Entropy Gate

I made a transcript of an interview from a short while ago...it sort of explains some of (what my wife calls) the weirdness that is my brain.

PART ONE

Q: Why do you write and when did it all star?

A: I write because film costs too much.

Q: Film-

A: As a kid I had a super 8mm camera and I used to make short films. I’ve always liked film and love movies. I like any medium that can tell a story. I used to get mad when people said my paintings and drawings looked like illustrations, but then I realized that that isn’t a bad thing. I’m a story teller.

Q: Would you rather be making movies, if the cost wasn’t so high?

A: I will one day. I had a project for this summer, but it fell through. Next summer, maybe.

Q: Was it part of the Entropy Gate trilogy?

A: Not really. Quadrillogy, actually, though there is a possible fifth story. Quintilogy? Quintology, I don’t know. What was the first question?

Q: I guess, why do you write, or more accurately, tell stories?

A: My brother.

Q: How so?

A: It’s totally his fault. He was an insomniac so I used to make up stories to try to get him to fall asleep.

Q: Did it work?

A: Yes.

Q: So your stories are boaring? Sleep inducing?

A: Then maybe. Not now, I hope. But what was interesting was I would continue the story in my head after he fell asleep.

Q: Your current series is Science Fiction. Were the bed time stories sci-fi?

A: No. I did not like Science fiction as a kid. I saw an episode of Star Trek (Is There in Truth no Beauty) where Spock’s brain sort of wigs out after looking into a box that contains some sort of glowing alien light and they used a fish eye lens on the camera and it creeped me out. Besides, Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone (the series) which ever it was, was on at the same time. We had foster kids living with us so we had two TVs. Imagine that two, in one house hold. I had to watch on the small black and white in my parents’ room while Dad and the others watched on the big black and white in the family room.

Q: So what turned you on to Science fiction?

A: My dad. Star Wars and 2001. But my dad was the main thing. He took me to see Star Wars at age 10 and it blew me away. Then (a few years later) I saw 2001 (on video) and was stunned again, though as a kid I preferred the action.

Q: And that did it?

A: Oh, yeah. After Star Wars I started watching Star Trek, Space 1999, anything with space ships and lasers and robots.

Q: And did your bed time stories change too?

A: By that time I wasn’t really telling stories anymore because my brother had beat insomnia and passed it on to me.

Q: Do you still have a hard time sleeping?

A: I have a love/hate relationship with sleep. I hate to go to sleep, but once I’m out, usually after 1:00 am, I hate to get up.

Q: What was the first Science Fiction story you wrote?

A: Well, the first one wasn’t ever really written down. I came up with these two characters, based loosely on me and my best friend Mark (RIP). We would have all of these adventures and I would play these stories out in my head like a self contained movie-

Q: Like day dreaming?

A: -like, yes, like day dreaming. Except that my brother and I had three paper routes that we ran and I’d play out the stories in my head while delivering the papers. Sometimes I’d play back the ones, the episodes if you will, that I really liked.

Q: That’s odd.

A: Isn’t it?