Brighton resident Lois Gresh is a six-time New York Times Best Seller, and her two most recent books, “Blood and Ice” and “Eldritch Evolutions,” are now on bookshelves everywhere. Although she specializes in genre fiction incorporating science fiction, horror and dark fantasy, she has also co-written several books that look at the real-life science behind popular genres such as those of superheroes James Bond and Indiana Jones. She can be found online at www.loisgresh.com.
Q: When did you first get interested in writing?
A: Probably as a little child.
Q: What about seriously writing — submitting things, for example?
A: When I was 16, I self-published a book about poverty, and it sold pretty well, actually. When I was 17 I started writing full-time as a technical writer. When I was 21 or 22, I wrote some novels I really didn’t try to publish, but in my mid-20s I started writing a lot of short stories, and those started to sell.
Q: One of your recent books, “Blood and Ice,” involves vampires. Why does it seem that vampires are in a lot of books these days?
A: I think they are actually starting to go away, zombies have taken over in the last year or two. But the vampires certainly seem to have had surged back, probably because of “Twilight.” The book I wrote isn’t really so much a vampire story — I was specifically asked to put a vampire in it — it’s more of a dark horror, strange science fiction that takes place in Antarctica, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees of France. There’s definitely a vampire in it, but he’s not the stereotypical vampire that sucks blood and makes girls swoon.
Q: Many of your other stories seem to be “weird horror” stories; what draws you to that style of story?
A: I don’t really think I write horror fiction, although a lot of people think I do. Most of what I write is ... very hard but dark science fiction, sort of on the borderline of it. It usually has some hard science speculation in it. But I don’t write fluffy or romantic stories, I just seem to gravitate toward the dark, which is why I think people think of me as writing horror.
Q: Besides your fiction works, you’ve also co-authored several books about the science behind popular culture franchises. Do you think fiction can provide a opportunity to teach things?
A: Absolutely. In fact, a bunch of these books are used in college and high school “science 101”-type classes. Comic books are filled with all sorts of science riffs, and whether they are realistic or not they make a lot of people think about science. A lot of scientists say they read comic books or science fiction novels when they were children, and that is also certainly true in my case.
Q: How has the Internet and eBooks changed reading and writing?
A: I think eBooks are on the rise, and a lot of people are self-publishing themselves in e-format, which is certainly a new phenomenon. The traditional publishing houses are in turmoil. I think everything has changed. And piracy is widespread now; everything I’ve ever written has been pirated (chuckles). And that is true for everyone I know. I have a Kindle and I read on my cellphone, but I still like paperbacks.
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
A: Just keep writing. The only key to anything is to keep doing it, so if you are a aspiring writer, the only thing you can do is to just keep writing. There is no gimmick or magic potion or key, it’s really simple.
