Interview: Larry Hodges
Author’s name:
Larry Hodges
Publishing Credits:
27 books, including four novels and eight short story collections made up of previously sold stories. Over 2,400 published articles (not including over 1,100 blog entries), including 254 science fiction & fantasy short story sales. The rest of the publications are mostly about the Olympic Sport of Table Tennis. I live in two worlds – science fiction & fantasy, and table tennis. As I like to boast, I’m the best table tennis player in SFWA, and the best science fiction writer in USA Table Tennis! (I’ve won many national titles, including two-time US Hardbat Singles Champion, and am the two-time Over 60 Hardbat World Champion and current Over 60 World Cup Champion.)
What was your most memorable experience as a writer?
So many!!! How about this one? At the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention in LA, my first one, I didn’t really know the top writers. I knew all their names but not their faces. Science Fiction Writers of America had rented a huge suite for their members. I’d qualified and joined, and so I went there. I was a bit shy and sat in a corner for a time. I had just spent six weeks at the Odyssey Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing Workshop, where Robert J. Sawyer had been writer-in-residence. He saw me in the corner asked if I knew everyone. I said I didn’t. So, he grabbed me by the hand and took me around the room, introducing me to everyone – but not saying who I was being introduced to until we were shaking hands! And that’s how I met Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Joe Haldeman, Harlan Ellison, Frederik Pohl, Gregory Benford, Connie Willis, Harry Turtledove, Alan Dean Foster, Jack McDevitt, Jerry Pournelle, Samuel Delaney, Nancy Kress, Robert Silverberg, Sheila Williams, George Scithers, Gardner Dozois, and others I forget since I was in deer-in-the-headlights mode.
Why should anybody read your books when there are so many others written by famous authors?
Because, until you’ve read my works, you’ll just have to trust me that they are the best stuff ever written. 🙂 Also, lots of crazy ideas and humor. I’ll make you think and laugh, and hopefully both.
Most authors believe they have original ideas that no one else has used. Can you give us an example of one of your original ideas?
I sometimes hear writers or editors say, “There are no new ideas left.” That is so wrong. Trying to come up with one example of mine is like . . . see movie “Sophie’s Choice.” But I’ve narrowed it down to two.
In “Nanogod,” I had a tiny narcissistic egomaniac yet loveable nanobot that travels the galaxy in a giant ship, conquering civilizations by invading their brains with quintillions of copies of itself, and forcing them to erect giant monuments in its honor – while being chased by one of the previous civilizations that it had once conquered and were now out to get the nanobot. The story was in the May, 2021 issue of Dark Matter.
In “Redo,” I had an alien census taker on Earth going door to door to every home on Earth. It resembled a gigantic purple caterpillar. It used a “redo” device that, when pressed, caused every bit of matter and energy on Earth to shoot back to where it was ten minutes before (with immunity to the alien) – and it clicked the button after each household interview. It had been doing this for 80,000 years, and wasn’t even halfway done – but from Earth’s point of view, he’d just started ten minutes ago. And then he is inadvertently killed by a dog, with the redo device on the alien’s belly. The dog’s owner finds the alien, sees the redo device, and clicks it to see what happens – and so the human and the rest of Earth again repeat the same ten minutes over and over, except that the alien (remember, he’s immune) is slowly rotting away, until finally, way in the future, the redo device falls into its putrid body, stopping the dog’s owner from clicking it. Then he figures out how to redo to save the alien, etc. Meanwhile, during the entire 80,000+ years that all this has been going on, aliens have been sweeping in from orbit to attack Earth, but every ten minutes the redo button stops them and they start over – until now. And this is just the beginning of the story! (The story was in the Dec 2017 issue of Compelling Science Fiction.)
If your life were made into a movie, what would the title be, and on what network would you expect it to be broadcast?
Well . . . since I write fiction, and am known in table tennis for my big forehand . . . let’s call it, “The Lyin’ King With the Big Forehand Swing.” It’ll be on Comedy Central on Mondays right after Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. I’d take on challengers at the ping-pong table while reciting my stories.
If somebody could only read one thing that you’ve written, what would you recommend?
Only one? Impossible!!!
My best novel is the drama-satire “Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions.” It got very nice reviews. The whole world has adopted the American two-party electoral system, and the three candidates for president of Earth – a conservative, a moderate, and a liberal – travel the world of 2100 seeking their votes, with different issues in each region. Then an alien shows up and joins the moderate campaign as an observer, and an assassin stalks them. It’s available at Amazon:
If you want something shorter, there’s my novelette, “First Galactic Table Tennis Championships,” which is online at New Myths (free). The title explains the story – aliens from around the galaxy converge on Beijing, and Li, the world women’s champion, must take on the best. But she’s drawn into a corrupt conspiracy that will shake the very foundations of honor and sportsmanship.
https://sites.google.com/newmyths.com/newmythscomissue67b/issue-67-stories/first-galactic-table-tennis-championships
Also available at Amazon:
But if you happen to like table tennis, my best-selling book is “Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers”! It also has great reviews.
If you were born a thousand years ago, what do you think you would have done?
I’d be killed for refusing to kneel to royalty as I politely explain why they have no basis for their leadership. Or killed for blasphemy as I politely explain to church leaders why I believe in science and independent ethical thought over religion. Or killed for standing up to bullies with swords while screaming at obstinate doctors of the time to wash their hands before operating on me to repair damages from said swords. Or killed when my experimental airplane crashes. My life expectancy a thousand years ago is one month.
Have you ever seen anything that has caused you to believe in the supernatural?
No. I’ll stop at that rather than offend the huge masses who do believe in supernatural beings. 🙂 But I do sometimes write about supernatural beings!
What events have made you into the person you are today?
In the beginning, circa fourth grade, I read “The Forgotten Door” by Alexander Key, and was hooked on science fiction. Within two years I’d read the complete SF works of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and others. And then, when I was 16, I was on my high school track team as a miler, and went to the library to get the latest SF novels and a book on track and field – and I happened to look to my left and saw “The Money Player” by Marty Reisman – the very book the movie “Marty Supreme” is loosely based on. (I knew Marty well – played against him and even visited him at his house.) I’d been playing some neighborhood table tennis, and checked it out, and soon discovered there was a local table tennis club. And ever since my life has bounced back and forth like a ping-pong ball between science fiction and table tennis.
How do you feel about AI eliminating the need for humans to write?
It’s an unfortunate situation. AI may be on the verge of writing best-selling beach novels for the unwashed masses. The good news is that the people who might like such novels generally aren’t the reading type. (Maybe a novel about football and the local weather?) AI is a long way from creating anything with critical appeal, but who knows where they’ll be in a few years or decades.
What do you want readers to get out of your books?
I want them to either laugh, to think, or both. My stories are mostly idea-oriented or satire, with strong themes.
What are you working on now?
I usually work on several short stories at a time, going back and forth. Here are two of them.
-“Highway to Proxima Centauri” – Two enslaved robots discover aliens have created a literal highway running from Antarctica to Proxima Centauri (4.246 light years away, about 25 trillion miles), including a special car. When humans get involved, the two robots (and a penguin!) steal the car and take off on a 41 million year joyride, with many adventures. The central ideas are the enslavement of sentient robots, the cosmic size of the universe, the boredom of long journeys, and the mystery of aliens who are advanced far beyond us.
-“Life After The End” – 12 famous books sit around a fire. When they look into the flames, they are able to see what happens after The End in their books. They may not like what they see. The books are A Christmas Carol, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Time Machine, the Bible, A Dance with Dragons, The Origin of Species, Gone with the Wind, 1984, and Mein Kampf. (Every story needs a villain!)
If someone wants to purchase something you’ve written, how can they do this?
My books are linked here:
https://www.tabletenniscoaching.com/larryhodgesbooks
Most of my publications can be found here:
What advice do you have for people who want to become professional authors?
Read and write regularly. Critique other work as you learn from that, while getting your own work critiqued. Critters.org is one place for that. Attend at least one major science fiction writing workshop, such as Odyssey, one of the Clarions, or Viable Paradise. (I went to the six-week Odyssey writing workshop. They also have online versions that you take at your own pace, “Your Personal Odyssey.”) And then – write! But you better love to write and tell stories. Otherwise, run for your life! Here’s my own Writing System:
https://larryhodges.org/my-short-story-writing-system/
And here’s my 50 Writing Quotes, published by SFWA!