Mary Rosenblum Interview
Mary Rosenblum was nominated for her novelette “Night Wind.”
What was the inspiration for “Night Wind”?
When Deborah asked me for a story for the book, I was working on an alternate history project and was in that frame of mind. Myself, I see magic all over the place in the real world – we just think it’s science, or we don’t let ourselves see it – and that particular period in European history, when Spain began bringing its infusion of bloody treasure in from the New World, tied in with the alt history story I was working. And it enticed me since I saw that as a flow of darkness being piped into the magic fabric of Europe. So I set it then, made magic more commonplace in this version of history, and I even got to play with horses. I never quite outgrew being a horse-mad girl, even after owning several.
“Night Wind” appeared in Lace and Blade - what were your favorites among the other stories appearing there?
I have to say that it was Chaz Benchley’s story, In the Night Street Baths that really stayed with me. His characterization is excellent, the implications of larger story are wonderful, and he does it in narrative form which is common in fantasy, but not always well done. In fact often is not. It’s really powerful .
You write mystery as well as science fiction. How does the experience of it differ - if it does?
Mystery is totally different from fantasy and SF. There, the concept of the story, the message that I invariably weave into the backstory of my SF, that ‘lets look at the magic that’s all around us’ that I like to do in my fantasy, has no counterpart. I love mystery, but it’s like designing an intricate jigsaw puzzle. Lots of fun to do, and yes, I can create characters I really love, but the plot’s the thing there, the characters are a close second, and anything else I add to it needs to be seriously third. I enjoy writing mystery a lot, but I love writing SF and fantasy.
Have any other genres tempted you as a writer?
I do mainstream from time to time and have published in small anthologies. Generally, they have been intense little character stories, but again, I miss the larger stuff you can weave into SF and even fantasy.
What have you read recently that sparked story ideas for you?
Oh, gosh, what have I NOT read that has sparked ideas for me! Ideas I don’t lack. I just finished reading Beryl Markham’s ‘West With the Night’ which is an outstanding memoir of her life in Kenya in the thirties. And I’m finding there another of those built in conflicts that could power some very nice fantasy – the unnoticed (by the whites) friction between the indigenous culture and the white society. I’ll have to think about that for awhile. See what develops. Everything makes me think of story ideas! Science magazines, newspaper articles., even ads!
How do writing and teaching overlap for you? Do you enjoy both in the same way?
They’re a wonderful yin/yang. You can’t really understand something completely, in my opinion, unless you can teach it well. I teach writing with the same passion I bring to the writing. In order to really make someone comprehend how to do what they’re trying to do well, you have to understand what it is that you do at a much much deeper level than if you simply write and revise. The two are inextricably entwined now. I learn as much from teaching as I teach, I think.
You’ve talked about starting to write f&sf because you wanted to supply some of the strong women characters that were lacking. Do you see many gender-related changes in the field since you started?
Oh, of course I see changes! Cat, it was a desert back in the sixties! Women, in fantasy, were either victims or evil witches and only the evils witches seemed to have real power. The victim heroines always got saved by someone. Well, okay, you had a few fairy godmothers, but they were hardly very realistic. In SF it was worse. We only existed as wives who held their hubbies back from doing cool and heroic things, or shrill and nasty smart women who were just plain unlikable. Yuck! What a message. How power or be smart and you must be ugly and nasty. It’s hardly a gender-blind world today, any more than it’s a color-blind world today, but I can find women characters I love and admire. Ones that I didn’t create. J
What do you think of the Sci-Fi Channel’s proposed switch to the name, the Syfy Channel?
Well, sorry, what’s in a title? I’m not a fan of the visual-media representation of SF, whatever you call it. I’m afraid that most of the time it reinforces that stereotype that SF is nothing more than raygun and alien and Dangerous Cyber Being action adventure fluff.
You raise sheep as well as write. How did you begin doing that? Have the sheep ever appeared in your writing?
Gee, I don’t think I’ve ever put sheep into my writing. But may I recommend the totally hilarious horror spoof ‘Black Sheep’? If you haven’t seen it, rent it. I had a hard time staying in my chair, I was laughing so hard, they hit all the horror film clichés and did it with outstanding style. What a hoot! Okay, end of paid advertisement here. In reality, I raised dairy goats before I raised sheep. When I started writing, I lived on a small acreage, was a single parent, and was making squat money writing, as you might imagine. Since barter is not an approved from of payment to mortgage companies and the IRS, they got whatever cash I earned. The only way to eat well and not do food stamps was to grow the stuff. So for thirty years now I have raised all my food and heated my wood-heat-only house on my acreage. I no longer have dairy animals (milking twice a day, 365 days a year gets old fast when you live alone) but I do raise all my fruit, veggies, and meat. It’s a lot of work, but I still figure that it’s part of my income. I’d pay a LOT to buy the same organic stuff at New Seasons. And to be honest, mine is better. And think how much I’d have to pay a gym to stay in the shape I’m in. J I’d probably go to rabbits instead of sheep now, except that then I’d have to clear the weeds in my woodlot. My sheep do it better and besides I compete in herding trials with my dogs, so they’re also practice sheep.
Oh yeah, I do teach dog training and compete in herding trials, tracking tests, and obedience competitions.
As a child, Mary Rosenblum never really wanted to have a nine-to-five job to pay for doing what she wanted to do on the weekends. Grownups kindly explained that this wasn’t practical. So far, she has managed to actually fulfill that life ambition to be poor by writing. She started out at Clarion West in 1988 and published one of her Clarion stories, ‘For A Price’, in Asimov’s Magazine. Since that first publication, she has published well more than 60 short stories in SF, mystery, and mainstream fiction, (she stopped counting at 60) as well as eight novels. Her newest novel, Horizons, was released in November 2006 from Tor Books and came out in paperback in November 2007. Water Rites a compendium of the novel Drylands as well as three prequel novelettes that first appeared in Asimov’s were released from Fairwood Press in January 2007. The hardcover collection of her early short fiction; Synthesis and Other Virtual Realities is available from Arkham House. Her SF stories have been published in Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, SciFiction, and Analog among others. She won the Compton Crook award for Best First Novel, The Asimov’s Readers Award, and has been a Hugo Award finalist as well as an Endeavor Award finalist , an Ellery Queen Reader’s Award finalist, and short listed for a number of other awards. She publishes in mystery as Mary Freeman, teaches writing for Long Ridge Writers Group, and at writers workshops, and was an instructor for the Clarion West Writers Workshop this summer.
When she is not writing, she lives sustainably on a small acreage where she trains dogs, raises sheep, teaches cheesemaking, and grows all her fruits and vegetables. She managed to raise two sons who have turned out to be pretty cool people and has even done a bit of traveling in China. And she still doesn’t have a nine-to-five job. Or a lot of money, but hey, you choose your priorities. You can find more information at her website: www.maryrosenblum.com
John Barth described CAT RAMBO’s writings as “works of urban mythopoeia”—her stories take place in a universe where chickens aid the lovelorn, Death is just another face on the train, and Bigfoot gives interviews to the media on a daily basis. She has worked as a programmer-writer for Microsoft and a Tarot card reader, professions which, she claims, both involve a certain combination of technical knowledge and willingness to go with the flow. In 2005 she attended the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop and is a member of the Codex Writers’ Group. Among the places in which her stories have appeared are ASIMOV’S, WEIRD TALES, CLARKESWORLD, and STRANGE HORIZONS, and her work has consistently garnered mentions and appearances in year’s best of anthologies.
She is the co-editor of critically-acclaimed Fantasy Magazine.
