Richard X. Ellison

If you'd asked me this a couple of years ago I wouldn't really have a decent answer for you...now :) Hmm... I guess I've settled in to something of a routine, of course that's subject to change quite regularly. The only constants have always been sitting in the dining room with a cup of coffee. Sometimes I like listening to weird music to get the juices flowing and change my brain waves. Most of the time I prefer that it's quiet so that I can hear myself think!

An idea can come from anywhere, especially when it's a short story...like "Always tip your waitress" started because a friend and I were having a little back and forth over email just talking about stuff and then he gave me that line about 'mental communism' and that's when I thought, 'hey, let's turn this in to a story'. Then sometimes it's a little more profound like with "The price of metal". I'd got some really terrible news and I was just really restless. I thought about the coin that's on the cover of that book and the whole story just kind of evolved from there. I didn't start that one knowing how it ended, it just evolved on its own and I wrote all day and night till it was done and it was out of my system.

"Purgatory Blues", was by far the biggest killer for me because I'd spent about 8 months writing that. I knew exactly what story I wanted to tell...in a broad sense...I started in the middle, went back and did the beginning and then edited through and THEN wrote the end. I couldn't afford an editor and it was my first book so I ended up taking 12 passes at it all by myself. Sometimes I'd get horribly blocked because I knew what was supposed to happen but getting from one moment to another and joining everything together was quite nerve wracking at times. To put myself in that character's headspace was one of the biggest challenges of my life. I literally had to live certain moments FOR the character to understand his perspective. Trying to put myself in the character's mind made me a very depressing person to be around. I would have to literally 'be' that guy to feel what he was feeling and describe what he was going through.

Then there's stuff like "Jane8086", which is pretty much my happy place. When I'm feeling good I'll try to write some of that...and it's not that difficult either because it's all 'pretend' and everyone enjoys that kind of stuff. She's got the potential to become a great character.

Essentially...what's my process? Coffee and bleeding fingertips!

Oh, but then there's research too. I've had this sci-fi thing that I've been conceptualising because everyone wants a novel based in the "Xyggy and Church" universe...so I'm having to come up with the technology and time frames and characters...the hows and whys and create a nice road map for myself before I even start that. I've got the first few chapters penciled out but it's nowhere near ready just yet.

Sometimes I sit by myself at a bar or something and just scribble down notes. I suppose we're always thinking about something so that's what I do. I think Andy kind of rubbed off on me a little more than I'd have liked!

Wow, my first book? I don't know if I could remember what it was exactly. I think the first thing my dad bought me was a "Knight Rider" book, "Trust doesn't rust", but I was probably like 5 or 6 years old and comic books were a little more appealing at the time because they had pictures in them. I think I just liked the cover with the car on it so that's why I asked him to buy that for me. The book didn't do anything for me at all, I think I read one page and tossed it in to my toy box!

I think I first started reading heavily when a friend of mine from the neighbourhood gave me a copy of the "Dragonlance" series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Yeah, that was it...I totally devoured those books and then another friend of mine introduced me to "The deathgate cycle", which I enjoyed even more and then from that point on I was just a maniac. My mom would take me to the library, it wasn't really close so we had to drive, and she'd leave me there for a little while...or sometimes we'd go together and I'd take maybe 5 or 6 books with me at a time and clean them out, more during the holidays.

Ah, wait...the impact it had on me? I suppose that reading books that were part of a series introduced me to the grandeur of world creation with words. The fact that it was fantasy and then sci-fi started me thinking outside the constraints of reality from a really young age.

And now I've just noticed that the question wasn't about my first book, it was my first story!

That would have to have been...I think my grandfather bought me a comic book from the local store. Same thing...saw the cover, it looked cool and I had to have it! It was a Batman comic book...back when they used to draw him like a ballerina and the boy wonder wore skinny shorts!

Of course the only impact that had on me was that I wanted to be Batman!