Lisa Tuttle

answers the Usual Questions

Lisa Tuttle

Author Lisa Tuttle has worked as a journalist and reviewer.

She writes long and short forms and non-fiction.

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

I would have to say that being a fan, beginning in my teens, probably had the most profound effect in making me a writer, or at least the type of writer I have become (whatever that may be!). I don't think interacting with fans has had any more or less affect on my work than my interactions with any other kinds of people. (And what are fans if not people?)

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

No.

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

Lots of favourite authors in answer to both: E. Nesbit, Louisa May Alcott, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Edith Wharton, Jonathan Carroll, W.G. Sebald, Willa Cather, James Sallis, Raymond Chandler, Elizabeth Taylor, Joanna Russ, Ali Smith, Kate Wilhelm, Carol Emshwiller...I could go on, I won't go on.

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

Well, obviously my husband, or one of my best friends - especially on a long journey into space - but if that is too boring, Leonard Cohen or Kim Stanley Robinson. I've always wanted to meet Leonard Cohen, but would be too shy to speak unless we were trapped together in an elevator. I know Stan, but have had too few opportunities to spend any time with him. Now that I think about it, both of them have a Zen-Buddhist sensibility and wisdom that would be especially welcome if we were trapped, and Stan surely knows all about spaceships.

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

Any one of the depressingly large number of ignorant, science-denying, anti-feminist, religiously proselytizing, close-minded, rabid right-wing American nut-jobs.

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

As long as I had plenty of books to read and bottles of good red wine, I'd be happy.

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

What an overwhelming question! On the most basic and material level, I'd really like to make enough money to live on. On a more spiritual level, I'd hope to write something that would move and make a difference in some way to somebody (ideally, a lot of somebodies).

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

The work itself. I write because that's what I love to do.

submitted by Lisa Tuttle

8 December 2014

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Just the facts:
Born: Houston, Texas.
Resides: The highlands of Scotland.
Bibliography/Awards:
John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer (1974)

Web site:
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www.lisatuttle.co.uk

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