The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Author weaves web of imagination
Ypsilanti novelist is actually one of three pen names
By Kurt Anthony Krug, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: August 25, 2005
It's been a busy summer for Steven Piziks.
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Not only is he preparing his classes for the coming school year, not only has he adopted two boys from the Ukraine but he's also putting the finishing touches on not one – but two – of his upcoming novels.
"I love teaching. I love writing also," said Piziks, 38, of Ypsilanti, where he lives with Kala, his wife of 15 years. They have one son, Aran, 8, and recently adopted brothers Sasha, 12, and Maksim, 3.
He has two undergraduate degrees – one in German and speech, and one in English and health education – both from Central Michigan University, and a graduate degree in creative writing from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania.
Piziks said, "I paid for the adoption with my writing income. We went to the Ukraine in June and spent three weeks there. When you go over to the Ukraine to adopt, you don't know anything about what children are available until you arrive. Ukraine doesn't subscribe to the Hague Convention about adoption, which sends you the dossier. Instead, you travel to the Ukraine and they show you information on different children and you choose which one you're interested in. Then you visit the child, and if you want to adopt (him or her), you finish the process."
Piziks said the boys are still trying to get used to the fact that he's on deadline as closets himself in his den and pounds the keyboard. He even installed a lock on the door to his den.
He just finished the manuscript to "Dead Man on the Moon," a murder mystery set on the lunar colony, which he wrote under the pseudonym Steven Harper. He is hard at work on "Trash Course" for Harlequin's Bombshell line under the pseudonym Penny Drake.
The novel is set in Ann Arbor, where Hawk Enterprises, a consulting agency that solves problems for women, investigates a disappearance on the city's west side. Both novels are slated for release in 2006.
"A lot of authors (use pseudonyms)," said Piziks. "That's one of the sad realities of publishing."
Piziks grew up reading the Hardy Boys, Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton, as well as comics that included Batman, X-Men, Spider-Woman, Teen Titans and Green Lantern/Green Arrow. This inspired him to try his hand at writing.
"Nobody was writing stories that I wanted to read. I read fantasy with lots of magic in it, but not the magic I wanted to read about. With Lord of the Rings, there was a powerful magic ring that nobody could use," explained Piziks. "Writing my own stories was a poor second – I wanted stories to read where I didn't know what happened next."
His first published work was at 14 in the September 1981 issue of The Mother Earth News, where he wrote an article about how to raise rabbits. He wrote snippets of stories and novels for several years. When he got married, he submitted a story to the late fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley, believing she would reject his work from the start.
Instead, she published "Hoard" in Sword & Sorceress IX. He published many short-stories over the years in Bradley's "FANTASY Magazine," "Weird Tales," "Dragon Magazine" and "Chicks in Chainmail."
In 1996, he published his first novel "In the Company of Mind" which entailed a combination of multiple personality disorder, nanotechnology and a really dreadful family. Writing the book was "both fun and harsh at the same time." Mind spawned a sequel in 1999, "Corporate Mentality."
Piziks penned two movie adaptations, "Identity" (based on the 2003 John Cusack/Ray Liotta thriller) and "Exorcist: The Beginning" (the prequel to the 1973 horror classic). Both presented some unique challenges. With Identity, he had only four weeks to write it, which he did over Christmas vacation in 2002.
"It was one hell of a journey. I told my wife to chain me to the computer and throw me a pizza every once in awhile," he recalled with a laugh.
With "Exorcist", he wrote two versions of the adaptation because Morgan Creek Productions fired director Paul Schrader (director of the movie Auto Focus) since he made a movie that was more of a psychological drama than a gore-fest. Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) replaced him and re-shot 90 percent of the movie. Following the lackluster response to Harlin's version, Schrader's version was released in 2005 as "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist."
"I had to write a whole new book, so I wrote the book again," he said. "I still haven't seen the original version – I'd like to see what it's like."
Piziks also wrote "Star Trek: Voyager – The Nanotech War," where he explored the relationship between B'Elanna and Tom Paris, who were played on the TV series by Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill, respectively.
"One of the things Star Trek has done badly is long-term relationships. I wanted to focus on that," he explained.
Writing licensed characters was "hard as hell." Piziks threw away so many versions of the first chapter, but barreled forward and hoped for the best.
"By the third chapter, I got to hear the characters' voices in my head and it got easier – I broke the barriers," said Piziks. "Fans sent me letters telling me I captured the characters well."
After seeing "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," which he "hated," he and fellow author Sarah Zettel of Ann Arbor began dissecting it.
"We were just griping at each other," he said. "We saw the same problems and had similar ideas on how to fix him."
Zettel asked him if he wanted to collaborate on a space opera and "do it right." At first, he didn't think she was serious. However, they started creating their own space opera, "The Silent Empire," which involved "slavery, monks in space and a mystical brotherhood." Their brainstorming sessions involved plenty of ice cream, according to Piziks.
However, Zettel dropped up of the project because she had another book commitment. Piziks soldiered on without her, making sure she was acknowledged for her efforts, and wrote four novels in the series: "Dreamer, Nightmare, Trickster" and "Offspring." The first two novels were Spectrum Award Finalists for 2002 and 2003, respectively.
For Piziks, the best part of being a writer isn't seeing his work on the bookshelves for the first time – although that's a good part.
"When something goes click and the whole rest of the book falls into place as a result," said Piziks. "When you make the elements fit together into one big picture and – ping! – there it is! That's wonderful."
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