Joel Shepherd was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1974. He studied film and television at Curtin University but realised that what he really wanted to do was write stories. His first manuscript was shortlist for the George Turner Prize in 1998. Joel spoke to Joshua S Hill in May 2012.

In your own words, give us a brief description of yourself (who you are, where you’re from, what you do if you’re not writing full time).

I’m Australian, born in Adelaide but grew up in Perth and still consider myself a bit more Western Australian than South Australian (that won’t mean anything to you unless you know Australia). Aside from writing, I’m currently doing a PhD on International Relations, specifically on Indian foreign policy.

Cat person, dog, or other?

Neither, as I’m allergic to both. But if I wasn’t, I’d be a dog person, because dogs are proactive. You can have a two way relationship with a dog. Cats just wonder what you’ve done for them lately.

What is your favourite reading genre and favourite books?

Science fiction. I never name favourite books because there’s too many, but I often name CJ Cherryh as being probably the main influence on me wanting to be a writer, because she was the first I’d read who combined old fashioned action entertainment with head bursting intelligence and social insight. Which is what I most like about this genre at its best, it’s probably the only one that can be mainstream entertaining and highbrow intelligent at the same time. When it tries. It’s a shame more don’t try.

Who are those writers that have inspired and pushed you?

Aside from Cherryh in fiction, I’d probably name some non-fiction. George Orwell hugely inspired me in how to think about the world, how to recognise personal bias, and how not to write and think like a naive hack.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

A fighter pilot. And if you didn’t want to be a fighter pilot too, there’s something wrong with you.

When did you realize that you wanted to be a writer?

About as soon as I realised I couldn’t be a fighter pilot. I think I realised that the sensations and general coolness involved in doing something amazing like flying a high performance aircraft could be captured in other ways, and what I really enjoyed was THINKING about being a fighter pilot, or an astronaut, or an adventurer of some other kind. And as a writer, you can do all of those things, and not remain limited to any just one.

What has it been like trying to publish your work from our lovely little prison colony?

Does prison colony refer to Australia, or to the world of SF/Fantasy publishing? Just kidding. The lovely little prison colony has been quite good to me. I’ve experienced some strong support for a local author, and done quite well financially from it considering the small size of our population. It’s getting overseas and realising that most of the big publishers in the rest of the English speaking world are neither as interested in new ideas or original writing as they claim to be that’s been the problem, and I don’t think my nationality has factored into that.

Do you feel that the big publishers are just looking for more of the same? Sticking to a safe bet? Why do you think that is?

Because it’s a business. The way to make businesses work is to sell stuff you’re most certain is going to sell. I get that. The problem comes when publishers think the stuff that’s most certain to sell means form rather than content. Which means they’ll go after work that’s structurally or superficially similar to stuff that’s sold before, when what they’re ignoring, the thing that really sells, is that point of contact between the reader and the work, where the reader reads it and goes ‘oh wow!’. That’s the thing that big sellers in the past have in common with big sellers in the future, and that’s the thing about past big sellers that publishers should be trying to replicate.

But if they were, Harry Potter wouldn’t have been rejected nine times, or however many it was, because obviously they didn’t read Harry Potter and say ‘wow this JK Rowling person really creates just the same connection with the reader as things that have sold awesome in the past’, instead they’ve said ‘this isn’t structurally similar to stuff that’s sold in the past, so we won’t touch it’. Judging by the wrong criteria can be costly, to the publisher and the genre.

You seem to really enjoy writing the female heroine; strong, talented, often angry: what has your motivation been for focusing on characters like these?

Drama.   It’s just a question of what works for particular authors. I find that a character like Sasha, in A Trial of Blood and Steel, gives me a lot of drama to work with, and as a dramatist, I’m obliged to make the most dramatic choice. I like the fact her gender puts her outside the mainstream, gives her a very different view of things to most other characters, and that in turn helps me to illustrate what this world is about, because I have a character who has been forced to be observant and critical of everyday things in a way that a man probably wouldn’t have.

dWww Fictionxxxgirl Es Blogs Radio Fiction XXX Girl Fantasy Book Review blog c g Obama XXX mWww Fictionxxxgirl Es Blogs Radio Fiction XXX Girl Fantasy Book Review blog i y Fiction XXX Girl Dating Fiction XXX Girl