Why write a Science Fiction and Fantasy novel?
I have always loved science fiction and fantasy and I’ve been doing it as a playwright for 30 years without calling it SF&F. In theatre, the genre lines are configured differently than in prose. The big question is whether something’s a musical or straight play. Do the actors sing and dance or do they just have to talk? But what all plays share is theatre magic—actors shapeshift and audiences suspend their disbelief and are carried off, transported from their seats into what we can only imagine. I want to write stories that transport readers, that allow them the actor’s shapeshifting experience. Who and what has influenced or inspired your creative writing? Growing up I read five or six books every week, all sorts of fiction: James Baldwin, Margaret Walker, Harper Lee, Robert Heinlein, and later Ursula LeGuin, Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara. My mother allowed us each to have one TV show when we finally bought a television. My show was Star Trek, the original series. I also remember wa
