Joining LitPick today for a Six Minutes with an Author interview is Will McIntosh! Will is a science fiction and young adult author and the author of Burning Midnight, a young adult science fiction adventure. Will is a Hugo award winner and a winner or finalist for a dozen other science fiction awards.

How did you get started writing?

My writing career started as a lark – I had a cool science fiction dream and decided to try writing it as a story. It took me about ten drafts before I finally sold that story, but I had so much fun writing it that I was hooked, and I wrote more and more in my spare time. Then I started writing novels. Finally I decided that my heart was in writing, and I resigned my tenured position at a university to write full time.

Who influenced you?

Pretty much everyone! I grew up reading a ton of SF and fantasy, including Tolkein, Terry Brooks, Ray Bradbury, Asimov. Until I fell behind a few years ago, I’d read every Stephen King book. In the YA world, Watership Down by Richard Adams had a huge influence on my love of reading as a teen.

Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

Along with Watership Down, I’d say my favorite book is Replay by Ken Grimwood. So, so wonderful. About a guy who dies at forty and wakes up in his body at eighteen with all of his memories intact. When he reaches forty he dies again and wakes up at eighteen again. Repeat.

I love apocalyptic science fiction settings. Can’t get enough of them!

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

At the outset, write from a sense of joy. Get your pleasure straight from the process of creating something new and original. It’s important to get feedback so you can improve, but if you write from a place where you crave praise and external success, it will be hard to keep it up long enough to get as good as you can be.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Out on my back porch on a nice day. We have a beautiful tree-lined hill in our back yard. It’s actually an odd setup, because when you look into our back yard all you see is this beautiful patch of old-growth hardwood, but just over the rise is an Interstate highway. You can’t see it, but you can definitely hear it. Fortunately it sounds like ocean surf.

What else would you like to tell us?

Can I tell you what I’m working on? I recently finished the first draft of my second YA book. It’s about lying and what would happen in a future where you could tell when someone was lying. I desperately want to call it The Future Will Be Bullsh*t Free, but I’m not sure putting bullsh*t in your title is a good move. Meanwhile, I’m mapping out what could become my first series. I’ve never written anything but standalones, so I’m excited about this new idea. It’s too big to fit into one book. Meanwhile, my latest SF novel is coming out in October from Tor Books. It’s called Faller, and it’s really strange. I also have a middle grade book coming out, but that hasn’t been formally announced yet, so I’ll hold off on details!

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Will, thank you for spending six minutes with LitPick! Congratulations on the many books you have coming out in 2016! We will look forward to seeing them on LitPick!