Lev Grossman interviewed Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi for Techland.
Here's a teaser:
It's all so far outside of what I expected for this book. When I wrote Windup Girl originally…I mean, I finished it, and I remember the exact feeling I had when I was going through the final copy edits and cleaning the manuscript before it was supposed to go out. It was done, and I'm looking at the page proofs, and I remember reading the book and just feeling this incredible sense of embarrassment about it.
I felt sort of apologetic that I was putting it out. I had no faith in it and I had no sense that it was something that should even be out in the world. I remember waiting for the reviews to come in and just feeling sick each time I heard that there was gonna be a new review coming out because I was just waiting for the eviscerating comments to come in.
And then the reviews started coming in and they were almost all very positive. The attack didn't come.
And then as the awards were coming in it's just been… I mean, I remember being at the Nebulas,and China Miéville was there, and I mean, you know, he's a great writer. So I remembered seeing him there and I thought, somebody tipped him. That's why he's here. You don't show at the Nebulas from England without having prior knowledge. And I was like, that's it. That makes sense.
I remember when I won the award I heard my name called and I stood up, and then there was this moment where I stood there thinking, I hallucinated that. I wanted this so badly that I just stood up, and I actually wrote my own name into somebody else's name being called. And I remember standing there looking around trying to figure out if China was standing up or not.
Follow this link to read the full Q&A.
And whatever you do, make sure you read The Windup Girl (Canada, USA, Europe).
Here's a teaser:
It's all so far outside of what I expected for this book. When I wrote Windup Girl originally…I mean, I finished it, and I remember the exact feeling I had when I was going through the final copy edits and cleaning the manuscript before it was supposed to go out. It was done, and I'm looking at the page proofs, and I remember reading the book and just feeling this incredible sense of embarrassment about it.
I felt sort of apologetic that I was putting it out. I had no faith in it and I had no sense that it was something that should even be out in the world. I remember waiting for the reviews to come in and just feeling sick each time I heard that there was gonna be a new review coming out because I was just waiting for the eviscerating comments to come in.
And then the reviews started coming in and they were almost all very positive. The attack didn't come.
And then as the awards were coming in it's just been… I mean, I remember being at the Nebulas,and China Miéville was there, and I mean, you know, he's a great writer. So I remembered seeing him there and I thought, somebody tipped him. That's why he's here. You don't show at the Nebulas from England without having prior knowledge. And I was like, that's it. That makes sense.
I remember when I won the award I heard my name called and I stood up, and then there was this moment where I stood there thinking, I hallucinated that. I wanted this so badly that I just stood up, and I actually wrote my own name into somebody else's name being called. And I remember standing there looking around trying to figure out if China was standing up or not.
Follow this link to read the full Q&A.
And whatever you do, make sure you read The Windup Girl (Canada, USA, Europe).
2 commentaires:
Wow, he seems to have really low-confidence!
bodes well for me trying to make it as a writer, I suppose ... :D
Awesome interview. I think its inevitable for people serious about writing to have low-confidence in some form. Maybe it has to do with the prospect of getting published, as many famous authors have noted it is as much luck as anything and that you're bound to get rejected a bunch of times first. I bet most writers are obsessive perfectionists and always worrying about their creations, so that has something to do with it as well, I'm sure.
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