{"id":25089,"date":"2019-06-28T12:42:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T19:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rachelswirsky.com\/?p=2241"},"modified":"2019-06-28T12:42:49","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T19:42:49","slug":"silly-interview-with-s-l-huang-spectacular-specimen-of-superhumanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=25089","title":{"rendered":"Silly Interview with S. L. Huang, Spectacular Specimen of Superhumanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2242\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2242\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/rachelswirsky.com\/2019\/06\/silly-interview-with-s-l-huang-spectacular-specimen-of-superhumanity\/slhuang07-15percent\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/slhuang07-15percent.jpg?fit=437%2C656\" data-orig-size=\"437,656\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 5D&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1360733090&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;165&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;320&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.003125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"SL Huang Pic-15percent\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;SL Huang, a woman with black hair, tan skin and dark brown eyes stands in a tailored black suit with a white shirt, arms folded, looking at the reader &lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/slhuang07-15percent.jpg?fit=200%2C300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/slhuang07-15percent.jpg?fit=437%2C656\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2242\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/slhuang07-15percent.jpg?resize=200%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/slhuang07-15percent.jpg?resize=200%2C300 200w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/slhuang07-15percent.jpg?w=437 437w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">SL Huang. Photo Credit: Chris Massa<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Rachel Swirsky:\u00a0When you were at MIT, did you take any writing classes? What was it like studying writing in that environment?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SL Huang: I did not!\u00a0 Which is kind of strange given that MIT has a ridiculously good creative writing program, but I was in my \u201cwriting is the one thing I do that I will not stress out about or set any goals for\u201d phase. (You can see how that has worked out for me, she says, eyeing the current mountain of deadlines.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>RS:\u00a0Your bio says you are a gunslinger. Are you really a gunslinger? I hope so. Feel free to lie if you aren\u2019t (or if you are, actually).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SLH: I am indeed really a gunslinger.\u00a0 Some number of the following facts are true about me:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have qualified at the Expert Rifleman level on a civilian version of the Army Qualifying Test<\/li>\n<li>I can field-strip an AK-47 in less than seven seconds<\/li>\n<li>I once fixed a malfunctioning Springfield XD with a piece of duct tape<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0have fired an Uzi in the middle of Market Street, San Francisco<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve had conversations with police officers while hiding five shotguns under my trench coat<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(NB, for the NSA agents reading this: the police officers knew they were there.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>RS:\u00a0What is your gunslinger origin story?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SLH: I learned to shoot at MIT.\u00a0 No, really.\u00a0 MIT has one of the best pistol programs in the country.<\/p>\n<p>My pistol coach from MIT now coaches the U.S. Paralympics Shooting Team.\u00a0 We\u2019re still in touch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RS:\u00a0You mention liking the abelian grape joke which I must admit I do not understand. I really like the Heisenberg\u2019s speeding ticket joke. What does our shared love of terrible nerd jokes say about us? I remind you that you are free to lie.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SLH: It means we are spectacular specimens of superhumanity who ride into battle on dragons and eat gas giants for breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>(p.s. I love the Heisenberg speeding ticket joke, too.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>RS:\u00a0In 2016 you put together an anthology of Campbell-eligible writers so that they can show off their work to potential voters. In the past, it has always been difficult to identify eligible writers, let alone find all their work in one place. How did you figure out who to include? Did you reach out to writers who were in professional TOCs, or did you wait for people to come to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SLH: We (my co-runner Kurt Hunt and I) sidestepped the identification-of-eligibility question by pawning off the work on our friends at Writertopia, who maintain a list of Campbell-eligible writers as a genre resource.\u00a0 Put yourself on their list, we said, and you can be in the book!<\/p>\n<p>In all seriousness, we did not mean to cause so much extra work for them \u2014 we figured most people interested would be on the Writertopia list already.\u00a0 But we figured WAY wrong, and Writertopia got flooded with add requests.\u00a0 Bill Katz and David Walton over there are absolute gems of human beings \u2014 they did an incredible job vetting and adding people before our deadline, and they\u2019ve given us nothing but support.\u00a0 We owe them big time.<\/p>\n<p>As for how we reached out \u2014 hahaha, we had less than two weeks to get submissions; there was no way we could wait for people to come to us.\u00a0 We posted on forums, blogged, and tweeted.\u00a0 We sent over a dozen press releases to genre sites and asked for signal boosts from well-followed voices in SFF.\u00a0 We also wanted to reach out to eligible writers and invite them directly, but could only find public email addresses for about 60% of the people who were already on Writertopia\u2019s list \u2014 and here our Writertopia friends did us yet another solid and forwarded an invitation to them all on our behalf.<\/p>\n<p>I was so, so pleased with the response we got.\u00a0 120 authors!\u00a0 Over A MILLION WORDS OF FICTION!<\/p>\n<p>We passed the torch on it the following year, and I hope anthologies of the year\u2019s Campbell-eligible writers keep being a thing as often as possible. Some of our authors told us the anthology felt like an enormous group hug, and I\u2019m so proud to have been a part of that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RS:\u00a0Looking at the stories in the Campbell anthology, would you say there were noticeable thematic preoccupations? What was the zeitgeist for new writers in 2015?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SLH: The biggest zeitgeist, I think, is that there wasn\u2019t one.\u00a0 The thematic diversity in this group is incredible.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t able to read even close to all million words, but we had stories from F&amp;SF and Analog, Strange Horizons and Mothership Zeta, Angry Robot and Baen.\u00a0 We had self-published, small press, and Big Five.\u00a0 We had funny stories and tearjerking ones, swashbucklers and horror, aliens and myths and hard SF and fairy tales.\u00a0 Flash, shorts, novel excerpts, even a play!\u00a0 And the authors came from all over the world and from all walks of life \u2014 we even had at least one translation.<\/p>\n<p>If this anthology proved anything, it\u2019s that the upcoming generation of SFF writers want there to be room for all types of stories.\u00a0 And so far we\u2019re kicking ass at making that happen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RS:\u00a0Any projects coming up, or anything else you\u2019d like to write about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SLH: So much!!<\/p>\n<p>My main novel series is the <i>Cas Russell <\/i>series with Tor Books \u2014 the first book, <a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250180254\"><i>Zero Sum Game<\/i><\/a>, came out last year, and the sequel <a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250180308\"><i>Null Set<\/i><\/a> is dropping in July. Billed by Tor as \u201cthe geek\u2019s Jack Reacher,\u201d it\u2019s about a superheroine \u2014 an antiheroine \u2014 who can do math really, really fast.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2243\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/rachelswirsky.com\/2019\/06\/silly-interview-with-s-l-huang-spectacular-specimen-of-superhumanity\/zsg-final-coverslhuang\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/zsg-final-coverSLHUANG.jpg?fit=469%2C713\" data-orig-size=\"469,713\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Cover of Zero Sum Game by SL Huang\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;The cover of SL Huang&#8217;s book &#8220;Zero Sum Game&#8221;. The background is black with uppercase grey text reading &#8220;Zero Sum Game&#8221;. The o in Zero is a bulletshot into glass. &lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/zsg-final-coverSLHUANG.jpg?fit=197%2C300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/zsg-final-coverSLHUANG.jpg?fit=469%2C713\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2243\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/zsg-final-coverSLHUANG.jpg?resize=197%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/zsg-final-coverSLHUANG.jpg?resize=197%2C300 197w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/zsg-final-coverSLHUANG.jpg?w=469 469w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>She uses it to kill a lot of people. As you do with math.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2244\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/rachelswirsky.com\/2019\/06\/silly-interview-with-s-l-huang-spectacular-specimen-of-superhumanity\/nullset_compslhuang\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/nullset_compSLHUANG.jpg?fit=469%2C713\" data-orig-size=\"469,713\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Cover of Null Set by SL Huang\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Cover of Null Set by SL Huang. Black uppercase text with a motion blur reads NULL SET. The text is framed by one vertical copper bullet and one horizontal copper bullet.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/nullset_compSLHUANG.jpg?fit=197%2C300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/nullset_compSLHUANG.jpg?fit=469%2C713\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2244\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/nullset_compSLHUANG.jpg?resize=197%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/nullset_compSLHUANG.jpg?resize=197%2C300 197w, https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/rachelswirsky.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/nullset_compSLHUANG.jpg?w=469 469w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><br \/>\nI\u2019m also one of the collaborators who wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.serialbox.com\/serials\/the-vela\"><i>The Vela<\/i><\/a><i>,<\/i> a serialized novel that was just released from Serial Box. My co-authors are Yoon Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, and Becky Chambers, and you can read the whole thing right now!<\/p>\n<p>That \u201clet\u2019s not set any goals or deadlines for writing\u201d philosophy from college REALLY was not very successful for me\u2026<\/p>\n<p>(This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/silly-interview-27780349\">interview<\/a> was posted early for my patrons on<a href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/rachelswirsky\"> Patreon<\/a>. Thank you!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel Swirsky:&nbsp;When you were at MIT, did you take any writing classes? What was it like studying writing in that environment?&nbsp; SL Huang: I did not!&nbsp; Which is kind of strange given that MIT has a ridiculously good creative writing &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rachelswirsky.com\/2019\/06\/silly-interview-with-s-l-huang-spectacular-specimen-of-superhumanity\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=25089\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25090,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25089\/revisions\/25090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}