Ruth Nestvold 2009 Interview
Ruth Nestvold is nominated for her short story “Mars: A Travelers Guide.”
Tell us a bit more about your story, Mars: A Traveler’s Guide? What was the inspiration behind this story and what did you hope to achieve?
The gestation period for my stories tends to be very long, so it’s hard for me to pinpoint any one source. I have an idea, and I park it in the back of my brain until it either starts bugging me to be written, or I’m looking for something new to write and I pull those ideas out and examine them, trying to decide which one grabs me the most at any particular time. But what I always want to do when I write is to move the reader in some way—to laughter, to tears, to thought. I want to leave an impression.
For “Mars,” one of the inspirations was that I like to play with new ways of telling a story, something that probably at least in part comes from my work in hyperfiction, fiction in hypertext. This story is like doing that _without_ the hypertext.
Another one of the inspirations, believe it or not, was a little lecture Michael Swanwick gave at a workshop a few years back entitled “How to win a Hugo.” (Really!) I didn’t do what he said, but the idea stayed with me. What Michael told us to do was to have a character stranded in a hostile environment in our solar system and have him or her solve the problems that arise using science. I just turned it around a bit and had the science take over and not solve the problems.
When you first started writing with the aim for professional publication, did you envision yourself where you are now?
Well, most of us would probably love to be in the running for a major award someday. Being nominated for a Nebula is like being knighted in our circles. Hoping and reaching for the stars aren’t quite the same thing as envisioning, but on some level I think you have to imagine yourself there in order to push yourself hard enough to keep learning and doing new things in your fiction.
When you sit down to write, do you have a clear vision in your head of what you want to write and how it will turn out?
The first thing I do when I start to write a story or novel is to sit down with a spiral notebook or some sheets of scrap paper and start taking notes, brainstorming in longhand. At that point, no, I do not have a clear image of what the story will end up being. But usually by the time I hit the computer I have a fairly fleshed-out idea of where I’m going, although characters can occasionally surprise me, as they do many writers.
Your first novel, Yseult, was released by Penhaligon (Random House Germany) this year. How does it feel to be a published novelist, and what were some of the challenges you faced before Yseult was picked up? What kept you going?
Having a novel out is of course one of the dreams of most writers, and it feels great. Getting there wasn’t easy, though. Both Yseult and a previous novel were requested repeatedly by agents and publishers in the U.S., but none of those interested ever decided to sign me on. Yseult is actually the fourth novel I’ve written but the first one to be published. Stubbornness is one of the most important attributes a writer can have, but it has to be paired with a certain amount of willingness to learn and take the opinions of others into consideration.
Yseult has also been picked up by the Dutch publisher, Mynx. Has this success influenced the way you approach writing?
The fact that the novel has had a certain amount of success, yes, that has had an influence on the way I write. My German publisher is interested in my next Arthurian book, and while I don’t have a contract or a deadline, my editor needs at least a general time frame when the book will be finished so that he can line up a translator. Trying to judge my progress and estimate when I can have a big, novel-length manuscript ready is something completely new to me, something that I’m having to teach myself as I go. I can easily guesstimate how long it will take me to produce 140,000 words, but it’s much more difficult to figure out how long I will need for the rewrite—I don’t have any numbers to base that on.
Between the short story and the novel, which form do you prefer and why?
I enjoy both, and at the moment I miss writing short stories, I have to admit. It’s nice to have the whole overview in my head, to complete something in a short space of time. With an epic novel like Yseult or my current project, Shadow of Stone, I can’t keep all the elements in my head at once, and I have to keep jumping backward and forward to figure what I’ve done and what I have planned. But the advantage of a novel is that you can immerse yourself in the world, both as reader and as writer. Short stories are better at delivering a punch, a quick, strong impression. I also find them better for experimenting, again both as reader and writer. The database entries I use to tell “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” would get pretty old if they were used for a whole novel.
What themes are you passionate about? How does this inspire you?
Themes change, but what inspires me is anything that makes me mad or sad or laugh out loud. For example, if something makes me start ranting while I’m reading the paper, it’s a good candidate as the basis for a story someday. Sometimes a topic makes me really want to tell a story, sometimes I mine my anger or my fear or my pain deliberately.
What do you look for when reading other people’s stories? When do you say: oh, that’s a really good story?
For me, stories that make me sit back and say to myself “Man, I wish I’d written that!” not only have a compelling plot and interesting characters and language that sings, they integrate the elements of craft and theme in such a way that everything works together to create a sense of perfection.
Would you like to tell us about your writing process?
First comes the brainstorming that I mentioned above. Depending on what I’m writing, this might also be combined with research. I love research, and it often gives me important ideas for the story or novel I’m working on. With Yseult I was doing research throughout the writing process. Sometimes if I’m in the flow of writing, though, I won’t stop to look something up; instead, I’ll just make a note to myself in the manuscript to check the facts later. I’m not a fast writer, but I do write almost every day.
Has writing influenced the way in which you read other people’s stories? In what way?
I’m stumped on this question. I’ve been writing so long that I can hardly remember reading as a non-writer. Besides, since I have a Ph.D. in English literature, I’m trained to read as a literary critic, which also has to do with reading fiction to understand how it does what it does.
What do you look for when reading other people’s stories? When do you say: oh, that’s a really good story?
For me, stories that make me sit back and say to myself “Man, I wish I’d written that!” not only have a compelling plot and interesting characters and language that sings, they integrate the elements of craft and theme in such a way that everything works together to create a sense of perfection.
Do you have any upcoming projects? Would you like to share about that?
I’m presently working on Shadow of Stone, a follow-up novel to Yseult concentrating on other characters, but continuing the Arthurian background story through to the battle of Camlann and Arthur’s death. Once that is completed, I would like to take a break to write some more short stories, but I don’t have a clue what they might be—I’ll dig out my idea files and see which ones grab me.
Photo (c) Derek Henthorn
Ruth Nestvold is an American writer living in Stuttgart, Germany in a house with a turret. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous markets, including Asimov’s, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy, Baen’s Universe, Strange Horizons, Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction, and several anthologies. Her novella “Looking Through Lace” made the short list for the Tiptree award in 2003 and was nominated for the Sturgeon award. In 2007, the Italian translation won the “Premio Italia” award for best international work. Her novel Yseult / Flamme und Harfe (Flame and Harp) appeared in translation from a German imprint of Random House, Penhaligon, in January 2009. She occasionally maintains a web site at www.ruthnestvold.com.
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz was born in the South of the Philippines, grew up in the mountains of the North (Ifugao), and moved to The Netherlands after her marriage. When she went to college, her mother insisted that she take up music, a thing for which she is grateful as it now supports her passion for the written word. She writes columns for the Philippine-Dutch publication (Munting Nayon), reviews for The Fix , and co-edits the online mainstream publication, Haruah: Breath of Inspiration. Her fiction has recently appeared in Weird Tales Magazine, Fantasy Magazine and Philippine Speculative Fiction volume four.
