F. Paul Wilson
[Continued from page 8]
SUNNI: I look forward to seeing what turns up, then. Which of your extant books are you most proud of? Most surprised at the public response to?
PAUL: Black Wind
SUNNI: I'll check it out. I'm hard-pressed to select a favorite book by you, in part because your writing is quite diverse, yet rich across all the genres in which you've written. When I think on it, one book is nearly always among the several that come to mind: A Little Beige Book of Nondescript Stories. How did that gem come about?
PAUL: I was sitting around at an annual convention in Rhode Island called NECon, having a drink with Tom and Elizabeth Monteleone. They run Borderlands Press and had started a series of "little" books -- The Little Red Book of Vampire Stories, The Little White Book of Lies, etc. -- each by a single author. They were looking for colors that would fit a category of story. Kidding, I said, "How about The Little Beige Book of Nondescript Stories?" They laughed and then Elizabeth pointed to me and said, "Great! And you're going to do it!"
SUNNI: [laughs] That'll teach you! Part of the amusement value is that the stories are anything but nondescript, but the best part is the unusual treatment some stories got. One with no dialogue, one comprised only of dialogue ... and the two hyper-shorts at the end. Which was the most fun to write? Which was the toughest?
PAUL: The with- and without-dialogue stories were challenges I set for myself. Traps is all narrative and the challenge was to keep the story flowing with a minimum of character interaction but keep it a story instead of numbing introspection. In Please Don't Hurt Me the big challenge was to convey action and setting entirely through dialogue. That one goes over really well at readings.
SUNNI: Speaking of fun, you seemed to be enjoying the con in Minnesota where we met in person. Do you attend a lot of them?
PAUL: I attend NECon and World Fantasy Con every year without fail. I'll do others if I'm invited as a guest. I have a lot of author friends I like getting together with and I'm always glad to meet readers. It's a nice break from the keyboard. In April I'll be a guest on the annual Authors at Sea cruise. That'll be a new experience.
SUNNI: You also have a forum on the Repairman Jack web site, and you seem to be a regular participant. How did that come about -- was it your idea?
PAUL: Yep. But I never dreamed it would take off like it has. I used to keep an eye on all the posts but that's been impossible for a long time. The volume of posts may be because people don't feel that it always has to be about me. I guess it helps that we have different areas for politics, books, TV and movies, and the ever-popular OT ["off topic"]. So, if you're not into politics you don't have to wade through the heated political threads. People trade recipes, talk about book collecting, recommend other authors -- da noive! -- and there's even a haiku thread with over 2500 poems. The RJ Forum is a real smorgasbord of topics and people. We've got straights, gays, hardcore libertarians, liberals, conservatives, nurses, gunnies, cops, lawyers. The number of women never fails to surprise me since I always figured Jack would be a guy thing.
SUNNI: It's no surprise to me that Jack appeals to women! Even though his outside-the-law life may be unsettling for some women, he's the ultimate honorable man. What's been the most unexpected reward of the RJ forum for you so far?
PAUL: The lasting friendships it has spawned. There's an ever-growing group who gather at a different locale once a year for a microconvention they've labeled GU, for Grand Unification. One fellow flies over from England! I travel out and join them for dinner one night. I really like them and I feel proud of the tight bonds between them. After all, if not for me, they never would have met. The next GU is in Boston. I'll be there.
