Author Michael Bunker on Dystopian Sci-Fi, Off-Grid Living and the Lessons of History

I first encountered Michael Bunker when I happened upon his novel Pennsylvania, the story of an exo-planet migration off world by the Amish.

Amish? I thought, re-reading the tagline. Aren’t they the folks who’ve sworn off modern conveyances? Don’t they drive horse carts and milk cows and wear simple unadorned clothing?

 

Yes indeed, Amish Science Fiction.

I love having my mind blown so I investigated further. Michael stared out from the pages of Amazon with a taciturn expression, sporting a beard from olden times, yet active in social media. He was on Facebook. He had a blog.  In fact, Michael was one of those Indie writers who takes your breath away. It was apparent from his output that he was a serious writer with enormous energy and discipline. In the last few years his popular works of dystopian sci-fi, including the Wick Omnibus, The Last Pilgrims, The Silo Archipelago and the Pennsylvania series have regularly appeared on Amazon’s best-seller lists. He also wrote a bestselling guide, Surviving Off-Off Grid and sure enough, he lived with his wife and four children in a “plain” community in central Texas on a 40 acre farm.

Like any good zen koan, I felt a sharp pang of curiosity. Who is this guy? He lives off grid and writes Sci Fi? When I opened one of his books and read the prose I was pleasantly surprised. Not only could he write but the sensibility was modern. This was not a man cut off from the world in the slightest. He was aware of global politics, technology and city life.  His prose style was clean and craftsman-like. He favored 3rd person omnipotent narration, in many ways the most demanding form. He was a world builder, constructing solid futures with themes of self reliance and sophisticated geo-political projections. Michael Bunker was a conundrum; a futurist with a deep connection to traditional values, family and the land. A man who had made a conscious decision to live off-grid.

With his new book coming out, I thought it would be fascinating to interview Michael, so here goes.

Let’s resolve the two sides of your nature.  You live off grid, yet you chose to write speculative fiction. What drew you to Science Fiction?

MB~  I have to admit that I had no intention of ever writing Sci-Fi.  I didn’t even know that what I was writing, because of some strange way that speculative fiction is categorized for bookstores or libraries or something, would be considered Sci-Fi.  My first novel was really the re-telling of a historical story that took place in the Alps from the 7^th Century onward for almost a thousand years, but in order to make it interesting, I set the true story in Central Texas and cast it 20 years into the future.  When I put the book out there, Amazon (and everyone else) was calling it Sci-Fi.  I finally settled on Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic only to find out that those genres are also considered under the parent category of Sci-Fi.  So I became an accidental Sci-Fi writer.  When it came time write Pennsylvania, I’d pretty much acquiesced to this idea that I was an Amish/Sci-Fi writer.  And I planned on writing the story of this Amish young man who, just like his ancestors before him, signs up to emigrate and colonize new lands… that just happen to be on another planet.  That was when I just privately nodded my head and said, “Ok, so this is Science Fiction.”  But my Sci-Fi credentials are non-existent.  I have to constantly confess to my own fans that most of the time I have no idea what they are talking about.  I live off-grid, and I have this little farm, and I do have a small office where I use solar power and a generator to write and do my publishing business, but my crash course in Sci-Fi culture and knowledge is ongoing.

Freedom appears to be a recurring theme in your work. What is your definition of freedom?

MB~Freedom to me is the right as a human to live, love, work, associate, produce, create, and provide in whatever manner is in accord with my conscience so long as I don’t impede these same rights for others. Foremost among these, to me, is the right to create and communicate ideas and thoughts to others, regardless how offensive to authorities, governments, or bands of tyrants out to homogenize the world.

For someone who lives off the grid, you appear to be technologically savvy. Is this common in a plain community?

MB~I think there is some level of technological understanding that is common in plain communities, depending on what technologies we’re talking about. Some plain communities utilize diesel generators, tractors, and other equipment. Amish men often work in factories and shops that use very technologically advanced machinery.  We all use technology, and we all draw the line somewhere, so it really comes down to how any individual plain person (or community) decides to engage with technology.  For me, I use technology in my business. While both my home and my farm are completely off-grid, I use alternative power production to run my office where I write and publish.  I wouldn’t say I’m tech savvy, though I do study hard and I try to learn.  Both as research, and so I can engage and provide my art to my readers in a way that is comfortable and enjoyable for them.

Do you have concerns about the future of technology?

MB~ Absolutely. And I think that anyone who doesn’t, probably doesn’t know enough about what is possible and what ramifications some technologies will have (are having) on our world.  I certainly don’t think genetically modifying our food and our food production has been a good thing. But to me the problem has never been about technology, which in most cases is morally neutral.  My concern is about dependence on technology.  I have no problem using a power drill or a chain saw, but I think it is important that I learn how to work and produce without them… just in case they are not available to me for some reason in the future.  Most plain people choose not to use many technologies not because they believe those technologies to be evil, but because they don’t consider the results of dependence on that technology to be beneficial to their families or communities.  Most non-Amish erroneously believe that the Amish think that automobiles are evil.  They don’t believe that, and most Amish will gladly ride in a car or will hire a driver to take them somewhere. Their concern is in the results of dependency on automobiles… the destruction of family life, the mental and spiritual changes that happen in a people when things move so fast.  Plain people generally want to live deliberately. They don’t want the world to change who they are and what they believe. So they make decisions based on what they believe is best for the lives they want to live.  It is really just a demonstration of freedom.

Some of your fiction like the Wick series is dystopian in nature. What drew you to these dark themes of mankind’s survival?

MB~I often say that I am a Theologian by training, a Historian by practice, and a Sci-Fi writer by accident.  As someone who studies history for fun, I soon realized that almost every advanced technological society goes through a pattern of advancement that eventually leads to the destruction of that culture.  Most Americans, because they are historically ignorant of other cultures and of the history of the world, believe that societal and technological advancement follows a straight line forward, but in reality that is not at all true. The Romans had air-conditioning, running water, and shopping malls and only a hundred years after the fall of Rome goats and sheep grazed in the Coliseum and the people had no idea how anyone could have ever built such massive structures.  All of history is the tale of empires rising to excess and to great technological advancement, followed by tremendous setbacks… almost like a reset button. I am one of those crazies who believes that there were tremendously technologically advanced societies thousands of years ago, and due to that technological advancement, there is very little record that they existed. So I only believe in these dark themes because the entire history of the planet is a repetition of those themes. Of course modern man thinks he is different, which also follows the pattern of every other advanced society.

The Pennsylvania series of novels has been described as Amish Science Fiction. Was it difficult reconciling the nature of Amish philosophy with the high technology necessary to go off world?

MB~ Not at all! In fact, the story of Pennsylvania is just the repetition of the story of how the Amish got to the New World to begin with!  The Amish/Anabaptists were a land-locked people wherever they were found in Europe, and their journey to the New World was as Sci-Fi to them as anything we could devise today. Boarding great ships to cross an ocean for the promise of inexpensive land… that is Sci-Fi at its best.  The Amish have shown historically that they are willing to take risks and embrace technology so long as it results in an end they desire.  In most cases that end is good, cheap land.  A few years ago my wife and I went on a train trip from Texas up to Missouri. There were a lot of Amish and Mennonites on the trains and they would get off on every stop and just walk around the platform in circles for exercise before re-boarding the train to continue on their journey.  This, to me, was the seed of the idea for Pennsylvania.

What do you think writing should accomplish?

MB~ That is a tough question because writing is a dualistic endeavor.  There are those who say they write only for themselves, and if that is true… I applaud them for it.  But I was explaining to someone the other day that I write for myself AND I write to be read.  I do both. So the answer to the question for me is that I write to communicate. To say things that I want to say through art. People who read my books will learn more about me than people who I see and talk to every day. My beliefs, my thoughts, my opinions… all of these are more fully communicated in my stories.  Would I write if no one ever read it?  Probably. But I do write with the idea of communicating to readers in mind.

What writers influenced you and why?

MB~ Here’s where people discover how little I’ve been influenced by Science Fiction in my life! I hope they forgive me, because I’m trying to learn.  Ok, so probably the greatest influence on my life (on many levels) by a writer has to be by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Pretty much everything about his story, his willingness to write in very adverse conditions (the Gulag, exile, while being harassed and investigated by the security services, etc.) is very motivating to me. Also, his focus on the art of writing, the meaning of words, and the communication of ideas through a story, all of these things were very formative to my concept of what it is to be an author.

The other authors who have influenced me in addition to Solzhenitsyn… A.W. Pink, Tolstoy, Pushkin and others were all spiritual men who stood in opposition to the organized church and the omnipotent state and wrote what they believed without regard to consequence.  So they are my role models.

When did you begin writing? What drew you to the form?

MB~ I know it is probably cliché to say “I’ve always written,” but in my case it is pretty true.  I remember writing short stories and myths in the 7^th grade, and poetry when I was very young. I wrote my first full-length novel when I was in my early 20’s.  I was writing a novel when I met my wife 25 years ago, even though I really had no intention of trying to publish it.  Even then I saw the mainstream publishing “system” as dehumanizing to authors, and indecipherable to anyone who wasn’t completely sold-out to its very cultish forms and rituals. So I assumed then that I would never be published.  In the early 90’s, when the Internet really took off, I was in pretty early writing articles and started blogging almost as soon as the term “blog” had been invented.  So I’ve always been writing… for sure.

What made you decide to go Indie?

MB~ I think it was a completely natural result of my worldview and mindset. I don’t think I ever “decided” to go Indie.  When I wrote my non-fiction bestseller Surviving Off Off-Grid, it started as a series of articles I wrote and put up on my blog for free.  A pretty large Off-Grid website asked if they could serialize the articles too, and the owner of that site suggested that I get the information published as a book. He asked me to contact him when I had the book formatted and edited and that he had an “in” with a publisher.  I just happened to have friends who were really good at all of the stuff you need to make a bunch of words into a book.  My friends edited the book, and another friend formatted it. I already knew tons of bloggers and website owners who were really excited about the book.  This was late 2010 and the Indie thing was really just getting started in a big way. So a friend suggested that I self-publish. He looked into it and found out about KDP and Createspace and did all the formatting and uploading and before long, we were putting together a Book Bomb.  I knew nothing about self-publishing or the business at all.  I figured if the book did well enough, some publisher would come calling.  We launched the book in February of 2011 and it just went berserk.  We sold 1,100 copies in the first few days and the paperback went to #39 on all of Amazon.  This is not typical, and no one should ever expect that, but that is how it happened for me with non-fiction.  So a guy did call with a mainstream pub offer and it was a typical “boilerplate” offer.  $5k advance and it was going to take 16 months to a year for the book to come out. Everything about the deal (in my eyes) sucked. I told him, “Listen, I made $10k in the first month this book has been out. Why would I possibly think that less money, a longer time to market, and a non-compete clause is a good deal for me?  He had to agree.  So my Indie mindset was established from the beginning.  When I first published a fiction book after that, I didn’t even consider submitting it through the legacy publishing channels.  I think now what I thought then… If someone wants to make me an offer that isn’t ridiculous and dehumanizing and that recognizes that the creator and the reader are the main parties to the transaction, I’ll consider it.  Until then, I’m an Indie to the bone.

What is your writing schedule?

I usually get up in the morning and do my “business” until around 11 a.m. or noon. This means engaging readers on social media, answering emails, doing interviews, signing books, responding to pitches and queries, etc.  By lunch I’m usually ready from a break from all the interaction and I settle down to writing.  I usually have a word count I try to hit that day, and though I may go way over that count, I try not to fall short of it.  I write with a plan, and I’m usually marketing and promoting even before I book comes out, so I know when I want to finish it and the whole process and timing of getting it through edit and formatting and out to the readers.  I try to diligently stick to that plan, and it helps me stay focused.

George RR Martin said that when it comes to writing, there are two types of writers; architects and gardeners. The architects design with a blue print, the gardener plants a seed and sees what grows. Which one are you?

MB~ I’m definitely an architect, but not one who writes everything down. If you’ve known many handy builders, there are some who can build a barn or shed or building without extensive blueprints, but they still stick to a plan.  I don’t usually do much in the way of outlining or graphing out arcs and story lines, but I do all of that in my head. Within the pretty firm structure I lay out in my head for where I want the story to go, I leave a lot of leeway for movement and expression and development. I write several chapters that are bare bones, then I go back and flesh them out and expand them.  Sometimes, in the midst of this process, a new idea might be born. But I usually stick pretty close to the script I have in my head about the overall arcs of my story.  Maybe I’m a gardening architect?