Ann Miller, whose story "Retrospect" appears in the February 2008 issue of F&SF, said in an interview that the story actually started as a poem. "I was fooling around with the idea of how different books, if they were sent back in time, would change history and working with the play of ideas when I realized I’d need a larger vehicle to explore the concept properly," she said. "The first line of the story was initially the first line of my poem."

The story concerns a fledging auction agent who unwittingly gets involved with a circle of book lovers who are considering sending a book back in time, Miller said. "As the story develops, the protagonist discovers that the glittering world he has chosen, of high-stakes auction and finance, cannot sustain him and he gravitates toward his new circle of friends whom he feels are more genuine," she said. "They also ultimately betray him, and the unfolding of the narrative involves the choice the protagonist makes, given these experiences, when history has been changed and he has the chance to change it back."

Miller has a tendency to try to distill what matters from all of her experiences and the main character of the story does this too, she said. "And of course, [like the protagonist,] I love books. A life lived without a dialogue with the characters in books would be impoverished indeed."

Most of Miller’s research covered time travel theories and the physics, or lack thereof, underlying them, she said. " I also did some research on B.M. Bower’s relationship with Russell," she said. "In the story I use [one of the character’s] knowledge of the relationship between the western writer B.M. Bower and her illustrator, Charles Russell, to illustrate the kind of knowledge a true book lover would have versus a collector’s. I had read some of Bower’s novels before and of course had seen Russell’s illustrations of her work, but I didn’t know if the writer and artist were close enough for the artist to have spent the enormous time necessary for him to have illustrated a set of her collected works with fore edge paintings.  During my research, I discovered that they were indeed close friends and that they lived near each other for a time in a California writer and artist community. Given this information, I felt free to create a fictional set of her works replete with the paintings."

"Retrospect" is Miller’s first published piece of fiction. She reports that she’s currently working on a fantasy novel about alchemy.

 

Slush Survivor bonus questions

Title: Retrospect | Word Count: 9,571
Genre: Science Fiction | Time to write it: 4 months

 

You made a pro sale. That’s not quite a big enough score to quit your day job. So what’s your day job?

I write a column for the local newspaper and do freelance writing gigs. Recently I wrote a section for Fodor’s Colorado 2008.

Do you remember the first story you ever wrote? What was it about? How bad was it? Did you ever submit it anywhere?

I submitted the first story I wrote to Sewanee Review. It was about fishing and was set in Louisiana. It was pretty bad. I’d be embarrassed by it now. They did ask to see a rewrite but somehow I never got around to it. I was working and going to college then and had a little too much on my plate.

What have you been working on since your big sale? More short fiction? Novels? Little of both?

Short stories, poetry and my novel.

Why do you write SF/fantasy instead of some other genre?

I think you have a lot more freedom to experiment with language and ideas with fantasy and science fiction than with other genres.

What’s the first SF/fantasy novel you ever read? How old were you?

A Canticle for Leibowitz, 9.

Who are some of your favorite writers? Which writers influenced you?

Ray Bradbury, Charles De Lint, George R.R. Martin, George Eliot, Conrad, Christopher Morley, W.B. Yeats

When someone interviews you again in ten years, what are they going to be asking you about?

My novels, I hope!