The award-winning science fiction novel China Mountain Zhang was written by Maureen McHugh. The lives of female characters are the focus of her two most recent books.
McHugh says that he should write books about women because he is not a guy.
Many of the stories explore the relationship between mothers and their children. It is the first major relationship. It's a relationship that we can never look at because it's too close to us.
McHugh says Karen Joy Fowler inspired her to write more about mothers. Karen said that she always like to see mothers in stories.
For a long time, McHugh only wrote about mothers who are nice. She wrote a story about a mother and daughter trying to survive in the wake of a dirty bomb attack.
The complete interview with McHugh can be found in Episode 509 of Guide to the GALAXY. Check out the highlights from the discussion.
McHugh was on Austin.
It is a great writing town. Everybody knows it for music, but there is a small but highly active writing community that I just adore in Austin. A bunch of people were eating breakfast. They immediately said "Oh you're here?" after I said hello to Howard. You are now part of the family.
Small Beer Press is written by Maureen McHugh.
A collection of short stories is a gift the publisher gives the writer because they don't make any money. If you sell two novels and a collection of short stories, you will make enough money to cover the loss on the collection of short stories. I'm lucky because Small Beer Press is a great place to get people to look at the work that they're putting out. One year ago, they went to the ABA to promote a book by a guy named Ben Parzybok, which is a delightful little book. People carried a translucent blow-up couch around the ABA in front of their booth. People were told to pay attention.
The description was given by Maureen McHugh.
I like to talk about technique. You should only use two colors in a paragraph of description according to a rule by Nabokov. Since then, there has been research in psychology unrelated to Nabokov. The more colors you put in that description, the muddier it becomes in people's heads, and the less visual it becomes for them.
McHugh is on jobs.
People lose their jobs in fiction, but it's not a big deal. It's a huge deal if I lose or quit my job. I don't know if I will get another job. It is hard. Nathan Ballingrud has a collection of short stories called North American Lake Monsters. We write about jobs and blue-collar jobs, and he and I have become friends with each other. I can't tell you where that comes from. It was a huge part of my life and I didn't see it very often. If you really want to know what a profession is like, you just go on the internet, and you will find the people who do that job bitching about it. You can learn a lot.
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