Leatherzebra's blog: "Michele Lee~ Dark Author"

1. Can you tell us a bit about HebrewPunk?

HebrewPunk is a collection of four linked novelettes set in a kind of Jewish secret history – it was basically my attempt to write fantasy that kind of questions why we accept certain conventions – or clichés – for granted. I was always puzzled about vampires, for instance. Here we have this great enduring, rather dashing and romantic figure – the vampire – and what do we know about him (or her)? That he’s afraid of holy water and crosses? Now, the question that always puzzled me was – are all vampires such devout Christians? Or is the underlying assumption that the God who created vampires is a Christian God? So this is part of it – it’s taking these old conventions and playing with them for fun, playing with pulp because I love pulp, I love adventure stories and haunted castles and desperate chases and mysterious tunnels – but also trying to say, well, this is a different aspect of it, it’s Jewish pulp, it’s, well, HebrewPunk, and these vampires (for instance) don’t give a shit if you wave a cross at them, and they’ll drink your holy water and gurgle with it and then tear out your throat.

I think it’s a fun book. It’s got rabbis and tzaddiks and golems and, yes, Jewish vampires, and the kaballah (not the sissy Madonna version but the type that can kill you) – and desperate chases and all that – and quite a lot of real history, too. As I said, I think it’s fun...

2. You have some really impressive credits to your name. Which one do you feel you worked that hardest for?

I don’t know how impressive any of them are (cough), but I felt very lucky to sell “The Dope Fiend” (from HebrewPunk) to Ellen Datlow for Sci Fiction. It took quite a long time to research and write, and when it was done I had no idea what to do with it. I sent it to a couple of small-press markets, for my sins, and (luckily!) didn’t have any joy – one liked it but wanted it cut from 15 to 6 thousand words(!) – so it basically sat on the hard-drive for a while. Finally, I had coffee with a writer friend of mine, and I told him of my problem – who’s going to buy a 15,000 word novelette that’s full of gratuitous drug-use (that’s how I put it) – and he said, well, send it to Ellen Datlow. I protested, feebly, then did what he said – and she bought it! It wasn’t my first professional sale, but I definitely think of it as a break-through sale for me.

3. Did you ever have a “now I've made it” moment?

The first time I sold a short story – you know, I got a huge kick out of that. I actually sold a story. That was pretty amazing. Someone was willing to pay me ten dollars for something I wrote! But of course, you don’t feel nearly so cocky the second time it happens... so you have to try for the next bit. So the answer is both yes and no – I feel like I’ve made it every time I reach one of my goals, but there is always another one, isn’t there?

4. A lot of your fiction is set off the mainstream path, so to speak. Do you feel this benefits you?

I don’t know if it benefits me. Ha. I’m just resigned to the fact that I tend to write weird, and leave it at that. I do enjoy mixing genres, though. I’d hate to be restricted to writing one kind of story – I’m a magpie, I’ll borrow and steal from whatever works for me, whether it’s called crime or fantasy or mainstream, I’m just not that fussed about categorization that much – they’re all tools, all valid ways to tell a story, and it just depends on what story you feel you need to tell at that point. But, you know, when I’m rich and famous, I’ll deny ever having had anything to do with that sci-fi crowd. Ha!

5. Do you spend a lot of time researching historical settings specifically for the stories?

Probably more than is good for me, yes. Though a lot of this research can be called accidental. For example, for “Transylvanian Mission” (from HebrewPunk), I used a visit I made to Transylvania (my family came from there) a few years ago – so I actually visited Bran Castle (one of Vlad Tepes’ castles, which is in the story), and of course I had a good sense of this particular history as family history, and I could talk to my grandfather about things I needed to know – my grandfather used to be my research-assistant, he was ninety and doing a history degree, and he was always a phone call away when I needed something. The thing about history for me is – I’m never that interested in what actually happened, only in what sounds good – I’m never going to make a good historian, but I do try and strictly stick to the facts, and only fill in the blanks occasionally...

6. Do you think there might be a difficulty, in some cases, that as a writer you must bridge when a reader can't sympathize with a character who might be from a different culture or time from them?

It’s an interesting question, since that is something I try to do – but I don’t write assuming I know who the reader is. I think people are people, though – as Kurt Vonnegut said (I think it’s in Galapagos maybe?), in a million years from now if people sit around a fire and someone farts, everyone would still laugh. People are people, but communicating difference can be hard – I don’t know. But you can read books in translation – books where not only the characters or the place but the actual language it was written in are different to your own – and you can still immerse yourself in it, still relate to it. It’s a great human trait, because every book or story that’s ever been written – this is what you secretly know – is about you. You’re the real hero of the story, because it’s up to you to make it happen. The words are there, but they need your very human brain, which is so good at telling stories, to make it live.

7. Do you think your nonfiction has helped your writing ability or career?

I haven’t done that much non-fiction – I mean, I enjoy writing it, and occasionally I get to say something worth saying – my article on Chinese science fiction I’m still very proud of, as I got to introduce something to a lot of people that they’d never heard of before, but on the whole, my heart’s with fiction...

8. What has been your greatest writing triumph?

Well, it goes back to what I was saying earlier about goals, and reaching each one – my most recent was selling a novella to PS Publishing, whose work I’ve liked ever since their first books came out. So that was... good. You know that scene in King Rat (The Melville book, not the China Mieville one)? It’s about POWs in this Japanese camp in WWII, and the King is this American soldier who’s made it in the camp, he’s trading with the guards and he’s – he’s not an officer, but in this world he’s the king. So he meets this British soldier who helps him, and to reward him he invites him to his tent and cooks him – an egg. This is like, this guy hasn’t even seen an egg since being captured, and this guy, this King, he’s cooking one for him, it’s sizzling in the pan, he can barely control himself, and the King serves him the egg and he says, ‘So how is it?’ and the British guy, overwhelmed, gives him the highest praise he can think of, and he says, ‘It’s good.’ ‘Good?’ the King explodes. ‘Good? It’s bloody fantastic!’

9. What has been your greatest writing-related let down?

I’ve recently seen a writer friend of mine lamenting the whole “I have these amazing news to tell you but I can’t tell you quite yet, I’m just waiting for final confirmation” – you know that one? I certainly went through these. There are always things that slip away, that were meant to happen but didn’t, for one reason or another, but as long as I can keep writing new stuff it doesn’t really bother me.

10. What will we see from you in the future?

I have an anthology I edited coming out this year from the British Fantasy Society – it’s called A Dick & Jane Primer for Adults, and has stories from people like Adam Roberts and Liz Williams in it. There’s the novella from PS Publishing, Cloud Permutations, but that’s coming out in 2009 sometime. I have stories coming out – in Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Apex Digest, a couple of mass-market anthologies (from Del Rey and from Walker Books) and others – and then there is the usual “I have these amazing news to tell you but I can’t tell you quite yet, I’m just waiting for final confirmation”. Ha!