So..
Yeah..
Start with a little background?
Grey clouds covered the sky while dark blue-grey ones rolled in at the horizon, and thunder slowly invaded the songs of the birds in the trees surrounding the clearing with a wood cabin in the middle.
I was referring to your past.
Oh. Well, I was born, went to school, didn’t like homework and entered a technical school because I was interested in cars and trucks. Found out I could have earned a high mark in physical education as well at school, because my first job at a now major truck factory was like weightlifting all day long and I soon gained a lot of strength.
A slipped disc ended it though and I went on to become a system administrator for many years, and that ended with a burn out and the decision to pursue writing as a career.
Some personal traits?
Intellectually gifted, schizoid, introvert, brat tamer, stubborn.
Most of your works involve anthropomorphic characters, furries. Any particular reason?
When I first wrote I don’t think it was for any conscious reason, but when I think about it, one reason is to show it’s not about what species a character is, but about who they are. A step further than depicting characters as Caucasian, African, Asian, etcetera. As far as I’m concerned there are no different human races, we’re all made from the same crap and some of us live in a place with more sunshine in a day.
I usually don’t specify a human character’s origin, which wouldn’t make a difference to an alien anyway since we all come from the same rock circling a sun.
In my stories, all that matters is finding that common bond between species and the interaction involved.
What’s with your short Twitter feed?
I prefer to keep things organised and remove unneccesary stuff. Simplification. Tweets older than a few days are hardly read and most are just temporary tibits. Mine anyway. The good ones I will remember in any case. More important messages like direct messages I’ll keep or save.
I also sort the people I follow into lists and check those instead of trying to keep up with one overcrowded feed where it’s easy to miss out on things.
You’re weird.
I grew up, and still am growing, on a mix of Dutch, British, a bit of Belgian, French, and German humor. The technical term for me is dysfunctional.
Judging from your writing, you’re straight. Correct?
Straighter than a ruler. But I’m not square.
Your thoughts on comments you receive?
I appreciate them a lot. I may not always respond since it depends on my social stamina, but hearing readers’ thoughts interests me.
Of course, I ewmoved some comments that only complained and bitched when I felt those were less about what I did, and denigrate the readers that enjoy what I wrote.
Here’s a question from a reader. How do you construct your characters and narrative?
Hmm, tough question to answer perhaps, because I’m not really consciously aware of it while I write. When I come up with a story idea I usually already know what kind of characters are involved, and how their neccessary personality traits were born. Events while growing up, experiences later in life, those sorts of things. I’ve seen advice on writng a short history for each character to provide the background for their actions, and I believe there are character creators where one can fill out a character’s history, and it’ll generate a list of their personality traits.
Developing certain small habits is another part that makes a character more alive.
As for narration, I think I look mostly at it from a storyteller perspective, and of course an important part is the “show, don’t tell” rule, and preventing the passive voice. Characters don’t sit still like a puppet when they talk. They move, even if just a little or gesticulating like Joe Cocker during a concert.
I also like to show who’s speaking without explicitly adding “[insert character”s name here] said” to every sentence of dialog. The reader’s attention should focus on the character in a caasual manner by some minor or major action they perform. But it’s not easy to implement without taking it too far.
What’s your drug of choice?
Music.
I like to drink and I enjoy a cigar. Those are the only two recognised addictive substances, and they’re not really addictive to me. I only drink when I feel like it, which could be several craft beers or good wines for a few weeks, and then nothing for weeks again. And I smoked one or two cigars on an evening every two years or so. Good food is more addictive.
No, the most addictive thing is music because it energises me, I can express my emotional state with it, and it inspired several plots. Sitting in my chair in front of the active loudspeakers I designed in 2010 is a thrill with any kind of good music, and my collections spans from classic to death metal and jazz to techno. The only thing that can top this would be a woman that could put up with me. :-p
What are the tools you use for writing?
Three main tools; Libreoffice, thefreedictionary.com with the internet, and Devuan GNU/Linux.
Libreoffice is obvious of course, with one major advantage over the competition, the ability to reduce the menu to the essentials I need and adjust the looks for nighttime writing. Thefreedictionary.com is a good reference and thesaurus, and the internet as a whole is a source of information. And as for Linux, it provides a distraction free platform to work on through a barebones configured Fluxbox desktop. For storage I built a media server with data integrity protection thanks to the BTRFS file system and a second one to store more media and backups.
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Scifurz 