Mini Shots
Vignette Press has launched Mini Shots, a new concept magazine series. Each magazine contains one short story only, the perfect size to slip into your pocket for when you need a quick injection of fiction.
Simon Groth is the author of Mini Shots issue #001 : Coda, and seeing as Virtual Literary Tours seem to be all the rage at the moment, I agreed to interview him. Well, sort of. I only asked him one question, but it was a good question - and a good answer:
You have a choice of superpower:
(1) The ability to travel backwards in time, to any point you like, whenever you like.
(2) Invisibility.
(3) The ability to read minds.
(4) Immortality.
Which do you choose, and what do you do with it once you've got it?
"Let's see, I have to think about this logically.
I don't think I could do immortality, although it would be interesting to see what happens after the sun becomes a supernova and swallows half the solar system. Immortality or not, how the hell do you survive that? Do you become a floating blob of consciousness in the endlessness of space? And then what do you do with all that time? You sit around, waiting for something to happen no doubt. Imagine an immortal at a party. It would be like inviting a glacier.
Do I really want to read minds? I mean really? This may sound a little harsh, but I'm not that interested in half the things I hear people actually say. Imagine having to listen to all those irritating internal conversations. I could imagine sitting quietly on a bus before exploding at a girl sitting opposite me: "Just ask him out already and stop yabbering on about it!" Despite this, the ability to read minds would be handy at job interviews. Or at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
If I could travel backwards in time, I might actually make it to work on time. It might also save me from those occasions where I instantly regret having hit the "Reply All" button. Otherwise I think this power may be problematic. Does time travel also imply travelling in space as well? If not, I don't have any bush survival skills, so getting stuck in Australia before the nineteenth century would be suicide. No cool stuff like meeting Galileo or Genghis Khan when you're stuck in pre-colonial Brisbane scrubland.
So it must be invisibility. Come to think of it, invisibility would be a most useful power for the writer who frequently says: "Oh, to be fly on the wall." So how much better to be a fly on the wall who could freak people out? Pull chairs out from people about to sit down and other such hilarious japes. The possibilities are endless. I could really overhear uncensored conversations for use in my fiction. I could find out what really happens when you send a meal back at a restaurant. I could never again pay for a movie."
Like this? Follow Simon Groth on his virtual wanderings this week as he visits blogs around the world to chat about life, the short story, indie publishing, writing, getting published and more…
Next stop: Wed 14/02/07 - Small Press Blog.
___
Simon Groth is the author of Mini Shots issue #001 : Coda, and seeing as Virtual Literary Tours seem to be all the rage at the moment, I agreed to interview him. Well, sort of. I only asked him one question, but it was a good question - and a good answer:
You have a choice of superpower:
(1) The ability to travel backwards in time, to any point you like, whenever you like.
(2) Invisibility.
(3) The ability to read minds.
(4) Immortality.
Which do you choose, and what do you do with it once you've got it?
"Let's see, I have to think about this logically.
I don't think I could do immortality, although it would be interesting to see what happens after the sun becomes a supernova and swallows half the solar system. Immortality or not, how the hell do you survive that? Do you become a floating blob of consciousness in the endlessness of space? And then what do you do with all that time? You sit around, waiting for something to happen no doubt. Imagine an immortal at a party. It would be like inviting a glacier.
Do I really want to read minds? I mean really? This may sound a little harsh, but I'm not that interested in half the things I hear people actually say. Imagine having to listen to all those irritating internal conversations. I could imagine sitting quietly on a bus before exploding at a girl sitting opposite me: "Just ask him out already and stop yabbering on about it!" Despite this, the ability to read minds would be handy at job interviews. Or at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
If I could travel backwards in time, I might actually make it to work on time. It might also save me from those occasions where I instantly regret having hit the "Reply All" button. Otherwise I think this power may be problematic. Does time travel also imply travelling in space as well? If not, I don't have any bush survival skills, so getting stuck in Australia before the nineteenth century would be suicide. No cool stuff like meeting Galileo or Genghis Khan when you're stuck in pre-colonial Brisbane scrubland.
So it must be invisibility. Come to think of it, invisibility would be a most useful power for the writer who frequently says: "Oh, to be fly on the wall." So how much better to be a fly on the wall who could freak people out? Pull chairs out from people about to sit down and other such hilarious japes. The possibilities are endless. I could really overhear uncensored conversations for use in my fiction. I could find out what really happens when you send a meal back at a restaurant. I could never again pay for a movie."
Like this? Follow Simon Groth on his virtual wanderings this week as he visits blogs around the world to chat about life, the short story, indie publishing, writing, getting published and more…
Next stop: Wed 14/02/07 - Small Press Blog.
___
Labels: Culture
1 Comments:
Of course, I didn't think of the minor problem, that once one has travelled back in time one needs to be able to travel forward again in order to carry on with ordinary life...
So I should have said, you can travel forwards too - but only back to your starting point.
Still, I think you're right - invisibility is the best one. But I probably would have chosen time travel, just cos it would be so much fun.
I was going to give the option of the power of flight, too - but I thought that'd just be boring, cos he'd be bound to choose it (well, I would, anyway - no contest).
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