Stuff that's truly off-trail was what appealed to 'Weird Tales' editors.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I have no illusions concerning the precarious status of my tales and do not expect to become a serious competitor of my favorite weird authors.
Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.
As one of the first editors at 'Outside' magazine in 1975, it was my contention that most American writing going back to James Fennimore Cooper and then through Twain up to Hemingway had been outdoor writing. At that time, adventure writing meant stuff like 'Saga' or 'Argosy.' 'Death Race with the Jungle Leper Army!' That kind of thing.
Anyone who's been reading my stuff can see that there's a lot of tracks being laid for future stories.
As a fiction writer, my favorite tools are my imagination and the peculiar opportunities offered by different points of view.
The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read. I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.
You find most of the interesting stories are the ones that are slightly harder to get made.
When I was young, I assumed that authors must have traveled the world or done exotic things in order to tell great stories.
The smartest thing I ever did as a writer was hire a retired conservation agent to blaze a hiking trail for me. It's nothing fancy - just a narrow path that meanders for a little over a mile through the woods near my home. But that trail through the trees has become my therapist, my personal trainer, and my best editor.
These days we're all hyper-aware of the canonical way in which stories are supposed to play out - people are taught all about three-act scripting and where to put the reversal and all of that - and I think we can do more interesting narratives.