Tevun-Krus #102 - TrashPunk

Author Spotlight: @guywortheyauthor

Howdy, pardners! This month we're shining the Author Spotlight on guywortheyauthor! Let's get right to it!

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If you had to describe yourself in one word, what words wouldn't you use?

Curious.

Think back to when you were in school. What was your favourite subject?

English.

When you were a young 'un, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I didn't give it much thought until I had an accident at age 16 that required surgery. After that, I emphatically wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon.

What does Tevun-Krus mean to you?

The ten-letter hyphenated word is a complete mystery to me. I don't know how to pronounce it and if asked to spell it, I might reproduce it correctly with a probability near 0.50. The Wattpad sci-fi e-zine by that name, though, I completely dig. Sharing far-out ideas with like-minded folks is a great idea.

Tell us about your reading/writing habits. If you're not a writer, then simply the former will suffice!

In the stage of life I find myself in, I read fiction only sporadically, around work. What I read is a variegated melange of classics and genre fiction, without order and without a long-term goal. I tend to reserve evenings for writing and editing.

As your crew casts your lifeless body into the heart of the nearest star, list three pieces of music likely to be rattling the bulkheads of your beloved vessel!

"Firebird Suite" by Stravinsky, "La Villa Strangiato" by Rush, and, uh, I guess "Birdland" by Weather Report. Pardon the stylistic whiplash. That's how I roll.

Who is your all-time favourite author? How much, if at all, has their work influenced your writing style?

Beryl Markham wrote a memoir called "West with the Night." It's my current object of awe as regards writing style. It arrived too late to really influence my writing style - so far.

Of everything you've written, which piece is your favourite?

Ask me tomorrow and you'll get a different answer, but I'm liking Ace Carroway and the Blind Panic the most right now. I think I just nailed the rising action and climax in that one.

Pitch the above story to us. Make us really want to read it!

ACE CARROWAY AND THE BLIND PANIC

Ultimate evil meets the ultimate heroine.

It is 1923, and Russia's Black Sea territories are going blind, literally. Its southern neighbor Khazia demands territory, and if Russia balks every resident in a town or village is rendered sightless. Whether via science or black magic, Khazia's extortion scheme is working.

Unless Cecilia "Ace" Carroway can stop it.

The unconventional genius and her motley associates answer Russia's call for help. In a village of the blind, they risk losing their eyesight as they collect medical evidence. They also uncover the identity of the mastermind behind Khazia's expansion.

He is none other than the shadowy Darko Dor, underground war criminal and murderer of Ace's father. The amoral despot now controls Khazia's army and the diabolical secret of mass blindness.

Ace can't let him escape again. But to thwart him, Ace and her fellas will have to outwit an entire country.

Preposterous - unless you're Ace Carroway.

To what extent does the mythical 'real life' influence your writing?

Writing must flow from the writer's experience, albeit transformed by the writer's imagination. The writing morphs once again inside the reader's brain, where it serves as a trigger for the reader to invent their own version of the story. That said, I try to observe and capture people's real-world emotional journeys. The rest - technology, social change, art - enters mostly unconsciously.

If you could have any superpower, what would that be and why?

Wouldn't it be cool to have a truth-ray, where people are suddenly made to confront reality?

Conservative Southern white male: "Shut your mouth about f*ing global warming, you brain-dead libtard feminazi. It's natural cycles." ZAP "Oh, pardon me. I see now that there is actually overwhelming evidence for anthropogenic warming at the alarming rate of 4 degrees per century."

Putin: "By invading Ukraine, I am nobly preventing genocide." ZAP "Gracious, I seem to be behaving quite irrationally, driven by my own insatiable lust for power."

What would you do if you woke up one day and suddenly realized you were an alien from another world?

E.T. phone home. Come for me, mothership, come for me!

The Technological Singularity presents a rather daunting, some say inevitable, future. Does the prospect of that level of artificial intelligence excite you, or leave you quaking in your space boots?

I liked the naive Utopian visions of past fiction (e.g., Pulp fiction sci fi, Star Trek) where humankind is actually smart and capable of envisioning their own future.

If AI takes over, then AI will take over because the humans want less responsibility, and so the humans will become puddings attached to VR headsets.

Who was your first Sci-Fi crush? Who is your current one?

Andre Norton blew my young self's mind away with her well-peopled fictional Galaxy.

Super hard to name one author for current favorite. I'm super impressed with some Manga I've browsed, though.

If you could experience the world of any Sci-Fi story on Wattpad, which would that be and why?

Ha! Most of those I would run away from.

But one I invented would be super cool. My Dax Magraw story has a planet with large, bipedal cats and certain interesting social conventions. So I want to go there for the fuzzy cats, the taste of blue fizz, and the opportunity for playing jazz (which is a thing I love to do in real life).

And finally, any words of wisdom to new and aspiring Sci-Fi writers?

Get sucked into the technology and setting at your peril. It may be called science fiction, but it's still about characters and their emotional journeys.