Genre Chick Interview: Nancy Fulda

Today my writerly victim is Nancy Fulda, Phobos Award winner and creator of the phenomenal Anthology Builder website (on which I am a Featured Author this month — create an anthology including one of my stories and get $1 off!). Nancy is a true wunderkind — and as she lives in Germany, I am completely justified in saying that.

And I can’t wait to read the novel about the lizards.

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Alethea Kontis: Mac or PC?
Nancy Fulda: PC all the way.  I grew on IBM.  I will probably stick with it until I die.

AK: Coffee or Tea?
NF: Neither, but I eat chocolate.  Lots and lots of chocolate.

AK: Travel the World or Travel Outer Space?
NF: Outer Space.

AK: Fantasy or Science Fiction?
NF: Both.

AK: Music or Silence (while you write)?
NF: Silence.  (Or rather, I wish it were silence.  I have three kids under the age
of eight, and things get pretty loud around here.)

AK: What weird food do you like?
NF: I do not like any weird foods.  By definition, if I like a food, then it is not
weird.  Example: Melted cheese and bananas?  NOT weird.

AK: How many novels/short stories/screenplays/poems/etc have you published?
NF: About twenty short stories.  I think.  I don’t keep track very well.  I’m
writing my first novel, and it’s going to be totally cool.  It’s got spaceships
and giant pack lizards and a stubborn girl who has no idea that she’s about to
help change the world.

AK: How much do you write every day?
NF: Depends.  If I’m lucky, I’ll write about 1000 words.  But some days I never make
it onto the computer at all.

AK: How much do you WISH you could write every day?
NF: 2000-3000 words.  If I could do that on a daily basis, I’d have written five
novels by now…

AK: What are you working on now?
NF: A novel!  It’s called “A New Kind of Sunrise” and it’s set on this really cool
planet with a v-e-r-r-r-y slow daily rotation.    Everything burns up during the
Day and freezes to death during the Night, so the inhabitants have to travel
around the world staying in the twilight regions in order to survive.

AK: If you could write like one author, who would it be?
NF: Lois McMaster Bujold.

AK: If you could be one superhero, or have one superpower, who/what would it be?
NF: The ability to stop time.  Then I could work 48 hours per day, and still spend
all afternoon with my kids…

AK: What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
NF: Hm… that depends on what’s cooler: Winning a trophy in ballroom dance or
presenting a research paper on Artificial Intelligence at an international
workshop.

AK: What’s the coolest thing you’re about to do?
NF: I don’t know.  Seeing into the future isn’t even on my list of wished-for
superpowers…

AK: Name three things on your List of Things to Do Before You Die.
NF: See Alex grow up.  See Aubrey grow up.  See Janika grow up.  (Alex, Aubrey and
Janika are my kids.)

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Nancy Fulda is a Phobos Award Winner, a Vera Hinckley Mayhew Award recipient,
and was been honored by the National Space Society for her story “That
Undiscovered Country”.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and
knows all kinds of cool things about machine learning and artificial
intelligence.  She lives in Germany with her husband and three children. You can find her online at http://www.nancyfulda.com