Orange City is not your first book, though it’s your first in the Science Fiction genre. Tell us what drew you to the genre.
I’ve always been a big fan of Sci-Fi and the book is something I’ve been working on for many years, so I think it just took a lot longer to build the world. My last novel The Ancestor flirted with Sci-Fi as well, so it’s a genre I’ve been naturally moving toward.
The Orange City of the title is a dystopian place “ruled by a monstrous figure called the “Man” who resembles a giant demented spider”, where felons and the unwanted are given a second chance at life. What led you to write such a story now?
The book began as a short story about the advertising industry and slowly more and more strange Sci-Fi elements were added. Because I’ve been working so long on the novel, it’s interesting to see any real world parallels that have arisen. The “Man” was influenced from Slenderman and Francis Bacon’s paintings, so he was a character from early on. I’ve had people comment that the title has “orange” in it, relating to Trump, but that’s just a weird coincidence.
Books such as 1984 seem prophetic, though they also reflect the time when they were written. How does a writer proceed when current events seem bizarre and even surreal?
Definitely current events shaped later drafts. The Trump era of us moving toward a dictatorship fell in line with a lot of similarities to the “Man.” So I think the book has more meaning to it than when I began to write. The novel also takes place after “The War to End All Wars,” so the world, and especially America, has been reeling. For those brought to the imagined City, they see it as an escape. It’s their desperation for some type of better life, which allows them to be snared.
Tell us about the protagonist of the book, Graham Weatherend. How does he come to Orange City?
When he was nineteen and broke, Graham robbed a liquor store with a wooden gun. Instead of jail, he’s given the opportunity to come to the City instead and work for its advertising company. His parents have died so he really has no one and sees it as a chance to restart his life. There is a bigger conspiracy that actually brings him specifically there, which you find out, but I don’t want to spoil too much.
There is mention of a sequel and indeed a series. How do you see it developing?
I’ve plotted out about 2/3 of the sequel. It’s called Lemonworld and follows the characters in a different City with some similarities. Readers will learn more about what happened in the War to End All Wars, which is only touched on in the first book. I see the series adaptable to TV as well, so that’s something I will be working on too.
You are the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, devoted to “books on the fringe that can’t be put in a box, that bleed from genre to genre, that don’t quite exist in the same reality as our own.” Do you think traditional genres are dissolving, and what does this mean for writers and publishers?
Yeah, Fringe was intended to launch in 2020, but due to Covid I’m pushing it forward to likely 2022. I want to launch it right. I do think traditional genres are dissolving. Readers are hungry for unique books and want something different. A lot of work bleeds genres a little so it’s a natural progression for me. For the big presses it’s hard to sell books that are not easily marketable, but indie presses are doing a lot more exciting things. Certain imprints in big presses are as well, so hopefully others will start taking more chances and publishing books that don’t so easily fit in a box.
Brick and mortar bookshops like Blackwell’s in the UK and Powell’s in the States are divided according to genre. Has the appearance of online stores such as Amazon enabled the breakdown of genres?
Amazon has broken it down in a lot of ways. Especially because when you buy a book, it’s tells you others you may like. And there are so many specific genres rather than just Thriller, Romance, Sci-Fi. My novel The Ancestor is a thriller, but also literary and historical with a bit of Sci-Fi too. It would be hard to find a shelf for it in a bookstore, although a place like Powell’s is amazing and I’m sure they’d find the perfect place to showcase.
When Graham Weatherend becomes addicted to Pow! Sodas, they paradoxically make him realise he’s living in a false or nightmare reality. What inspired this idea?
I write a lot about obsession and addictions. I gave up white sugar as well in my actual life, so I’ve been thinking a lot about how bad sugar is for you and the clarity someone has when they give it up. Some people have a Diet Coke every day when they wake up. We’ve become addicted to advertising and sometimes it’s hard to see ourselves out of what we get used to. Soda, for example, is so responsible for a lot of people’s health issues.
On your web-page, you call yourself a writer born in N.Y.C. How important is New York to you and how has it influenced you as a writer, given its almost mythical status in literature and film?
I love being a Native New Yorker. When the weather is nice, I write every day at a tree in Central Park. A good chunk of my books take place in NYC as well. The city is so alive that it really fuels my creativity. I like to leave and take breaks from it when I travel, but I’ll always come home. There’s no place like New York.
How does Orange City relate to the real New York and other cities of the imagination?
There are some parallels. There is a Downtown area in Orange City that’s like a Blade Runner version of NYC. I think because I’ve lived here all my life it naturally bleeds into my work. Lemonworld will be more of a barren wasteland, so for that I’ll probably have to go to parts of Arizona or Utah for inspiration.
Tell us about some of your other novels and your writing generally. I think it’s safe to say that you are a prolific writer!
Thank you! I do write a lot. My last novel The Ancestor was about a man who wakes up in the Alaskan wilderness believing he was frozen in time from the 1800s when he was a Gold Rush prospector. I also have my first YA coming out in the Spring too called Runaway Train about a girl in the 1990s who runs away from home to go meet Kurt Cobain and become a grunge singer. I like to work on different kinds of projects to challenge myself and so I never get bored.
How do you feel about writing novels and series, as opposed to short stories and screenplays?
I do them all. A novel is definitely the most work, so I find short stories and screenplays as palate cleansers. I’m in the process of adapting all my books into scripts right now.
I’ve always been a big fan of Sci-Fi and the book is something I’ve been working on for many years, so I think it just took a lot longer to build the world. My last novel The Ancestor flirted with Sci-Fi as well, so it’s a genre I’ve been naturally moving toward.
The Orange City of the title is a dystopian place “ruled by a monstrous figure called the “Man” who resembles a giant demented spider”, where felons and the unwanted are given a second chance at life. What led you to write such a story now?
The book began as a short story about the advertising industry and slowly more and more strange Sci-Fi elements were added. Because I’ve been working so long on the novel, it’s interesting to see any real world parallels that have arisen. The “Man” was influenced from Slenderman and Francis Bacon’s paintings, so he was a character from early on. I’ve had people comment that the title has “orange” in it, relating to Trump, but that’s just a weird coincidence.
Books such as 1984 seem prophetic, though they also reflect the time when they were written. How does a writer proceed when current events seem bizarre and even surreal?
Definitely current events shaped later drafts. The Trump era of us moving toward a dictatorship fell in line with a lot of similarities to the “Man.” So I think the book has more meaning to it than when I began to write. The novel also takes place after “The War to End All Wars,” so the world, and especially America, has been reeling. For those brought to the imagined City, they see it as an escape. It’s their desperation for some type of better life, which allows them to be snared.
Tell us about the protagonist of the book, Graham Weatherend. How does he come to Orange City?
When he was nineteen and broke, Graham robbed a liquor store with a wooden gun. Instead of jail, he’s given the opportunity to come to the City instead and work for its advertising company. His parents have died so he really has no one and sees it as a chance to restart his life. There is a bigger conspiracy that actually brings him specifically there, which you find out, but I don’t want to spoil too much.
There is mention of a sequel and indeed a series. How do you see it developing?
I’ve plotted out about 2/3 of the sequel. It’s called Lemonworld and follows the characters in a different City with some similarities. Readers will learn more about what happened in the War to End All Wars, which is only touched on in the first book. I see the series adaptable to TV as well, so that’s something I will be working on too.
You are the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, devoted to “books on the fringe that can’t be put in a box, that bleed from genre to genre, that don’t quite exist in the same reality as our own.” Do you think traditional genres are dissolving, and what does this mean for writers and publishers?
Yeah, Fringe was intended to launch in 2020, but due to Covid I’m pushing it forward to likely 2022. I want to launch it right. I do think traditional genres are dissolving. Readers are hungry for unique books and want something different. A lot of work bleeds genres a little so it’s a natural progression for me. For the big presses it’s hard to sell books that are not easily marketable, but indie presses are doing a lot more exciting things. Certain imprints in big presses are as well, so hopefully others will start taking more chances and publishing books that don’t so easily fit in a box.
Brick and mortar bookshops like Blackwell’s in the UK and Powell’s in the States are divided according to genre. Has the appearance of online stores such as Amazon enabled the breakdown of genres?
Amazon has broken it down in a lot of ways. Especially because when you buy a book, it’s tells you others you may like. And there are so many specific genres rather than just Thriller, Romance, Sci-Fi. My novel The Ancestor is a thriller, but also literary and historical with a bit of Sci-Fi too. It would be hard to find a shelf for it in a bookstore, although a place like Powell’s is amazing and I’m sure they’d find the perfect place to showcase.
When Graham Weatherend becomes addicted to Pow! Sodas, they paradoxically make him realise he’s living in a false or nightmare reality. What inspired this idea?
I write a lot about obsession and addictions. I gave up white sugar as well in my actual life, so I’ve been thinking a lot about how bad sugar is for you and the clarity someone has when they give it up. Some people have a Diet Coke every day when they wake up. We’ve become addicted to advertising and sometimes it’s hard to see ourselves out of what we get used to. Soda, for example, is so responsible for a lot of people’s health issues.
On your web-page, you call yourself a writer born in N.Y.C. How important is New York to you and how has it influenced you as a writer, given its almost mythical status in literature and film?
I love being a Native New Yorker. When the weather is nice, I write every day at a tree in Central Park. A good chunk of my books take place in NYC as well. The city is so alive that it really fuels my creativity. I like to leave and take breaks from it when I travel, but I’ll always come home. There’s no place like New York.
How does Orange City relate to the real New York and other cities of the imagination?
There are some parallels. There is a Downtown area in Orange City that’s like a Blade Runner version of NYC. I think because I’ve lived here all my life it naturally bleeds into my work. Lemonworld will be more of a barren wasteland, so for that I’ll probably have to go to parts of Arizona or Utah for inspiration.
Tell us about some of your other novels and your writing generally. I think it’s safe to say that you are a prolific writer!
Thank you! I do write a lot. My last novel The Ancestor was about a man who wakes up in the Alaskan wilderness believing he was frozen in time from the 1800s when he was a Gold Rush prospector. I also have my first YA coming out in the Spring too called Runaway Train about a girl in the 1990s who runs away from home to go meet Kurt Cobain and become a grunge singer. I like to work on different kinds of projects to challenge myself and so I never get bored.
How do you feel about writing novels and series, as opposed to short stories and screenplays?
I do them all. A novel is definitely the most work, so I find short stories and screenplays as palate cleansers. I’m in the process of adapting all my books into scripts right now.
To return to Fringe, what are the different challenges of being a publisher as well as a writer?
There are a lot of challenges and I’m just beginning. Right now, I’m figuring out some logistics of what I want the company to be before we launch. I’m thinking of moving it further in a Hollywood direction, so the books we acquire are in the process of having interest in film or TV as well. I’m putting a pause on taking on any more novels until I decide exactly what I want to do.
How has the pandemic, itself a dystopian event, affected you as a writer?
As a writer I’ve been super prolific. Early on, writing was a way of escaping what was happening. I leave my body sometimes when I write, so I would go away somewhere when things in New York were really really bad. On the flip side, I released a book during the pandemic and wasn’t able to do a physical tour. That was unfortunate. But I’ve learned a lot about doing things more virtually, which will help for future releases.
What are your plans for the future and what are you working on now?
I just finished the book I wrote over quarantine called The Great Gimmelmans about a family of bank robbers in the 1980s. My agent will send it out soon to editors so hopefully it gets picked up. And I’ll start writing the sequel to Orange City soon too. Looking forward to that!
There are a lot of challenges and I’m just beginning. Right now, I’m figuring out some logistics of what I want the company to be before we launch. I’m thinking of moving it further in a Hollywood direction, so the books we acquire are in the process of having interest in film or TV as well. I’m putting a pause on taking on any more novels until I decide exactly what I want to do.
How has the pandemic, itself a dystopian event, affected you as a writer?
As a writer I’ve been super prolific. Early on, writing was a way of escaping what was happening. I leave my body sometimes when I write, so I would go away somewhere when things in New York were really really bad. On the flip side, I released a book during the pandemic and wasn’t able to do a physical tour. That was unfortunate. But I’ve learned a lot about doing things more virtually, which will help for future releases.
What are your plans for the future and what are you working on now?
I just finished the book I wrote over quarantine called The Great Gimmelmans about a family of bank robbers in the 1980s. My agent will send it out soon to editors so hopefully it gets picked up. And I’ll start writing the sequel to Orange City soon too. Looking forward to that!
About Lee Mathew Goldberg:
Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE ANCESTOR, SLOW DOWN, THE MENTOR from St. Martin’s Press, and THE DESIRE CARD.
He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. His first Sci-fi novel ORANGE CITY will be published in 2021. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box.
His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.
You can usually find him on Twitter @LeeMatthewG.
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