Douglas Smith's blog

Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews me on Facebook regarding my Aurora-nominated story, "The Dancer at the Red Door"...

MARK: It's interesting that you mention this, because I could feel the pulse and beat of the city's song while reading this story. And I would imagine it's your admitted impatience with building tedious description that leads to your strength in writing descriptions that capture the reader. Can you talk a bit about how you decided to use the lyrical interludes of the "city song" between scenes in the story.

Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews me on Facebook regarding my Aurora-nominated story, "The Dancer at the Red Door"...

Mark: In "The Dancer at the Red Door" you touch upon all the senses quite wonderfully. Can you discuss how you use these sensual touchpoints to draw the reader into your fiction?

Doug: I've often been described as a very visual writer, which always make me chuckle because I hate writing description. 

Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews me on Facebook regarding my Aurora-nominated story, "The Dancer at the Red Door"...

Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews me on Facebook regarding my Aurora-nominated story, "The Dancer at the Red Door"... MARK: Thanks for that background, Doug. I'm going to want to ask about your novel a bit later in the interview. But for now I'd like to talk a little bit about DATRD (hope it's okay that I'm abbreviating "The Dancer at the Red Door" in this fashion). This story contains some phenomenal illustrations of the "rut" of commuter working class routines. And I just have to quote from one of them here:

Aurora nominees are currently being interviewed on the discussion boards in the Facebook Group "Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy." Friend and fellow writer, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, has kindly agreed to interview me about my nominated short story, ""The Dancer at the Red Door." I'll be reposting the interview here over the next couple of days. Here's the first Q&A:

Toronto's annual Ad Astra con this year found all five Aurora Award nominees for "Best Short Form" in attendance. Pictured here, left to right, are Stephen Kotowych, Tony Pi, Hayden Trenholm, David Clink, and yours truly. I was nominated for my story, "The Dancer at the Red Door." Ad Astra is always a great con, and I highly recommend it if you've never attended.

I mentioned in my last entry that the long-running Czech pro magazine, Ikarie, had reprinted my Aurora-winning story "Scream Angel." Two issues later, they also reprinted its companion story, "Enlightenment", a 2005 Aurora Award finalist. Check out reviews and the story's publishing history.

My 2004 Aurora Award winning novelette, "Scream Angel", was reprinted in the Czech pro magazine, Ikarie, a while back (2006), but I have only just now received my contributor copies. I'm assuming that the cover was somehow inspired by the story, but some, uh, artistic license is apparent. Still a cool cover.

Seeing that it was about time to update my free "story of the month," I've used this as an excuse to post "Scream Angel" online. If you're interested, you can read some reviews and the publishing history for the story. Enjoy!

My short story "The Dancer at the Red Door" is on the final ballot for the 2008 Aurora Award in the category "Best Short Form Work in English." This story first appeared in 2007 in the DAW anthology UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS (editors Julie Czerneda and Jana Paniccia).

Julie told me that the story inspired the artwork for the antho's spiffy cover. Look left. See thumbnail of cover. Click on thumbnail. Go "ooh!!! ah!!!". Better yet, read the story here. If you enjoy "The Dancer...", please consider voting for it for the Aurora Award.

Here's the full storyboard script for the independent film that was recently shot based upon my short story "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down." Thanks to director Anthony Sumner for kindly lettin