Tevun-Krus #110 - Punk Wars 3

Author Spotlight: @johnnedwill

Warning! Warning! Potentially hostile life-form detected aboard the Mothership. Life-form successfully contained. Looks to be human. Wearing garments that haven't been seen for centuries.

Hello there! Yoohoo!

Yes, hello. What's your Wattpad username?

@johnnedwill. Yes. I know. Imaginative.

Quick! What's the first sci-fi thing that pops into your head!?

"Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It's five-year mission: to seek explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!" (I was three-years old when Star Trek first showed on UK television. It has stayed with me.)

Original trilogy, prequel trilogy, or sequel trilogy?

Original trilogy, of course! Although I do have a lot of love for Genndy Tartakovsky's version of the Clone Wars - but only because it has Mace Windu as a bad-ass, mother-tropin' Jedi. And, before you ask, Han shot first.

So, how has Tevun-Krus changed your life today?

It gives me the impetus to write something. I must admit, I do sometimes look at some of the themes for an issue and think, "What on earth is that? How can I write a story about that?" But, somehow, I manage to come up with something. Also, the T-K crew are a nice bunch of people.

With your lifeline to your spacecraft broken, you hypothetically drift away into the depths of space. What's your last message to Earth?

"So long, and thanks for all the fish."

Do you remember the first author to really grab you as a reader? Are they still someone you read?

I can't remember the first author to grab me. It has been a long time. My parents had a lot of books in the house - and quite a few of them were science-fiction. Specifically, they were the old Panther imprints of Asimov and Clarke. So I suppose it must have been one of them that started me on the science-fiction path. I don't read either of Asimov or Clarke much any more. It doesn't help that they are both gone to the Great Con in the Sky, and so there are no more of their books to be read. But I do still like their work.

Explain your writing process for your fellow mothertroopers. Do you find real life adds "flavours" to your writing, or is it all imaginary?

It involves a lot of time doing nothing. Then there are periods of great activity, followed by more doing nothing. And so it goes. It's not a quick process. I usually start off with a blank page in front of me and then just start writing. My first couple of drafts are always done by hand, and usually have a lot of marginal notes and crossing out. It isn't until the third draft that I end up sitting at my laptop typing away, polishing the manuscript. Real life always comes into my stories. Good science-fiction is not about the future. It is about the now, seen through the lens of the future. We address our fears and our hopes through it, extrapolating them until we come up with a story.

We all have advice for our fellow writers. But what's your advice to novice sci-fi writers on what not to do?

Don't not write. It doesn't matter what you write, so long as you write it. According to Sturgeon's Law, "Ninety percent of everything is crap." But unless you write, you won't get better.

If your lifeless corpse were to be blasted out of the Mothership and into the nearest stellar body, which 3 pieces of music would be played alongside such an occasion?

I'd still go with the Funeral March from 'Funeral Music for Queen Mary'. It is a beautiful piece - especially Wendy Carlos' interpretation of it for 'A Clockwork Orange'.

And then there is 'Rejoice in the Sun' by Joan Baez. It's the end theme to 'Silent Running'. That movie still brings tears to my eyes, watching Dewey drift off into space with the last of Earth's forests.

Finally, 'Eclipse' by Pink Floyd. Always 'Eclipse'.

What's the deal with the singularity? Would you ever become one with the machine if things were to go loco?

The singularity? Who knows? The singularity is the point on the graph where the curve goes asymptotic. Some people say it means the end of civilisation as we know it. I disagree. I don't think I would ever become 'one with the machine'. I don't believe in continuity of identity, so if my personality and memories were to be uploaded to some future version of the Cloud, it wouldn't be me. Not the 'me' writing this. It would be some other version of me. Of course, this wouldn't affect any copies of me. They would be free to make their own decisions as their experiences would be different. I would much rather be the last human on Earth. You'd be welcome to come and chat any time - provided you don't mind working at the speeds of organic lifeforms - but I don't think you'd be changing my mind.

Would you ever get a pet robot, assuming such a thing becomes affordable, available, and socially acceptable?

No. I'm not very good at looking after pets. I don't think I'd be very good at looking after robot pets after. I did have a Tamagotchi once, but I could never get it to last more than a few days.

What would you do if you woke up one day and suddenly realized you were a synthetic human raised by machines? Be honest.

Honestly? I don't think it would make any difference to me. I only know one life. I'd just have to hope that the machines didn't decide to end their experiment.

Do you have any favourite foods? Let the Mothership know.

Plenty. Most of it is my own cooking, though. I like my own curries, my own beef ragu sauce and my own jam. However, my favourite meal of the week is the sausage sandwich I have for breakfast on a Saturday morning. I have it in a small café that I have been going to for many years, along with a cup of tea. I've been going there for so long, I don't even have to ask for it.

Who would win if the Terminator faced off against the Predator? Now what if it were a musical?

Arnie defeated the Predator, and the Terminator is Arnie. So, no contest. And if you want to know what it would be like as a musical, allow me to recommend 'Austrian Death Machine'.

"Brutal."

What's something you'd like to see Tevun-Krus take on in a future issue?

I'll just take it as it comes, thank you very much.

Any last words, 'trooper?

Hasta la vista, baby.

Life-form determined to be non-hostile. Thank you and have a great day!