Gully Foyle

The following interview is with Zach Poulter, author of “Shell Game,” a mind-bending noir thriller that follows a detective caught in a deadly war between body-stealing immortals–while one of them controls him. This award-winning short story is for fans of The Adjustment Bureau, Memento, and Richard K. Morgan.

Interviewer: Joni Labaqui, Contest Director of Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Note: There are 12 author winners each year in the contest, and one 1st place winner among these each quarter. These four authors compete for the L. Ron Hubbard Golden Pen Award which is announced at the Annual Gala! The winner is also awarded $5,000. Zach is one of the talented contenders!

Joni: Can you share the spark of inspiration behind your winning story? What real-world event, personal experience, or imaginative ‘what if’ moment ignited the idea?

Zach: I vividly remember standing in my Idaho backyard as a ten-year-old, next to our woodpile and the bordering hay field, and realizing with absolute shock that every other human on the planet was just as conscious and alive and real as I was—and yet that the only eyes I would ever see through were my own. And I started wondering right then what it would be like to truly see through someone else’s eyes. To inhabit their life.

I suppose you could characterize this as a deeply empathetic thought for a kid, but you could also rightly describe it as sort of creepy. Both sides of that equation have stayed with me through the years—I’ll let you decide which one wins out in my story.

Joni: How did you first fall in love with writing science fiction or fantasy? Was there a particular book, author, or life event that drew you into the genre and convinced you to pursue it professionally?

Zach: I definitely started out as a reader, devouring pretty much any book I could get my hands on. (As a kid, I would literally spend hours reading from the dictionary and our massive set of encyclopedias.) Over time, I developed a preference for stories that contained dragons and time machines and wizards and space travel, and all the wonderful mind-expanding elements of science fiction and fantasy. Much-loved authors included C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, and Terry Brooks. J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE RETURN OF THE KING was my undisputed favorite book in high school, even unseating that marvelous set of encyclopedias.

Despite this, the busy college and early-career years almost killed my reading habit. Luckily, I had to do a lot of writing during my graduate degree (music education), and it reignited the spark—not just to read, but to write. I adapted my thesis into a nonfiction book, which was subsequently published.

And that pretty much cured my desire to write nonfiction.

With the thesis and nonfiction book tucked away, I was eager to read for pleasure, and to write my own stories. One of the first books I picked up was Ralph Ellison’s masterpiece INVISIBLE MAN. It’s not fantasy or science fiction, but it is a stunningly emotional and thoughtful and challenging book. It made me remember that books can deeply matter, that they can tell deep truths by bending reality. Even though I could never write a book like Ellison’s, his words solidified my decision to be a writer of fiction.

Joni: As a debut author in the Writers of the Future contest, what challenges did you face during the submission process, and how did overcoming them shape your growth as a writer?

Zach: Discouragement is real for all of us, and I’m certainly not immune. I’ve written well over a million words of fiction and received over a thousand rejections. It hurts every time. Several years ago, in the midst of my first dozen unpublished novels and many rejected stories, I received an inspired gift—a little thought that lodged itself in my head, taking up some of the space where the self-doubt likes to linger.

TO CREATE IS AN ACT OF FAITH.

Simple, right? Obvious even. But it struck me powerfully. I wrote it out and put it next to my computer as a reminder to work on my faith, because I believe my efforts are meant to serve something greater than myself.

Joni: What themes in your story do you hope resonate most with readers, and how do they reflect your views on the world or the future?

Zach: My story explores themes of trust and identity. What is actually real? Who can I truly trust? My story doesn’t deal directly with technology, but in this sudden age of AI, these are questions we’re all going to be asking more often, with greater urgency. (They’re definitely the questions I keep asking. I have a story overtly exploring AI and relationships, forthcoming in Analog magazine.)

How do we negotiate a world where we are becoming little more than a commodity, targeted for the benefit of entities who have infinitely more power and knowledge than we do? I’m not entirely pessimistic, but the path forward is exceedingly narrow.

Joni: Looking back, what's one piece of advice you'd give to aspiring writers entering contests like Writers of the Future, based on your own path to becoming a quarterly first-place winner?

Zach: Learn to embrace the pain.

Okay, maybe ‘pain’ is too melodramatic. Learn to embrace the discomfort.

I did almost everything wrong on my path to winning Writers of the Future, but there is one thing I’m sure I did right. My driving focus was never to win a contest, or get an agent, or publish a story—as wonderful as those things are. My unrelenting goal was (IS) simply to get better. To improve. Because that’s the one thing I could actually control. For me, that meant doing things that were often uncomfortable: writing consistently, taking challenging classes, reading widely, joining a writing group, regularly submitting my work, and trying to learn from literally thousands of rejections.

Here’s the great part—if your goal is to get published, then a rejection feels like failure. The end. Game over. But if your goal is to get better, a rejection isn’t a failure at all. Sure, it still hurts. But when your goal is to get better, that rejection is just one more piece of needed information. It’s a stepping stone.

So embrace the pain. Use it to motivate yourself into the next story, the next grueling revision, the next needed skill. The next infinite possibility.

Joni: Beyond writing, what hobbies or passions influence your storytelling, and how might they play a role in your future works?

Zach: I’ve been a musician for most of my life. It massively informs my writing, especially my sense of pacing and voice. Music gives me a deep, emotional connection to people and cultures wildly different than my own. I couldn’t leave it out of my writing if I tried. Also, I’m endlessly fascinated by the natural world, and space travel, and the Ottoman Empire, and corporate accounting, and religion, and martial arts, and languages, and… You get the idea. In a way, I’m still that kid who loved reading encyclopedias. One of the most joyful things about being a writer is having the excuse to constantly learn new things. I hope that much of my future writing explores ideas I haven’t even thought of yet.

Joni: As we approach the gala, what are you most excited about—whether it’s networking with industry pros, seeing your story in print, or the thrill of competing for the grand prize?

Zach: I can’t imagine a better learning environment for a writer than the upcoming Writers of the Future workshop. I’ll get to learn from some of the world’s most skilled and successful writers of science fiction and fantasy, and I’ll have the privilege of doing it alongside a cohort of incredibly talented new authors.

And speaking of stepping stones (see question 5), I have a feeling that seeing my story in print alongside so many wonderful people is going to be a deeply satisfying stepping stone. (Actually, no doubt about it—WAY better than rejection.)

Joni Labaqui

Zach Poulter

Be sure to preorder Writers of the Future Volume 42 so you are one of the first to read Zach’s “Shell Game,” along with the other 11 debut authors, award-winning illustrators, and bonus stories by sci-fi legend Orson Scott Card and Nina Kiriki Hoffmen.

Joni Labaqui, Contest Director of Writers & Illustrators of the Future.

Zach Poulter is a writer, educator, and musician. Having previously published music—and words about music—he now writes all stripes of speculative fiction. He lives in Utah with his patient wife, clever children, and far-too-few saxophones.

https://www.zachpoulter.com/ and https://www.amazon.com/stores/Zach-Poulter/author/B0GJNDPP1S

Writers of the Future Links:
Writers of the Future Vol 42: https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Hubbard-Presents-Writers-Future/dp/1619869004
Writers of the Future Series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XXCD2DQ
Enter the Writing Contest: https://www.writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest/
Free Writing Workshop:  https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writing-workshop/
Writing Podcast:  https://www.writersofthefuture.com/podcast/
Writers Forum:  https://www.writersofthefuture.com/forum/
Annual Awards Gala: https://writersofthefuture.com/the-awards-event/