My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Anne E. Johnson to talk about how the power of writing around chaos relates to Green Light Delivery.
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I can write while surrounded by chaos.
When I was an undergrad at a large university famous for its party life, I would often go to the Student Union on Saturday night. Hundreds of students and faculty would be there, hoisting beers (the legal drinking age was 18 back then) and carrying on. I’ve never been a drinker or a partier, but man, I loved the Student Union on Saturday night. Just me with a cup of coffee, doing my Ancient Greek or Latin Comp homework amid a crowd of half-soused revelers. They ignored me, and I them.
Their chaos focused me. Their madness made the Greek texts sing.
And you know what? It’s still true for me, now that I’m an author. I can’t do a first draft in silence, and I hate writing at home. Every day I go out into the wilds of southern Brooklyn, find a coffee shop, and write happily amid the city’s craziness. The more traffic noise and chatter, the better. Oh, and the things I hear! No wonder my world-building often turns out so weird.
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About the book:
Webrid is a carter, like his mother and grandfather before him. It’s not glamorous work, but it pays the bills, and it gives him time to ogle the sexy women on the streets of Bexilla’s capital. Mostly, he buys and sells small goods and does the occasional transport run for a client.
Then he gets mugged by a robot.
Now, with a strange green laser implanted in his skull and a small fortune deposited in his bank account, Webrid has to make the most difficult delivery of his life. He doesn’t know who his client is, or what he’s carrying, but he knows that a whole lot of very dangerous people are extremely interested in what’s in his head. Literally. And they’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
With the help of some truly alien friends, a simple carter will journey across worlds to deliver his cargo. And hopefully keep his head in the process.
About the author:
Anne E. Johnson is a Brooklyn-based speculative fiction writer whose stories have appeared in FrostFire Worlds, The Future Fire, Wee Tales, and many other periodicals and anthologies. Her humorous science fiction series, The Webrid Chronicles (Candlemark & Gleam Publishing), tells the adventures of a hairy, reluctant hero on the planet Bexilla. Although Webrid would rather just be left alone to push his delivery cart for hire, trouble keeps finding him. Thus far the series comprises Green Light Delivery and Blue Diamond Delivery; a third novel, Red Spawn Delivery, is in the works. Learn more about Anne’s long and short fiction at http://AnneEJohnson.com.
