The reissue of Jason Sanford's Nebula and Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novel, Plague Birds: The Red Day Edition, will be coming out this June. In anticipation and celebration, we're doing a series of interviews with the author! Part two explores the present, discussing the process of reissuing a title, a usual day in a writer's life, and plans for the future. Keep reading to learn more!
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Darian Bianco: Five years later and Plague Birds is about to reemerge into the world. Did you ever expect for the book to be reissued like this? Can you walk readers through what to expect to be different between this version and the original that came out in 2021?
Jason Sanford: I'm thrilled Plague Birds has done so well that Apex Books is releasing a new edition of the novel. A lot of people have read the novel over the last five years, and now new readers will have the chance to discover the story.
For Plague Birds: The Red Day Edition, I did a minor re-write to the novel, cleaning up mistakes and typos that were in the first edition. In addition, the edition also includes the coda story "Little Fathers of Darkness," which is set six months after the events of the novel. There will also be an essay explaining why Red Day is angry that people keep misusing the term artificial intelligence.
Spoiler: Red Day, the killer blood AI in Plague Birds, isn't impressed with what we call artificial intelligence in today's world.
DB: I'd love to get a peek into what your writerly life looks like at present. What does a usual day involve for you? Are there certain steps to do with creativity that you perform every day? Are you a schedule person, or a go with the flow person?
JS: I've spoken a good deal in recent years about being on the autistic spectrum and also having ADHD. Being neurodiverse means that my writing routines are different from many other writers. I don't write every day. But when I do write, I tend to hyperfocus and write a great deal. It then takes me time to recover from that process before I can write again.
Last year I published a free booklet about all this titled Tips and Strategies for Neurodiverse Writers. I shared these tips and strategies because much of the writing advice out there can actually hurt neurodiverse writers. For example, when I was a new writer the worst advice I was given was to "Sit your butt in the chair and write 1000 words each day." I understand this advice can help many people, and if it does, go for it. But for many neurodiverse writers, trying to force yourself to follow that advice can be harmful and counterproductive, making you doubt what you're doing or believe you're a failure as a writer.
I know I danced around some of your questions, and I apologize for that. But I go into all this in much more detail in the booklet linked above.
DB: I know you're still hard at work on getting Plagues of Dissension ready for release later this year. What does that process currently look like? Can you give us a hint of what stage you're out, and how you're feeling with all the busyness of this year for you?
JS: I'm currently finishing up the manuscript. I'm also eager to see what you and the other Apex editors think about the manuscript, and what feedback you'll have. As a writer, I love working with editors. The writer-editor relationship is an amazing thing, especially when the goal of everyone involved is to help a story reach its full potential.
For Plagues of Dissension, I first created a short summary of the novel, basically writing a sparse 2,000-word short story that tells the major parts of the book. I did this as a way to mix some overall plotting and outlining with my love of discovery writing, which is where a writer finds the story as they write it. Discovery writing allows me to explore a story and surprise myself as I write it, which helps keep my mind focused on the creative process.
But when you're writing a long story like Plagues of Dissension, doing discovery writing can create problems. You might write yourself into a dead-end, or discover the story doesn't work when you're 2/3rds of the way done. So in order to keep the story on track, I did this thing I call discovery plotting. This is where I write a short summary of the book that is loose enough, from the point of view of the plot, that I can still explore the story as I write it.
As for this year, it's a very busy one for me. This is the first time I've had two major books come out in the same year and it's both exciting and a little scary.
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