An Interview With
Steve Lazarowitz

How did you get started?

I think it might have has something to do with a sperm and an egg. I'm pretty sure even back then, I was writing on the wall of the womb in embryonic fluid.Ever since I first learned to write, I've been playing with words and writing down stories. In third grade, I wrote a story where the Loch Ness Monster was really a Russian sub. Before I could write, I was making up stories and sharing them with any who would listen.

What type of writer are you? Do you plan ahead/plot or do you simply fly by the seat of your pants?

Depends on the story. Sometimes I have an entire story written in my head before I sit down. The longer the work, the less likely I am to plan it.This usually means a lot more rewrites before Ican hammer it into a realstory, but a lot of my best work was done this way.

Do you write best at a certain time of the day?

I write best without distraction.I've recently married into a family with two teenage boys, which means it's either before they get home from school or after they're asleep at night.

What type of writing schedule do you have?

I try to find time to write every day, but that time depends on what else is going on.I don't have a set schedule, but if I do miss a day, I feel like I've called in sick.

How do you handle life interruptions?

I get interrupted. I'm very easily distracted from writing. I'm working on this, but it's not easy, especially with kids. Sometimes, I wish the kids were more like the dog. I could just put them out in the yard when they're fighting or misbehaving. But kids aren't like that. You have to staple them to the wall of the shed instead.

Do you get blocked? Any hints how to stave it off?

I don't get blocked, at least not in the way that I think of as blocked. I can always write if I canforce myself to sit at my computer. My problem is, a lot of times, I'll find reasons not to.Once I'm sitting I can write.Having a lot of different projects helps here. I write fiction, articles, essays, poetry and reviews. I write in different genres and I vary greatly between dark and light, serious and zany. So if I can't work on one thing, there's bound to be something I can get into. Again,my biggest problem is allowing myself to get distracted, soI don't sit down. I also find that once I have a single project andgoal to focus on, I work much better. For example, right now I'm editing a novel to submit to a contest and I'm doing at least two chapters a day. During stages like this, I write little new material, but I try to write something. Naturally, answering interviews like this is writing as well.

What authors do you look to as a role model and inspiration?

I'm not sure I look at authors as inspiration or role models. I surely have authors I love and respect, but I'm realistic enough to realize that the market has changed so much in the last twenty years, that my favorite authors might have had a much harder time getting published in this climate. In fact, sometimes my favorite authors discourage me, rather than inspire. I'll read a book that blows me away and think, how can I EVER compete with THAT. This is why I didn't start submitting until Roger Zelazny passed away. There was almost no point. I could never be that good and if I couldn't be that good, I wasn't going to do it. On the upside of this, there are people that have written me that have said the same thing about my work that I used to say about Zelazny's. When I get e-mails like that, it makes me think that perhaps my own subjective and flawed opinion is not necessarily the best judge of my own work.

What's the best advice you ever received?

I've received a lot of great advice in my life. Don't bet on the horses. Take travellers cheques instead of cash. Never mix business and friendship. But for writing, there is one piece of advice that I read a long time ago, so long ago I don't remember where (or even how it was exactly worded, so I'll have to paraphrase)... there is only one way to get published. Take the story out of the filing cabinet or drawer, put it into an envelope and mail it to someone that might buy it. There is no secret handshake.You have to expose yourself to the threat of rejection if you're going to make it. As long as you keep getting rejection slips, you know you're still in the game.

What sparks a story?

The list is almost endless. I've had dreams that have become stories. Newspaper articles. Random comments from people around me. Something I saw written on someone's tee-shirt. Television shows, movies, other books.Watching animals in the wild. Hiking. I think ideas are all around us and being open to them is half the battle. The other half is being able to hold onto them long enough to roll them around in your mind. You can take a rough idea and it's like a rough diamond. It doesn't look like much until it's cut and polished. So you take this rough gem and you work it. Clean it off. Move it around. Cut it. And eventually you write it. But then you still have to edit and proofread it, which is like polishing a gem. Every time you touch it, it gets better. And then, at some point, it's done. You just can't do anymore. Well you can. That's the other challenge. Learning when a story is done and you can stop polishing it. Because until you learn that, nothing will ever be good enough to submit.

What was it about your genre that interested you enough to choose to write in it and not in another genre?

Speculative fiction, particularly fantasy and Science Fiction, seem to have less limits than other genres. I mean the rules on what makes a story good aregoing to be the same across the board, but the less constraint I have to deal with, the happier I am. I still find myself constrained sometimes, but in general, writing speculative fiction gives me a lot of leeway.

Have you seen an evolution in your writing? What steps did it take?

I suppose that my writing has evolved in some ways and it is much like the evolution of life on Earth. At first it was all just
swimming around in the sea. I had a lot of great ideas, but nothing ever came of them. Then the very first of those ideas
crawled onto land. They were like the first amphibians, who still needed the sea to breed. I never got very far with them. But soon some of those ideas became reptiles.They could go further from the sea, for they were able to breed on land.Those reptiles grew into dinosaurs and soon the Mesozoic era of Steve was born. There was so much coming out of me then.And my stories were like the dinosaurs. They were huge, powerful monstrosities you didn't dare ignore. Unfortunately, a metaphorical meteor did arrive and plunge into my writing world. This was when an epublishing company that I once worked for (and was very proud of) simply fell apart around me. There was a mass extinction then and it wasn't until after a huge ice age, that I was able to move forward again. The new stories that evolved after, weren't as large, at least not on the whole. They weren't as dark either. They were more thoughtful and intelligent. More subtle in many ways. But for all that, I feel like they are again beginning to dominate the landscape. And, if I can continue to evolve without giving rise to the birth of man, I might even be able to avoid a another huge wave of extinction.Aren't you sorry you asked the question?

What have you always dreamed of writing, but haven't yet?

A bestseller.

What one thing do you like most about writing? Least?

Fan mail, good reviews and receiving checks are the best things about writing. Why? Because they vindicate my talent. That's still so important to me. I can read a story and love it to death, but without vindication, I'm not confident enough to say it's a great story.What I like least is either submitting or editing the same story so many times that I become sick of seeing it.

What is your next project?

I just started a new story, I'm not sure how long it will end up being, but it's at least novella length, maybe even a full length novel. It's called The Cure for the Common Curse and it's a rather humorous story of a private investigator who takes some compromising photos of a witch that costs her her marriage. So she curses him and that's all I'll say about it. I have a couple of chapters already and those I've showed it to, really enjoyed it.

What advice would you pass along at this point in your career?

I've been asked this question many times and I seem to answer it differently each time. Perhaps because I don't like to harp on the same things over and over. The best advice you can give any writer is to never give up, but since a lot of writer's say that, I'm going to give different advice instead. Don't learn the tricks of the trade, learn the trade. Don't look for some magical formula to get published. Don't think that your cover letter will sell your story, if you haven't learned how to polish it properly. All a cover letter will do is get a story looked at, not purchased. You need to learn the basics, before you worry about being famous. It's very hard for some new writers to see this. When I started, I had delusions of grandeur. My words were unbelievable. How could anyone not buy them? Well a hundred rejection slips later, I was beginning to learn. Not that my words aren't saleable, for I still believe they are. However, there are HOUSANDS of authors out there, maybe millions, with words just as saleable. If this doesn't sound encouraging, it's because I'm not trying to encourage, I'm being realistic. The person who becomes an overnight bestseller is the rarest exception to the rule, and it's not likely going to be you. So dig in for the long hall. Join critique groups, read books on writing, take a writing course... whatever you do, never see yourself as a finished product. Learn the trade. Do it the long, hard way.It's the only way you really have a shot of making it as a writer.

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