{"id":4797,"date":"2018-09-01T20:50:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T00:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.e357.net\/beingernest\/?p=4797"},"modified":"2019-02-24T13:28:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T18:28:39","slug":"michael-mammay-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/michael-mammay-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Mammay Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Michael Mammay Interview<\/b>
\n<\/span>Links:\u00a0SFRevu Review: Planetside<\/a><\/b>\u00a0\/\u00a0Author’s Blog<\/a><\/b>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Michael Mammay’s debut novel,\u00a0Planetside<\/strong>\u00a0is as much a mystery as a Mil-SF novel, and it’s a great start to what we hope is a productive career. He retired from the Army last year after serving in Desert Storm, Somalia, and Afghanistan, where he used the Kandahaar Air Base as a model for the orbital station in his novel,\u00a0Planetside<\/strong>. The novel raises the bar for intelligent Mil-SF, but that’s not really a surprise. The author is a graduate of West Point, holds a Masters degree in Military History, was active duty for 25 years, and has been in love with writing since he was a boy. Now he’s gone on to share that love with the next generation by teaching American and British literature at a military academy. The author was happy to give us some insights into his process, love of reading, and what comes next.<\/i><\/p>\n

Michael Mammay’s debut novel, Planetside<\/strong> is as much a mystery as a Mil-SF novel, and it’s a great start to what we hope is a productive career. He retired from the Army last year after serving in Desert Storm, Somalia, and Afghanistan, where he used the Kandahaar Air Base as a model for the orbital station in his novel, Planetside<\/strong>. The novel raises the bar for intelligent Mil-SF, but that’s not really a surprise. The author is a graduate of West Point, holds a Masters degree in Military History, was active duty for 25 years, and has been in love with writing since he was a boy. Now he’s gone on to share that love with the next generation by teaching American and British literature at a military academy.<\/p>\n

He found a few minutes away from writing and class preparation to share some thoughts with us.<\/p>\n

SFRevu:<\/strong>Michael, when I read strong> Planetside, I saw it as partly a riff on Apocalypse<\/strong> Now<\/strong> (1979), but you pointed out that I would have been closer to say Joseph Conrad\u2019s Heart of Darkness<\/strong>, which was the basis for Coppola\u2019s film. Both of those are set in the jungle, but your planet, Cappa, seems closer to the types of settings that you saw in the Army. Did the setting affect the story? Did you miss all the river symbolism?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>I never really set out to write The Heart of Darkness<\/strong>, so using the river symbolism never even occurred to me. I just liked the idea of going into an unknown and potentially violent place, and then, of course, the colonialism themes are similar, too, though I didn\u2019t set out with that intention.\u00a0 Honestly, it was more of a subconscious thing, most of the time. The setting affected the story a lot, but not so much down on the planet as it did on Cappa base. I did a whole piece on military.com about how I got the idea for Cappa base from Kandahar.<\/p>\n

SFRevu:<\/strong> Most action books are plotted to optimize forward momentum\u2026whereas mysteries require some reverse engineering.\u00a0Since Planetside<\/strong> is as much mystery as Mil-SF, which way did you do it?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>Well\u2026I kind of didn\u2019t do either. I didn\u2019t plot this book much at all. I had a character and a setting and the inciting event, and I just started writing. It wasn\u2019t until I wrote Butler and Elliot\u2019s first scene that it came to me that people were hiding things. The mystery kind of developed from there. And once I had it, then I looked at the structure and studied mystery structure and thriller structure and made some adjustments.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>You told me earlier that the sequel to Planetside<\/strong> is finished and out with the editor. Does it have a name and publication date yet?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>It doesn\u2019t. I have a tentative name, but I\u2019m not putting it out in the world until it\u2019s official\u2026kind of superstitious about that. I expect it to come out in 2019, but I don\u2019t have an exact date yet.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>If the first book has elements of Heart of Darkness\/Apocalypse<\/strong> Now<\/strong>, will the next one channel A Few Good Men <\/strong>as Col. Butler deals with his solution to the crisis on Cappa? Does the next book wrap up the story?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>Without any spoilers for Planetside <\/strong>I can\u2019t say too much. The next book takes place about two years after Planetside<\/strong> ends, and Butler is there. There is currently nothing planned beyond book two, and it does wrap up the story. With that said, it\u2019s a big Galaxy and there are a lot of characters, so I\u2019m not saying I\u2019d never write in that world again.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>You got some great comments for Planetside<\/strong>, from some respected SF Authors, including Tanya Huff, Jack Campbell, and one of my favorites, Marko Kloos. Have you read much Mil-SF yourself? If so, who, and what impact does it have on your writing.<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>I\u2019ve read a ton. I\u2019ve always read it. I think I found Starship Troopers almost 30 years ago. I really enjoy Jack Campbell\u2019s work, and getting to spend an hour talking to him about it last year at Dragoncon is one of the highlights of my author career. I love military fantasy, too. Elizabeth Moon is a big influence. Scalzi\u2019s Old Man\u2019s War series is great. For newer stuff, I really like Jay Posey\u2019s Outriders. Gavin Smith is writing good stuff in The Bastard Legion. Goodness, there\u2019s so much. I\u2019m just about to start The Accidental War (which isn\u2019t out yet) by Walter Jon Williams.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>Some Mil-SF holds up over the years and some doesn\u2019t. What still works for you and what doesn\u2019t? I note that there\u2019s a fair bit of science fiction on the entry levels for the Marine Corps Commandant’s Professional Reading List<\/strong><\/a> (Starship Troopers, Ender\u2019s Game, and Ready Player One). <\/strong>Should they add in Forever War?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>Well it\u2019s the best book out of that group, so from that perspective, yes (Note:\u00a0 it has some outdated depictions of LGBT people) But I think those others are probably on that list for the lessons they bring in leadership. Starship Troopers definitely does that, and so does Ender\u2019s Game. Ready Player One\u2026not sure why that would be on there, though it\u2019s a fun romp, especially if you were an 80s nerd like me.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>As a student of military history, and now an English teacher, I expect you do a lot of non-fiction reading. Do you have any favorite authors or periods of military history? Do you have any suggestions for writers looking for books that will help them understand the military? Who would you recommend first, Carl von Clausewitz or Thomas Friedman?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>My area of focus for my masters was The American Civil War, but I\u2019ve also studied quite a bit on the Hundred Years War. Mostly I enjoy studying times of transition. Points where technology and tactics don\u2019t correspond and leaders are forced to adapt. Honestly, if you\u2019re just studying for fun, I wouldn\u2019t jump into either of the two you mention (though they are important if you\u2019re going to do it with rigor.)<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>After 27 years in the Army, you\u2019ve taken on your greatest challenge, teaching high school English. What grades do you have, and will you be including science fiction in the curriculum? A young friend of mine\u2019s class was reading Ernest Cline\u2019s Ready Player One<\/strong>. Does that make the cut? Will you out yourself or make your students discover Planetside<\/strong> on their own?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>I teach 11th\u00a0and 12th-grade boys. American and British Lit. Pretty much everyone in the school knows I wrote a book, so that\u2019s out of the bag. The school publicized it on their Facebook page. I know some of my students from last year have already bought it. I had a lot of success last year teaching The Things They Carried. I did include a sci-fi book in my British lit class last year\u2014we did The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>I caught your interview on The Author Stories Podcast with Hank Gardner<\/strong> (Episode 431 Michael Mammay<\/em>) where you mentioned Pitch Wars (www.pitchwars.org)<\/em>. What was that like?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>Yeah, I came through Pitch Wars as a mentee back in 2015 with Planetside<\/strong>, and I\u2019ve mentored the past two years and this year I\u2019m mentoring plus serving on the committee. It\u2019s a program for writers that pairs up emerging writers with experienced ones. I could talk about it all day, but it\u2019s probably easier if I just send people to Pitchwars.org to check it out. The submission window is coming up at the end of August.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>Like a lot of authors, the journey from manuscript to publication was slower than you\u2019d like. Once you finally settled on an agent, how long did it take for an offer to appear? To get to print?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>I started querying agents in November of 2015, Signed with Lisa Rodgers of Jabberwocky Literary in March of 2016, revised and went on submission in June of 2016, then had my first contact with my now editor in December of 2016.<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>I saw that you were included in Rich Horton\u2019s\u00a0The Year\u2019s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2018 Edition<\/strong>, which also came out in July, was that an excerpt or a separate story? Are you in any other anthologies?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>I was totally unaware of that. I\u2019ve not published any short fiction, though I wrote a fun story about a year ago that never found a home. I\u2019ll have to check it out!<\/p>\n

SFRevu: <\/strong>You\u2019ve got a first (unpublished) fantasy novel that I gather helped you work out some writing kinks. After Planetside\u2019s<\/strong> story wraps, do you think you\u2019ll go back to fantasy? What\u2019s your next project?<\/p>\n

Michael Mammay: <\/strong>You know, I think there are so many factors that go into that. If I find an audience with science fiction, I might stay there for a while. If people don\u2019t like it, I could see myself going back to fantasy. The two projects I\u2019m working on right now (non-Planetside universe) are both science fiction, and one of those is really calling to me. But being honest, the market has a lot to say about it. I have stuff I\u2019d love to write, and there are things people might pay me to write. I\u2019d love to find something in the middle of that Venn diagram.<\/p>\n

\u00a0SFRevu:<\/strong> Michael, thanks for your time. We’re looking forward to Planetside II<\/strong>, whatever you name it.<\/p>\n

Other Sources about the Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n