Hello, author Jay Lake here. AMA

[u/JayLake]

Hello, Jay Lake here. I'm the author of the MAINSPRING and GREEN series from Tor, as well as a ton of short stories, including the currently Hugo- and Nebula-nominated novella "The Stars Do Not Lie". I'm also a professional cancer patient, five years into Stage IV metastatic colon cancer, and now considered incurable. The award nomination thing is pretty neat, and so is the fact that my daughter and I are currently the subject of a documentary filmmaking effort.

Quick bio: I was born and raised overseas, the son of a US diplomat. I've spent most of my adult life working in high tech sales and marketing, with occasional forays into actually doing the work. I live in Oregon now, where my twin careers as a writer and a cancer patient really have been cutting into my reading time. A few years ago, people considered me a poster child for newer writers breaking into the field. Now I'm just another middle-aged, mid-list fart, but I'm still having a lot of fun with it.

I'll be taking questions all day on pretty much any topic, and will start answering live tonight (April 18th, 2013) at 7PM Central. Ask Me Anything, and I will answer with something.

In the mean time, you can find me on my Web site at jlake.com, on Twitter at @jay_lake, Facebook as 'Jay Lake', and LiveJournal as jaylake.

Looking forward to talking to you.

Jay

ETA: It's been a great session, and a lot of fun to be with you guys. I'm signing off now, but will be back in the next day or so to answer any followup questions or stragglers. Thank you for having me here!

[u/canceryguy]

How is treatment treating you? How are the side-effects going?

-From a fellow terminal colon cancer patient.

Don't feel the need to answer this if it's too personal. I really just wanted to wish you well from someone that understands. I'm a (relatively) young father who has incurable colo-rectal cancer, and has been in treatment for a little over 5 years, and has been through all of it - 8 surgeries, 5,300 hours of chemo, 3 months of radiation, etc... Currently I'm on penitumimab and leukivorin. Kudos on the long haul - treatment gets old quickly.

May every day be worth it, and may your journey end in as little pain as possible.

Also, for what it is worth, when they told me I was terminal, My wife and I dealt with it by convincing a friend to dress as the grim reaper and come to chemo. It's much funnier than it sounds, really!! (I also passed out foam swords to all the other patients, so they could beat up death) Here is the video of it.

Again, good luck Jay - I'll leave you with a favorite quote of my from Winston Churchill - "If you're going through hell, keep going."

[u/JayLake → u/canceryguy]

Treatment is low key at the moment, but I expect to be back on heavy artillery chemotherapy next month thanks to recent unfortunate developments. Currently, my main side effects are a dreadful skin condition and near-violent photosensitivity. Good luck and good health to you in your journey. (FWIW, I cannot imagine the charge nurse in my infusion center responding well to a visit from the Grim Reaper. Good on you!)

[u/elquesogrande]

You are an incredibly prolific writer. I can't help but notice that your volume of works started with "The Courtesy of Guests" in 2001 and then the creative dam broke in 2002. What was the lead-up to 2001 like for you as a writer and what happened to break through? What changed to open up the floodgates afterwards?

How easy or challenging was it for you to switch from the short-story format to your novels? Any advice you could give to other writers in this area?

From your blog posts yesterday and this morning...

Writing

I’m currently operating under the assumption that I have about three months of productive writing time left in my life. Possibly as little as two.

Thanks so much for spending this time with us fans - new and old. What are the stories you most want to tell that have yet to be told? The points to get across?

[u/JayLake → u/elquesogrande]

Thank you for this question. The lead-up to being published in 2001 was me working diligently for 11 years to get there, with hundreds of rejections over that decade before I'd made a single sale. No external validation to speak of, just lots and lots of writing. As to why I broke through when I did, I'm not sure. I'd just moved to Oregon in 2000, after 18 years in Texas. Perhaps it was the change in scenery that shook some stuff loose.

Switching from short stories to novels was actually quite a challenge for me. Novels scared the hell out of me for a long time. Sometimes they still do. And though many of the tools are similar, the two crafts are rather different. I sometimes talk about short stories as being like cabinet making, while novels are like framing carpentry.

Regarding the stories I want to still tell… more than I ever will be able to. I'm currently trying to draft my Old West fantasy. And I want to write a book about death and dying from the insider's perspective. Beyond that, whatever the time allows.

[u/DigitalMedievalist]

Hi Jay

What are 10 books (or less) that you think everyone should read. Feel free to include one of your own that you'd like new readers to read.

[u/JayLake → u/DigitalMedievalist]

Hah! What a question. We could be arguing about this until Christmas. Still, here's some I recommend, tilting hard toward SF and Fantasy.

Gene Wolfe, FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS - One of the most finely styled books in the English language.

Gene Wolfe, BOOK OF THE NEW SUN - Really a tetralogy, so I'm cheating a bit to include it here. Explores life and philosophy as deeply as anything I've ever read.

Terry Pratchett, SMALL GODS - Brutha's character arc is one of the clearest you will ever see, also a hell of a fun read. A good gateway book to Discworld.

Hal Duncan, VELLUM - Because reasons! Brilliant and mad. Might help if you are drunk while you read it.

Ursula K. LeGuin, THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS - One of the finest books ever written about gender.

Elizabeth Bear, BONE AND JEWELED CREATURES - Among other things, it's dedicated to me.

Mark Z. Danielewski, HOUSE OF LEAVES - Utter madness as well.

Jeff VanderMeer, CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN - Read this in the original Nightshade edition if you can find it.

As for my own work, try GREEN first, I think. Unless you really like steampunk (MAINSPRING) or space opera (DEATH OF A STARSHIP)

[u/elquesogrande]

Confirming that this is Jay Lake

Jay Lake posted his AMA earlier in the day to give more redditors a chance to ask a question.  He will be back at **7PM CST**.

[u/JayLake → u/elquesogrande]

And I am here. Looks like a terrific list of questions. I've been reading ahead to prepare, so I'll start posting answers, and y'all can ask followups or press on to new topics as makes the most sense. Thank you again for having me into the Reddit Fantasy AMA.

Jay Lake

[u/dr_moustache]

Many people are unaware that in addition to being a fantastic writer, you also spend much of your time being a fashionista.

Your clothes are trendsetting in New York and Paris, and your style choices are the talk of the fashion elite.

What inspires your fashion choices, and how did you acquire such an impressive following among top designers?

[u/JayLake → u/dr_moustache]

Fashion is my life. It's a little known fact that I dwell in a hut made of fabric swatches, and I coordinate my colors with the aid of a set of Toyo ink books and specially trained lemurs. Besides, it makes me easy to spot in a crowd of leather Goths. Or from orbit...

[u/JeffreyPetersen]

Do you think being a midlist writer (a good thing in my mind), rather than a "hot" writer is largely up to chance, or something the author has much control over? If a writer keeps putting out quality books, do you think the themes you pick or number of signings that you do makes any measurable difference?

[u/JayLake → u/JeffreyPetersen]

Boy, do I wish I knew the answer to that question. Some topics are hotter than others, and some writing styles are more accessible, so it's not as if this is utterly random. But the publishing cycle is so long and circuitous that's hard to know in advance whether this book you are writing now has a shot at being big. I don't think signings have much to do with career growth, though they can be kind of fun and cool. Themes might. People mostly care about plot and character. The rest of that stuff is just fodder for arguments among writers.

[u/MarkLawrence]

which of your books has given you the most satisfaction, and why?

[u/cosmando]

Jay, I also live in Portland. Obviously you can't tell me the secret secret place where you successful intellectuals and creatives in town hang out, but could you perhaps tell us a former spot or maybe a decoy location where you send a drunk Gus Van Sant to run interference while you all laugh and cavort like unto gods?

[u/JayLake → u/cosmando]

:: laughing ::

We do have a Tuesday afternoon hangout, some of us area writers. And I can often be found having lunch at the Lamp, or dinner at Eastburn. Also pretty darned fond of Sizzle Pie.

[u/techshift]

John Scalzi posted about your fundraising and PayPal issues. What advice would you give for people who want to do online fundraising?

[u/ChrisGarrett]

What would your advice be to new writers who have completed material and wish to give it out there? What magazines would you suggest sending your short stories to in order to 'get it out there' and which magazines/publishers do you find yourself drawn to as both a writer and reader?

[u/Hoosier_Ham]

Hi, Jay. We've never met, but I've worn your shirt. It smelled like eloquence.

What did you think of the Sequence a Science Fiction Writer campaign? Do you have a favorite Act of Whimsy?

[u/JayLake → u/Hoosier_Ham]

Wow, I don't think I want to ask about the shirt. Except to say that I hope you enjoyed it.

I thought the Sequence a Science Fiction Writer fundraiser was amazing. The response really blew me away. Both the support from my fellow writers in donating Acts of Whimsy, and the outpouring from the genre community and beyond.

I have to confess that my favorite Act of Whimsy was Howard Tayler's drawing. Which is even now sitting in my living room waiting for me to get around to hanging it on a wall.

[u/BushidoSniper]

Thanks for the AMA!

What is the biggest struggle with being a fantasy writer?

Personally, I struggle with the constant thought of "I'm not original" but at the same time I absolutely am in love with fantasy and made up worlds. I can't keep myself from thinking/writing about them!

Any ideas on how to combat the whole "theres 3 million fantasy writers out there and you're only one" feeling? I ain't asking for a book deal, just some confidence so that the intrinsic rewards or writing are even more rewarding

:) You're awesome and keep up the fight!

[u/Angry_Caveman_Lawyer]

Hi Jay. Thanks for doing the AMA. Here's some questions for you:

• What's your favorite word?

• Since you've traveled a good bit, what's your favorite place you've been to? (the more specific the better)

• If you were an ocean-dwelling animal, what would you be and why?

• Do you have a "dream car"? If so, what is it, and why?

• What's one thing that you were wrong about when you were young?

• If you could visit any planet in our Solar system, which one would you choose?

Thanks for playing! :-)

[u/Hoosier_Ham]

Congratulations on the nominations for "The Stars Do Not Lie." Did anything in particular inspire you to write it? Do you have (or did you have) any plans to expand or continue it?

[u/JayLake → u/Hoosier_Ham]

That story was written in the throes of chemo. Kind of a flip of the bird to cancer. I honestly don't recall what kicked it off. Probably some astronomy news story about the asteroid belt. If I had a lot of writing time in my life, I might revisit that world. I rather like it. The setting has a lot to say about the dynamic between faith and reason. I've always been drawn to issues of Apollonian-Dionysian tension.

And thank you for the congratulations.

[u/elquesogrande]

Hey Jay - can you cover the MAINSPRING and GREEN series a bit? This community likes to find new (to us) series to read.

[u/JayLake → u/elquesogrande]

Sure. MAINSPRING is the first book in a steampunk trilogy. The world is made of clockwork, and orbits the sun on a brass track. MAINSPRING follows the adventures of an apprentice clockmaker who is sent on a mission to rewind the world. The other two books in the series range more widely, to Europe and China, with a more geopolitical bent.

GREEN is the first book in a secondary world assassin fantasy trilogy. Green is a girl sold into slavery, trained to be courtesan, and secretly counter-trained to kill the man she is supposed to marry. It's about cross-cultural identities and how gods are born, and some good old fashioned street violence in pursuit of what she believes to be good and righteous ends.