Ahimsa Kerp
Ahimsa Kerp is a peripatetic historian, with a taste for travel, tofu, and spec-fic. He hails from the Pacific Northwest but is currently dodging scooters and drinking soju in Seoul, South Korea. His travel writing can been found on the Matador Network, Bootsnall, Traveldudes, and The Art of Backpacking. (See below for where to find his fiction.) You can follow his writing blog at Be Obscure Clearly or his travel blog at Are We There Yeti?.
Selected Bibliography
“Mr. Potato Head” from The New Flesh in October 2010.
“The Trial” appeared at The Eschatology Journal in June 2011.
The story “Tuning In, Turning On, and Dropping Out at the Mountains of Madness” can be found in The Cthulhurotica Anthology
His novella “Blades in the North” appears as part of a mosaic novel called The Roads to Baldairn Motte published by L&L Dreamspell in April 2011. You can visit the official site or like it on facebook.
Web presence
Blog: http://obscureclearly.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @ahimsakerp
Goodreads: profile
Abandoned Towers
I have visited Abandoned Towers over the years, until the site went too far into living up to its name. I am super pleased to see it back and running again. There is of course no shortage of great spec fic destinations already on the web, but I’d love to see one with an emphasis on new writers and genre-challenging stories.
AT: What areas of fiction/writing interest you?
I am partial to spec fic (because why wouldn’t you want more imagination in your story?) but as long as you give me something well-crafted I will appreciate it.
AT: What do you write most often?
I don’t have a go-to subgenre; epic fantasy, steampunk, urban fantasy, Lovecraftian, new weird, etc are all fun to write in and ones that I hope to return to.
AT: Is what you enjoy writing also the genre/area you’re most successful in?
Definitely. My published fiction includes a story of Lovecraftian evil set in a 1960’s hippy enclave, another mashup of Lovecraft and ancient Greece, and part of a novel that acts in a manner similar to Kirisawa’s Rashomon.
AT: Have you ever done NaNoWriMo? ever won?
Nah. While I think it can be a great way to kick-start a novel, I’d rather pick my own times for writing-binges.
AT: Have you been published?
Yes; see the writing credits above.
AT: Do you have an agent?
I do not.
AT: Are you looking?
Not currently. (This may soon change.)
AT: Authors your work resembles?
That’s a good question. I am into somewhat unsympathetic characters, so maybe Richard Morgan or Joe Abercrombie. But if I could choose a single author to aspire to, I’d request China Mieville. Originality, believable characters, and tightly woven plots are all things I strive for in my fiction.
AT: Authors who inspired you? or just favourites?
This list could go on forever, but I’ll try to limit it to the twenty or so most pertinent.
In the genre: Asimov, Dick, Martin, Murakami, Lovecraft, Max Barry, Tim Powers, Rothfuss, Lynch, Douglas Adams, Jasper Fforde. I’m in the camp that thinks Tolkien is still the grandmaster; his prose and world-building might never be touched.
Outside of the genre, writers like Graham Greene, Camus, Bill Bryson, Huxley, Bulgakov, Ioenesco, and Knut Hamsun are some of my absolute favorites.