Interview With Author Steve Heiman
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been an avid reader of fiction since I was a young child. I explored creative writing in college but diverged into theater arts instead. After a long career as a graphic designer I was given the opportunity during the early days of COVID to begin writing again.
My inspiration and writing style draws from diverse influences such as Shakespeare, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, Asimov, Clarke, and Niven and most of the greats of sci fi. Also fantasy, from Tolkien and Le Guin and C.S. Lewis, and from classics such as Steinbeck and Hemmingway.
I write science fiction and fantasy. I’m sure my creative process is unusual. For me, the creative process is part discovery and part my reflections of our current times and culture. Most can agree we could do a better job of protecting our children, elderly and at-risk members of society But the most pressing issue of our times is protecting the global biosphere.
We are at a juncture. COVID has forced us to take a hard look at the global systems our society functions on, and the results have not been great. There is much work to be done.
But we are also making incredible strides in the realms of science. There is a great reexamination of the fundamental forces of nature we exist within. Many of those new revelations worked their way into the second book. My books focus on the interactive nature of our reality and speculate on the benefits of collectivism.
I love a good escapist story. But I also like to be moved, compelled, and intellectually invigorated. COVID was in full swing when I began my first book, Greetings, Planet Earth!, and the world was in a state of depression. But as often happens in times of crisis, humans sought for a positive slant to it all; the global nature of COVID opened the doors to a collective experience that brought communities and countries closer together, and forced us to examine the underpinnings of society. With danger comes opportunity.
As an artist I want to uplift and inspire but still ask the big questions, such as what are our global goals? What priorities do we have as a species? How can we work together to overcome the negative aspects of modern life? But it’s not my place to preach to people, so I chose a light comedic medium to address these important topics.
Help, I Lost My Planet! is still a ridiculous and zany space adventure. I hope my books offer both comic relief, and a bigger, more optimistic and caring vision for our future.
My second book is still a happy and hopeful story, but addresses our cultural malaise a bit more directly. It was started about a year into COVID, and there was a certain amount of depression that we all existed with that was the new norm. As any good therapist will tell you, issues are resolved when you finally face them head on, not run from them. Help, I Lost My Planet is still a ridiculous and zany space adventure. But I hope that my allusions to our actual problems here on planet Earth offers both comic relief, and a bigger, more optimistic and caring vision for our future.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Help, I Lost My Planet!
It is the sequel to my first book. The inspiration was to prove to myself that having written one book I had a process I could repeat. So, mission accomplished!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Oh yes! I spent so many years as a visual artists where I constantly had to ‘massage’ my work in an ongoing process that I now take the same approach with writing. Each sentence must be molded and sculpted to sound just right and tell the story easily.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
So many. In sci fi, Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, Niven, Simak, Farmer… In fantasy Tolkien, Burroughs, Howard, and Moorcock and of course Le Guin. Lewis as well. And in lit, Robbins by far the biggest influence. I would be insane not to mention Vonnegut also.
What are you working on now?
The Source of all Magic is my current WIP. It is also a bit of a genre buster, mixing a magical fantasy and science fiction storyline in a future earth. In this alternate reality there was an inexplicable in 1983 where about a quarter of the earths population is suddenly gifted with a variety of magical abilities. The story takes place two-hundred years later, in a purported utopia that is actually anything but.
The protagonist is a 15 year old boy on the cusp of deciding which magical ability he will have the the rest of his life. He and his troop of friends discover that the world is not what it seems and that The Trust, the governing body in the world, is fabricated on a lie.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That I am still figuring out. Awesome Gang?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Trust yourself, and keep going. You don’t have to do what others do. If you need a process or structure, sure, try some systems. But do not let it constrain you. Writing is a creative process, let it be your own!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Just be nice.
What are you reading now?
The Silmarillion
What’s next for you as a writer?
Getting my third book complete. It is a new cast of characters.
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?
I hate these questions lol. OK
skinny legs and all
slaughterhouse five
Macroscope
Author Websites and Profiles
Steve Heiman’s Social Media Links