{"id":1358,"date":"2011-09-27T03:05:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T01:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.somethingwicked.co.za\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2011-08-29T17:47:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T15:47:23","slug":"writers-cornered-damien-filer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/2011\/09\/27\/writers-cornered-damien-filer\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers Cornered: Damien Filer"},"content":{"rendered":"

interview by Joe Vaz
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<\/td>\n\"\"
\nFrom Issue 13 (Sept 2011)<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where is home? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tallahassee, Florida. \u00a0I was born and raised here, travelled across the United States and Canada, then lived in Oregon for several years before returning home, when my daughter, now 14, was born.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you a full-time writer? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With grants and scholarships I was able to write full-time for a number of years. Now, I own a political strategies firm. Writing is still a large part of my day-to-day work, in the form of op-eds and commentaries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What inspired this story? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story was inspired by late nights in the country. For some reason, science fiction seldom takes place in the south (at least in the U.S.). I wanted to evoke a southern setting and watch the characters I knew growing up respond to alien contact.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is a beautiful poignancy to this story. From the first line, one can\u2019t help but feel sorry for Herman. How did his character come about? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Herman is victimized in the story by everyone around him. He never had a chance. In far less spectacular fashion, this was all too true for many of the kids I knew growing up in similar settings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What made you decide to tell this story from the point of view of a 12-year-old girl? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Herman is too young and too divided (literally). His mother is the antagonist in the story. The alien is, well, too alien. I needed an observer who was invested in the outcome but could report from inside, so to speak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Will Herman keep his word? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t claim to know that any more than you, the reader, but I certainly hope so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What was the most recent short story you read? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On a recent visit to Salt Lake City I had the good fortune to find Absinthe<\/em> by Jack Ketchum and Tim Lebbon. It’s a signed and numbered chapbook containing short stories by both authors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are you working on anything right now? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, a screenplay about classic Caribbean pirates transported to wreak havoc on a modern day cruise ship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where might we be able to read more of your work? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My short story collection, From Blood to Water<\/em>, is available through Amazon. A short story entitled \u2018Rachelle’s Denial\u2019 is online at MicroHorror.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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[hana-code-insert name=’ArticleBlockOpen’ \/]<\/p>\n

Joe Vaz<\/a><\/h2>\n

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Joe Vaz<\/em> is the founder and editor of Something Wicked<\/em>, which occasionally affords him the honour and good fortune to hang out with really cool people.
\nIn his other life he is a film and television actor who gets small parts in big movies, most recently in Dredd 3D<\/em><\/a>, due to be released in September 2012.<\/p>\n

[hana-code-insert name=’ArticleBlockClose’ \/]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

interview by Joe Vaz
\n\"\"<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Damien Filer\u2019s<\/em> stories and poems have appeared in dozens of books and magazines. His short story collection From Blood to Water <\/em>includes stories recognized in the Year\u2019s Best Fantasy & Horror <\/em>and recommended for the Nebula award. Filer is a grant recipient from the California Institute of Contemporary Arts and a graduate of the Clarion Writer\u2019s Workshop. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFrom Issue 13 (Sept 2011)<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[112,63,111,39,100],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-non-fiction","tag-damien-filer","tag-interview","tag-issue-13","tag-joe-vaz","tag-writers-cornered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somethingwicked.co.za\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}