Elizabeth Moon
There are relatively few science fiction or fantasy books with the main character being an old person.
Elizabeth MoonAs I said at the BYU conference some years back, we make aliens out of people by treating them as alien, rather than recognizing similarities.
Elizabeth MoonI was writing fiction, but not finishing fiction.
Elizabeth MoonI've taught Sunday school, I've sung in the choir, I directed a choir.
Elizabeth MoonIt's hard to hold the focus that strongly on a single character for that long.
Elizabeth MoonMy first degree came years before my second. I had wanted to be a physicist, but I flunked calculus.
Elizabeth MoonI had been a lapsed Christian for several years at that point, and I had one solid, walloping, conversion experience.
Elizabeth MoonOne thing nobody can do better than you is be you.
Elizabeth MoonPeople are people, messy and mutable, combining differently with one another from day to day - even hour to hour.
Elizabeth MoonWhen I was quite young, she was working in a hardware store, so I grew up knowing about hardware.
Elizabeth MoonThey may never have considered the cost of courage, for instance, which is something you can make explicit in fantasy.
Elizabeth MoonWhen a person responds emotionally to intellectual things, or emotionally only to traditional emotional things - I find that an interesting break between myself and some other writers and fans.
Elizabeth MoonBut in fantasy, you can make a complete break, and you can put people in a situation where they are confronted with things that they would not confront in the real world.
Elizabeth MoonNow my mother, interestingly enough, was not a feminist in her own mind.
Elizabeth MoonNo matter what I do, no matter how predictable I try to make my life, it will not be any more predictable than the rest of the world. Which is chaotic.
Elizabeth MoonIt's all knowing what to start with. If you start in the right place and follow all the steps, you will get to the right end.
Elizabeth MoonWhen I was starting out, I did not do short fiction well, because I kept wanting to write books.
Elizabeth MoonHaving a mother who had been an aeronautical engineer convinced me that more things should be open to women.
Elizabeth MoonI used to not back down from a challenge.
Elizabeth MoonI love biomedical science, I love astronomy, and you can't really do much with those in a fantasy setting.
Elizabeth MoonMy personal feeling about science fiction is that it's always in some way connected to the real world, to our everyday world.
Elizabeth MoonI regarded drugs as somewhat like rattlesnakes - it's possible to pick one up without getting bit, but why bother?
Elizabeth Moon
