On the eve of dConstruct 2012, Jeremy Keith hosts an evening of readings and chat with three of the brightest stars of the science-fiction world at the Pavilion Theatre in Brighton.
Event details: http://brightonsf.adactio.com/
Transcript: http://adactio.com/articles/5740/
A podcast interview with Lauren Beukes.
Subjects Discussed: Jet lags and hangovers, cultural references, I Can Haz Cheeseburger, whether or not books should be of their time, American Psycho and Phil Collins, violence and cheeseball songs, hyper-specific description, William Gibson, the influence of writing for animation, the differences in writing journalism, comics, and screenplays, considering the right level of detail, action scenes vs. dialogue, Hanna, implausible action movie scenes, getting the geography of an apartment block, the ability to get journalistic answers from people when you say you’re a novelist, magic and fantasy rooted in practical limitations and innate talent, Red, a personal belief system as a peer review process, Johannesburg’s geography, Nechama Brodie’s The Joburg Book, conversations with traditional healers, worldbuilding and getting the reader to believe, major clues hidden within conversation, bad worldbuilding involving two guys sitting in a bar, writing as a road trip, having a planned ending in advance, alligators, reclusive music industry producers who are in decline, establishing Zinzi’s streetcred, arriving at the right balance between ambiguity and just enough information, unreliable narrators, Melinda Ferguson’s Smacked, cinematography and photography references within Zoo City and Moxyland, similes throughout Zoo City, Raymond Chandler, phantasmagorical noir, Oryx and Crake, the problems of reading fiction while writing fiction, South African criminal slang, steering away from transcribed speech, The Wire, relying on other writers for certain chapters of Zoo City, conducting interviews with fictional characters, the problems with theories contradicting fictional worlds, being the “head writer” of your own novel, The Third Man, Paul Bowles, visual references, and internalizing influence.
Is science fiction coming to Africa? Or is it already here? Lauren Beukes, South African author and winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, discovers an SF scene shaped by people’s appreciation of both technology and magic.
Good times. Bad Movies.
The movie: Future War
Episode guest: Lauren Beukes
The Highlights: Robots with mustaches, The Beard of Alan Moore, Dinosaurs, Thumbs, Guns, Nuns, and Flannel. So much flannel.
Scott is in New Zealand this week speaking at Webstock and spoke to the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke award winning author of "Zoo City," Lauren Beukes. What’s her process? How does she keep it all straight and how do you know when to stop? Lauren shares how she works, how she things and discusses her upcoming projects as well as writing for comics.
http://hanselminutes.com/306/creating-science-fiction-with-zoo-city-author-lauren-beukes
Novelists Alastair Reynolds, Lauren Beukes, Michael Moorcock and Jeff Noon talk about the state of SF.
In this week’s new year books podcast, we look to the future. Science fiction has never been bigger, and publishers are falling over themselves to sign the next Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman. We talk to some of the genre’s biggest names about the state of SF in 2012, and where they think the genre is heading.
Lauren Beukes, author of hard-boiled SF thriller Zoo City, tells us about winning the 2011 Arthur C Clarke award and about South African science fiction. We talk to Michael Moorcock, who helped define science fiction back in the 1960s with his ground-breaking literary magazine New Worlds. And we also hear from hard SF author Alastair Reynolds and speculative fiction author Jeff Noon about their new projects, how they feel about being classed within the same genre, and writing on Twitter.
Reading List
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2012/jan/06/books-podcast-science-fiction-now-tomorrow
Lauren Beukes has recorded a chapter from her debut novel, Moxyland.
South Africa is on the literary attack. This week we talk to Lauren Beukes about her novel, Zoo City, which was recently released in the United States.