Author William Gibson seen here September 17, 2007 in Vancouver.Rafal Gerszak
Q and A: William Gibson
William Gibson is a pioneer of cyberfiction with his award-winning novels Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, The Difference Engine (co-written with Bruce Sterling), Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties and Pattern Recognition. Gibson lives in Vancouver. His latest novel is Zero History.
Pitch: You have 30 words, tell us about your latest book.
Post-industrial, post-crash contemporary quasi-thriller: secret brands, stealth luxury, military contracting, RC video drones, Japanese denim, London, Paris. Plus quiet comic romance, even.
Process: What's your writing routine?
Sit in front of writing every day, during actual period of writing the book, in case that-which-writes-book arrives. With any luck it starts to arrive on a fairly regular basis and does that which it does. Can tell I'm doing it right if simultaneously impossible to "have a life".
Public: Recount the best and/or worst experience you have had at literary events.
Eavesdropping on William Golding and E.L. Doctorow giving numerous sequential interviews in the hospitality room at my first Harbourfront. A complex education in same. That was good, I mean.
Product: E-books. Revelation or abomination?
Future-shock around emergent media platforms is often about the collapse of a longstanding monopoly of production. With music, it was simply a monopoly of reproduction, now long gone. With print, it was a monopoly on a decent, easy to hold "printout". Now unnecessary.
Packing: What did you put in your suitcase to read last time you hit the road?
The collected short fiction of Angela Carter. Though actually I was very fortunate to have it given to me on the road.
The 23rd Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival runs Oct. 19 to 24.