Drew
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Jeff, you've created several awesome settings for your novels (Veniss, Area X, Ambergris) - but then you leave them, headed off to even more inventive places. Do you ever miss them, those old haunts? Slash do you ever think about going back? I was inspired to ask because I had a dream the other night where I was back in Ambergris during the festival... and it was a pleasant, if dangerous, pseudo-memory.
Jeff VanderMeer
Hey, Drew. I'm so immersed in the world of the Southern Reach and Area X that it's hard to answer the question, perhaps. I'm loving writing about the real world, even if it's a somewhat altered version. There's a refreshing freedom in that. But although it's possible that there might be a short story or two lurking around the edges of the Southern Reach novels, this series is done with the third book. Which means I'll be moving on to a couple of new novels, including Borne, which is kind of like Godzilla versus Mothra with a Chekov play going on in the foreground. Um, but more synthesized than that sounds!
As for Ambergris--I do want to write fiction set about 20 years after the last novel, in the morass of politics and factions that the city has become by then. But it's probably going to take the form of a graphic novel because I want to slip in and out of a lot of different points of view, and don't think a novel is the best format for that.
As for Ambergris--I do want to write fiction set about 20 years after the last novel, in the morass of politics and factions that the city has become by then. But it's probably going to take the form of a graphic novel because I want to slip in and out of a lot of different points of view, and don't think a novel is the best format for that.
More Answered Questions
Robin Sloan
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Throughout the Southern Reach books there's a great creepy litany that we hear many times, the one that begins "Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner …" How did that come to exist? Did it spill out of you in a feverish torrent, never to be revised, or did you polish it like poetry?
AD
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Do you find that Area X creeps into your daily encounters (especially with nature)? I can't help but be infiltrated by the weirdness, the slimed insidiousness, the near omnipresence of Area X. Anytime I see a rabbit bound into the ivied brush, I shudder. Do you shudder from your own creation?
Caroline Martin
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Mr. VanderMeer! I read Wonderbook from cover to cover and loved it. I'm a high school teacher with 7 years experience, mostly AP Literature & Composition and British Literature. I will be teaching Creative Writing for the first time in the fall. The students will be sophomores, juniors and seniors. Any advice on how to promote creativity without having the kids go wild for shock value? Thanks for any and all help.
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