Nate Kenyon is a busy fellow.

While working a day job at a marketing firm, and writing acclaimed novels and short fiction in the evenings, he also makes time for his family, markets and networks online on his website (www.natekenyon.com) and various forums, and travels for his book promotion tours, so I knew it was going to be a challenge to lock in some time with him. Luckily, taking a page from PRIME, Nate had already cloned himself several times, and one of the clones was available for interview. Since this particular clone has all of Mr. Kenyon’s memories of writing PRIME, his answers should be no different from the author’s.

APEX: You mentioned in the interview posted on your website that most often, your stories sprout from a vivid image or piece of a scene. What was the initial spark for PRIME?

KENYON CLONE: The initial spark for PRIME was the image of a man approaching a huge building in some future city. I had this real sense of weight, like something important was about to happen. Something was inside of that building that he wanted, and yet it was threatening to him. And the building was alive, in some way–like a scorpion’s tail sticking up from the earth, quivering. I could see this man in my head, and the way I thought of him was like an old western gunslinger, riding into town dirty and tired and worn, but tough as nails and ready to fight, and god help anyone who underestimated him.

That was how William Bellow was formed for me, and although the background for his character evolved, that attitude pretty much stuck with him through the entire story—a western-style gunslinger in a new world.

APEX: You’ve mentioned before that you tend toward writing novels, rather than short fiction, though you have written a lot of short fiction. What inspired you to write a novella? And did the story merely fit itself to that length, or did you begin with that length in mind?

KENYON CLONE: PRIME was originally a short story called GHOST IN THE MACHINE. I’d never written any sci fi before, but the idea for this one intrigued me, and I wanted to take a shot at it. The story grew quickly, as many of mine tend to do, and before I knew it I was finishing it up around 10,000 words. It worked pretty well, but that was a terrible length–too long for a traditional short story, too short for a novella. My markets were really limited. I tried a few places and got some encouraging feedback, but nobody was biting. So I did some work on it, changed the title, and sent it to Jason for Apex Magazine, and Jason loved it but thought it was too long for the magazine. He asked if I could develop it into a novella, and we’d do a book. I thought that was a fine idea, and when I sat down to expand on the plot I couldn’t believe what came spilling out. It’s really a completely different story now, and a much better one.

APEX: Do you tend to work on one writing project at a time, from beginning to end, before starting the next? Or do you work on multiple projects? How does this affect your process of writing?

KENYON CLONE: I do tend to work on one thing at a time–I really have to be immersed in the story and the characters for my stuff to click. So it’s one story at a time, one novel at a time, and that CAN cause problems–particularly when (like now) I have a novel deadline but I’ve promised someone else a short story, and they’re both due. Something’s gotta give!

APEX: While all readers bring something new to a fictional work when reading, and all come away with a slightly different experience, what would be the one thing from PRIME you hope continues to resonate with readers long after they’ve put the book down?

KENYON CLONE: I hope they remember the main character Bellow and his relationship with Kara, the clone of a 20th century movie star. There are a lot of elements packed into this short book, but I think at its heart PRIME is really a timeless love story, albeit with a sci fi twist. His love for her drives everything he does, whether he knows it or not, and the background that is revealed by the end of the story makes this relationship a lot more complicated, and unusual. I hope it pulls at readers’ heartstrings in the right way.

APEX: You said before that you hadn’t written science fiction before PRIME. What drew you to cyberpunk?

KENYON CLONE: I hadn’t written much sci fi, and I hadn’t read much of it either, but I loved Neuromancer as a teen, so the seeds were definitely planted. I picked up a copy of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine one day and read a few stories, and something just clicked, and I was off and running. Bellow’s character really set the overall tone for the novella, and I think he was born from my love of noir fiction and hard boiled detective novels. I think that coming into the genre as a relative newbie actually helped me, in many ways–I was able to be really free with my imagination and not have to worry about outside influences so much.

APEX: Would you ever consider writing another William Bellow novella or short story?

KENYON CLONE: Oh, definitely. I’d love to write an entire novel around him. He was a very easy character for me to write–I loved his attitude, his edge, and his weak spots too. He was one of those rare characters that just seem to drop, fully formed, in my lap. There’s a lot more to his story, and I’d like to tell it someday.

NATE KENYON is an award-winning writer, and the author of BLOODSTONE, THE REACH, and THE BONE FACTORY, as well as many short stories. He is also the author of PRIME, a noir sci-fi thriller and the newest addition to APEX BOOK COMPANY’s novella series.

Praise for PRIME:

“Nate Kenyon has already proven himself a hell of a writer, but PRIME puts him on a whole new level. PRIME is sexy, two-fisted Future Noir that riffs off of present day questions of techno-ethics and still manages an emotional finale. Bravo!”
—Christopher Golden, Bram Stoker Award winning author of Baltimore, The Myth Hunters, and Wildwood Road

“Nate Kenyon really messes with your alphas in this one: a futuristic thriller with shocks, startling insights into the human mind, and surprising twists, it’s also deeply relevant to what’s happening in the world today.”
—Tim Lebbon, Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award-winning author of Dusk, Dawn, and The Island