Why write?

Unless someone specifically solicits a story from me, as in the case of this anthology, I don’t write fiction any more. Retired.

If you didn’t write, what would you do?

I review short fiction for The Internet Review of Science Fiction and do some nonfiction articles.

If you could hunt any speculative fiction creature ever imagined (except one of your own), would you?

I leave that stuff to the predators. Although I could see being a freelance assassin, if the targets were promising.

If you could have any speculative fiction creature ever imagined (except one of your own) as a pet, would you?

Nothing in fiction has ever improved on the cat.

You are on a holodeck: You’re sitting in an intergalactic bar, sipping your favorite beverage, waiting expectantly for someone to take a seat at your table. Which author from any era does?

Homer.

What do you talk about or do?

We talk about the Trojan War. I ask him about his sources.

More importantly, which chair does he sit in?

I can’t imagine why the seating arrangements have any importance.

Why Urai? What initiated his story and made you complete this particular tale?

I was asked to write a story for the Scalding Sands section of the anthology. I recalled something I had seen about explorers hunting for diamonds in the Rub’ al Khali, the Empty Quarter desert in the Arabian Peninsula. To cross a desert that no one can cross, it obviously takes a sorcerer.

Do you write/read aloud to/with anyone (family member or friend)?

I really detest reading aloud or being read aloud to. It’s much too slow.

Quick: For each of the below, what’s your first thought in regards to the future of genre fiction:

Publishing: Dying, dead, on life support – or just going through a change? If it’s any of the first three, will it be euthanized or revitalized?

Dwindling, withering.

Reading Formats: Print, electronic, audio, or interactive?

Print for Big Names, ephemeral electrons for the rest.

Preference for reading/writing: Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Horror Fiction?

Historical fiction.

Thank you for stepping up and being a part of Rage of the Behemoth, Lois. That ‘free lance assassin’ bit was rather impressive, too.

Lois Tilton’s “Black Diamond Sands” appears under the ‘Scalding Sands’ theme in Rage of the Behemoth. Now retired, Lois Tilton is the author of several novels and critically-recognized short stories.

An opening excerpt

The body of the sorcerer Mehen was not yet cold, the cart had not yet come to bear him to the embalmers, when Urai heard a disturbance outside the front door of the house. Assuming that mourners were arriving, Urai left his father’s body to greet them, but he stopped with the words of welcome still in his throat, for at the door stood the sorcerer Amit, accompanied by a man who wore a chain around his neck that identified him as an official of the civil magistrate’s court.

Amit stood with arms folded across his chest as the magistrate unrolled a paper and read from it. “Be it known by all present that all the goods and property, household and chattels, of Mehen, Adept Sorcerer, are forfeit by reason of debt to Amit, Master Sorcerer. This judgment is attested by order of Tothep, Senior Civil Magistrate, and his seal affixed.”

Shock rendered Urai speechless. He had known of his father’s debts, but this – to come while the body was still in the house!

Amit glanced a moment at the body with a faint smile of satisfaction at the livid line of poison that ran from the web of Mehen’s left thumb up to the heart, before turning to Urai. “Where is it?”…

Watch for review praise for “Black Diamond Sands” and Rage of the Behemoth!

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