If you had to describe yourself in one word, what words wouldn't you use?

What words wouldn't I use? All the rest of them, I guess. Let's see... trout, estuary, amalgamation... Wait, not sure about that last one. It's possible that could be my one word.

Think back to when you were in school. What was your favorite subject?

It depends which school you mean. Art up until high school, then computer science, and then linguistics once I discovered that existed. These days, back to art.

When you were a young 'un, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A starving artist. I didn't think there was any other kind, really, so I was resigned to a life of poverty. Then after we got a Nintendo (yes, the original NES; I'm elderly), I wanted to make video games. So as soon as we got a computer, I learned to code. This wound up determining my career path since coding can pay pretty well. Better than teaching anyway. Otherwise, I'd be a linguistics professor by now.

What does Tevun-Krus mean to you?

It's an enigma, honestly. The etymology is unclear. Cool stories though. I absolutely love how it pulls writers together, getting a bunch of them excited to try something new all at once. Like dreampunk, for example. Of all the writers who try it out, a few are going to like it and try it again.

So, DreamPunk. What got you into it? And what got you writing it?

As a category, dreampunk very gradually snuck up on me. I came across the term somewhere on the Internet (a blog?) and decided it was a slightly better fit than "slipstream," which I'd been using up to that point. Then while doing some research to write a description of the genre, I realized just how much I'd always been into this sort of thing. I guess Haruki Murakami got me writing in a loose, surreal sort of way, and then Philip K. Dick got me more directly examining the nature of reality. And Neil Gaiman showed me how any story can feel like a fairy tale if you let it.

Tell us about your reading/writing habits.

I don't have much free time these days, so I get most of my reading done in the form of audiobooks on my phone while eating, driving, etc. I tend to play them around double speed. Any slower and my attention wanders. As for writing, I usually do that on my phone as well, in Google Docs. Walking around late at night is the best way for me to get in the mood to write, so being able to do it on my phone is very handy.

As your crew casts your lifeless body into the heart of the nearest star, list three pieces of music likely to be rattling the bulkheads of your beloved vessel!

Let's see, I have a file somewhere with a list of songs I want played at my funeral. Yeah, I'm morbid as hell. Okay, start with Mojo Nixon's "You Can't Kill Me." That should be good enough right there, but if you must have a couple more... The Highwaymen's "Highwayman" and Woody Guthrie's "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You." That's the way to go; not a dry eye on the ship.

We all dream at least a little bit, some of us just remember them more than others. Do you think DreamPunk has the ability to get really, really big in mainstream fiction (books, games, movies, TV)? Like, super-big?

The thing is, it's already pretty big; it's just not getting called "dreampunk" except by a handful of writers working in the genre. If you look at recent series like Legion on FX, Maniac on Netflix, and Undone on Prime, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. And then you have series like Westworld and Mr. Robot. Technology is central to the story in these, and you're definitely rooting for the underdogs to blow up the oppressive system they're trapped in, but they feel a long way from cyberpunk. They're more concerned with subjective psychological experience than the tech per se. Now if we could all just agree to call this sort of thing "dreampunk," then the literary scene would explode overnight.

Who is your all-time favorite author? How much, if at all, has their work influenced your writing style?

This one is easy: Philip K. Dick. His work has influenced mine in countless ways, especially the weird supernatural stuff. Take the short story "Upon the Dull Earth," for example. It's damn near perfect. I guess that one couldn't have influenced me too much though, as I only read it a year ago, but it aligns really well with what I'm trying to accomplish. Exquisitely bittersweet and creepy, and oh, the existential angst!

Of everything you've written, which piece is your favorite?

First of all, how dare you ask such a thing? I love all my children equally. But I guess if I'm being honest, my favorite is Adelaide in Ozghard. This is really a trilogy of three novellas, the third of which I'm still working on, so it's not a fully completed project. But hey, the first two "books" are available for free on Wattpad (for now, at least).

Pitch the above story to us. Make us really want to read it!

Basically, I thought it would be fun to take my favorite aspects of Oz and Wonderland, smash them together with a little Neverland, add the weight of mythology and the rationality of SF, and just make the whole thing as weird as possible. It was fun, as expected, but it was also surprisingly sad. It feels like I'm writing my own epitaph, a bittersweet love letter to history and posterity. If that sounds like something you'd want to read, then please do. If not, well... I write other things.

To what extent does the mythical 'real life' influence your writing?

It's absolutely an influence. How could it not be? The stories I come up with tend to have some fantastical aspects, but for the real emotional meat of them, I try not to stray too far from what I've actually experienced: jobs I've had, places I've lived, people I've known... Everybody does this, right?

If you could have any superpower, what would that be and why?

Wouldn't you know it, the older I get, the more I lean toward something involving immortality. I used to fantasize about that Twilight Zone ability to freeze time. You know, the one where the guy robs a bank but then his time-freezing watch breaks, so the world is frozen forever? That's not bad, but can I stop aging while time is frozen? One way or another, I'd like a lot more time. Half my life is gone, and I'm only guaranteed thirty-eight more years!

Where would you like to see the DreamPunk sub-genre in ten years?

I'd like to see dreampunk enjoying the peak of its heyday. Certainly, some people will keep writing this kind of thing whether it's in fashion or not, but it would be cool to witness such a surge of mainstream popularity that most people get sick of it. Then it's up to the die-hard dreampunks to figure out where we go from there.

What would you do if you woke up one day and suddenly realized you were an alien from another world?

I'd say to myself, "I knew it!" Then I'd tell my wife, "See? I totally knew it." Then I'd probably just go about my business.

The Technological Singularity presents a rather daunting, some say inevitable, future. Does the prospect of that level of artificial intelligence excite you, or leave you quaking in your space boots?

As a software developer, I guess I have my doubts about AI being anything like actual living intelligence. How do you make it want to do anything other than what you tell it to? And more to the point, why would you do that? I see the tech more as a weapon than an enemy. And yeah, as a weapon, it's scary as hell.

What are some themes you'd like to see tackled with DreamPunk?

Weird dreams qua dreams are fine and dandy, but I'd like to see more serious investigation into abnormal psychology, near-death experiences, astral projection, psychedelics, the dreamtime, mind control, the collective unconscious, spiritual awakening, and you know... that sort of thing. I'm trying to do my part, but I have so much to learn! Whatever I'm able to pick up, I'll try to pass it on through my work.

Who was your first Sci-Fi crush? Who is your current one?

I'm not sure I understand this question. Like the first SF writer I obsessed over? I guess Kurt Vonnegut. And yes, he wrote SF; I don't care what he claimed. Now I'm in a long-term SF relationship with Philip K. Dick.

If you could experience the world of any Sci-Fi story on Wattpad, which would that be and why?

That's a tough one because SF stories tend to have terrible, horrifying worlds. I guess Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, because in that world it actually seems possible to put up a fight.

Who are your favourite DreamPunk writers? Current, up-and-coming, from the good ol' days—let us have 'em all!

Hooboy, this puts me on the spot. I don't know half of them half as well as I'd like, and I like less than half of them half as well as they deserve. Yeah, I'm hedging, because the longer the list I come up with, the more certain I am to leave somebody out. Oh well, here goes: Neil Gaiman, Philip K. Dick, Haruki Murakami, Jeff Noon, Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, James Tiptree Jr., Bryan Lee O'Malley, Yelena Calavera, Jeb R. Sherrill, and really everyone included in the upcoming Mirrormaze anthology.

And finally, any words of wisdom to new and aspiring Sci-Fi writers?

I'd say don't stress too much about working out your high-level plans for the universe you're creating right away. Focus on a simple SF concept, and use it in a simple, satisfying plot. You can always expand on the bones of your story later, but you've got to get a complete story constructed before some new idea comes along and distracts you.

Thanks for the chat, CliffJonesJr, and keep an eye out for an upcoming chapter dedicated to the Mirrormaze anthology!