Adventures of a Bookonaut: 2012 Snapshot Interview

Jun 3, 2012

2012 Snapshot Interview–Jason Fischer

Jason Fischer is the fourth interviewee in my Snapshot Interviews, and for those that are familiar with him, I can vouch that they are no puns contained in the answers below. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions Jason.

You seem to have ramped up your workload especially after getting some time to write full time. What of your current projects can you tell us about?

It's been a crazy year at Fisch Enterprises! Since July 2011 I've written just over 200,000 words of new fiction, and only now am I coming up to breathe. At the moment I'm editing the novel I wrote during my arts grant sabbatical (Papa Lucy and the Boneman) and working on a couple of shorter projects that are currently embargoed.

In recent times I've found myself branching away from short fiction and working on novellas and tie-in works (such as the Black House Comics "After the World" line) and a collaborative project with author Steven Savile. I'm starting work on new short stories for my upcoming Ticonderoga collection "Everything is a Graveyard", and it's nice to return to the short form after taking most of this year away from it.

You are a prolific short story writer, now branching out into longer works, when you look back over your career what are your fondest moments in regard to your work?

My three favourite moments are as follows: Jack Dann leading a crowd into a sing-a-long of "Undead Camels Ate Their Flesh"; accepting my award at Writers of the Future; but above all my favourite moment was when I heard about the sale of my first story (flash fiction) to Antipodean SF. I hope to never forget that feeling, and no matter what my successes have been since then, that was the beginning of this whole crazy journey.

What does the future hold for Jason Fischer, branching out into comedy? A book of 'punnage' perhaps? Seriously what works are in the pipeline for you?

Surprisingly, outside of bombarding my peers with puns, I'm not actually a comedy writer! There's the occasional moment of black humour in my stories, but many well-intentioned folks have trained me out of punning in my fiction.

As for what's in the pipeline, I have a novel appearing soon from Black House Comics, titled "Quiver". This is a fix-up novel, a reworking of my serial zombie novellas from the "After the World" project. Promotion hasn't begun in earnest, but it's an official thing and I'm quite excited! It will hopefully appeal to readers of YA dystopias such as "The Hunger Games", and it's the fruit of about 2-3 year's work.

Looking at your peers, what Australian works have you loved recently?

To my shame, I haven't been reading as much of the local stuff as I once did. I really loved "Anywhere but Earth" and Talie and Liz get my vote for their compilation of and introduction to the "Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror".

Massive fan of Lisa Hannett's "Bluegrass Symphony", and I've enjoyed the other stories in the "After the World" magazine series. I've got "Ishtar" sitting on the Kindle, ready to go, and Sean William's "Cenotaxis" is on the top of the molecular TBR pile.

Two years on from Aussiecon 4, what do you think are some of the biggest changes to the Australian Spec Fic scene?

If there is a local renaissance, it seems to be different in flavour to the fallout from the last Aussiecon. There aren't a million small presses sprouting underfoot, and the handful of small-presses that are still around seem to be lifting their sights somewhat.

We're no longer an antipodean silo of writing and publishing, given the wonders of e-books, and the boutique genre press has arrived in force. Instead of trying to do lots of books, they seem to produce small print runs of beautiful books.

The Aussies are still rating well in overseas awards and short-lists, and many of the authors who were prolific in small-press a few years ago are now selling novels to the big publishers. It certainly bodes well.

Jason Fischer’s Bio:

Jason Fischer lives near Adelaide, South Australia, with his wife and son. He tries to unleash the weird every time he gets behind the keyboard, and his fiction has been described by reviewers as “strikingly original” and “weirdly imaginative”, while noted for containing “greasier genre elements”.

Jason attended the Clarion South writers workshop in 2007, and has been shortlisted in the Aurealis Awards, the Ditmar Awards, and the Australian Shadows Awards. He won the 2009 AHWA Short Story and the 2010 AHWA Flash Fiction Competitions, and is a winner of the Writers of the Future contest.

He is the author of over thirty short stories, with his first collection appearing soon from Ticonderoga Publications. His “After The World” series of zombie-apocalypse novellas are available from Black House Comics, and his fantasy novel “Tusk” is being serialised in Terra Magazine.[source: Fisch International Enterprises]

This interview was conducted as part of the 2012 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction. We’ll be blogging interviews from 1^st June to 8^th June and archiving them at ASif!: Australian SpecFic in Focus. You can read interviews at: