Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience with Wild Cards.
A. I started reading Wild Cards when I was in high school, around 1989, so I’m a fan from way back. When I first met George and Melinda, I asked them to keep me in mind when they put together the next Wild Cards project. Happily, they did, and here I am.
It’s been fun seeing the books from the other side, so to speak, and being part of the process to put them together. I’ve gone back to some of the early books to reread them and figure out how they were written, now that I know what the process looks like. I just can’t imagine doing it without email!
As for me, I’ve been writing just about my whole life and have four novels of my own out, with more on the way, and over thirty short stories published. Wild Cards is a great chance to play in another world for a while and work with lots of really smart people.
Q. Tell us about the inspiration behind your story for Inside Straight.
A. I must confess, the whole American Hero thing was my fault. In one of my character proposals, as a throwaway line, I mentioned that the character was a runner up in the first season of the reality show American Hero. Because I just know in the Wild Cards world there’d be dozens of reality TV shows centered around wild carders. (Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire Ace, anyone?) George didn’t take the character, but decided the reality TV idea was too good to relegate to backstory. My story is mostly about the show. It’s about a lot of other things, too. The friendship between my two characters, Earth Witch and Curveball, became important.
