World, Other World

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Author Simon Just sits down to discuss World, Other World, a collection of short stories coming out in July 2006.

IV: The format of World, Other World is very interesting...
Simon Just: Do you like it?

IV: Actually, yes. It threw me off for a minute. It's fun now.
Simon Just: When I suggested a collection of short stories I didn't realize my stories wouldn't fit into either general or speculative fiction - that I really go between those two genres often. The publisher liked the idea of a flip-format, but I think it caused a little difficulty.

IV: How so?
Simon Just: Well, it wasn't a standard format. Once they found out it was possible, it took some work to get the manuscript ready for the printer. I credit the publisher for that. If they give an award for typesetting, they should definitely be a contender. The first proof was tossed out by the printer, because they thought it was mistakenly flipped.

IV: Seriously?
Simon Just: Yes. They realized the concept though.

IV: What about the characters on the covers? What are they?
Simon Just: They're cute right? We've come to refer to them as 'peeps'. It's a toy I've had since I was a child. I only have a yellow one left. His twin on the back is a costume change. They fit great into a Tonka dune buggy, but they don't sell them anymore. I think they posed a choking hazard. He's only about an inch and a half tall - in real life.

IV: That's why there isn't one in the press kit?
Simon Just: Right. If I had more I'd be playing with them right now.

IV: Your press kit also doesn't include a photo, why not?
Simon Just: After my horrible disfigurement...

IV: You don't look disfigured...
Simon Just: It was a mental disfigurement. Doesn't it annoy you when you pick up a book and can't find the title, because the whole front cover is the author's name and the back is a giant, almost life-size, photo?

IV: If you like an author, it does make it easier for you to find their books...
Simon Just: I think the writing is more important than the author. I think selling books strictly by the author's name limits the author to continue writing in the same style.

IV: You do have a variety of styles in World, Other World...
Simon Just: I have several voices in my head. I like to give them all a chance to speak.

IV: Is that why the dedication is to 'anyone who ever called me weird', because of the voices?
Simon Just: Because I acknowledge the existence of the voices? It's just an expression, 'voices in my head', but some people don't get that and then I'm weird.

IV: But, why thank them - dedicate the book to them?
Simon Just: I think being called weird, if it happens enough, is very freeing. Even if you make a mistake, it isn't seen as a mistake - it's you doing something 'weird'.

IV: What do you mean?
Simon Just: One example? (pauses) Prom. Seniors were supposed to wear white. I was out-of-the-loop throughout high school. I never got the memo. I wore black. Rather than thinking I'd goofed, someone said, "We were supposed to wear white. I should have known you'd wear black." So, it wasn't a social gaffe. It was me being weird.

IV: I think I need people to call me weird...
Simon Just: It really does make life easier.

IV: The press kit has a sash lift in it...
Simon Just: Have you read the story that goes along with that?

IV: Tenor of Yesterdays. Yes.
Simon Just: Did you want a sash lift?

IV: Yes. Yes, I did.
Simon Just: Well, now you have one. You just have to find that canyon.

IV: You could have included a map. How did that story come about?
Simon Just: It was a dream - played out like a movie. It surprised me. It was a late addition to the book.

IV: An actual dream? The whole story?
Simon Just: Most of the story was in the dream. It didn't really have an ending, so I had to decide where the story was going.

IV: Is that how you get a lot of your ideas - in dreams?
Simon Just: Are you asking if I'm weird like that? Several. Probably more than I'd like to admit. It's really hard to take credit when a whole story plays out in a dream and you take notes later.

IV: But, stories like The Madness Took, that couldn't have been a dream?
Simon Just: No. That was all mine.

IV: You come out pretty strong against science...
Simon Just: I'm not against science. I'm against the whole notion that we know absolutes. Then, we find something new and declare it the new absolute. That's not how absolutes work, but it seems to be how the field of science works, often.

IV: You do come out strong against Evolution...
Simon Just: Yes. It's a faulty theory. It's a religion really.

IV: A religion?
Simon Just: Too strong? There's never been new DNA in any mutation. It's the core of Evolutionary Theory, but it doesn't happen. You would have to believe it solely on faith. Oddly, a few months after I finished that story I got into a long discussion of evolution.

IV: Did you win?
Simon Just: I think we called it a draw. You can't talk someone into or out of their faith.

IV: Do you think all science is faith?
Simon Just: No. Half the book is, more or less, science fiction. I love science. I just don't always agree with the conclusions.

IV: The Other World side of the book is called speculative, but it could just as easily be called science fiction, couldn't it?
Simon Just: Yes. Some people are turned away by the term science fiction. They think it's for nerdy people. I think they're missing out on a lot of great fiction because of that.

IV: Maybe, they think they wouldn't understand the stories?
Simon Just: Did any of the stories give you trouble?

IV: No. I think now, I understand how parallel universes work...
Simon Just: Might work. It is fiction.

IV: I would like the world you describe in Doze to be a reality.
Simon Just: Really? Because I don't know that I'd like it. Unless I could be a personal dreamer.

IV: That really grabbed me. The ability to trade and download sleep...
Simon Just: You wouldn't miss sleeping, dreaming?

IV: I'd miss it a little. But, I don't have the same kind of dreams you have...
Simon Just: That could be it. If Doze ever comes about consider me for your personal dreamer.

IV: Deal.