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Terence M. Green
Writing is self-discovery.
I enjoyed writing it.
Questions
and Answers:
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Q. |
Growing up what influences did you
have that nurtured your gift and drive to write?
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A. |
Where does a writer come from? What
are the seminal signs? I don’t know. I have been
asked at least twice that I can recall, "How did you
get into it?" – as if one "got into it" somehow. I
shake my head, realizing that I did not get into it,
but rather, it got into me. I have come to believe
that you just are a writer or you are not. It is a
vocation, a passion. It chooses you.
"Our own lives start long before
we’re born. Millions of years of genetic encoding
funnel down into our great-grandparents, then
grandparents, finally parents."
I wrote those words. You can
find them near the beginning of Chapter Six, in my
2001 novel, St. Patrick’s Bed. Casting about for a
beginning to this essay, I realized that I’d already
turned much of this soil, distilling many of my
thoughts and feelings about family throughout my own
stories. People have asked me about my fiction: did
it happen like that? My answer, usually: no… but it
is all true. Fact, fiction, fact, fiction.
Everything and everyone influences me, but mostly, I
am self-taught. I have always been an avid reader, a
voracious, eclectic reader, and am a bibliophile. I
started writing science fiction (fantastic
literature in general) because it gave me so much
pleasure to read it.
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Q. |
When you were growing up, what did
you read?
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A. |
I’ve pondered autobiographical
notes by other writers who mention having been
raised on classics and surrounded by Literature in
their formative years. It wasn’t like that in my
house. There were books -- they were revered -- but
they weren’t part of The Canon. They were whatever
was popular, whatever caught their fancy. Historical
novels abounded. My father also read Jules Verne,
Thomas B. Costain, loved James Michener’s books.
From 1959 to
1964, I read voraciously, but fastened on science
fiction and fantasy, devouring all I came across. At
the beginning, I read novels in the Winston Science
Fiction Series – books like The Star Seekers, by
Milton Lesser, and Mists of Dawn, by Chad Oliver.
Later, the paperbacks of Heinlein, Bradbury, Dick,
Simak, Walter Miller, Jr., plus a host of authors so
obscure that their books can't even qualify as
collector’s items. Part of me had slid sideways into
another world, a world in which I found great
pleasure.
High school
English class was a revelation to me. Being assigned
a book to read was something that had never happened
in my years at St. Monica’s. Here, at last, was some
direction, some discussion of what I was reading. It
was a breath of fresh air. Books that I recall
discovering, fondly, in classes: Oliver Twist,
Prester John, The Call of the Wild, Huckleberry
Finn, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Catcher in the Rye,
The Old Man and the Sea, Cry, the Beloved Country,
and I even enjoyed and responded to Hamlet. These
were indeed, new worlds.
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Q. |
Which of your literary characters is
your favourite or the most personal to you?
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A. |
Two characters of mine are "favorites" -- or "most
personal."
In the novels "Barking Dogs" and
"Blue Limbo," the character of Mitch Helwig is one I
enjoyed creating. His angst and inner conflicts make
sense to me. In the novels "Shadow of Ashland," and
"St. Patrick's Bed," I fully understood the
character Leo Nolan. His quests and concerns were
ones with which I easily identified.
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Q. |
What do you want to be remembered
for?
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A. |
I try to write thoughtful entertainments that make
people think and feel. As for what I hope to be
remembered for -- I'm still here! Read on!
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Brief Biography:
Terence M.
Green (BA, BEd, MA) of Toronto, the author of eight
books, is profiled in Canadian Who's Who,
Contemporary Authors, The Oxford Companion to
Canadian Literature, The Encyclopedias of Science
Fiction and Fantasy, etc. He has given readings and
talks in four countries -- guest lectured at the
University of Toronto (where his novel, Shadow of
Ashland is on the curriculum), been keynote speaker
at the 62nd Annual University of Oklahoma Writers
Conference (2000), instructed at the Yukon Writers
Retreat (2003), etc. A specialist in family-memoir
novels and science-fiction/fantasy, twice a
participant in the Harbourfront International
Festival of Authors (1985, 1996), he has been the
subject of numerous TV, radio and print interviews.
CBC Radio broadcast his novel Shadow of Ashland as a
10-part serial in the Fall of 2002. In 2003-2004,
under a Canada Council for the Arts grant he was
writer-in-residence at Mohawk College, Hamilton,
Ontario. In 2005, he joined the Faculty of Arts and
Humanities at the University of Western Ontario,
where he is currently a lecturer in creative
writing.
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Terence, his wife, Merle
and his 2 oldest sons, Conor (l) and Owen (r),
Toronto, November 1999.
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Terence and his youngest son, Daniel, summer, 2002
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PUBLICATIONS:
Sailing
Time's Ocean (novel). Robert J Sawyer Books/Red Deer/Fitzhenry &
Whiteside, 2006
St.
Patrick's Bed (novel). New York: Forge Books, 2001.
A Witness to
Life (novel). New York: Forge Books, 1999.
Blue Limbo
(novel). New York: Tor Books, 1997.
Shadow of
Ashland (novel). New York: Forge Books, 1996.
Children of
the Rainbow (novel). Toronto: McClelland & Stewart,
1992.
Barking Dogs
(novel). St. Martin's Press (NY), 1988
The Woman
Who is the Midnight Wind (short story collection).
Pottersfield Press, 1987
AWARDS:
Finalist,
World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for A Witness to
Life, 2000.
Two Toronto
Arts Council Grants for fiction, 2000 & 2002.
Finalist,
World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Shadow of
Ashland, 1997.
4 Ontario
Arts Council Writers' Reserve Grants (fiction),
1991-1993
Five-Time
Finalist, Aurora Award, Best Canadian works of
Speculative Fiction, 1990-1998.
3 Canada
Council Grants (Fiction) , 1983, 1992, 2003
WEB SITE:
Visit Terence's web site at
www.tmgreen.com.
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Dinner with Rob Sawyer and editor
David Hartwell, in Green's home, January 1997 |
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