Ed has forayed into urban fantasy in Knight in Charlotte and Knight in Charlotte:Oniichan Ed has also edited six Sha’Daa anthologies of tales of the Apocalypse. He has a wide variety of interests including ballroom dance, martial art,s and weapon fighting.
Tell us a bit about your most recent work.
I have several irons in the fire at the moment. Currently, we are working on the audiobooks of the Maauro series. That series which centers on an alien-made AI and the disgraced pilot who finds her, was done in two five-book cycles and we are finishing the fourth book of the second cycle. I am working with two very talented New York Actors who bring these characters to vivid life, Charlie Keegan James and Brian Kozak.
Most of my sixteen SF books are set in the same universe of Confederation Space. Rather like what Larry Niven did with his “Known Space” work. This way the stories can interrelate and even crossover as happened between the Fenaday/Rainhell Chronicles and the later Maauro stories.
Now I am starting a new series on the adventures of the children of Robert Fenaday, Lisa Fenaday and Shasti Rainhell in Scions. This will be the story of Daire Fenaday and her half-brother Stellan Rainhell as they set out to make their own mark on the galaxy. Given that their parents set much of the galaxy alight in their adventures, I wonder what they will do. The first book, titled Wanderlust, is done and being worked up. Shasti Rainhell herself, genetically engineered assassin and starship captain may have more to say about her own story.
What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?
Love and friendship are big ones. They can motivate us to endure suffering and face terror. Another is the person on the border, who is neither one thing or another, but carries the attributes of both, and illustrates that intersection for us through suffering and success.
What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?
I am a life-long voracious reader and I have always have the interest. I wrote some in high school. I even wrote a full-length piece of Star Trek fanfic after Wrath of Khan about the crew dealing with the fallout of losing Spock, but then he came back, so much for that.
The real catalyst was my high-school buddy Tim McLoughlin-writing his novel Heart of the Old Country which was made into the movie, The Narrows. They say you have to see something is possible to attempt it. With his encouragement, I started on my own path, more determined this time.
What inspires you to write?
The desire to tell the sort of story that I want to read. I devoured most of the SF books that I truly enjoyed and then wanted more. So I started writing what I wanted to read.
Other than that, I would have to say that it is the joy of creating and more, creating something that gives others joy.
What of your works has meant the most to you?
That is hard. Which of your children do you love best? If I had to pick, I have to go with the Maauro Chronicles. That story where the main character is an alien made AI abandoned 50,000 years ago, is a story of self-creation. Maauro, made as a munition for a genocidal war has outlasted it. Reactivated now, she must find a place for herself in this new world. Even her gender is an act of self-selection. She decides to be female and then most decide what that means for her. Maauro must fight for her physical freedom and her identity. But made as a war machine she most also find a balance between her deadly powers and the peaceful existence she wishes to explore.
If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?
Without any intent of being egotistical, I think that I did the best work I could with each one when I did it. However, the space detective stories of “On the Case” were written in the 90s and at the stage of development that I had as a person and a writer. While I thought they were pretty progressive at the time, time has moved on and in some respects my writing about a trans person character has not aged as well as I could have hoped. So I submitted it to a trans person I know for a sensitivity read and learned a lot and I mean a lot. It is my intention to update those that book in the future. One lives and learns.
What writers have influenced your style and technique?
The primary influence is Andre Norton; her marvelous adventures captured a sense of wonder often absent in SF. Her theme of the outsider, the disadvantaged young person just starting out, resonated with me as that young person and gave me hope.
Next would be CJ Cherryh with her galactic empires, her smart characters and vivid societies. After that I would say Larry Niven, James Schmitz and Jack Sutton. I also draw a great deal on Japanese anime, another life-long passion and a source of very different story-telling. There I particularly like the works of Shirow Masamune, Isuna Hasekura and Nisiosin
Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Well if character is the easiest, I guess plot is the most difficult. I can usually easily come up with the people I want to travel with but the destination is harder. This is especially true if you do not want your stories to be too similar. So coming up with a task or challenge worthy of these characters is probably the most difficult thing. I ask myself who or what do I want to see change the most and that often helps.
How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?
They do. This is, as a business, one very dependent on networks. I try to know a wide variety of people because you never know who can help you or educate you. However, one must avoid being “user boy.” Genuine relationships are more valuable than merely mercantile ones and are of course harder to make and to maintain.
What helps the most is someone who will read your work and give you genuine feedback. I have written and taught on the process of running and being in critique groups. While I always teach everyone to critique each other in the language of diplomacy, frankness is a genuine virtue. Real friends don’t let you show work that isn’t ready.
You should take in all criticism like a sponge does, consider it, then squeeze out was is not useful, might be malicious, or is simply wrong. Then apply the rest. Of course this requires self-examination and a lack of egotistical defensiveness or your choices will be too motivated by a desire to “protect” your work At the end of the day, your work goes out there without you guarding it and most stand the test on its own.
What does literary success look like to you?
Readers, readers, readers. I had a day job like almost all writers and made my bread and butter that way. So while more readers does translate into money and recognition for me it is most important that people meet and enjoy the characters that I reveal. I say reveal as opposed to create in that I feel that they have their own underlying verity and existence, especially Maauro. They tell me and I tell you.
Like many writers I don’t have a particular interest in becoming well known myself, as say an actor might, but I do want you to travel my worlds in the company of these companions.
Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?
I do intend to do an omnibus of the original Fenaday/Rainhell trilogy later this year.
For more information, visit:
- If you come to Copper Dog Publishing – We're the Tale that Wags the Blog we have sixteen short stories you can download for free as you learn about us.
- Ad Astra / Edward McKeown – Copper Dog Publishing is more about me and takes you to some free audio plays.
- And of course we are available on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Audible and the Audiobook Guild.
- Amazon.com: Edward McKeown: books, biography, latest update
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