Interview With Author Mark A. Rayner
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Written, or published? There’s a big difference in those numbers!
My fiction habit is strong. I’ve been writing books since I was seventeen, so that number is probably close to twenty. I’ve had six of those published, and one more will arrive March 2025. I’ve also had plays produced and more than two dozen short stories.
When I’m not writing fiction, I teach in the Faculty of Media and Information Studies, at Western University in Canada. I’m also a guitar player and singer, and caretaker/hotelier for two cats.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Alpha Max (2021) was my most recent novel. It was inspired by a recurring character in most of my other novels and a few short stories: Dr. Maximilian Tundra. He was always a slightly different character — sometimes his profession, sometimes his personality — and I wondered why that might be. So I decided to set Max in the multiverse, where he can meet many of his (annoying) duplicates, and the manic pixie aliens who need him to save all of existence.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have discovered that I can drop into an almost instantaneous flow state when I write in my garden. Flow is the psychological term for being totally engrossed, immersed and present with the moment and activity. In a way, I find that the ego Mark A. Rayner practically disappears, and I become a conduit for the story and characters.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
So many, but here’s a short list: Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Tom Robbins, Tom Stoppard, Douglas Adams, Christopher Moore, Shakespeare, Italo Calvino, Milan Kundera, Chuck Palahniuk, Robertson Davies, Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin and my man, Leonard Cohen.
What are you working on now?
Well, I am a dilettante (in the best possible way), so I have a number of project on the go:
a science fiction trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic earth 2500 years from now (two books drafted); a Calvino-like meditation on the idea that we’re all living in a simulation; a sequel to Alpha Max (Beta Max, naturally; and I’m re-working my first novel for a twentieth-anniversary second edition. (That latter is nearly done.)
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ll let you know when I figure this out. I really like Mastodon for social media and my newsletter helps sell and promote books, for sure. My website is a touchstone for all of it, so probably the best place for people to start.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read a lot. Write only what excites or frightens you. Let your drafts sit for a while before you edit them. Pay an editor. Pay a proofreader. Only send work to publishers and agents after you’ve done all those things. Then be patient and humble. Work on the next thing right away.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Murder your darlings.
What are you reading now?
R.F. Kuang’s Babel, because I just finished Yellowface, which I recommend. (Particularly if you enjoy SAVAGE satire.)
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve returned to playwriting, but I think I’d like to venture into screen writing as well. So the plan is to turn my 2018 satire, The Fatness, into a script. (And see above for what’s in the hopper.)
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Hmm, well, I’d be okay rereading The Lord of the Rings a few more times. And I suppose I could finally tackle Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (It has been sitting unread on my shelf for years.) Some kind of Kurt Vonnegut omnibus — is there such a thing? And then I’ll be cheeky and some kind of survival manual, maybe the SAS one?
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