Eugene sci-fi writer
up for second Nebula
Bruce Holland
Rogers keeps magic
ALIVE THROUGH STORIES
Bryan Petersen
Oregon Daily Emerald
It doesn’t matter if it’s a lucky
shirt you wear to take an
exam in, or if you go out of
your way to make sure you
don’t walk under a ladder, or if
you cross your fingers while go
ing over railroad tracks. We all
have superstitions.
What if superstitions were
more than just half-beliefs that
live in the back of our minds?
What if they held more power?
What if they were, in fact, real?
This is a concept that local
fantasy author Bruce Holland
Rogers addresses in his short sto
ry “13 Ways to Water,” which
has been nominated for a Nebu
la Award for Best Short Story of
1998.
The Nebula Award is science
fiction and fantasy’s highest liter
ary honor. It has been awarded
yearly since 1965 by the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America, a 1400-member organi
zation of writers, editors and oth
er professionals in the field. For
mer winners include luminaries
and bestselling authors of the
genre such as Isaac Asimov,
Robert C. Clarke, Robert Hein
lein, Ursula K. LeGuin and
William Gibson.
Rogers has published more
than 70 short stories for genre
magazines and anthologies as
well as for prestigious publica
tions such as North American
Review. This award thing is
nothing new for Rogers: His
1996 novelette “Lifeboat on a
Burning Sea” snagged a Nebula
that year, and he is also up for
another award this year, the
Bram Stoker Award for superior
achievement in horror. This is
for his story “The Dead Boy at
Your Window.” He has some
tough competition here: one of
the other nominees is none oth
er than horrormeister Stephen
King.
“13 Ways to Water” is a dark
story that successfully straddles
the line between fantasy and hor
ror. It takes place in the rain
forests of Oregon and the jungles
of Vietnam in the past and the
present. It involves three people,
a woman and two men, who are
tied together by strong emotion
and time.
Rogers was born in Tucson,
Ariz., and grew up in Colorado,
where he attended Colorado
State University. He says it’s
hard for him to pinpoint the ex
act time he became a writer, but
he does know what childhood
talent led to his career.
“I started out by lying as a
child. I mean that quite seriously.
I was an inventive storyteller. I
liked poetry and remember writ
ing poems in the first grade, but I
liked a lot of other things.”
At a young age, he developed a
deep admiration for J.R.R.
Tolkien, as many fantasy writers
do, but these days he tends to ad
mire writers who are less well
known.
“I fell in love with ‘The Lord
Of The Rings’ when I was in the
seventh grade. I still admire it
enormously. My favorite writer
now, both for his books and for
who he is, is Sean Stewart. He
deserves to be famous, but he’s
just barely hanging on. His novel
“Nobody’s Son” is sort of an
anti-high-fantasy in which all of
the usual heroic stuff happens in
the first chapter. From the sec
ond chapter on, the book is
about the difficulty of happily
ever after.”
Rogers says he himself is not
an overly superstitious man, but
if he sees a penny laying face up
on the sidewalk, he will pick it
up for good luck. If one is tails
up, he might pick it up and
throw it over his shoulder to
bring someone else good luck.
But he says this is just a game
that he plays.
“I like to keep the childlike
part of me that believes in magic
alive. Magic, for me, is a matter
of emotional
state. I play su
p e r s t i t i o u s
games because
it’s momentarily
uplifting to
think: ‘Now I’ll
have good luck. I wonder what
form it will take.’”
He says the idea for the title of
“13 Ways To Water” springs
from what the Willamette Valley
is notorious for: moisture.
“Each of the 13 sections of the
story relates to water. I wanted to
write the story around water, dif
ferent forms of water, different
ways of relating to water. After
moving to the Willamette Valley,
water has been on my mind a lot.
Have you noticed how wet it is
here?”
Roger’s wife, Holly Arrow, is
an assistant professor of psychol
ogy at the University. It might
seem a little odd that a fantasy
writer — someone who deals
with alternative realities — is
married to an assistant professor
of psychology — someone who
works in a field that seeks to
bring people back to reality. But
the two have struck a happy
medium.
“When Bruce is working, he
often is not present because he
is mentally living in the world
of the story or novel he is work
ing on. If I ask him a question,
he may not hear me or simply
ignore me. Since I am a bit like
this when I am writing, too,
even though I write academic ar
ticles instead of fiction, we both
try to respect one another when
we are in what I call a writing
trance.
“Bruce is a very thoughtful,
kind, considerate person and a
wonderful friend who writes
about issues that matter in peo
ple’s lives. He has a tremen
dous command of the craft of
writing and writes beautiful
sentences.”
Employees of local bookstores
have yet to hear of Rogers or read
his work, but he says this neither
surprises nor bothers him.
“It’s not really surprising that
bookstore clerks have not heard
of me. Name recognition comes
not so much from awards and
honors as from novels. I’ve writ
ten short stories. My name sel
dom appears on the cover of any
thing. Worse, I’ve written
mystery, sci-fi/fantasy and liter
ary fiction, so my 70 published
stories are spread out among dif
ferent readerships.
“A little more fame would be
nice. A little more money would
be nice, too. But I have the satis
faction of knowing that I do
good work and exactly the work
I want to do. Fame isn’t the
point. It would be useful mostly
to the extent that it would help
me to continue to do what I
love.”
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