Science Fiction Authors Say Smart Things: Sean Stewart

From the introductory page at Sean’s website:

Art is fundamentally embarrassing. It requires you to expose how you truly feel. It demands that you admit the things that make you laugh and cry, that scare you or turn you on. And when you do that, there will always be people to tell you you’re sentimental, or perverse, or over-intellectual, or crude, or (worst of all) just plain boring. But without that honesty on the part of the writer, there can’t be true and deep connection.

At best, the writer is a stormcloud, the reader the earth, and the work is the living electric rush that for an instant connects and illuminates them.

For better or worse, these novels represent my life of praying for lightning.

Yup, that’ll do.

Well, I know I’ve felt more than once like Stewart’s books hit me like a lightning bolt. The Night Watch was the first of his books I encountered, and it floored me. Everything else aside, it has permanently changed the way I perceive two Canadian cities.

After that I worked through all his books, and found no mis-steps. His later, more Southern, books are just as wonderful, and just as completely imbued with the sense of place. You can see his skill as a writer grow with each work, including the most recent Perfect Circle. (Thank God that Kelly & Gavin saw fit to publish a hardcover of this–it would have been a shame to have to buy this in paperback.)

It’s kind of tragic that he’s spending his time on alternate reality games, when he should (for values of should that are based on my pleasure and not his priorities 🙂 ) be writing more novels. Still, he says it makes him a more assured and confident writer, so maybe it’s all to the good. (He’s even drawing in other great writers: see what Walter Jon Williams had to say about his work with Sean and other on an ARG).

(Gwenda pointed me at Sean’s intro piece, but I claim victory since I originally introduced Gwenda to Stewart’s writing.)