December 2019
Hi, Brian-- Can you tell us a little what your story, "Tunnels," is about?
Niccolo di Venezia is a man who doesn't age. From his youth in 15th century Italy, "Tunnels" tracks him across a varied life of loss and longing, during which he encounters friends, lovers, war, and even a glimpse of hope through a relentlessly changing world. He is the constant amid the march of time. As he puts it: "Every blink of my eyes takes away the things I love."
How did you come up with the idea?
"Tunnels" grew from a few different inspirations. Around the middle of 2019, I was returning from a literary convention when I missed my connecting flight at Chicago O'Hare. With the next flight several hours away, I experienced my first-ever airport sleepover; I was given a blanket and pillow, and directed to a corridor of narrow cots where other hapless travelers were camping out in a kind of Neverwhere-like limbo. Apparently, that corridor was also the sleep apnea ward, so I didn't get anything in the way of normal slumber. I ended up wandering the lonely airport like a purgatorial ghost until my flight was ready.
Once home, I was able to sleep in my own bed. A few hours in, I awoke in a panic, surrounded by darkness. I had no idea where I was. I sat there, trying to remember if I was still at my convention hotel in Oklahoma, or at the airport, or even in one of the numerous hotels I had stayed at during a recent trip to Italy. It took me a while to realize that I was back in New England. The next night, the same thing happened. It got me thinking of how someone with a longer lifespan might feel under similar circumstances. What possible places and time periods might they have to scroll through in their disorientation? What language should they cry out for help in?
The character of Niccolo di Venezia occurred to me then. Venice is one of the my favorite places in the world, and my visit to the floating city (especially my night-time explorations of its labyrinthine streets) was still fresh in my mind. Venice at night is a surreal, dream-like place. I began to sketch out other eras I wanted to tackle in the story, as well as how to tether them; "Tunnels" is peppered with little references, callbacks, and foreshadowing that link the historical fragments. The "waking up" motif helped me develop the story's rhythm, as well as to establish the disorientation an immortal might feel.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
I'm a professional writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and my interests include literature, history, mythology, and cinema. My work has been featured in a number of Third Flatiron anthologies ("The JPEG of Dorian Gray" in Principia Ponderosa, "Project Sargasso Findings on Global Nightmare Epidemic" in Strange Beasties, "Alien TV Shows are Bad for Your Eyes" in Monstrosities, and "Cry the Thousand Sentinels" in Hidden Histories.) I also publish in a diverse range of magazines including Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Daily Science Fiction, Nature Futures, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Galaxy's Edge, and have been featured in multiple anthologies from Baen Books.
Where can listeners find more of your work?
My novel, Ten Thousand Thunders (Flame Tree Press), is now available at bookstores and online retailers. My story "Crash-Site" is featured in The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF Volume 5 and was awarded the Readers' Choice Award at DragonCon earlier this year. Please visit the Published Works page of my website for links to free stories (including audio versions of stories at Escape Artists podcasts) at http://briantrent.com. My stories "Sparg" and "Karma Among the Cloud Kings" are two of my most popular for listening.)
Any new work we should keep an eye out for?
Several of my stories will be published in 2020. Two are scheduled to appear in Fantasy & Science Fiction: a sci-fi mystery entitled "Death on the Nefertem Express," and a sci-fi look at propaganda in "The Monsters of Olympus Mons." Pole to Pole Publishing's Not Far From Roswell anthology is featuring my X-Files-flavored alien abduction story, "The Sightflower." Baen Books is publishing my Cold War thriller, "Shadow Rook Red" in a to-be-announced anthology. "Director X and the Thrilling Wonders of Outer Space" is my retro-themed love letter to the sci-fi films of the 1950s-60s and which will appear in the We, Robots anthology from Head of Zeus. I also have a particularly grisly horror story slated for Shock Totem entitled, "The Dark Lord of Silk."
(And just for Juli's curiosity: What are you reading now?)
I'm currently reading China Mieville's jaw-dropping The Scar. I recently finished a reread of Jules Verne that was precisely the dose of high adventure and enjoyment I was looking for.
Thanks, Brian, we're thrilled to have you read "Tunnels" for our podcast!
~~~~~
If you enjoyed this story, please check out Infinite Lives: Short Tales of Longevity, available on Amazon. It features many more stories on the theme of immortality and life extension.
Copyright 2019, Third Flatiron Publishing
https://www.thirdflatiron.com
Please support our creators!
.