Photo courtesy Bob Henderson, Henderson Photography, Inc.

"Uncle Orson's Writing Class," a two day writing course taught by Card, starts Monday, June 12 at Southern Virginia University. Admission is $175. Students must bring their own computer to complete assignments. For more information call 336-282-9848 or http://www.hatrack.com/bootcamp.shtml

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Read the full interview

• Roanoke Times reporter Mike Allen got this interview via e-mail.

Best-selling science fiction novelist Orson Scott Card, 54, lives in Greensboro, N.C., with his wife Kathleen and youngest daughter Zina Margaret.

HIS BOOKS INCLUDE

Science fiction:

Ender's Game

Speaker for the Dead

Ender's Shadow

Fantasy:

Seventh Son

Red Prophet

Religious:

Sarah

Rebekah

Rachel and Lea

Graphic Novels:

The Ultimate Iron Man

Wyrms

Six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, genetically engineered to be a military genius, begins training to lead Earth's forces in a 100-year-old war against alien attackers. But, is becoming the savior of mankind worth the cruelty Ender endures at the hands of his trainers?

Orson Scott Card's action-packed and disturbing science-fiction novel "Ender's Game" has captured the imagination of more than 1 million readers worldwide since its publication in 1985. The book is heralded as a classic of its genre, and its seven sequels have been New York Times best-sellers.

Card, who has also written fantasy novels, religious novels, plays and musicals, will teach a writing workshop starting Monday at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista. The two-day workshop, called "Uncle Orson's Writing Class," will focus on writing popular fiction.

Card is no stranger to the SVU campus. Last year, he joined the university's English department, and commuted from his home in Greensboro, N.C., to teach classes on writing and the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

"Southern Virginia University is a place where my approach to teaching literature and writing fits comfortably, and where the students who are drawn there share my values," Card wrote in an e-mail interview.

The four-year college is not officially affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but supports its values. Card himself is a Mormon.

The head of the university's English program actively recruited Card after attending one of his workshops. "He has inspired so many with his writing, and we are confident that he will be able to draw the best out of our students," said university president Rodney Smith after Card signed on.

The 54-year-old author is not just prolific in print but also on the Web. His Web sites include Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, which publishes fiction, and The Ornery American, which publishes Card's sometimes controversial political columns. He has written columns opposing gay marriage and supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

He's also hard at work on the movie version of "Ender's Game," which has been announced as a 2008 release with director Wolfgang Petersen ("The Perfect Storm") at the helm.

In the interview, Card shared his takes on teaching, writing science fiction, religion, politics and the ongoing project of adapting "Ender's Game" to the silver screen.

On becoming a science-fiction writer:

I began as a poet -- that was my constant occupation my first few years in college, and the reason I carried a notebook with me everywhere. But as I got involved in theater, I also began writing scenes, doctoring other people's scripts, writing Readers Theatre adaptations of fiction, and finally writing full-length plays of my own.

Yet right along with this interest, I had become intrigued with science fiction through my on-again, off-again reading in the genre. So I came up with story ideas and created moody milieux where I began writing tales that were really little more than dialogue and stage directions in disguise. When my theater company folded, I needed to earn extra money to pay off the debts. So I turned my hand to science fiction because it had a short story market that was constantly hungry for new writers. It was a good fit; I sold almost everything I wrote.

On how his religious beliefs influence his writing:

Because my plays were mostly tied to scripture or Church history, when I turned to writing fiction I was keenly aware that I must not use my fiction to expound on religious themes. In fact, though, what I find is that without ever meaning to, I can't help but include my core beliefs in everything I write -- not beliefs about particular doctrines, but beliefs about how the world works, what causes things to happen, why people do the things they do and which actions are noble, which evil or despicable, etc.

Since many of these beliefs derive from Mormon teachings and my experiences as a Latter-day Saint, then in that sense, without any effort on my part, some aspects of my faith are going to show up in my fiction. But I think fiction is a lousy place to try to proselytize -- after all, we agree going into a novel that it's a pack of lies (that's what "fiction" means!) -- and my conscious religious beliefs are too sacred for me to insert them into what is, after all, entertainment.

On whether he considers himself conservative:

Believe me, I can infuriate a room full of Republicans and seize every opportunity to do so, since I have little patience with their worship for the free market or their opposition to civilized control of weaponry. I am disgusted by the short-sightedness of leaders of both parties. But the fact that I find George W. Bush to be the most moderate, thoughtful, rational and responsible president since Dwight D. Eisenhower makes me look conservative to those who think "conservative" is a dirty word and George W. Bush is the devil.

On politics in his fiction:

My fans can take my political views as they wish. They won't find them in my fiction, except insofar as my fiction reflects the underlying principles I use to make sense of the real world, too. My characters have political opinions, but they are rarely my political views. I follow the Polonius rule in my fiction -- if I ever find myself tempted to come up with clever, truthful sayings, I put them in the mouth of a character who comes off as an idiot. If I ever let my fiction be propaganda, then my career as a fiction writer is over.

On the film adaptation of his best-selling novel "Ender's Game":

"Ender's Game" looks, at first glance, like an obvious movie to make. Lots of cool visuals, lots of action, and a very emotional story. What's often overlooked is that everything depends on experience through Ender's point of view, knowing what he's thinking and feeling all the time. That's a place where film simply cannot go.

One key decision ... was to combine "Ender's Game" and its more-recent parallel novel, "Ender's Shadow," into one film. The result has been breathtaking: By giving Ender a foil, the character Bean from "Shadow," we are able to learn far more about his character than in any version of the script before that.

On working on film projects in Hollywood:

I have found many talented, sincere, dedicated, brilliant, self-sacrificing, generous people in Hollywood, inside and outside the studios, and as long as I spend my time working with them, the collaborative aspects of film-making are a joy. The people who are slimy, tyrannical, deceitful, larcenous, etc., I walk away from and never look back. Life is too short to let them shape my experience of the filmmaking art. I have surrounded myself with goodness as well as greatness in the people I work with, so that when we finally do get a film made, I can remember every part of the process with fondness and pride. And if we never get a film made -- well, I've had 50 or so books published and that ain't nothin'.