Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org
Name:
Hero Owen or H.R. Owen if I’m being professional (they/them)
Which region are you based in?
Northern Ireland
If you write, which genre:
Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror (in the sort of campy Addams Family sense – rarely actually scary!)
Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres?
I much prefer the “softer” spaces within genres – meaning generically soft, as opposed to complex magic systems and detailed spaceship schematics. I prefer to keep things loosey goosey. I’m also drawn more to “social” SF. I want to talk about people and how they relate to each more than big booming adventure stories.
Your influences
Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?
Right from when I was very, very little, my parents pretty well immersed me in fantasy. Which is funny because I don’t think either of them are particularly big SFF fans!
Dad read The Lord of the Rings to my brother and me as a bedtime story when I was probably only about 3 or 4. I have faint memories of being in love with Sam (still true) and not liking Gollum one bit. Meanwhile my mum read us the Green Knowe series by Lucy M. Boston, Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr (gave me nightmares), and The Little White Horse and Linnets & Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge.
We also listened to a lot of books on tape. We had the 1969 BBC radio adaptation of The Hobbit in Dad’s car whenever we went on holiday. Other favourites were the Pongwiffy books by Kaye Umansky, the Discworld novels read by Tony Robinson, The Owl Service by Alan Garner (also gave me nightmares) and The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. Sunday evenings were prime listening time. Mum would make us tea – something simple like scotch pancakes, crumpets or boiled eggs – and we’d eat it in the living room in front of the fire while she read us a story or we all listened to a radio play together.
On writing that, I feel moved to clarify that I did actually grow up in the 1990s, not the 1940s. I had Pokemon cards and Mulan on VHS! I have a lot of thoughts about Bernard’s Watch! I had a normal, temporally-appropriate childhood, I swear!
How does that early influence show up for you (in life/writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?
I still absolutely default to SFF in both the art I enjoy and the art I create. I also tend not to write either hard SF or high fantasy which, with the exception of LOTR, would track with what I loved as a child.
I think the biggest influence though was the prevalence of the spoken word. The best way to be told a story bar none is cuddled up with someone you love, falling asleep against them while they read to you. The closer a medium gets to that experience, the better. Audio books, radio plays, fiction podcasts – I just want to lie cosy in bed and listen to my stories!
Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
I cheat a little with my shows, because we accept submissions and suggestions from our listeners. If I need a bit of an extra boost, I talk to my friends and see if they have any fun ideas that I can play with. I very rarely come up with an idea on my own.
Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?
Ursula Le Guin is really the one and only as far as I’m concerned. She writes so vividly and so beautifully, with such profound compassion. My work isn’t nearly as philosophically complex or as beautifully written, but I hope I can capture some of her morality and generosity of spirit. I want to make kind art – not nice, necessarily, but kind.
Your Work
You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.
I mean, if I was in a lift with Ursula Le Guin I would absolutely not be talking about my silly little podcasts. But, assuming it’s a very long lift ride and we’ve already discussed philosophy and art and spirituality and dragons and Star Trek and how she came back from the dead, and she really wants to know, I’d say, “Queer and cosy SFF about celebrating difference”.
What are you working on right now?
Travelling Light is an epistolary science fantasy show about a traveller exploring the galaxy and meeting all sorts of different people, inspired by my Quaker faith. Every episode is illustrated by my partner, Matt McDyre, who is also the series co-creator, and our listeners submit their own story ideas and periodically vote on which way the plot should go.
Image: Matt McDyre’s illustration for episode 42 of Travelling Light, which uses Ursula Le Guin as inspiration.
Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?
My first podcast was Monstrous Agonies – a late night radio advice show for monsters. One of the early episodes had a tapeworm lamenting that their ex “simply wasn’t an environment in which I could thrive”. It still makes me smile thinking about it.
More seriously, the audience response from both MA and TL has been really heart-warming. I’ve had people getting in touch to tell me that my advice from MA has really helped them in their real life, or that TL has helped them feel less lonely. It means the world to me.
Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?
I work best in the afternoon and evening, preferably in the library or somewhere else in public where I can’t procrastinap. I have absolutely rampant ADHD which makes it very, very hard for me to knuckle down and do my work unless there’s a deadline looming, so my most productive periods tend to be Thursday night and Friday morning, before the week’s new episode releases on Friday afternoon.
What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?
Imagine you’re a sculptor, and remember that the blank page is not your block of marble – your first draft is. Get some words down, finish a complete draft, and fix it later.
Pictured: Hero’s cat, Absolute Unit, “telling me to go to bed after staying up too late recording”
What’s your writing soundtrack?
I tend to use music to debuff my ADHD when I’m writing. Music with lyrics helps, sometimes with a coffee shop and/or rain sound generator on in the background too.
The Quick-Fire Round
Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Fantasy
Quiet or loud?
Loud
Dark or light?
Can’t have one without the other!
Strict lines or genre blend?
Both are great! There’s a lot to be said for the precision of hitting your genre marks, and a lot of fun and freedom in letting things mix.
Awards or bestseller?
For finding something new to read – awards. For what I aspire to – bestseller.
Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction
Poetry or prose?
Prose
Plotter or pantser?
I hate this dichotomy! I plan what needs planned and discover what needs to be discovered, like most creative people.
Reading or listening?
Ooh go on – guess!
Notebook or computer?
Notebook when I’m stuck, computer when the words are coming easily.
Favourite SFFH book of all time?
Either The Hobbit or A Wizard of Earthsea.
Last book you read?
A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
Ann Leckie – not only is she brilliant, her audiobooks are read by Adjoa Andoh, who can do no wrong in my eyes. Or… ears.
Favourite podcast?
As a podcaster, I feel I should be allowed to name a few! The Silt Verses and I Am In Eskew for grisly body horror/folk horror; The Vesta Clinic for cosy, compassionate science fiction; Camlann for a very fun twist on myth and folklore; and Byzantium & Friends gets a shout-out as one of the only non-fiction pods I ever listen to.
The Home Stretch
What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?
It feels like a space full of people really trying to do their best for one another. Sometimes we get it wrong, and not everyone is on the same page, but as a general vibe it feels like a space with people ready and willing to learn how to do right by others.
Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.
Travelling Light is my current show, with new episodes every Friday. If you’d like some cosy, community-led SF that’s soft on science, hard on comfort, give it a listen. We also have new art for every episode, so do give our Ko-Fi gallery a look. Here’s a link to the Spotify page, but you can find us on any podcatcher you prefer.
My other show, Monstrous Agonies, finished a few years ago after three seasons. It’s been variously described as “eldritch late night Radio 4” and “a loving hug from something with too many arms.” Again, it’s available wherever you get your podcasts.
Image: bonus cat content as Lulu is “contributing to the family business”
You can learn more about my work at monstrousproductions.org or find Monstrous Productions on Bluesky, Instagram and Tumblr.
Beyond MP, my short story ‘The Last of What Is Spoken‘ appeared on the anthology podcast Someone Just Like You, read by the fabulous Méabh de Brún.
Finally, I also appear in The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality and The Silt Verses as a voice actor, two shows with very different vibes that I really highly recommend.
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