#WriterWednesday Interview with Alex Shvartsman

I’d like to welcome author Alex Shvartsman to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

Favorite summer treat: Vanilla ice cream in a waffle cone.

A summer treat that makes you gag: Aspic. It's literally meat jelly. It tastes how it sounds.

Something crazy you did on vacation: I once got kicked out of Malaysia and sent back across the border to Singapore, because my passport was full, and they wouldn't stamp over another stamp on a page.

Something you’d never do again on vacation: Probably go to Malaysia.

Favorite summer beverage: Vanilla-flavored iced coffee.

A drink that gives you a pickle face: Kombucha. It tastes like it was made with pickle juice, and you can't convince me otherwise.

Best thing you ever grilled: Marinated lamb kebobs.

Your worst kitchen or grilling disaster: Virtually any situation where I try to use the stove. When attempting to cook, I can burn water!

Best summer vacation ever: Exploring the historical sites and hanging out in the ruins of a 3000-year-old Philistine fortress in Israel.

Somewhere where you don’t ever want to return: Malaysia! (see my answer above.)

Most favorite place to write/edit in the summer: By the pool in a Costa Rica resort.

The worst place to try to write in the summer because of all the distractions: At a coffee shop. I have a feeling most people don't go there to write; they go to be seen typing, so their fellow patrons would think they're writers. There are, of course, exceptions.

Favorite thing to do on a summer evening: Take my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel to the dog park, to play with other dogs while I hang out with like-minded dog-persons.

Least favorite thing about summer: The heat.

Favorite place to visit in Virginia: I've never spent much time in Virginia, but if I were to hang out there, I'd do what I do everywhere: ask local friends for the best sights to see and the best places to eat.

Somewhere you’ve visited way too much. Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt: Edison, NJ. I've gone a few too many times for work.

The thing you like most about being a writer: Setting the crazy characters I've made up in my head free onto the page.

The thing you like least about being a writer: Waiting months and months for publishers to evaluate and respond to my work.

Things you will run to the store for in the middle of the night: Coffee and chocolate.

Things you never put on your shopping list: Beer and pretzels.

The thing that you will most remember about your writing life: Seeing my fiction appear in print for the first time.

Something in your writing life that you wish you could do over: I wish I started writing a lot sooner, instead of waiting until I was 35.

About Alex:

Alex Shvartsman is the author of The Middling Affliction (2022) and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Over 120 of his stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, etc. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction (2014) and was a two-time finalist (2015 & 2017) for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction.

His translations from Russian have appeared in F&SF, Clarkesworld, Tor.com, Asimov’s, etc. Alex has edited over a dozen anthologies, including the long-running Unidentified Funny Objects series. He’s the editor-in-chief of Future Science Fiction Digest.

Alex resides in Brooklyn, NY. His website is http://www.alexshvartsman.com.