Piers Anthony (photo courtesy of Piers Anthony)

Piers Anthony: I really don't read for pleasure now. I'm a workaholic, and my pleasure is in getting done what I have to do. But I have read novels by hopeful writers, on and off-line. Generally they do need work, but do have worthwhile notions. Very few writers seem to be able to do it all: style, characterization, action, pacing, meaning. Style seems to be the main hurdle. But that can come with experience and feedback, and I think Internet publishing can provide that. So I think that the best future writers are likely to emerge from humble Internet first efforts. 

Crescent Blues: Are there any on-line fiction collections ('zines or publishers) you'd recommend to someone looking for the "Best on the Web?" 

Piers Anthony: I don't read enough to be able to recommend fiction collections. Remember, I'm the one who took three years to get through first grade, because of difficulty learning to read, and I still read slowly. As I put it, ogres are justifiably proud of their stupidity. So I hope there are others who are efficient readers who will call good material to the attention of the world. See my comment on reviewing, below. 

Crescent Blues: Many writers' organizations consider electronic novels, even those published under contract with publishers who pay royalties, as "also rans." How do you feel about this, and what do you think can be done to establish parity for electronically published authors?  

Piers Anthony: I think the attitude of old-line writers' organizations toward electronic publishing resembles that of horsemen who sneered at the horseless carriage. They should be ashamed. I understand that an organization of electronic novelists is starting up. More power to it. I can't wait to see the arrogant old order pass. 

Crescent Blues: There's also been talk of electronic publishers padding sales so that their authors can make the numbers some writers' organizations have set as a minimum standard for legitimacy. Do you think this end justifies the means? 

Piers Anthony: Padding electronic sales? I think the ends seldom if ever justify foul means. I never liked it when publishers advertised that millions of copies of my books were selling, while their royalty statements showed thousands. Let's get free of that offal. 

Crescent Blues: What was the best advice anyone ever gave you as a writer? If you could impart one piece of advice to every pre-published writer who visits your site what would it be? 

Piers Anthony: The best advice anyone ever gave me as a writer? That's difficult to answer, because my career has been more like a sand dune, compiled one grain of sand at a time, from many sources, and the key decisions have been my own. So let me reverse this, and give two answers: what was the worst advice I received, and what is the best advice I have given others?  

The worst was from H. L. Gold, the arrogant editor of Galaxy SF magazine in 1957: don't even try to compete with the big boys. I rejected it, as my subsequent career shows, and I think other writers should reject it also. Don't be afraid to shoot for the moon. Certainly this leads to many disappointments, but sometimes it leads to remarkable success.  

But my best advice for others is to have a working spouse, or some other source of income, because you are unlikely to make a living writing. For years my wife was the family breadwinner. Only a decade or so after my first sales did I happen to catch the moon and make it big, and I would never have made it without her support. I believe that only one writer in a hundred ever sells any fiction, and only one in a hundred published writers makes a decent living from it. So I became one of the hundred, and then one of the ten thousand. I doubt that the commercial odds will change soon, so no one should figure on writing income until it is actually in hand. 

Crescent Blues: Reading your newsletters is almost like sitting down and having an afternoon chat over coffee with you. You put a great deal of your personal life into your newsletters. Does your family ever object to some of the things you've revealed? 

Piers Anthony: Does my family ever object to my openness in print? Sometimes over the decades there have been objections. But Piers Anthony is a pseudonym, so few outside the fantasy genre are aware of those related to me, and that protects them from notoriety to the extent they want it. Also, I am now 65, a senior citizen, so the maiden aunts are gone and most of my relatives are junior to me in age. That mutes their objections. Nevertheless, I try not to blab anything really private. When in doubt, I ask my wife, who is not shy about answers, and I do heed her opinion. I married the smartest woman I could catch, and we remain together 43 years later. Death will us part, which perhaps offers a hint about my real values. 

Crescent Blues: You're refreshingly open about some of your reading and viewing preferences, openly stating that you enjoy "adult" movies and books. How have your fans received this? Has anyone ever objected, since your site is so young adult-friendly? 

Piers Anthony: How have my fans received my remarks about enjoying adult movies and books? As I answer this question I have on a corner of my computer screen the video Embrace of the Vampire, sent to me by fans. It's an erotic horror movie they thought I might like. Horror is not my genre, but I am enjoying it, focusing on this interview during the horror sequences and on the picture when luscious bodies show.  

Another reader sends me Hawaiian pinup-girl calendars. I do get some objections from other readers, as though there is something wrong with a man liking to look at pretty women. But the hits on my site are increasing -- last week the average was over 4,800 a day. So evidently folk are interested in something there. My standard answer to critics is that if they don't like what I write, don't read it, but don't try to limit the world to their narrow horizons. 

Crescent Blues: Since a brand new millenium is right around the corner, we'd like to ask what are your New Year's resolutions for 2000?

Piers Anthony: My resolutions for the year 2,000? Merely a continuation of what I have been doing: trying to complete projects I don't want to leave unfinished when I die, of whatever nature. These are not merely books. I am also trying to change the climate of Parnassus so as to open it up for all writers, rather than just one per cent of them. That's why I have gotten involved in Internet publishing, and am doing my ongoing survey of Internet publishers. I believe the Internet represents the best present and future hope of writers to realize their dreams. 

Crescent Blues: Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers? 

Piers Anthony: Do I have anything else to say? Yes. (Are you surprised?) At the time of this interview the death of Joseph Heller made the news. He was the author of Catch 22, whose title entered the language. Folk may have different opinions whether his novel is a classic work of literature, but certainly it served a popular need -- and that is a significant aspect of my definition of literature. Well, it seems that when that book was published, he got poor reviews from some of the most influential organs, and the novel got off to a slow start and well might have faded away, except for the strong recommendations of real readers.  

There is my point: I feel that ideally reviewing is a good and necessary thing, and it should not be ruined by the private agendas of those who don't relate to the material. The job of a reviewer should be to introduce readers to books they might like to read, and to warn them away from those that would waste their time. That is, to do an objective -- to the extent possible -- service for the readers. Reviewers who substitute malign or wrongheaded personal agendas should be abolished.  

So Catch 22 should never have been disparaged. It should have been honestly represented so the readers could judge whether they were interested. That should be true in all cases, but unfortunately it isn't.

Consider my comment on the vampire movie watched during this interview: "Vampires are not to my taste, but buxom bare girls are, so this is a mixed bag that horror fans and/or erotic fans should like. Not strong on plot, but consistent to itself, with a theme of erotic dreaming becoming real and some really nice bare breasts. Well enough done for its type." I'd call that a fair, brief, review, establishing the bias of the reviewer and giving a notion of the nature of the movie. Those who hate nudity or vampires will know to avoid it. Others may want to watch it, for one reason or another.  

An experienced reviewer could surely do a better job than this spot patch-up opinion, but that's the essence. I have tried neither to praise it unduly nor to pretend that it's awful. It's an in-between movie for particular tastes. If I really thought it was awful, I would say so, and if I thought it was classic, I would say so. I'm trying to be objective and fair, without trying to disparage something because I don't like the genre, or to praise it because I might have a personal friend associated with it.  

Objective and fair: is that too much to ask of any review? And yes, I do have a personal ax to grind here: how many times have you seen my novels disparaged as repetitive junk? How many have you read that answer, that description? Are there magazines or reviewers who refuse to mention my work at all, pretending it doesn't exist? That's another dirty deal. How about the reviews of the novels of other writers? Are they fair? How many writers are still being treated the way Joseph Heller was? Do I have a case? If so, what can be done to clean up this act? 

Teri Dohmen

Visit HiPiers to learn more about Piers Anthony.

Click here to read the Crescent Blues review of Piers Anthony's Faun and Games