An Interview with Michael Cobley by Ian Whates

You’re probably best known as a fantasy writer, following the success of your Shadowkings trilogy. How difficult was it to find a publisher for your subsequent SF series, Humanity’s Fire?

I had a lot of personal trepidation, having left Simon and Schuster, who  published Shadowkings. S&S went through some financial difficulties associated with their parent company, Viacom, which impacted further down, ie me and some other SF & fantasy authors. So when it came to attracting publisher in the Humanitys Fire project, it was an anxious time. Luckily my second editor at S&S, Darren Nash, went to work for Orbit and as it turned out, he took a distinct liking to the material and the outlines and offered a contract. Of course, it was also a distinct advantage to have MBA lit agents representing me, in the person of John Parker who now has his own independent literary agency, Zeno, who I am now with.

Tell us a little of what we can expect from Humanity’s Fire, particularly the first volume, The Seeds of Earth.

Well, Humanity’s Fire is not just the overarching name of the trilogy, it’s intended to be the signature name, if you will, of that entire fictional universe in which I hope to be writing further epics in years to come. Seeds of Earth is a kind of remix of some almost traditional space opera themes, the lost colony, interstellar empires, mass propaganda, the clash of mysteries, ancient galactic wars. There is quite a bit of backstory which the opening prologue encapsulates, and the whole intermingling of interstellar and interspecies politics makes for a background with ample potential for gonzo melodrama! Without giving away too much, I can say that in plotting out the Humanitys Fire trilogy I`ve kinda followed the 24 school of narrative concealment, in that the Big-Bad isn’t who the reader might think it to be even by some way into the second book. The third book, The Ascendant Stars, will be quite cataclysmic and I looking forward to writing it.

How much of a challenge was it to write parts of the narrative from a non-human sentient’s perspective?

I answered a similar question to this a week or two ago – as a writer you’re always faced with choices, and in space opera you always have to figure out how alien your aliens should be. If they’re too incomprehensible, some readers would end up mystified and frustrated; too humanlike and you’re heading into guy-in-rubber-suit territory. Writing from a non-human perspective, I was always conscious of what the scene was supposed to do, and the flavour and overtones I wanted to be part of it. Of course, I’m analysing this after the fact – writing it is much more organic, coming out of a frame of mind adopted for that point of view.

You acknowledge an impressive list of ‘space opera’ authors at the back of the book. Who in particular has influenced you?

My tastes in the field are pretty wide, I think. And there writers I love which I don’t think influence me that much, but then what do I know? If I had to pin some down, with respect to Humanitys Fire, I’d tip the hat to David Brin, Iain Banks, Vernor Vinge, David Wingrove, John Varley, and many others.

What are the major differences between plotting and developing a major fantasy series and a major SF one?

Depends on the scale of the ambition, I reckon, which itself depends on how deep in the writer gets before he realises that writing an ensemble narrative can be a nightmare and that he should never do it again!...er, ahem. Actually I don’t think there’s that much difference in the mechanisms of plotting, in the sense that drama is drama and the human condition in our genre usually turns out to be malleable in some way. Maybe fantasy and SF have their own over-familiar situational tropes which writers should be aware of so that we can choose how to deal with them if they arise.
Different authors work in different ways. How rigidly do you stick to a pre-written plot structure when you actually come to write the novel?

Well, I have to know what the ending is; that applies to short story writing as well as novels, for me. And I have to know how the story generally progresses and what the main dramatic turning points are, what the main character clashes will be, but that leaves a lot of uncharted territory for me to work at as I move from chapter to chapter. And of course, there are unintended consequences in writing prose fiction, consequences of authenticity and plausibility where you realise that the armature of the narrative which you`d previously outlined just isn’t suitable to whatever scene you’re trying to write. Unintended consequences happen all the time, as do unintended characters!

Are you already contemplating projects after Humanity’s Fire, and if so, are we likely to see more SF or a return to fantasy?

I have my future projects list of novels and story ideas, which I reckon will keep me going for a good few years yet. Some are set in the Humanitys Fire universe, others in another space opera universe entirely; there’s a wild steampunk caper novel which I want to write, as well as a couple of Eurocyberpunk novels as well; there’s also a growing batch of ideas for a 4th Shadowkings book, if the chance of that ever comes around. I’m currently musing over what comes next and sounding out my agent as well.

It’s rumoured that one or two of your fellow members of the Glasgow SF Writing Circle are pretty useful on the writing front themselves. How important has being a part of such a group been to your work?

Ah, yes, GSFWCers – shame we never came up with snappier handle, but there ya go. Well, I was one of the original members of the Circle, which derived from a adult education class in SF writing given by Duncan Lunan back in 1987, I think (and it should be pointed out that Duncan was part of the very first GSFWC back in the 70s, along with Chris Boyce and Gus McAllister and others). I think that a writer’s circle is invaluable when you’re on the first rungs of the ladder, and indeed the later ones too – I wrote a lot of short stories between 1986 and 2000 and I think most of them were picked over by the Circle. After I sold the Shadowkings trilogy I found I really didn’t have much time left over for short story writing so my attendance at Circle meeting has been patchy shading into infrequent in recent years. Add to which I’ve also moved away from Glasgow, for various financial reasons, so Circle attendance is out in the midterm, anyway. But membership of the Circle encouraged a certain degree of critical awareness and toughened me up to accept criticism, in the full knowledge that I`m probably not my own best judge of my own work!