Dan Simmons, A Man for All Genres
Locus Magazine, October 2002

Excerpts from the interview:

“The most frequent question I'm asked as a writer is ‘Why do you write in so many genres?’ To that, my honest answer is, ‘I grew up in the Midwest. Everyone there knows — it’s in our DNA — that it’s important to rotate the crops. Keep growing the same thing in the same field for enough years and nothing will grow. Celebrating diversity, when it comes to growing crops and writing books, is more than a slogan."

“Even so, I don’t recommend writing across genres to beginning writers of any age. First of all, the essence of most successful writing careers that don’t begin with a giant literary success — say with someone like Tony Hillerman or Jack Vance or Donald Westlake — is to do approximately the same thing very well year in and year out until the wider readership suddenly ‘discovers’ you."

Read full article at Locus Magazine >