Martinus Publishing’s latest anthology, VFW: Veterans of theFuture Wars, is coming out in February 2014.
To kick off this new book release, I’ll be doing interviews with some of the
authors who have stories featured in this collection. Today, I'm interviewing Mary
Pletsch, an exceptional author who contributed the story “The Last and the
Least.” Thank you for taking the time to be
interviewed, Mary.
MTI: Starting off, could you tell our readers a
little bit about yourself?
Mary Pletsch: I
joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets when I was 14 and got my glider pilot’s
license at 16 and my private pilot’s license at 17. I love video games like Halo and Mass Effect,
and I collect 80’s toys. I don’t collect
cats; we just happen to have four of them.
MTI: I know how
cats are, more like they collect us. Now,
getting down to business; what first compelled you to weave fiction, and what's
your favorite type of story to write?
MP: I don’t remember when I first wove fiction,
but I know that I was too young to make letters. I’d grab a pen and fill pages and pages with
up-and-down zig-zag lines. When asked
what I was doing, I said I was writing a story.
When asked to read what I’d written, I promptly recited an original
story. My ability to read the same story
every time improved immensely when I learned to print.
As for what’s my favourite type of story to write, I’d say a
story that lets me experience the way the world looks through a character’s
eyes. That’s why I write tight third
person point of view– the story is told from the character’s point of view, and
everything in the descriptions, the events, what’s noticed and what isn’t, is
affected by the way that character perceives the world. I don’t want to write characters who think
and act just like I do. I want to explore
how it feels to live someone else’s experiences.
MTI: Tell me, if you had to pick just one author
who has influenced or inspired you, who would it be?
MP: Karen Traviss, author of “City of Pearl.”
MTI: “The Last and the Least” appears in VFW, an
anthology of military science fiction stories that honor soldiers and
veterans. Was there any particular
inspiration for this story?
MP: I was visiting the USS Arizona Memorial at
Pearl Harbour, standing in front of the shrine where the names of all those
killed on the Arizona are inscribed,
and I saw a plaque off to the side. The
plaque holds the names of Arizona
survivors and veterans who’ve chosen to have their ashes interred within the
ship (or in the cases of veterans who served on the Arizona but were not posted to her on the day she sank, their ashes
are scattered on the water over the ship).
I thought about those survivors who went on to fight through the war,
lived for decades after the war, and then chose to come back to the ship in
death, to join their shipmates. And I
hoped those men were able to find something good in those decades, that they
didn’t spend their whole lives waiting to go back. “The Last and the Least” ended up being about
when your unit becomes your family, and survivor’s guilt, and how heroism
sometimes doesn’t feel heroic from the inside, and why veterans need society’s
support and understanding.
MTI: Quite profound. Now, if you could go back to any point in
history, when would you visit?
MP: I’ve always loved First World War air combat
stories. I adored Captain W.E. Johns’
“Biggles” books as a teenager. To get
the chance to fly an Albatros D.V. or Sopwith Camel for myself... I couldn’t
turn that down.
MTI: If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who
would it be?
MP: Probably Captain W.E. Johns.
MTI: Shifting back to your writing, can you tell
us a little about what you're working on right now?
MP: 2014 is going to be my novel year. I’ve written a lot of short stories and
novellas, and this year my main goal is to complete a longer work. That being said, there are a few short story
calls for submissions that are very enticing...
MTI: Other than “The Last and the Least”,
appearing in VFW, do you have any other stories being published in the near
future?
MP: I’ve got a horror story called
“Mishipishu: The Ghost Story of Penny
Jaye Prufrock” that came out in January 2014, in a collection called “Fossil
Lake: An Anthology of the Aberrant” by
Daverana Press.
MTI: Your biography says you are a graduate of the
Royal Military College of Canada. Would
you be able to elaborate a little about that experience?
MP: Sure.
Mine wasn’t the usual experience, going in as a recruit. I did my undergraduate elsewhere and went to
RMC for a master’s degree in War Studies as a civilian student. My thesis was about the ground crew of 6
Group during the Second World War; there’s been a lot of research about the
flight crews, but very little about the ground crew, who played such an
essential role.
MTI: On a lighter note, have you watched any good
tv lately?
MP: I actually don’t watch TV very much. I saw the Doctor Who Christmas Special with
my family... yes, I know that was a month ago.
I could talk about comic books?
I’m reading James Roberts and Alex Milne’s phenomenal Transformers: More
than Meets the Eye series. The
characterization is absolutely delightful, and the storytelling is top-notch.
MTI: What sort of music do you enjoy?
MP: My music collection’s a strange mix of metal
– Sabaton, Iron Maiden; East Coast – Rawlins Cross, Great Big Sea; and 80s
classic rock.
MTI: And if you would, name three movies that you
could watch over and over again and not be bored.
MP: Top Gun, Memphis Belle and Stalag 17.
MTI: Three excellent choices. Memphis Belle is an underrated classic. You have the attention of potential
readers. Are there any great words of
wisdom you’d like to share with them? Perhaps
something that would persuade them to purchase your work?
MP: I think all I can do is go back to the themes
in “The Last and the Least.” If a
country asks for volunteers to serve in its military, to fight in its name, I
think that country and that society have an obligation to take care of their
veterans. Support for those who come
home with mental as well as physical injuries has to be there. It’s our responsibility as citizens to demand
this of our policy makers.
MTI: Indeed.
Readers love free samples, so on that note here is the first paragraphs
of “The Last and the Least.”
If
we had only known. That’s what all the politicians’
speeches said, and all the calls to arms, and these decades later the holograph
documentaries and the history books. If we had only known what the colonials had
been planning, we would have been ready.
If they’d had any honor, they would have declared war with digital
signatures. Instead, their proclamation
was written in the wreckage of Her Eminence’s Starship Canada, in the sleepy quiet of a Saturday morning on the Milky Way
Hub.
If we had only known, I wouldn’t be
lying here now, an old woman who can’t sleep through the night, watching my
chronograph glowing softly in the dark and asking myself, what if. It is the same
question the holodioramas and webstreams ask, except they ask what might have
been if various Terran heroes or key political figures had discovered the
Colonial plan before their attack took us all by surprise. I ask what if I—only I—had been granted
precognition.
This has been a thoroughly enjoyable interview. I’d like to thank Mary Pletsch for taking the
time to answer these questions. Those of
you who want to check out some thrilling, insightful, and imaginative military
sci-fi, check out VFW: Veterans of the Future Wars today!
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