First Chapters Q&A with Corey J. White

Corey J. White is a writer of science-fiction, horror and other, harder to define stories.  He is the facilitator of the nothing here newsletter featuring commentary and opinion from Marlee Jane Ward, Austin Armatys, John English and m1k3y.  Corey is also one half of Oh Nothing Press, purveyors of narratively-dense artefacts and weird cultural errata.

Corey will be reading from Killing Gravity, the first book in the VoidWitch Saga trilogy at First Chapters on Friday 1 February.  

We asked him some questions to get to know him better.  Here's what he said.

1. Brunswick Bound has asked you to read a chapter from your published work.  Tell us what we can expect from the chapter you have chosen?

I’m going to read a chapter from early in Killing Gravity – one that introduces readers to most of the important characters across the full trilogy, and will also give them a good idea of tone of the series, and the sort of action they can expect.

2. How would you describe the kind of books that you write?

The VoidWitch Saga books are fast-paced and action-packed science-fiction. While my next books might end up being less action-focused, I think I’ll always be writing science-fiction about flawed people, found families, and the struggle to survive (or even fight back against) oppressive systems, governments, and corporations.

3. What was the first book that you read (or had read to you) that left an impression on you?

I was such a huge fan of the film Jurassic Park, that my sister gave me the book for Christmas when I was ten years old. This was the actual Michael Crichton novel, and not a sanitised novelisation of the film – it’s not a book for ten year olds, which is probably precisely why I still remember reading it. When you’re a kid, nothing beats the ‘forbidden fruit’ appeal of reading something you shouldn’t, and it had the added bonus of letting me spend more time in a world I loved, and gave me insights into it that my friends didn’t have.

4. Do you believe that books should answer life’s big questions?

If a writer isn’t at least trying to grapple with some inner truth, turmoil, or question, then the chance they’ll say anything of worth is slim to none, but that said, I don’t agree with a prescriptive ‘should’. A book should do whatever it is the writer intended when they first sat down to write that book. Anything less is a misstep, anything more is a gift.

5. What’s your go-to solution for writer’s block?

I’m sure it’s different for different writers, but for me, writer’s block is always the result of stress and anxiety. When that’s the case, the best thing to do is step away, give your work some space, cut yourself some slack (cut yourself some slack, please), and come back to it when you’re ready.

6.  What is your favourite word or phrase?

I love arabesque, lackadaisical, actuator, detritus, overhead, underfoot, and glossolalia. If glossolalia didn’t have such a specific meaning, I swear I’d find a way to use it in everything I wrote.

7. What do you put down as your occupation when asked?

Website and Database Manager (because it’s true).

8. What is the question that you hope never to be asked in an author Q&A?

Anything that begins with “This is more a comment than a question...”

9. What question do you hope you will be asked and why?

I’d be happy answering any question that shows a reader was really engaged with one my books. There is always so much going on behind the scenes of any chapter – personal experiences I’m touching on, books, authors, and songs I’m referencing, difficult narrative choices I had to make, et cetera – that having a chance to go into detail about any of that would be great.

10. Which book that you have read do you think should be better known or more widely read?

There are plenty of books I love and could recommend, but I am constantly amazed that more people aren’t familiar with Steve Aylett. His cyberpunk-meets-mobster-noir Beerlight books (The Crime Studio, Slaughtermatic, Atom, and Novahead) are wildly inventive, bizarrely funny, and completely over-the-top.

To find out more about the First Chapters event series, visit the Brunswick Bound website.