INTERVIEW - Carl Andrews

When did you start writing?

In secondary school I suppose, where we often had to write long stories for English homework. It seemed that having to do at least a certain number of pages meant being forced to think a bit more deeply about what you were writing than I normally would have done. I guess it paid off, as one story ended up getting a mark of 11 out of 10! Later on I took a creative writing course (paired with Literature) at university, but afterwards life, as they say, got in the way, and it was many years before I took up a pen again in earnest.

What attracted you to the cypherpunk and sci-fi genre?

Astronomy was the first thing I can remember being interested in and reading about, and then a bit later the first home computers were coming out, things like the ZX Spectrum and Acorn Electron, which obviously were fascinating to a kid. So I suppose there's always been that spacey-sciencey-computery thing going on in the background. Then I came across The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which had somehow gathered a reputation around itself in the primary school I went to, presumably from older siblings). It was on the telly at the time too, and I carried on with the sci-fi from there. I came across some cyber/cypherpunk stuff a lot later on, mainly Neal Stephenson, but it doesn't really grab me as much.

What do you like to read? Who are your idols?

As I said, back in the day I read a lot of sci-fi, particularly the 'big' authors like Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. In fact my story in 21F, Panama One, is in part a homage to Clarke, and there are a bunch of Clarke-themed 'Easter Eggs' thrown in. John Wyndham and his 'cosy catastrophes' was another reading rabbit hole. A bit later I got heavily into Ian M Banks and his Culture universe. The Player of Games, and Excession are favourites.

Banks always had to find creative ways to introduce a discernible degree of conflict into a basically perfect, Utopian situation that the Culture represented; I guess that if Bitcoin hyperbitcoinizes and fixes everything, then future cypherpunk/Bitcoin fiction writers may wind up with a similar problem!)

Recently though, nothing comes close to Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem. I've never read anything that has so much imagination and so many brilliant ideas, sustained right across the trilogy (The Dark Forest particularly stands out). Not just TBP either - Ball Lightning is another one of his that has a superb imaginative twist in the middle.

Otherwise, the Jeeves and Wooster collection is fun, as is the Jack Reacher series.

How did you discover 21F? Why did you submit?

I discovered 21F from being plugged into Bitcoin twitter, and also seeing Konsensus Network being behind a number of notable Bitcoin books. When the original competition was announced I jumped at the chance - the idea of combining Bitcoin and science fiction, two major interests of mine, was irresistible. And my story kind of just tumbled out.

What are you working on now?

I'm finishing off an information booklet, including its associated artwork, to accompany a game, and I've got some episode/script ideas for a supernatural podcast I might submit. I've got a rhyming children's story that needs a lot of polishing and I'm also helping a friend with some ideas for a self-development book.

There's lots of things, it's just getting around to them all.

Where can people find you online?

21views.com is the landing page for my new Bitcoin book, 21 Views From Mount Fuji: A Poet's Perspective on Bitcoin.

I'm on twitter as @MelesMelee.