Q: What kind of non-fiction do you like to read and how does it affect the fiction you write?
A: Most of the non-fiction I read is either in audio-book or podcast form. Hardcore History, Radiolab and Science of the People are some of my favourite podcasts. I also like to read non-fiction books on astrophysics, indigenous issues, advances in biology and medicine, etc. The non-fiction material typically doesn’t have a direct impact on what I write; the effects are more organic. One evening while walking the dog, some factual story I read ages ago will mate with a fictional idea that has been percolating in the back of my grey matter. If the offspring of the fact and fiction is relevant to the project I’m working on, I’ll incorporate it; otherwise, it goes into the big ‘To Write’ file that is growing faster than I will ever be able to complete it.
Geoffrey W. Cole’s story “The Martian in the Greenhouse”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 6 December 2019.
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