Drive-by from the Campbell: Lezli Robyn

Yes! Lezli is our Aussie nom-nom-nominee for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer! Fingers crossed for AussieCon 4! Her qualifying story is Idle Roomer, written with the legendary Mike Resnick for Clarkesworld. She was an Aurealis Awards finalist in 2009 for the novelette Soulmates (also written with Mike Resnick). She sold eight stories to professional US markets such as Analog and Asimov’s, since October 2008 and is well and truly on the scene.

Here she answers my random questions.

1. I hate being a writer when …
…I don’t have the time to actually write.

Writing has been an escape for me, and also a source of fulfillment and enjoyment too. And I’ve had a hell of a lot of unavoidable distractions that have kept me from my stories lately, including moving house twice, my computer deleting many of my files or corrupting them in a system failure, and I’ve been doing a lot of overtime at my day job.

I’m looking forward to a more productive – and settled – second half of the year. Now that I’ve discovered writing, I know what I’m missing in my life when I can’t write: my creative outlet.

2. What did you do when you found out you’d made it to the Campbell short list?
Oh, my answer to this question is quite boring! I was home alone, and I was unable to contact my family as they were out at the movies, and my frequent writing collaborator (Mike Resnick) was asleep -I literally couldn’t tell anyone for a couple of hours, and I couldn’t broadcast my happiness online because I had to keep quiet until the official press release. So I broke out the chocolate and alternated between grinning like an idiot and pinching myself to see if it was real.

3. The story idea I am most embarrassed by is …
… the one I thought was so moving and also very unique, only to discover it had been written (quite famously, but unheard of to me) before. Oh dear! I remember I was so very excited by it, and was discussing it enthusiastically with another writer, and they gently (with amusement) broke the news to me that it won’t be my next masterpiece. I grin now when I remember it, but I remember blushing profusely then.

4. What do you do with your rejection slips?
I’ve never received a physical rejection ship. But to answer your question, I’d probably frame the first one, and put it on my desk as an incentive to do better with my writing, and then file the rest away. (As a similar incentive, I’ve framed the page from the Aurealis Awards booklet that shows my nomination.)

That’s not to say I’ve never received a story rejection. My third collaboration with Mike Resnick was rejected, however the rejection was done via email. I kept the email filed on my computer, but we both believed the best response to a rejection was to submit the story to another publisher.

It sold to that publisher.

5. Donuts (or doughnuts) or Danishes?
The simple pleasures in life: Cinnamon donuts. Mmmmmm….