First Saturday Sci-Fi - Sept
Today we're talking to award winning author Mike Jansen.
Mike has been published in Dutch, German, Estonian, Polish, Galician, Chinese and English anthologies and magazines. Since 2011 he has published over 60 English language stories in the U.S.
He has won awards for new author and best author in the King Kong Award in 1991 and 1992 respectively as well as an honorable mention for the Australian Altair Magazine launch competition in 1998. In 2012 Mike won the Literary Prize for the Baarn Cultural Festival and the prestigious Dutch Fantastels award for best short story.
In 2013 he joined the Horror Writers Association (HWA).
1. Tell us about your favorite work… what makes it special ?
That’s difficult, there’s a lot to choose from. And since I write what I like to read myself, I like a lot of my stories. I do have a few favorites in the various genres I write. For horror I like a novella I wrote a few years back called ‘Assigned to Amwlch’, a Lovecraftian piece. My favorite Science Fiction piece at this moment is probably ‘The Copper Oasis’, an award winning piece that always moves me. Fantasy stories I rarely write, although I do have a five book series I am producing called ‘The Cranborn Chronicles’ of which the first part has been published in Dutch and English. I’m currently working on the third book in the series.
Several authors have influenced me, so when you read my stories you may find them resembling works by Iain Banks, Glen Cook, Lovecraft or Michael Moorcock.
2. What do you think makes for good Sci-Fi ?
For me it’s the sense of wonder that comes first. A good story and interesting characters help a lot, naturally. My favorite authors in that respect are Iain Banks, Vernor Vinge, David Brin and several others that manage to write stories where sheer scale and intricate, alien cultures form the overwhelming background to gripping, convoluted tales of human endeavors. Their stories tend to challenge my own mind and expand my horizons. For me very important aspects.
3. Do you think your books can help shape the future and if so how?
If they become really popular, they might. Coming from a ‘small’ language (Dutch), odds are not in my favor. Still, ideas can go viral, stories can be told and retold and so shape parts of our future culture or even technology. I do have a background in computer engineering and cyber security, so writing about advanced technology and all the endless possibilities comes naturally.
4. Do you have inside jokes or true events hidden in your writing?
Yes and yes. I believe –interesting- stories can not be told without deeper layers of meaning through references to other literature. I also enjoy putting complicated puzzles into my stories that will trigger your mind to combine your own knowledge with the hints and remarks that are woven throughout the story, while still allowing you to enjoy the story if the puzzle isn’t obvious for you. In addition, life gives me a never-ending stream of situations and events to draw from. Often, truth is definitely stranger than any fiction I can dream up.
5. Which do you prefer… model your characters after people you know or just make them up?
All of the above. It’s interesting to crawl inside the head of my protagonists and see what makes them tick and I usually mix up traits I know well with traits I can only imagine. Again, I like my stories complex and convoluted and that means my characters will exhibit behavior and thoughts appropriate to the story.
Sometimes I model a protagonist after myself. That’s when it gets really interesting… I currently have a story out in ‘Altered Europa’ by Martinus Publishing, available on Amazon, that has just such a character.
6. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to take away?
The messages in my Fantasy series are many, but predominantly evident are: ‘There is no absolute white and no absolute black, but there are many shades of grey’ and ‘There is always a bigger power somewhere.’ My Science Fiction stories often contain investigations into specific concepts. I recently sold a story to ‘The Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror’ by Robert N. Stephenson that specifically tells about the concept of ‘Singularity’, weaving that into a dystopian tale of longing and hope.
Some stories I have written give different readers different views and interpretations of what it actually was that I tried to convey. I try to never confirm or deny their speculations.
7. What is your favorite review?
A review by someone who actually enjoyed my books or is honest enough to tell me why my work sucks. The best review is from someone who has read my stories and has actively been trying to find the additional layers that I put into my work. Because sometimes the conclusions those reviewers have give me a better insight into my own story than I had when I wrote it.
What comes next?
I’m quite active on the Dutch scene. I write stories for various contests and I organize a kind of Hugo Award for Dutch genre fiction, called EdgeZero. This Award selects a double handful of stories that have been important in the previous year and publishes these for everybody to read (so free online reading and ebook downloads, apart from two separate paperbacks that are delivered to the members of the Dutch Science Fiction Foundation and the Dutch libraries.) Distribution of these books is through Amazon, especially since we have free shipping from Germany to Holland.
I’ve won several prizes with my stories and I hope I’ll win a few more.
Where can we learn more?
If you read Dutch, you’ll find me in all Dutch genre publications and several literary magazines that also publish weird fiction. I have a website at this URL: http://www.meznir.info, for which you need Google Translate. I had an English site for a while and I should reinstate that at some point. Time just happens to be an issue. Most of my English publications you can find on Amazon.
Follow Mike on Twitter... https://twitter.com/MisterMeznir
