An Interview by Molly Tanzer

“A Journey of Only Two Paces” by Tim Powers will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 edited by Paula Guran. Pre-order here!

Kohler, a rare-books dealer, is insulted when Mr. Bump accuses him of not being “literary,” and there seems to be some back-and-forth in “A Journey of Only Two Paces” as to whether Kohler looks inside that which he sells. He recognizes some literary clues, but not others. You know him best—what does Kohler read? Does he appreciate that which he sells?

Kohler is actually very well read both in his specialty and in literature in general! He’s irked at Mr. Bump’s remark, but of course you can’t protest, “I am so literary!” His interest in the mystical books he sells is more in their value than in their content, but his work requires him to know the content too.

I have a big, fluffy, orange and white cat. His life seems pretty all right, what with the chasing stuff, rolling around, getting petted, and doing whatever he wants all the time. It got me thinking about Kohler’s resistance to Jack’s plan … do you think there’s anyone out there who, having figured out the angle of the wake, would have chosen differently? Do you think you might ever choose differently?

Depending on what day you asked me, yes, I think I might have chosen the life of a cat in that nice old building! I often look at our cats — Uh-oh, you can imagine one of them thinking, it’s already ten-thirty and I’ve been sleeping on the windowsill! I’m supposed to be sleeping on the bookshelf now! — and envy their lives!