Please Do Not Miss This: Bru Interviews...

Let me begin by saying that I never intended to post another interview on this blog.

As much fun as they were (and I do enjoy them) they’re a lot of work, and they are, well, something pretty much every blogger in the group started to do at the time I decided to stop, and so, I stopped.

This time, however, I have got to make an exception: if for no other reason (though there are other reasons) than no one else will get this interview.

In that, I feel humbled, privileged, and quite anxious for you to meet the man who has stopped by for tea and Twinkies today.

This one means a lot to me, my friends, so please, read on.

I first crossed paths with Matthew Irvine almost five years ago, when I was the acting administrator and editor for an online science fiction writer’s group. One afternoon I received an email from our webmaster, that particular group’s creator, forwarding an application to join and the proposed character profiles the applying writer had come up with.

To say I was intrigued would be an understatement- and the fact the applicant also wrote the most sincerely polite emails I had ever read in my life didn’t hurt, either.

In the fourteen plus years that I’ve written in groups I’ve worked with more writers than I can count- dozens, certainly: probably hundreds overall. People of every skill level, educational background, and personal style.

The thing about Matt Irvine was that he surprised me- and it’s very difficult to surprise me. (Well, at least in a good way. There were many writers that surprised me in bad ways. It’s why, to this day, I do have some sympathy for those who wade into the slushpile.)

He kept right on surprising me with the wit and attention to detail in his work and I have lost count of the number of words and stories we’ve written together in the years since.

His voice has evolved as I’ve watched, and I know without a doubt that writing with him has made me a much better writer. The things that I’m proudest to have written- ever- have been written with him and/or shaped by his presence.

He’s known me so long, he has not only been a source of strength through all my surgeries- in times of blindness, madness, and complete uncertainty but is also well aware of all my Twinkie-toting, lightsaber-loving, Disney-obsessed, Coldplay-worshipping, quirky-Muppet ways.

Somehow he puts up with me, anyway. Maybe ‘cause I really think he’s truly the last of the Jedi, and they’re legendary for their patience. I mean, he has the beard and everything, people. I’m telling you, he’s the real deal.

He’s also the only person I have ever turned one of my most beloved characters over to lock, stock, and barrel and said “Please write him, because I know you can write him better than I can.”

And he did.

So, (here’s the disclaimer) he is one of the absolutely dearest people in the world to me, and this is an interview I have wanted to do for a very, very long time.

Here we go. Ladies and Gentleman and Pitch Slapped usual suspects, allow me please to introduce you to my dear friend Matthew Irvine, author of the brilliant dystopian novel The Last of the Venitars.

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FG: At long last, welcome! You know I wanted to hold off on doing this a little while until the e-book of Venitars was finally up at Amazon but it wasn’t easy to wait! Finally the day has arrived, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for you. Congratulations on your book, Matt, it’s really a work of art.

MI: You really are too kind. The book was a long time in the making and I doubt it ever would have gotten finished and out there if not for your encouragement and assistance throughout its development. So thank you.

FG: Now you’re much too kind. I consider myself very lucky that I got to see the first draft a few years ago and to discuss with you the ones that came in between that and the final version, now published, as they were in progress. So thank you for that. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about you?

MI: About me, you say? Well, what’s there to say? If your ways are ‘Twinkie-toting, lightsaber-loving, Disney-obsessed, Coldplay-worshipping, quirky-Muppet’ (which I suppose is quite a bit better for your health than being Twinkie-loving and lightsaber-toting) then mine are ‘science fiction watching, science fiction loving, science fiction obsessed, Roddenberry worshipping, quirky science fiction enthusiast’ ways. In short, I like the genre known colloquially as sci-fi.

FG: (mumbling) And you’re a Time Lord. Don’t forget that part…

MI: My tastes admittedly tend to the old-fashioned. I love the classic Doctor Who.

FG: …and there it is. There is little better than big rubber monsters and characters you can really love, is there?

MI: While it’s true some of the special effects look exactly like a piece of foil being blown around by a fan, I don’t believe it’s ever been conclusively established that alien space craft have neither foil nor fan on board. Besides, it’s the story that really matters, not the effects that help us see it.

FG: Preaching to the choir, my friend, and I am sure that’s true among my readership as well. What about a little more about you, personally, for the folks at home? (and I know you’re a Rational and don’t go in for that sort of thing generally…please, indulge me?)

MI: I was born and raised in the countryside in Australia before moving to the city to attend university (where I now live and work). Though interested in writing, I never really got into it when I was growing up. That said, every now and then I did get out my parents’ typewriter (this was actually in the nineties but I just liked the typewriter) and I always enjoyed myself.

Then when I came to Melbourne I began writing with a very interesting group of writers (including one who was extremely talented…) and I just never stopped loving the art form.

FG: That you kept up writing has been a blessing to us all. Without you, I happen to know that particular group could never have produced more than 1100 “posts” (chapters) in the four years it ran, many novels’ worth of stories. Speaking of stories, that brings me back to yours. Please tell us a bit about the book.

MI: Well, as your readers surely have figured out, it’s science fiction. It’s not about space ships, time travel or aliens (though as a Doctor Who fan you know I enjoy all three). Ultimately it’s about different people and about the world they live in.

The story takes place over an extended period of time (something I love that science fiction lets us do) by concentrating on three distinct time periods, which it switches between. The first is a time not too far from now. It’s a rather optimistic world but not one free of problems, as it opens with an old man going to see an older friend for the very last time.

The second is the distant future, when quite in contrast to the first the world has been devastated by war and cultural degradation. It is a time of great conflict and anger, when the truth is hard to ever really know.

The third time falls somewhere in between. It serves not just to show important steps on the world’s path, but concentrates on the characters that played a major role in what happened.

Each period is unique and distinct with different motivations for some very different characters. Yet the entire story cannot be seen in any one and all must be read to truly understand just what happens to the world and its people.

FG: There are so many facets to the story and they all come together so artfully.

The thing that I found most memorable about The Last of the Venitars is the depth to the book—to the people that inhabit your world. The characters offer such a rich cross-section of the traits of humanity itself, the inherently good and unconscionably bad-in the darkest of circumstances in some cases, and which character truly represents which is not understood until you’ve read the whole story. This is a book you think about for a very long time after you put it down.

It’s layered with meanings and woven with thoughts on how war, power (or the quest for power), religion and politics shape a society (in this case our future Earth) and with what it all really means to be an individual, human and alive.

Is there a message you hope that people will take away from the book, or do you hope they find whatever message it leads them to (and I think it can lead different readers to different messages, personally…)

MI: I quite like how you put that. I do hope that they find ‘whatever message it leads them to’.

It’s easy for a writer to put their own opinion into a story. You can shape the consequences of your characters’ actions to be whatever you want them to be (if you don’t like people who cut in line in the supermarket you could write it causing the apocalypse if you wanted). However just as in life events can be interpreted different ways, I’d love for people just to think about the story and find their own meaning in it.

FG: Well there’s lots of meaning to find and that is why this book is so significant to me.

While people will find you’re a complex man who can craft intricate plots- one thing they won’t find is a webpage, blog, Twitter account or FB presence for you. This means that you’re not actively marketing Venitars, as most authors are marketing these days. Is there a reason for that?

MI: Indeed there is a reason for it. In fact, there are a couple.

The first is simply my personal intense burning non-fondness for social networking in general.

FG: *collapses into laughter * “burning non-fondness?” C’mon, Matt, tell us how you really feel! See, I told you all this guy could win awards for politeness… * feigning shock now* YOU don’t like social media sites? Why ever not???

MI: Don’t get me wrong, they are wonderful things for some people. They open a world of possibilities, like a party with half the world invited that never stops. However in my opinion they’re…rather like a party with half the world invited that never stops. Eventually you just want to shoo these people out of your house, wipe the footprints off the ceiling, and not even think about what they’ve done to your kitchen for at least another forty-eight hours.

However the more significant reason for me comes down to simply doing these things for the right reason. Social networking is, at the end of the day, just that. It’s networking with a social group. It’s ultimately making friends, however serious those friendships may be, with a whole bunch more people.

To my mind, to join a community just to sell someone your book, is a bit like starting a conversation with a stranger at a bus stop, inviting him to your home, then attempting to introduce him to your ‘cleaning supply quick finance methodology’.

Many people are on these sites for exactly the right reasons. Many (yourself included) have genuinely interesting blogs or websites with diverse and intriguing purposes. However these people are, in my opinion at least, the ones who’d be doing it regardless of whether they have a book on the market.

FG: Me? Interesting? I think it’s more the train wreck people just can’t look away from. But you’re right, I would blog even if I didn’t have a book- wait, I don’t! * laugh*

Actually I did blog long before I ever thought about publishing anything, ever, anywhere: for various reasons and in various arenas. You summed up very well what I tried to say recently about marketing and you did it so much more nicely than I did. I should have asked you to write the post for me * laugh* You have always been able to write for my characters when we wrote serials together without anyone realizing who was writing what- you could surely ghost-blog me. Well, if I could just keep you from saying ‘whilst’ for a little while. But I like the ‘whilst’ too much so I guess I’ll have to do my own damn blogging.

In any event, I really admire the fact that you’ve published your book and not gone overboard with the huge marketing push that many others do. I know that the important thing to you was that your work be out there- that it is available, but you don’t see the need to remind people constantly that it is available.

I still believe that the absolute best marketing is for readers who believe in your book to tell their friends about it- and so that’s what I’m doing here. I’m telling people that I was amazed and moved by this book and I hope that if they enjoy science fiction with depth, a classic feel to it and unforgettable characters that they will check out The Last of the Venitars.

Now, one more thing before I let you get back to working on your next project (or spinning around time and space in your TARDIS. I know what you really are...) Tell me, is there a line or paragraph that you’ve written (anywhere) that you’re really proud of? If so can you share it (without giving major spoilers for the book, say? It doesn’t even have to be from Venitars…)

MI: I’ll admit this question wasn’t an easy one to answer. In truth, the things I’m proudest of in the book are inseparable from the whole story and so cannot be given here without giving far too much of the story away by way of explanation. However I’ve included below a sample of my descriptive style for anyone who may be interested.

Once this had been a living city. Now it was dead. Slain in battle; its buildings were tattered wrecks, its food stores looted dry and its mighty towers that once reached the sky now rested as piles of debris upon the chipped asphalt of the streets.

FG: That’s great stuff, Matt.

Since I can’t post my favorite parts of Venitars without giving away too much either (people will just have to read it!) and since I am as you also know such a sentimental sort- I’d like to add a short thing- one of my favorite things you wrote back when we were doing the series.

Words spoken by William, the character that I asked you to take over and you so graciously did. To preserve the context I’ve left in a few lines that I wrote for the piece (I’ll bold yours so our readers can tell them apart.)

In this scene, my character Liis and yours Will are off embarking on a very dangerous mission, and discussing their mutual friend and officer (and Liis’ newlywed husband) Keiran O'Sullivan (and all my buddies know how I feel about my Keiran * laugh*).

It was then that the joking abruptly ended, as rather than reply with some witty retort Will stopped and asked in a deadly serious tone. “Are you worried about him?”

Her eyes spoke for her as she slowly unclasped her fingers from the taunting fist they had made. Her hand gravitated upward, instinctively drawn to the chain of her earring.

"I only hope that he'll be all right if I don't..." she looked down at the deck, her tall frame bending as a willow in the wind as the reality of their situation washed over her in full force.

"That's why we're both going to do everything in our power to make certain that you do survive this mission, Zanh Liis," Will replied, placing a reassuring hand on each of her shoulders.

"Because it’s not just your life we’re dealing with here. Every nick, every cut, every drop of your blood that’s spilled will be lost from him as sure as if he’d been in your place. Only when they’re your wounds, they’ll take him so much longer to heal. And I swear if you were struck down by that fatal blow, that no matter where in the universe he was he’d feel it just as hard. Then slowly he’d spiral down and down through misery and pain until eventually, it took his life too.” He added with an all too knowing tone, “There really is no worse way to die.”

FG: It was December 2008 when you wrote that, and it still stays with me.

That’s the power of Matthew Irvine’s writing, everyone. Once you read it, it stays. I hope you’ll soon know that for yourself.

I’d like to sincerely thank you all for reading, and Matthew Irvine for giving me this chance to interview him and to introduce him to you all.

As I said, you won’t find him online anywhere else—well, except at Amazon and Lulu, where you can find The Last of the Venitars- and I hope you will.

It’s available in both paperback and ebook formats at Amazon (where you can read a sample) and in paperback from Lulu.

I give it five out of five stars (and I do not generally review books- you know that. This is different. And just for the record I purchased my own paperback copy from Lulu for review.)

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have for the author in comments- I’ll be sure he gets the chance to answer (even if I have to copy/paste his replies in here myself- he has no blogger account either.)

Thanks again to all of you for reading this very special, out-of-retirement edition of Bru Interviews! Now, time for more Twinkies. We have to save Hostess from bankruptcy, don’t we? Start eating, people! I can’t do this on my own!

~bru