Don Webb

answers the Usual Questions

Don Webb

Don Webb has been writing his unique stories and poems for almost thirty years. His influences include horror, science fiction and fantasy.

He claims to have three big interests: wonder (the universe is strange and beautiful), humor (the world is a much sillier place than we give it credit for), and a sort of "Ripley's Believe It or Not" love of odd facts. (http://www.teemingbrain.com )

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

Fans often tell me neat things (for example I heard about the Toynbe tiles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toynbee_tiles or that Egyptian armies of the XIXth and XXTh dynasties used homing pigeons, or local ghosts stories.

Fans, because of that very drive that made them fans, know truly remarkable things.

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

I've been more moved by actions as a fan - meeting Forrest Ackerman, Michael Moorcock, Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison, William Nolan. Outside of the SF world, you may meet one or two writers that influence or entertain you - in our world you can meet everybody. As a fan I corresponded with the late Fritz Lieber and the late John Keel.

I am always inspired by the young writer I teach at UCLA Extension. https://www.uclaextension.edu/Pages/default.aspx

My funniest encounter with a fan came at my first pro-con. I had a lousy reading spot (near midnight). Lucias Sheppard was ill that weekend, so I got bumped up to his slot. A very, very drunk fan insisted that I was Lucias and threatened me until I agreed to sign his copy of Jade Eyes.

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

William S. Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Mark Z. Danielewski, Zulfikar Ghose - Burroughs taught me that anything can be written about, Lovecraft taught me that it's OK to try to write about that which is beyond words, Smith taught me that ANY word can be used, Daneuluwski taught me that any narrative strategy can be used, and Zulfikar Ghose (from whom I had the honor of taking a writing course at the University of Texas at Austin) taught me that ALL fiction is autobiographical.

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

Firstly my wife Guiniviere, after her my friend Howard Waldrop because he A) knows everything and B) is very funny, then if I choose from the dead the Linguist Dr. Mark Southern, or the writer Phillip K. Dick.

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

Joel Osteen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Osteen

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

My cats Big Pig and Sasha. My white teddy bear Gus. My copies of Ulysses, Dhalgren, The Collected Bradbury, The Gods of Mars, and Plato's Dialogues. Foodwise Macaroni and Cheese and canned salmon. Beverage Chocolate Yoohoo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoo-hoo

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

I seek four things in both my reading and writing. I write because I don't find enough in what I read.

Wonder at the Cosmos (as extreme beauty or fear)

Humor

Nostalgia, for those aspects of popular culture that let us enjoy our Wyrd

Sex, raised to the level of cosmic Desire

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

It gives me a reason to sit around and play with my mind.

submitted by Don Webb

1 Jul 2014

For other answers to The Usual Questions Click here

Just the facts:
Born: April 30, 1960 Amarillo, TX - featured in this documentary (which includes me for 40 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-085q_GK5E
Resides: Austin, TX - which means I am perennial guest at Armadillocon http://www.armadillocon.org/
Bibliography/Awards:
My 21 st book is out this fall from Hippocampus Press Through Dark Angles, My 22nd book is out from Onerios Press around Yule Beyond the Severn Labyrinths. You can find many of my other books mentioned at my Wikipedia article. My OOP mysteries from St. Martins are cheap and funny. I have had 80 stories in some "Best Of" anthology or some "Year's Best" SF/F/H/Ex/ since I became published in 1986. I won the Fiction Collective Award in 1990, the Death Equinox Award in 1998 and have been nominated for a LOT of stuff I didn't win.

Web site:
hippocampuspress.com
teemingbrain.com
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