Once upon a time, Jesse Ellyson was born. He wasn’t much impressed with the experience and has spent most of his life trying to figure out why he’d bothered with it.
He’s seen some interesting sights, traveled to interesting places, and done a few interesting things, but he’s still not entirely certain he made the right choice where the whole “coming into existence” thing is concerned.
Now he spends most of his time daydreaming and, sometimes, when the mood hits him, he commits his cerebral amblings to paper. Every now and then, someone will read one of his little printed delusions and grin. When that happens Jesse thinks that maybe, just maybe, he made the right choice in being born.
Q: If you had to choose between being a time traveler or a space explorer, which would you pick and why?
Well, I’d really like to travel through time, which means that I will have to choose both. If you take a trip through time to the exact spot in the universe where you are when you leave, you’ll find yourself floating in space wondering where all the air went. People tend to forget that the earth moves and a time machine that doesn’t also travel through space would really be quite worthless.
Q: If you had to live on a spaceship with one fictional character for the rest of your life, who would it be and why?
Jesus. He really is a kick-ass wizard. Turns water into wine, walks on water, increases the food rations, and his demon-slaying skills should come in handy if we meet any nasty aliens. And on top of the wizardy stuff, he also has healing powers. How cool is that? Great split class character. Also, he likes to kick back and tell stories. Just an all-around fun guy.
Q: If you had to choose between being a mermaid or a dragon, which would you pick and why?
A few decades ago, I had this dream. I was a dragon. There wasn’t much going on. In the dream, I kept flying back and forth over this valley wedged between two mountain peaks. When I woke up, the area between my shoulder blades, right where wings would be, was really sore. So, I think the choice here has already been made. Plus, I’m really a bad swimmer.
Q: If you could have any sci-fi gadget in real life, what would it be and what practical uses would you have for it?
I really like to eat. It’s one of the things I’m good at. Food has been a very dear friend to me all my life. So, I think the gadget I want most would have to be the food replicator from Star Trek. And you know, I think it could be fun to try and blow its circuits now and then. “Give me a sushi platter which incorporates hotdogs, fries, and nacho cheese.”
Q: What Pre-1960s SF television show or movie would you like to see get a big-budget remake, and why?
There is a long-forgotten show called Tom Corbet, Space Cadet. It follows Tom and a couple other cadets through their training to become members of the Solar Guard. If it sounds a little like that wretched movie, Starship Troopers, that’s because it was inspired by a short story written by Heinlein called Space Cadet. So yeah, same story. But if we have a big budget, I’m thinking maybe we can do it right this time.
Q: If you could travel to any alternate universe where a different version of yourself exists, what do you think your other self would be like?
Another me. Not sure the universes would want that. He’d probably be a sarcastic asshole and we’d end up killing each other. Which gives me an idea for a story…
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At the time of this interview, Jesse has three books available. For Love of Zombies is a collection of short stories about, you guessed it, zombies. But not your typical zombies. These are zombies as they’ve never been seen before. Some are fashionable, some are out for revenge, some are just plain horny. Then there’s Captive, which was written during the Covid lockdown and contains nine stories about captivity. From a superhero with no one to save to a mostly-dead kid wandering the surface of Mars, myriad forms of captivity are explored in this book. And then there is a return to zombies with 21st Century Zompoch which chronicles an entire century of humanity’s struggle with zombies. If you pick up one of these books and have any questions or comments, Jesse is happy to hear from you. You can find him at jay_bee_eee@yahoo.com
