Gregory Frost

answers the Usual Questions

Gregory Frost

Gregory Frost is the author of eight novels and well over fifty short stories of the fantastic: dark thrillers, historical fantasy and science fiction. His latest published novel is the YA-crossover Shadowbridge duology--Shadowbridge & Lord Tophet (Del Rey/Random House), voted one of the best fantasy novels of the 2009 by the ALA.

He is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge University Press).

and serves as the Fiction Workshop Director at Swarthmore College. With author Jonathan Maberry, he is a founding member of the Philadelphia Liars Club.

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work?

Not in the sense of directing the work, no. Some have offered their knowledge on a project that's in progress, and that has been very helpful, and these experts and guides get their names pasted into the acknowledgements if nothing else. They really can be like the helpers out of fairy tales -- you can't complete the journey without them.

Is there any particular incident (a letter, a meeting, a comment that stands out?

There are any number of letters from readers that have made me very proud to have written something. I wrote a story years back called "The Bus," and gave a reading at a pub in Philadelphia. The story dealt with a homeless man living on a vent and seeing a bus that never moved, and which people got on but nobody ever got off. It's a social satire of a sort, but I really worked hard on that character; and after the reading, a guy from the audience came up and asked me had I spent time on the street or in the shelters, because he had, and I had convinced him I must have, too. To me that's like the highest praise possible.

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

Sure. Roger Zelazny. I've reread Nine Princes in Amber a dozen times over the years, and many of his other books repeatedly. I admired him hugely.

Who is the person you would most like to be trapped in a lift with? or a spaceship?

Besides Roger? Joe Haldeman. Especially if it was a spaceship.

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship?

Ayn Rand. I would feel compelled to jettison her out the airlock for the good of humanity.

What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?)

Hmmm...at the moment that would be Cu Chulainn Irish Whiskey for the beverage; crawfish étoufée for food; Bleak House for a book; and I'm not going anywhere near the teddy bear...

What is the most important thing you would like to get/achieve from your work?

To enrich people's lives by entertaining them. Of course I would like to explore deep philosophical questions, but first let's have a good time.

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

Writing it. Getting to the end of something and being able to say "That's pretty damn good."

submitted by Gregory Frost

8 December, 2013

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Just the facts:
Born:
Resides:
Bibliography/Awards: In the short fiction category, his novella, "Vulpes," rounds out the braided sf-horror anthology of novellas, V-Wars, edited by Jonathan Maberry (IDW); his short story "The Dingus" opens Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Books); his short story "No Others are Genuine" graces the Oct/Nov 2013 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine; his collaborative novella with Jonathan Maberry, "T.Rhymer," can be found in Dark Duets (HarperCollins, January 2014), and his novelette "Farewell, My Rocketeer" is featured in a forthcoming "Rocketeer" anthology from IDW in tribute to graphic artist Dave Stevens.

Web site: gregoryfrost.com
Twitter: @gregory_frost

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