Microinterview with Rachel Rodman

We welcome Rachel Rodman, author of the poem “Two Hybrids” in The Future Fire #71, for a brief chat in the microinterview series.

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Art © 2024 Fluffgar

TFF: What does “Two Hybrids” mean to you?

Rachel Rodman: I love hybridization.

The most exciting kind of creativity combines elements that are infrequently combined. I also love the stylistic challenge of merging objects and identities from different sources: Froggie’s sword + the runcible spoon; a winged creature + a half-amphibian who hunts dragonflies, pooling their talents to survive a long journey through the sky. (Many more examples can be found in my recent book, Mutants and Hybrids, which was published by Underland Press.)

“Two Hybrids” is also exciting to me because it feels like a breakthrough. It is one of several projects that began as a short story. For a very long time, I worked and reworked these pieces, getting nowhere. Eventually, however, it occurred to me to convert these failed stories to poems.

After that, things went quickly.

TFF: What are you working on now?

RR: More poetry. More short fiction.

I am also working on a long-form, “quantum fiction” project. In quantum fiction, events are both happening and not happening. When one outcome occurs, so does its opposite. (An early example of quantum fiction is a story called “Schrödinger's Fever,” which was published in Why Vandalism?) Quantum fiction is non-linear. It is internally contradictory. Within this genre, the usual stylistic divisions don’t make sense.

Poetry? Prose?

When my writing feels most authentic, these categories stop mattering.

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Extract:

When her parents die,
she converts
the pea-green boat
to
a pair of prosthetics—
wooden extensions of her own wings
(which are only half sized).

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.

Microinterview with Sebastian Timpe

Sebastian Timpe, artist of “Deep Sea Baby” and cover artist of The Future Fire #71, joins us for this week’s microinterview.

Art © Sebastian Timpe 2024

TFF: How did you go about illustrating “Deep Sea Baby”?

Sebastian Timpe: This was a very interesting piece to approach from a visual perspective, it had two stories going in it and one of them is a conversation with no visual elements attached. After reading it once I knew the first illustration had to be the white flowers in the lungs. It was such a striking visual. For the second illustration I decided to do a travel poster because the vacation aspect of the location seemed very important to the story.

TFF: How do you go about visualizing the truly alien?

ST: I use a lot of reference material in my work so visualizing something outside our world is very difficult. I prefer to play with strange versions of our reality, like the jellied mushrooms or the indigo sky.

TFF: Is there a difference for you between creating artwork to order, and composing purely from your own imagination?

ST: For me the deadline is the largest difference. Working on my own projects I'll often pick them up and put them down on a whim/when the inspiration strikes. Creating artwork to order means I have to actually finish it!

TFF: What or who would you most like to draw, paint, sculpt or photograph?

ST: I've just gotten into Dragon Age so I will probably be doing some fan art in the future.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.

Microinterview with Vanessa Fogg

We’re delighted to chat today with Vanessa Fogg, author of “That Small, Hard Thing on the Back of Your Neck” in The Future Fire #71.

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Art © 2024 Ellis Bray

TFF: What does “That Small, Hard Thing on the Back of Your Neck” mean to you?

Vanessa Fogg: To me, this story is about the masks/skins that we all wear. The ways we pretend to better fit in, to get along, for status and popularity and ease of living and maybe even (for some people) sheer survival. And it’s also about the psychic costs of living that way.

TFF: What are you working on next?

VF: I admit that I’ve been blocked for a few months now. But I’m trying to write a short (and maybe satirical?) horror piece now, and I’m excited about some earlier stories I wrote that should be coming out in 2025 or so—including a tale about a Faerie prince touring our modern world and going viral on social media, a story about the search for immortality (based on Chinese myths and legends), and what I think of as a little weird horror piece where a Eurydice-figure talks her lover into the Land of the Dead.

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Extract:

You are thirteen and in the shower when you find it. A hard, dangly little thing, like a tag, stuck to the back of your neck. It’s stuck just where your neck bones merge into your back, between your shoulders. Reflexively, you try to brush it away, swat it off, as you would to a bug. It stays stuck. Hot water sluices over you, and the thing is slick and hard to grasp, but you manage. The thing feels like metal. It’s small and rectangular, and there’s a little round opening at the top, where the tip of your finger fits.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.

Microinterview with L.E. Badillo

Today our old friend L.E. Badillo, artist of “In the Field” in The Future Fire #71, dropped by for the next installment in our microinterview series.

Art © 2024 L.E. Badillo

TFF: How did you go about illustrating “In the Field”?

L.E. Badillo: “In the Field” had some nuclear fallout vibes and I tried to portray a toxic atmosphere humans could not directly interact with. I tried representing this with a yellowish background and smokey textures.

TFF: What else are you working on now?

LEB: Besides my artwork, I'm exploring interactive fiction with programs like Inky and Twine. Hopefully, I can join a team and make a game or at least release some small games in the near future.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.

Micro-interview with Faith Allington

We’re joined today by Faith Allington, author of “Deep Sea Baby” in The Future Fire #71.

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Art © 2024 Sebastian Timpe

TFF: What does “Deep Sea Baby” mean to you?

Faith Allington: The title comes from Marika Hackman's haunting cover of the song “I Follow Rivers”; the longing in it really resonated. From a character perspective, my story is about familial love and grief, how these can change the landscape of ourselves until we are unrecognizable. From a plot perspective, it's about our planet's changing climate and a future where humanity is no longer the dominant species.

TFF: If we encountered an alien intelligence (from another world, or from an undiscovered part of our own), would we ever be able to communicate with them?

FA: I think humans can be excellent at communication, and once we got over the shock, we could find a way to communicate with them. Assuming they'd want to talk to us.

TFF: What are you working on next?

FA: I'm revising a feminist horror novel so I can query it, and in the meantime, working on a short horror story about a young woman who gets a summer internship at an unusual new cemetery.

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Extract:

The sea is glassy and lustrous with moonlight when Johanna arrives. The vacation town of Fairhaven’s only hotel crouches on the shore, bold lines blurring to ghostlike in the dark. The air is pure salt, corroding her skin and etching her lungs as she watches the indigo horizon.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.

Micro-interview with Cécile Matthey

Cécile Matthey, artist of “Whiskey Mud” in The Future Fire #71 and TFF’s in-house artist, joins us for a micro-interview.

Art © 2024 Cécile Matthey

TFF: How did you go about illustrating “Whiskey Mud”?

Cécile Matthey: Another story involving elephants ! Of course, I couldn't resist drawing them. I found a lovely photo of two elephants lying in the water, seemingly having a conversation. I used it as a model for one of the illustrations. The second illustration was more complicated… I wanted to show Chalt as a brain, in his pool of nutrient fluid. But I wanted it to look pretty… As I often do, I turned to the natural world. Given the shape of the elephant's brain, the idea of a sort of seashell came quite naturally. As for the cables, they were suggested to me by the water lilies, whose very long stems plunge deep into the water. The two fish are a wink: they are called ‘brain fish.’

TFF: Can you tell us about an artist whose work you're particularly enjoying at the moment?

CM: It's a writer: I fell in love with Pierre Pevel's book Les enchantements d'Ambremer. The story takes place in a refreshing Parisian steampunk universe, packed with classic references, reminiscent of Maurice Leblanc (Arsène Lupin), Jules Verne, and of the finest adventure films. There is a whole trilogy, called Le Paris des Merveilles. I have seen it has even been "translated" into comic books. I'm definitely going to read one!

TFF: What else are you working on now?

CM: I am working hard on my collages. I have the opportunity to exhibit them next year in a local bookshop. It's quite a challenge! (Some examples can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/caeciliana/53155901622/in/photostream/.)

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/10/new-issue-202471.html.