#WriterWednesday with Mark Everglade
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I’d like to welcome Mark Everglade to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Hardest thing about being a writer: Understanding your audience’s needs. With my first novel, Hemispheres, for instance, half the people said the plot was too fast, while the other half said it was a bit slow. Different age groups I think are looking for something different in terms of pacing.
Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with ideas! A simple issue of Scientific American immediately generates thousands of plots to an avid sci-fi writer. I enjoy writing books about rotating tidal-locked planets, where half the planet is always dark, and playing with their ecology and how changing the physical planet changes the people. We call this study human ecology in sociology. You can see this at play in my cyberpunk novel Inertia, which won best sci-fi novel from a small publisher.
Things you need for your writing sessions: Complete quiet, unless it’s music like Boards of Canada, Pineapple Thief, or The Knife to set the mood.
Things that hamper your writing: Interruptions. When you write, you suspend disbelief so that your readers will do the same. Getting pulled out of the zone ruins the immersion and the worlds you’re building in your head.
Words that describe you: Conscientious, kind, compassionate, intellectual, creative
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: Arrogant, judgmental, uptight, intellectual elitism
Favorite music or song: Every genre has its place to coordinate with our vast emotional experiences, but I do tend towards progressive metal and electronica. Sometimes you need intricacy, and sometimes simplicity to set you in that trance where you can experience flow.
Music that drives you crazy: Being from Maryland, I’ll say Country Music, except Alison Krauss, who sings like an angel.
Things you always put in your books: Elements from social science conflict theory that show the differences between the haves and the have nots, the rich and poor, and how it impacts one anothers’ lives. Also, corrupt corporations and governments that profit off the people at their expense. I like taking hackers and scientists from many walks of life and putting them against corrupt regimes, with plenty of cybernetic augmentations to arm them.
Things you never put in your books: Misogyny, unless it’s to show a particular antagonist’s point of view.
Things to say to an author: Anything specific that provides feedback to help them improve in a non-critical way. Such as, “I loved it when X character was motivated to do Y event, but I did feel it could have been foreshadowed better.” Authors find it hard to hear criticism because we put so much of ourselves, so intimately, into the text, but we do want to improve and hear honest, specific, and actionable feedback.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: Generic feedback, “Oh you write so well, I loved the book, because the story was like good and the characters like were good.” None of that helps an author know what you connected with in order to improve their next novel.
Favorite books (or genre): Dystopian books with social elements, such as We, 1984, Brave New World, and Neuromancer.
Books you wouldn’t buy: Any romance novel written past 1920.
Best thing you’ve ever done: Never giving up on those who are different, who maybe aren’t neurotypical, but can learn to coexist in a socially complex world and offer their own unique, beautiful perspectives on life.
Biggest mistake: Not telling the truth enough when I was young and lacking empathy for how others perceived me; putting my own interests and arts ahead of the needs of others.
The nicest thing a reader said to you: People have compared my work to Margaret Atwood, although not nearly at her level of mastery of course. But since I love 19th century literature, the best compliment from a reader was, “I enjoyed your unique perspective in "Misaligned"...The story has such a powerful clarity to it that reminds me of Kafka or even the tales of writers like Poe or Nathaniel Hawthorne.”
The craziest thing a reader said to you: One reader remarked that my story “Glitch Goddess” was a “Nice union of cyberpunk and Lovecraft.” To combine both things into a sort of cybergoth perspective made me say I had tapped into something really weird and different than what other authors were writing. You can get the story free by signing up for my mailing list at the bottom of my website, http://www.markeverglade.com
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: In Hemispheres, one of my characters is named Aurthur, which sounds like author. That’s because his speaking style is most like mine, in the sense that he is overly poetic, even at inappropriate times, which sometimes gets on others’ nerves when there’s actions that need to be done and he’s waning philosophically about it all.
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: None of the sexual scenes are based on real life; and I dislike it when people inquire as such.
About Mark:
Mark Everglade has spent his life studying social conflict. He runs the website www.markeverglade.com where he reviews cyberpunk media and interviews the greats. His short stories have been featured beside legendary authors like Cory Doctorow, Cat Rambo, and Walter Jon Williams. He currently runs a company dedicated to bringing dystopian fiction to a new generation, working with many of the top authors in the industry. He resides in Florida.
Let’s Be Social:
Website: www.markeverglade.com
