An Interview with Toni Artuso
What is, in your opinion, the best thing (or your favourite thing) that you’ve ever written? Tell us about it.
I’m borrowing my answer to this question from the late great Irish folk musician, Tommy Makem. When asked what his favourite song was, Tommy would say that it was whatever he was playing at the time. Similarly, my favourite thing that I’ve written is what I’m working on at the moment. That would be a who-dun-it short story about industrial espionage during the pandemic. It features two of my recurring PI characters, Rich Dixon and Neave Jenner. Of course, as soon as I finish this who-dun-it, my next favourite thing will be a queer heroic fantasy piece about another recurring character, Artemis, which I plan to write next.
Who are your favourite writers, and what influences your writing?
That varies from genre to genre, and I write across a variety of genres. For example, when it comes to historical fiction, where I focus mostly on military history, it would be Bernard Cornwell, whose mastery of heart-pounding battle descriptions still astounds me. For epic fantasy, it would be J.R.R. Tolkien for his breath-taking world-building skills. Speaking of astounding world-building, on the hard science fiction side, for instance, I admire Larry Niven and his Ringworld books.
What are your hobbies?
Aside from writing prose and poetry, I enjoy reading, including audiobooks and podcasts. I’m also a history buff, keen not only on American history but military history as well. Therefore, during the pandemic, I’ve enjoyed going to online talks sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society as well as History Camp, which sponsors weekly talks by historians about their latest nonfiction books. I also enjoy board games, especially conflict simulation games, i.e., war-games.
Describe yourself as if you are a character in one of your own stories / poems.
The woman wears a sweater dress with a row of green dinosaurs parading around the hem, which she tugs at determinedly as she takes a seat across from the reader, attempting to be as demure as possible. She’s drawn back her shoulder-length salt-and-pepper locks from her forehead in a simple low ponytail at the nape of her neck. This late in the day, some of the locks have escaped her scrunchie and now dangle down, bracketing her face and makeup job, which, while not glitzy, is heavy. Folding her hands, she leans forward, putting her elbows on the table and, fixing the reader with her brown eyes surrounded by sparkling red eyeglasses frames, asks, “How’s that for a description?”
Tell us something crazy.
For cismales, even though each parent contributes an equal number of chromosomes to the son, the mother provides slightly more genetic material overall because the sex-determining chromosome pair consists of an X chromosome (from the mother) and a Y chromosome (from the father). Since Y chromosomes are shorter than X chromosomes, the mother actually contributes more to her son than the father—at least genetically speaking.
What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever been asked in an interview? And what did you answer?
The weirdest question sounded pretty innocuous to me -- at first. Before I transitioned to being openly female 100% of the time (I’m transfemale, by the way), I used to do Civil War re-enacting. A reporter once asked me what aspects of that time period we re-enacted. Going through the list, which included things like cooking, camping, and military drills, I flippantly said something about what we didn’t re-enact, such things as illness, like dysentery. Of course, you guessed it—the one and only thing the reporter used when she quoted me in the article was the line about dysentery. That was an early lesson in how not to talk to the press.
What is your writing set-up? (E.g your garden shed, a cafe etc) and are there any things you must have to get the words to flow, e.g a lucky hat or a favourite shirt?
I have a guest bedroom in my condo unit that doubles as my office. In one corner, by a window overlooking the condo’s courtyard, I have my desk with my computer docking station set up for my laptop. That’s where I do most of my writing these days. I don’t really have anything like a physical object that I depend on to get the words flowing. I’m such a planner that, when it comes to writing (and other things), I find a good set of notes is usually what I need to work from to get me into the zone. Of course, it does help if my grey female tiger cat, Misty, in her role of muse and/or literary agent, decides to hop onto my desk to keep a watchful eye on me to make sure I stay on task.
I’m borrowing my answer to this question from the late great Irish folk musician, Tommy Makem. When asked what his favourite song was, Tommy would say that it was whatever he was playing at the time. Similarly, my favourite thing that I’ve written is what I’m working on at the moment. That would be a who-dun-it short story about industrial espionage during the pandemic. It features two of my recurring PI characters, Rich Dixon and Neave Jenner. Of course, as soon as I finish this who-dun-it, my next favourite thing will be a queer heroic fantasy piece about another recurring character, Artemis, which I plan to write next.
Who are your favourite writers, and what influences your writing?
That varies from genre to genre, and I write across a variety of genres. For example, when it comes to historical fiction, where I focus mostly on military history, it would be Bernard Cornwell, whose mastery of heart-pounding battle descriptions still astounds me. For epic fantasy, it would be J.R.R. Tolkien for his breath-taking world-building skills. Speaking of astounding world-building, on the hard science fiction side, for instance, I admire Larry Niven and his Ringworld books.
What are your hobbies?
Aside from writing prose and poetry, I enjoy reading, including audiobooks and podcasts. I’m also a history buff, keen not only on American history but military history as well. Therefore, during the pandemic, I’ve enjoyed going to online talks sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society as well as History Camp, which sponsors weekly talks by historians about their latest nonfiction books. I also enjoy board games, especially conflict simulation games, i.e., war-games.
Describe yourself as if you are a character in one of your own stories / poems.
The woman wears a sweater dress with a row of green dinosaurs parading around the hem, which she tugs at determinedly as she takes a seat across from the reader, attempting to be as demure as possible. She’s drawn back her shoulder-length salt-and-pepper locks from her forehead in a simple low ponytail at the nape of her neck. This late in the day, some of the locks have escaped her scrunchie and now dangle down, bracketing her face and makeup job, which, while not glitzy, is heavy. Folding her hands, she leans forward, putting her elbows on the table and, fixing the reader with her brown eyes surrounded by sparkling red eyeglasses frames, asks, “How’s that for a description?”
Tell us something crazy.
For cismales, even though each parent contributes an equal number of chromosomes to the son, the mother provides slightly more genetic material overall because the sex-determining chromosome pair consists of an X chromosome (from the mother) and a Y chromosome (from the father). Since Y chromosomes are shorter than X chromosomes, the mother actually contributes more to her son than the father—at least genetically speaking.
What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever been asked in an interview? And what did you answer?
The weirdest question sounded pretty innocuous to me -- at first. Before I transitioned to being openly female 100% of the time (I’m transfemale, by the way), I used to do Civil War re-enacting. A reporter once asked me what aspects of that time period we re-enacted. Going through the list, which included things like cooking, camping, and military drills, I flippantly said something about what we didn’t re-enact, such things as illness, like dysentery. Of course, you guessed it—the one and only thing the reporter used when she quoted me in the article was the line about dysentery. That was an early lesson in how not to talk to the press.
What is your writing set-up? (E.g your garden shed, a cafe etc) and are there any things you must have to get the words to flow, e.g a lucky hat or a favourite shirt?
I have a guest bedroom in my condo unit that doubles as my office. In one corner, by a window overlooking the condo’s courtyard, I have my desk with my computer docking station set up for my laptop. That’s where I do most of my writing these days. I don’t really have anything like a physical object that I depend on to get the words flowing. I’m such a planner that, when it comes to writing (and other things), I find a good set of notes is usually what I need to work from to get me into the zone. Of course, it does help if my grey female tiger cat, Misty, in her role of muse and/or literary agent, decides to hop onto my desk to keep a watchful eye on me to make sure I stay on task.