Author interview between our reviewer,
Araminta Matthews and Justin Smith,
author of The Mills of God.
Thank you to both of you for a
fascinating interview!
In your novel, you write in the voice of a teen female as your leading
character. What kind of research went into creating her voice and
style?
I didn’t do any formal research for Mills. The book came about in a
very strange, and even unsettling way: I dreamed it. I am a
mathematician and some of my best ideas (solutions to problems, etc.)
came from dreams. For years, I’ve been recording my dreams. Mills
resulted from one of the strangest dream-experiences I’ve ever had: two
epic dreams that ran concurrently (yet I had no trouble telling them
apart). I was female in both. One took place in 16th century England
and I was someone named Lady Jane Grey. The second — which was the
basis for Mills — was set in the near but indefinite future (and I
don’t remember what name “I” had; I picked Constance in honor of my
aunt Constance). The two dreams had odd similarities: Jane’s parents
were horribly abusive (even by 16th century England’s standards) and
Constance’s were distant and vanished from the scene. At 15, Jane was
forced to take the English throne and Constance was the heiress to a
huge fortune that she would be happy without. At 16, Jane was beheaded
and Constance was almost murdered. They both had similar
personalities (which came through vividly in the dreams). In my dream,
Jane was “15 going on 40” (and, apparently, the real
Jane Grey was very much like this). As a math professor (at Drexel
University) in his late 50’s, I’ve done a lot of things, read a lot of
books, and lived in a lot of places. My subconscious must have
distilled this experience into those dreams. So, in a manner of
speaking, I’ve been researching Mills most of my life. Once I got
going, I pictured Constance as the anti-Paris Hilton. If she and Paris
ever met there would be a devastating nuclear explosion.
The story takes place at several
locations throughout Europe and the United States. Did you spend
any time at German schools or in London while preparing for this
novel? If so, what inspired you?
I’ve traveled all over Europe — mostly to mathematics conferences. I’ve
been to Germany several times, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg,
Liechtenstein, Sweden. I’ve never been to England though. I’ve also
never been to a boarding school.
How did you come up with the
premise for Face Dancer, and is this real technology?
I thought that Face Dancer was a radical new idea, but there are
companies doing just this (maybe not well enough to fool video
experts). Huge chunks of movies are done using computer simulation,
putting stunt-men out of business. In the movie Final Fantasy (one of
the first completely computergenerated movies), they actually “dumbed
down” the simulation because the people looked too realistic.
A slightly understated point of
your novel was the idea that she was the reincarnation of a former
computer programmer. Why was the character so accepting of her
idea that she was reincarnated?
Why does Constance believe in reincarnation? Why not? She’s young and
open-minded. She’s also been haunted by nightmares and strange waking
experiences and read Stevenson’s Twenty Cases Suggestive of
Reincarnation.
One of the major strengths of your
novel was the tension between each scene -- how does a writer convey
the tension necessary to keep a thriller/mystery moving at an
increasing pace? What techniques did you use?
I didn’t consciously use any devices to keep up the tension (because of
the bizarre way I wrote Mills). I’ve written a sequel, though (entitled
“Angels, Twice Descending,” from an Emily Dickinson poem), that was
done more “conventionally.” In Angels, I’d “punt” whenever the action
slowed down — with a terrorist bombing or kidnapping. Somehow, I was
always able to logically work these things into the plot.
After a book is published, it is
too late to return to it to revise or edit anything you wish to
change. If you could revise one detail of this book now, what
would it be?
Actually, I can change the book in advance of another printing and will
correct some odd errors that crept into the manuscript between when I
submitted it and when it was printed (in one scene, a lawyer tells
Constance that she is “intestate” and someone’s magical spell-checker
turned that into “interstate”). As for the basic story-line, it is what
it is. I really wouldn’t want to change anything.
What do you think makes a good
writer good?
I suppose a writer should have emotionally compelling stories to tell
and skill with the use of language. If I think of my favorite writers
(Faulkner, Amy Tan, Dean Koontz, Eliot Pattison, Peter Hoeg), they
always have rich and complex characters. My favorite novels all have a
spiritual dimension to them (I’m thinking of Pattison’s Skull Mantra or
Koontz’s Odd Thomas series).
If you could give one copy of your book to someone, who would it be and
why?
I’d like to give the Dalai Lama a copy and then discuss it with
him (or discuss anything with him!).
What advice would you give to new writers?
Advice to new writers: Mindless persistence! And do a lot of reading.
This builds up a mental image of what a novel should be — better than
reading books on the structure of a novel.
What is your writing process?
I ask all the characters what they are going to do — it’s a little like
a movie running through my head. You have to be true to the characters
and should never force them to do something they wouldn’t in order to
simplify the plot.
One of the questions on the mind of
young writers is how to break into print. What can you tell
aspiring writers about the process of publication and acquiring an
agent?
Breaking into print. Mindless persistence again! Publishing is the most
bizarre and chaotic industry imaginable. I sent Mills to Silverleaf
Books by mistake and they published it. Some of the rejections I
received were very strange. Most said “not for us” which didn’t bother
me. One agent rejected Mills as “too original,” which made me laugh (“I
guess I just can’t help myself”). She explained that novels should
remind readers of movies or other books they’ve recently read, and then
have a slight twist. One editor said “You can’t have reincarnation
without Buddhist monks” (“I don’t make the rules, that’s just the way
it is”). Another said it should either be a thriller or a mystery (but
not both). I wound up publishing Mills without an agent — a bad agent
is far worse than no agent. (There’s a story behind this. Technically,
I have a kind of “agent” in England, but he doesn’t do anything but
collect money. My weird contract with him specifies that he has to
approve any publishing contract I sign — and he blocked publication of
Mills for several months).
Never, never, NEVER sign a contract that doesn’t have a time-limit! If
that’s all they’re offering, walk away. My contract with my “agent” is
valid until hell freezes over plus 500 years. Contracts with agents
should expire in a year if the book doesn’t get published. My contract
with Silverleaf returns all rights to me a year after the books goes
out of print.