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Interview With Sarah Lotz, Author Of 'The Three' – Look! It Moves! by Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh writes,

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Every now and then, I get sent advance copies of books and graphic novels and offered a chance to interview the authors. The Three is one of the more interesting mainstream apocalyptic thrillers out right now, garnering good reviews and major promotions on Amazon and the like.

The plot involves four planes crashing at the same time in different parts of the world and one person from each crash miraculously survives: four children and a woman. From there, a ripple effect of cryptic messages, signs and portents, religious extremism, apocalyptic prophecies and murderous conspiracies run side-by-side as the story hops from one part of the world to another. The novel is written in the form of news reports, emails, interview transcripts, social media posts as the author herself becomes a character in her own novel, gathering it all together and conducting interviews in a way that reflects the sprawling, epic quality of an interconnected world. It's an interesting piece of zeitgeist-tapping that's getting a big release and promotion from a big publisher.

Sarah Lotz is a prolific South African screenwriter and novelist, having previously published a series of Young Adult novels under the pseudonym S. L. Grey with collaborator Louis Anderson, another YA series with her daughter Savannah under the name Lily Herne and a series of erotic novels with Helen Moffet and Paige Nick under the name Helen S. Paige on top of her own solo short stories and novels. The Three is her latest and most high-profile book, and biggest, swimming in Stephen King and Dan Brown territory but with a point of view and sensibility all her own.

This interview was conducted via email when Sarah Lotz was on her book tour.

Adi Tantimedh: Here's the obvious, probably lazy, question, but what was the inspiration behind this particular story? 

Sarah Lotz: The initial idea came from the fact that I'm flight phobic and have always wanted to write a novel about air disasters as a way to cope with this irrational fear. But very quickly the story grew into more than this, and I started to look at how quickly fear and paranoia can spread throughout society – especially during the aftermath of a devastating event – and how this could potentially influence the political landscape.

AT: The story has a internationally-aware, politically-engaged take on the Apocalyptic Science Fiction & Fantasy genre, Can you talk a bit about your interest in the apocalyptic themes that seem to be in a lot of genre TV, movies, comics and novels these days, especially your story's take on religious fanatics, prophecies and child saviours with special powers?

SL: I think many of us have an inner James Bond villain waiting to get out – there's something cathartic about wiping out everything and starting again with a clean slate – and this urge is particularly strong in many of the writers I know (perhaps this is why, like Bond villains, so many of us have cats?) Seriously though, I began writing The Three in 2012, during the US election, when there was a lot of bile being thrown around by various pundits (most notably anti-gay marriage rhetoric and harmful assertions about rape). I wouldn't say the novel is anti-religion, but it certainly points fingers at those who manipulate people's fear, beliefs and prejudices and uses them to further their own political agendas. Fear is a huge driving force behind change and I guess this is at the heart of the novel.

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AT: I'm reading through the novel now and what's interesting to me is not just your choice of subject matter for the plot, but your choice of storytelling techniques in which to convey the story. What drove your decision to not just write the story in straightforward prose and mix it up?

SL: I reckon it was the global scope of it. The action takes place across four different continents, and I had to find a way to get this across without reams of exposition. I initially attempted to write it as a third-person narrative, but it just wasn't working. Max Brooks' oral history approach in World War Z was a big inspiration on the novel's structure. I knew I was taking a chance though – this style isn't to everyone's taste!

AT: As a screenwriter, how did you decide whether to write this story as a prose novel rather than an original screenplay?

SL: Writing novels is my first love and as most of my script work has been for television, mostly animation, I'm not sure I'd have the skill or experience to carry it through into a script!

AT: Did your experience as a screenwriter influence your decision to write the novel as a series of exchanges in different communications mediums like emails, transcripts, chats, journalistic reports? 

SL: In some ways, I suppose it did. I'm much more comfortable writing dialogue, so the Studs Terkel-style first person vernacular sections were great fun to write. That said, they were also challenging as I had to get into the minds of characters that couldn't be more different to me in terms of gender, race and culture. It took a great deal of research and trial and error.

AT: The book comes with an endorsement from another politically- and culturally-engaged writer Lauren Beukes. Do you feel a kinship with the current generation of Fantasy and Science Fiction writers who bring a particularly savvy perspective to culture and politics?

SL: Lauren has been incredibly supportive to me – she does a great deal to help other writers who are starting out. In fact the whole of the South African writing community is like a family – everyone has each other's backs – and I've been finding that this is the same in the SFFH community as well. As to political engagement, although my main focus is to entertain readers, it's impossible not to be politically/socially engaged if you want your writing to be honest and real and truthful. This is especially pertinent in South Africa, where our political reality is all around us, you see it every day – the massive rich/poor divide for example.

The Three is now out in stores and online.

Reading the apocalypses at lookitmoves@gmail.com

Follow the official LOOK! IT MOVES! twitter feed at http://twitter.com/lookitmoves for thoughts and snark on media and pop culture, stuff for future columns and stuff I may never spend a whole column writing about.

Look! It Moves! © Adisakdi Tantimedh

 


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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