SIX QUESTIONS WITH AUTHOR STEVEN BARNES
Talking 'Bout Writing With Writers
STEVEN BARNES is a New York Times bestselling author, screenwriter, and educator who has written more than thirty science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels. Octavia E. Butler called Barnes’s Endeavor-Award-winning novel Lion’s Blood “imaginative, well researched, well written, and devastating.” The NAACP Image Award winner is also a pioneering television writer who has written for The Outer Limits (Showtime), The New Twilight Zone (Showtime), Stargate SG-1, Andromeda, and Ben 10: Alien Force. He has been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Cable Ace Awards. Barnes has lectured at UCLA, Mensa, Pasadena JPL, taught at Seattle University, hosted the "Hour 25" radio show on KPFK, been Kung Fu columnist for Black Belt Magazine, and been a "Starred Speaker" at the L.A. Screenwriting Expo. An avid yogi and martial artist with three black belts, Steven is also a pioneer in the human potential movement, creating the groundbreaking “Lifewriting” creativity system, making writers the heroes of their own stories.
SIX QUESTIONS
1 - Which writer who came before, do you admire the most?
Shakespeare
2 - Which teacher(s) had the most profound effect on you?
Robert McKee
3 - Besides writing, what’s your favorite hobby or passion?
Being a Dad
4 - What is something that those who don’t write fiction do not know or understand about it?
That talent is not skill. Skill is developed, not inborn.
5 - Can you think of a key breakthrough moment in your work, for you, that you’d be willing to share?
Realizing that the Hero's Journey applied to life as much as writing.
6 - What’s next for you?
Hopefully, a film or a television series.