More interviews! I swear, I’m not about to run out. Today we have Maura Lydon on the blog, who in addition to having really cute hair studies Environmental Science, and has a twin sister! Which is kind of irrelevant, except that me too! *twins high five to Maura*
But on with it!
1. What inspired your short story? Where did the idea come from?
The original idea-seed for Wanderer’s Dream came from a painting I saw once a long time ago, by Donato Giancola. The painting is called Dragonsight, if anyone is interested in looking it up. [Claudie: We did, look to the left!] Of course, having one image in your head isn’t enough to support an entire story, and by the time I got to the ‘touchstone’ scene a lot had changed from Dragonsight to Wanderer’s Dream.
2. Had you heard of solarpunk before this call for submission? What do you like about the genre?
I actually heard about the anthology through several solarpunk blogs that I follow on tumblr! I first got into the movement at the end of last year’s winter; I saw a few posts floating around my blog and started following people.
I was originally attracted to the genre for the art style; the brightness and color of the concept images. Slowly I started to build my own ideas of solarpunk around the skeletons of renewable tech, optimism, and bright, warm color palettes; much like I built Wanderer’s Dream from a single painting. By the time I wrote this short story, I had a fully fleshed out idea of my own ‘brand’ of solarpunk, the same way Wanderer’s Dream is it’s very own ‘brand’ of black dragon in a city square.
3. What genre do you usually write in? Talk about your projects!
I most often write fantasy, with occasional (usually optimistic) dips into science fiction. What I’m working on right now, in terms of theme and message, is bringing magic back into our daily lives and vocabulary. And not just abstract concepts of side-eyed paranormal happenings, but a restructuring of our concept of what magic is, and where it can be found. There may not be fireballs and dragons floating around today’s world, but it’s my goal to show that there are things just as powerful that we ignore or push away.
This exploration lends itself mostly to urban fantasy, so that’s where most of my current works take place. I do sidestep into high-fantasy and work on stories set in several far-flung worlds of my own, because fireballs and dragons are often extremely fun to write.
4. What do you love the most about dragons?
This is such a hard question to answer, because dragons have been part of my life for so long it’s like asking what I like best about my sister. Since I learned to read, dragons have been such a huge influence on my imagination at its core. I think my favorite thing about them is their power, and ultimately, their disinterest in the lives of men. I’ve always felt a disconnect between myself and the, for lack of a better word, mundane route of my life. Dragons have always been an escape for me, creatures with the power to level cities who mostly just want to be left alone.
5. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any day jobs or passion?
I actually adore my job as a student worker in my university library. I love the attitude of the other librarians, the shared love of books, and of being able to do well at a job. I’m also a peer editor at the Writing Center for my uni, and that’s a lot of fun as well –– I love reading other people’s writing as much as I love to write!
6. What’s your favorite book or TV show? Why?
Wow this is another hard one. I’m an avid reader, but my current favorite has got to be Fool’s Quest, by Robin Hobb. I blew through the 800 page book in two days, loving every minute of it. Fool’s Quest is in many ways the culmination of the two trilogies that came before it, all of which are amazing and well-written. I absolutely adore the main character, who is by turns both terrifyingly competent and adorably clueless.
My current favorite TV show has got to be sense8, a Netflix original that I feel has a lot of solarpunk undertones. It’s about the psychic connection between eight people all over the world, from San Fransisco to Mumbai. The series is all about how we are stronger together than apart, that our diversity is our greatest strength, and that we are all connected to the rest of the world in strange and incredible ways.
7. Where can we find more of your work?
Online I’m published in Abyss and Apex, in June 2014’s issue. Though it would be harder to get a hold of, I can also be found in the Hollins University 2015 literary magazines the Cyborg Griffin and Cargoes.
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Thanks so much for participating, Maura!