[Note: I suggest reading the story first (you can buy it at Fictionwise
through the link above).]
I wrote this story as a response to Ray Bradbury's Quid Pro Quo, which
I read in F&SF. The truth of the matter was, it annoyed me that
Bradbury had the gall to say that just because someone could become a
great writer but didn't, he had wasted his life. The story went through
a lot of revisions and changes. I had this story critiqued first by my
sister Danit, and then twice through Critters.
It was the first time I went through such a critique process. I found
out about Critters about that time, and it seemed like a good place to
join -- which turned out to be right. All in all the story went through
15 revisions, about 6 of them major.
I'm not going to bore you with the development of the story, simply
because it's boring for me, too. You can find out text I cut out of the
story before the version I submitted at Bewildering Stories, under the
title Negative
Possibilities. That was about the time I found out that people
counted "antiwords" for words cut out during revision. IIRC I also
added some stuff in that revision, but it's not included in Negative
Possibilities.
Here are some details about how particular parts of the text came
about. It'd be helpful to have the story at hand to get the full
context. I thought initially to explain some more about what I did some
things the way I did, but decided no to. Maybe another time.
"And you have no choice but to be Sedef, I guess."
Sedef is the name of a Turkish friend of mine. It means "mother of
pearl" in Turkish (which is quite close to the Hebrew word for the
same). I think it's a beautiful name. I got her permission to user her
name in the story. BTW, she doesn't look like the character.
Sure, Ray said that people swore by her. But then, he also said that
we should remain kids at heart.
I didn't know Ray Bradbury that well when I started writing. Frankly, I
mainly know writers I've met online. I rarely try to learn about the
lives of authors whose books I read. Still, I needed him as a character
(even though he doesn't appear in person), so I needed to learn about
him. RayBradbury.com
provided quite a bit of information, though I also did other web
searches. The comment about remaining kids at heart paraphrases some
part of an interview with him, IIRC.
it was the more lighthearted contemporary fantasy, the kid stuff,
that had made me a household name
The Harry Potter phenomenon was starting about the time I wrote this,
so it made sense to me that Simon could have success with this kind of
stories, even when he wrote other stuff for adults. He's a better
writer than Rowling, though. :) (I've only read the first one and
a half Harry Potter books -- actually enjoyed the first -- so maybe
she's improved.)
She seemed to like Frost.
The obligatory reference to Frost's "A Road Not Taken".
Perhaps she has a daughter named Pearl
Mother of pearl, geddit? :)
'Soldiers are dreamers', he said
"Soldiers are dreamers" is taken from Siegfried Sassoon's poem "The
Dreamers", which I really like. One reason I put it here is because
Bradbury once said that people should read a poem every day. So I
referenced this an Frost in the story.
Ray, who likes to act as if computers are demons taken form.
Another reference to something I read about Bradbudy.
I imagine her mind flying from the east coast to the west, finally
settling on Ray's house, dropping down to the mess he calls a basement,
to see him sitting amongst his books, writing his next story on his old
typewriter.
There are (or at least were) videos of Ray Bradbury working in his
basement at RayBradbury.com.
That's it for now. If anyone is interested in more details, let me know
at et@et3d.com.