This is not professionally recorded, edited or transcribed. It’s just me telling you a bit about myself and about podcasts, shows, and books I enjoy. All views expressed are my own.
Links to Things I Mention
I Said God Damn! Podcast (with hosts Erin and Stacey)
First Contact Series by Author Peter Cawdron
Heels (Starz show) (As a warning, season two ends on a terrible cliffhanger and season three is not yet available).
Transcript
Hi, I’m Erzsebet. I’m an author of female-centric science fiction with an atmosphere of Gothic dread. I’m making this recording because I think it’s nice to hear people’s voices.
In my spare time, when I’m not writing, I listen to a lot of podcasts. Specifically, true crime podcasts. My favorite right now is I Said God Damn!. It’s a true crime podcast where two ladies, Stacey and Erin, discuss – everything, really. Crime is just a part of it – but what I find truly enjoyable is their banter, they’re very funny, they are very relatable. This is not a … an investigative reporting podcast, by any means – they’ll say so themselves. But it’s just a great … thing to listen to if you’re busy doing your chores and, and … need something to take your mind off of all the billions of things that we all are worrying about.
Another thing I do in my spare time… is, uh, I’m a pro wrestling fan. I enjoy the spectacle, the drama, the … uh, the the … almost ballet performance of violence that is part of pro wrestling. If you’re not a fan and you wanna understand why people would be, I recommend watching the show Heels. Umm, it’s … it gives you an… an idea of why people who love pro wrestling do so. And, yes… Everybody says, and we all know, but people say wrestling is fake. Fake is the incorrect term. The outcomes are fixed, yes, because they’re telling a story… but nothing about the pain, the sacrifice, the intense physical burden that these performers put on themselves to entertain us- None of that is fake.
So… I guess what I’m trying to say is that … I am not just interested in science fiction or Gothic literature or even things that … maybe would, ah, I don’t know. I guess those are two surprising things people may not have guessed about me.
Ummm… What else?
I read a lot. I love to read. I am, uh, going through uh Peter Cawdron’s series of science fiction books called, uh, First Contact. He writes series of standalone novels all based around a theme, rather than having characters that go from… novel to novel and … As you may expect, based on the series title, First Contact, in these novels, each explore what the reaction would be if we’re confronted as a species … with something not of this world. Ah, evidence of, uh, extraterrrestrial intelligence and, he does some fascinating, uh… hmmm, fascinating storytelling and interesting ways of looking at something that can seem kind of hackneyed in other… formats, like science fiction can be very overdone and have its own tropes and … well, he, Peter Cawdron doesn’t necessarily shy away from some of that, he definitely has a new, newer fresher more rigourusly scientific look at what First Contact would entail.
Umm, I reccomend the books. They’re not, umm…, in terms of writing style they’re basically the opporsite of mine. He is very intent on conveying a story that also … educates people on, on science… and so his writing is a lot … mmm, crisper in the sense that it’s … he puts forth the ideas and the situations and the consequences in very straightforward language.
I, on the other hand, … I … love to have snappy dialog. Dialog that sounds like people actually interrupting each other, talking over one another, uh, saying what seems completely random. I do that a lot. His dialog is a lot more, structured? Umm, what else?
I also just, I love … the beauty of a complex sentence. I … think that a well-placed semicolon is a thing of intense beauty. I also love the idea that the way we structure sentences, paraghraps, chapters – all of these can convey … something essential about the story that I’m telling. So, in that sense, my books are … somewhat dense reads, like, but… I don’t think that that makes them bad. Of course, I’m not gonna think my own books are bad, [laughs] so I guess take that with a grain of salt! But they aren’t easy reads. And I’ll be the first to admit that they were not easy to write. There’s a lot of pain and anguish that goes into … really looking at some of the consequences of being a woman in a society where … ethics… often uh, outpaces…
No, [laughs], that’s completely wrong! Where science, in particular the application of technology completely outpaces the ethics of the use of this technology and, that’s … one of my primary focuses in my novels, mainly because I have a background in hard sciences, and I spent… twenty… four years in the software development field.
Uh, as female engineer … in the late-1990s, early-2000s, I can tell you … mmm, definitely male-centric. I have certain … feelings about that, ha. Not all of the guys I worked with were terrible, most of them were wonderful people that have enriched my life in so many ways and I have such gratitude to know them. … But,… there’s some systemic, uh, fuckery that… is still, ah, in the workplace if you’re a female engineer.
So … That is, um, a little bit of thematic underpinning for my series Bitterhaunt Science, and it’s going to be like Peter Cawdron, it’s going to be a series of standalone novels based on a … theme, not upon characters.
So, I guess to wrap up … I hope you have found something interesting in what I said. Let me know if I have interests that surprise you. And you should check out the podcast I Said God Damn, the series of novels First Contact by Peter Cawdron, and … of course you’re welcome to check out my books. You can find my website erzsebetcarmean.com… that’s e-r-z as in Zulu… s-e-b-e-t-c-a-r-m as in, I don’t know … Macho Man? [laughs], okay! e-r-z-s-e-b-e-t-c-a-r-m-e-a-n dot com.
And, with that I will say … bye!
See ya!
Erzsebet Carmean 
Thank you for taking a chance on my writing.
Like you, I love “the beauty of a complex sentence” but something I’ve realized is they need to be scarce to be appreciated. It’s a bit like the difference between a smorgasbord and a degustation.
As soon as you can have all-you-can-eat of something, be that pizza or smoked salmon, it loses its appeal. In an eight-course degustation you might only get a mouthful of something absolutely marvelous and you’re left wanting more, but you don’t realize that if you had more it would lose its allure. In the same way, I’ve recently begun running my novels through the HemingwayApp (and online comparison with the style of Hemingway). He famously wrote to a 5th grade level, which sounds preposterous but is actually astonishingly clever.
Hemingway was trying to avoid reader fatigue. He may have written at a 5th grade level, but he was not writing 5th grade material. Instead, he was writing something that was easy for consumption. He was giving us a degustation. And then, when he does weave in a complex sentence, it hits like Thor’s hammer.
When I first started using the comparison tool, my writing came in at Grade 11, which meant it was a slog for people to read. When I revised down to a Grade 5 level, without compromising on any of the subject matter or characters, my popularity rose simply because the books were digestible. I still weave in complex sentences, but I use them like caviar instead of candy. Anyway, I hope you find my perspective interesting 🙂 Keep on writing!
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Peter, hello!
I found your books by a happy accident and have been devouring them in between Gothic novels. The contrast in styles is enlivening; neither is “better” or “worse,” but complementary. Your style, word choice, and sentence structure make hard science fiction approachable. It is a public good that you do so. As an American, I am painfully aware that science is not given priority in political or social discussions. Lack of understanding incubates distrust, and anything that can make science understandable to a non-scientist is a healthy antidote to that distrust.
Language choice depends upon authorial intention, both in terms of what a writer wants to convey, and the audience intended to receive the message. Differing authorial intention necessitates different styles of writing. The use of tools like Hemingway Editor is valuable, especially when it is absolutely necessary to convey a fact. It would behoove all of us to rewrite legislation with the guidance of Hemingway Editor. Laws, hard science, medical treatments and prescription medication warnings should all be written to be avoid, to use your phrase, “reader fatigue.” There are real and present threats to misunderstanding any of these topics, whether the danger is personal, societal, or cosmic in scope. It is my opinion that you have made the perfect prose structure to convey scientific facts. You are entertaining, yes, but the import of your books is far beyond entertainment: they teach facts and encourage logic-based discourse. That you have simplified the complexity of your language and not compromised on subject matter or characters, is a testament to your dedication to the betterment of society.
Thank you very much for commenting. I apologize for my rambling that juxtaposed my love of semi-colons with your writing! What I meant to get at was that your style is so crisp and instructive, whereas mine is meandering. I was in a bit of an argument with myself, seeing what great effect you create using very simple language & contrasting that to my prose… I believe there is place for both styles, although I will get .0001 readers for every 10.0000 readers you get!
Enjoy that caviar & I’ll be on the lookout for your next book!
[ASIDE: For those who are not familiar with Peter’s First Contact series, I strongly recommend The Artifact and But the Stars. The Artifact wraps an existential crisis on a galactic scale in an adventure that will surprise you at every new situation our heroine finds herself in. But the Stars is a great, creepy read that makes you question the nature of self and reality.]
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Yes, writing is an art form, and like all art, it requires dedication and commitment to refine the process and develop something beautiful. I often get asked, “Which do you think is your best novel?” My answer is always “The next one.” 🙂
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Perfect answer!
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