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An Interview with Liz Williams

© Debbie Ledesma

Editor's note: Science Fiction & Society is pleased to present this interview with author Liz Williams, conducted by our good friend Debbie Ledesma. Debbie is the editor of Suite101's Fantasy Worlds. We invite you to visit her topic to enjoy more of her thoughts and insight into the world of fantasy and SF.

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Liz Williams is a science fiction author of several well received books. She writes books that mix science with some fantasy elements, but takes interesting looks at different societies. Ghostsister takes place on a colonized world where the humans have a psychic link to the life on the planet. One woman doesn't have this ability, so is treated as an outcast and protected by her brother. Empire of Bones takes place on Earth in a future India. A dying woman is offered to be saved by a visiting alien, but at what price? The Poison Master is the story of a woman who is a master of poison making and alchemy trying to get her sister back from strange aliens. This author's books are very different to the science fiction genre, but very interesting.

Debbie Ledesma: How did you get started as a writer?
Liz Williams: I wrote on and off for years in a kind of desultory way-my mother was a writer, so in our family it always seemed to be a perfectly acceptable thing to do. However, most of my twenties were taken up with academic work and I did not really begin writing in any kind of committed way until I was in my thirties. I began by sending short fiction off to magazines and was lucky in that I broke into the professional market fairly swiftly, with a sale to InterZone. After completing my first novel, The Ghost Sister, I secured an agent and the book was sold about a year later.

DL: What authors, SF or otherwise, influence your writing?
LW: Le Guin, Vance, Tanith Lee, Bradbury-hey, steal from the best! I also have a great affection (combined with no small degree of irritation) for the Beat writers and people like Lawrence Durrell.

DL: Why did you choose the Science Fiction genre to write in?

The copyright of the article An Interview with Liz Williams in Science Fiction & Society is owned by Debbie Ledesma. Permission to republish An Interview with Liz Williams in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.