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Felinity Interview – David Cohen

 

Hi and welcome to Team Grimbold! Felinity is set to be the first publication under the Kristell Inkling imprint, and we’re thrilled to have you on board. Tell us about yourself. (Please include links to blogs/sites/Twitter/published works etc)

April 2013 B+W smWhat inspired your story for Felinity?

 The interaction between cats and humans is always interesting, and placing them both in an environment where they are interdependent seems like a logical step.   The rest was just fun with physics.

How do you feel about having an illustration accompany your story?

As someone who grew up with “Analog” and other SF magazines, where illustration was always a significant part of the publication, it’s like I’m 14 again.   So for this story, I like it.  A lot.

What writing projects are you working on at the moment?

 Two short stories about a doctor with an unusual diagnostic method and a simple interaction between a student and two police.   An essay/short story (not sure which, yet) on the decision making around the personal effects of the dead.   A novel outline set in the late 1930s.   And yes, I need to focus more.

The most important question – Cats or dogs?

I like dogs a lot as I grew up with them, but I’m away from home a lot, so not an option.   I like cats a great deal for their self-contained and independent nature, so if forced, cats.

 

 

Inkling Interrogation

1. On a scale of 1-10, how weird are you and why? – 7 – I could have a nice secure job with dental, medical and a pension, but I simply have nothing better to do than write.   Surely, that makes me at least eccentric…

2. Tell us a joke. –   (With thanks to a friend’s 5 year old daughter) Question: What’s brown and sticky?  Answer: A stick :-).

3. You’ve won the lottery. What do you buy first? –  A trip to research material for a novel – and do it with some panache.   Comfortable travel, decent hotels, congenial company and entertaining food and drink are superior to jouncing along in cattle cars while backpacking in the company of people seemingly on release from an institution.   But I am of a certain, crusty, age – so I could be wrong.

4. What inspires you? – Wondering what humanity is going to come up with next, for we are an endlessly inventive species.

5. You’re prime minister for the day, what’s the first thing you’d do? – Abolish parliamentary democracy in favour of a Canton system (something like the Swiss).

6. How do you fit a giraffe in a fridge? – Uh, this question makes me wonder if you’ve done something bad and are looking for ideas about how to dispose of the evidence: would it be more pertinent to look for a good solicitor?   Other possibilities are also to either buy a really big fridge or an industrial Mincer.

7. Would you rather fight a horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses? – What??   This line of questioning is worrying (see 6)!

8. How would you explain Facebook to someone from the 19th century? – A device that allows you, should you choose, to publish am illustrated, unexpurgated diary of thoughts and actions to the world and no matter how ill-judged those entries might be, they will be deathless.   And to be secure in the knowledge that no matter what you place there, there will be someone else who has done things that make any errors of yours pale by comparison and is, moreover, proud of it.   As such, it is useful but must be treated with the caution you would accord a slavering dog: it may be friendly, but then again, it may bight if make a misjudged motion.