“Woman Leaves Room” by Robert Reed will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2012 edited by Rich Horton. Stacey Friedberg interviews him on the story.

Many of the characters in this story have been abandoned by their creators. In fact, the narrator spends most of this story being “lost,” with others unable to locate him or his origins. What do you think this says about humanity, that we let such important things slide away?

I don’t believe people let things slide away. It’s the nature of the universe that everything dissolves into oblivion and by every route possible, but human beings invest a lot of cleverness trying to cling to past events, real or imagined. And because we can’t succeed, we get angry and frustrated and feel guilty. Except the Buddhists, who say, “Fuck that,” and go on inside the moment.

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“Vampire Lake” by Norman Partridge will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 edited by Paula Guran. Stacey Friedberg interviews him on the story.

“Sun Falls” by Angela Slatter will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 edited by Paula Guran. Molly Tanzer interviews her on the story.

Rival vampire-gangs fighting it out on the streets of Sydney sounds pretty rough, and yet apparently most “Warm” folks don’t know about the danger they pose. Can you tell us more about Terry’s world? Just how bad have things gotten? 

I think people are often willfully blind even in the face of things being very obviously not right. I see Terry’s world as one where most folk don’t ‘venture out at night, and have probably reverted to a kind fireside culture where they tell their kids stories about things they go bump in the night. So in effect going back to using fairy tales as warnings and guides to survival.

How bad have things gotten? I think the world’s at a tipping point and things will probably slip nasty-wards fairly soon.

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“The Silver Wind” by Nina Allan will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2012 edited by Rich Horton. Erin Stocks interviews her on the story.

Many of your short stories are set in London. What does London hold that makes it such a fruitful setting for you?

I was born in London, and I feel an enormous emotional attachment to that city. People often talk about the lonely anonymity of the big city, but for me London has always been a warm place, a place of sanctuary, the place where I feel most at home. I am inspired by London because of its variousness, its creativity, its independent spirit. London presents an infinity of ideas, of histories, of stories. It has room for everybody, and everything. I find it impossible to walk around London without wanting to write about it, and whenever I do that I come back to the feeling that it’s a place where anything could happen. I never grow tired of it.

“Crossroads” by Laura Anne Gilman will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 edited by Paula Guran. Jennifer Konieczny interviews her on the story.

For me, the lone lawman facing down outlaws at noon reminded me of the western film “High Noon.” What are your favorite westerns?

I’m actually not a huge fan of Westerns; I’d get distracted watching the horses, not the actors (this happens whenever there are horses on-screen, actually). I saw Unforgiven and Silverado a bunch of times, and does Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid count as a Western? What I love is reading nonfiction about the American West and other frontiers; the sort of mentality it took to abandon everything known and to then deal with what you found past the known, especially when it didn’t match with what you had been expecting/told to believe. Every sort of personality comes out to play, when you get beyond “civilization.” And then, to see what sort of civilization they recreate, in their own image …

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