When I offered my services as an interviewer to Anna Mocikat I was genuinely amused when she sent a direct message with the opening line: Hello Human. She is a fun person to follow online, her writing is wonderful, and the subjects she writes about are Cyberpunk, with themes of alienation, isolation, technocracy, cultural elitism, elitist government, autocracy, personal choice and the drive for perfection. She is hugely talented and I am grateful to have met her via Twitter/Social Media.
You write books for an English language audience but you were born and lived in Germany in your earlier life. How do you perceive that that would alter or affect your work? Does it make you more or less able by the fact that you are multi lingual?
I think, like many things, it has its pros and cons. One of the big advantages of being multi-lingual is that you have a wider overall understanding of language per se. I can't tell if that really makes me more able than someone who knows only one language. As a non-native speaker I certainly have a big disadvantage, however. I make more mistakes than a native speaker and sometimes use words that sound odd or don't really fit 100%. But that's nothing a good editor can't fix.
I'm trilingual, by the way. I was born in Poland, spend most of my life and Germany and have been living in the US for five years now. But English certainly is my favorite language to write in.
Your work in Cyber punk focuses upon a society that is perfectionist to an extreme, and those who do not conform or are outsiders are hunted by cyborgs. Is this focus born from the present era's focus on looks and fame (a.k.a. the Kardashians, the drive for plastic surgery, moral perfectionism in how we view leaders?). If so, how could seeking perfection become a toxic thing? Would society be made better for such a thing?
In my cyberpunk series, Behind Blue Eyes, perfection is certainly an important theme. But it's not only the people who seek perfection for themselves. It's the whole society. A lifestyle has been established which has been declared perfect - the best way of life in human history. It seems like a utopia but in truth is a dystopia. Because the "perfect" system doesn't tolerate anyone who disagrees with it. You're not allowed to choose a lifestyle different from how everyone else lives. If you do, you prove that an alternative is possible and you will be therefore hunted and killed. I think if we look closely at our society now, we're not that far away from such a mindset.
What are some aspects of writing in the world of Cyberpunk that outsiders and new readers don't know, and what aspects that some might see as a trope or cliche are not part of the genre? What draws you to such a theme and genre?
Like every genre, Cyberpunk has certain tropes and cliches that show up in many books, such as the inherently evil corporations, the genius hacker kids, the helpful hookers, rainy streets, and my favorite: the Chinese noodle soup kitchens. A lot of books try to copy Wiliam Gibson or at least follow in his footsteps. I took the classic cyberpunk ingredients and tried to create something new. There's no simplification in my work of evil corporations and righteous rebels, it's a grey zone in which every character has a dark side and the reader wonders who are the good and who are the bad guys. I also took a lot of inspiration from the Japanese Cyberpunk, which focuses more on philosophical aspects of being human in the age of transhumanism.
Do you find yourself creating all the time, mentally rewriting, or casting a different cast for tv shows you watch? And, who do you write for? And how did you come to writing for others?
Yes, I'm constantly creating. For me being creative is like breathing. I can't survive without it. My mind never stops and I love nothing more than create and tell stories. That's all I ever wanted since my earliest childhood. As soon as I started talking all I wanted was to create stories and tell them to people. First and foremost I write to entertain. I want people to have a really good time with my books.
Lastly, tell my readers here where you are online if they'd like to follow you, where can they interact with you online, and what projects do you have coming out soon?
I'm on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and I love nothing more than connecting with my readers. But I also have a website and a newsletter. If you sign up, you receive a free short story and definitely no spam. I'm currently working on the second book in my LitRPG series Cyber Squad which will be released in November and after that, I will work on Behind Blue Eyes 3 which is set for release in March. In between, I will publish a cyberpunk anthology with 15 other authors. So, yeah, I like to keep myself busy haha
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The Amazon Listing for Anna Mocikat
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