Interview with Loren W. Cooper, author of CrossTown

What can you tell us about your new release, CrossTown?

CrossTown was featured in the Publisher’s Weekly article on genre mashups, with the tagline, “a sorcerer explores the frontier of theoretical physics.” In the universe of CrossTown, the decisions we make when we build roads form a kind of network of probability, through which a knowledgeable traveler can cross into alternate universes. CrossTown is where those roads come together, and folklore, history, fantasy, scifi, and possibility all come together. And of course, CrossTown is all about the journey Zethus, the main character, makes as he tries to survive and solve the mystery of his Master’s murder.

What or who inspired you to become an author?

I’ve been a reader as long as I can remember. I fell in love with writing in high school, under an English teacher Bob Monson. But my inspiration for joining Stanly Fish’s conversation was probably everyone I had ever read who left a mark on me, from Asimov to Zelazny.

What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read?

It’s tough to get down to 5, and revolves at any given moment. Authors are probably easier than books, but let me give it a shot. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Of Wolf and Man, Lord of Light, Armor, Silverlock.

Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?

I might get James Gunn as my first guest, and ask him what it’s like to have seen the lifecycle of modern science fiction.

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

The moment when the Muse is upon you and you become lost in the story, and the words pour out of you and you look up at the clock, stiff and sore, and realize six hours have passed in a timeless moment.

What is a typical day like for you?

I have children. No day is typical. I write when I can, I work when I must, and I try to be there for my family.

What scene in CrossTown was your favorite to write?

There’s a long sequence where I borrow heavily from the Tri-State Tornado (The Tri-state Tornado, on March 18, 1925, ripped across Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana, taking almost 700 lives and virtually wiping several communities off the map: it was the deadliest tornado in US history) for a character and setting. The eyewitness accounts informed the work, and gave that scene far more depth than it would have had otherwise.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

In an earlier age I probably would have been a Stoic, or perhaps a pragmatist in sense of William James. I’ve always liked Marcus Aurelius, “DO not speak in abstract terms of what it is to be a good man; be one.” The Meditations.

Loren W. Cooper is the author of the new book CrossTown. 

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