Comic Cons: My People Are There!

I sometimes joke that Star Wars changed my life, but I’m only half kidding. I first saw the movie when I was seven and I became instantly obsessed. Model x-wing fighters hung from my bedroom ceiling, the Millennium Falcon I built with my dad had a light-up cockpit, my Empire Strikes Back lunchbox still had its thermos, and my Princess Leia action figure was the one with the real buns - you know, fake hair instead of plastic that you could never fix after you’d messed with it. I should have saved those toys. My collection would have rivaled any I’ve seen.

Over the years, I’ve loved and binged on many other stories - the original Battlestar Galactica and the later reboot, Firefly, Buffy, Supernatural, Falling Skies, Daredevil, and Walking Dead, to name a few. When I finally attended my first Comic Con, I began to understand fandom as a phenomenon. These were my people!

I think we fans of sci-fi and fantasy, and all the sub-genres in between, are drawn to these stories not only because they spark our imagination, but because we can explore real issues from the safety and distance of another planet, or from a parallel universe, or with superpowers. We can cheer the heroes who fight the darkness, slay the dragons of our nightmares, and build a world with a place for us all. Our fandom affords us the chance to do that in community.

I write science fiction for the same reason I watch and read it. First, because it appeals to my imagination on a deep level, and second, because I can explore heroes and worlds of my own creation. I can put my characters through hell, wage wars, build and destroy entire governments, design worlds. I can exercise my demons on the page. For me, the satisfaction of creating these stories is very similar to the enthusiasm I have for other people’s stories. And having fans is as much fun as being a fan!

Cons are places where fans can interact with artists, and where people who find joy in a good story come to celebrate that story, whether it’s found on a screen, in a comic, or in a novel. Attending Cons as a fan gave me the idea that I might have success attending them as a writer. I hadn’t seen many authors selling novels at traditional Comic Cons, and I couldn’t be sure this was a crowd full of avid fiction readers, but I took an educated guess that those who did enjoy reading would be my audience.  

It was easy to talk about my stories to people who were already sci-fi fans! And, because I’m a fan too, I had many enthusiastic conversations not only about my own work in terms of influence and comparable work, but about newly trending sci-fi TV shows, movies, books, collectible, and costumes. I had as much fun behind my table as I did when I was an attendee. And I sold every book I brought with me.

Genre Bending and Storytelling

What genre are the Horizon books? I’m often asked that question, and while they solidly belong on the shelves next to other science fiction novels, they’re actually much more! I first heard the term “space opera” at a pitch slam a few years ago. A pitch slam is like speed dating with agents. The writer gets three minutes, live, in front of an agent, to enthusiastically rattle off all the important facts about her novel, while making it sound so compelling that the agent simply must ask to see the manuscript!

“Ah, you have a space opera,” one agent nodded at me, smiling.

“Yes. Yes I do,” I agreed, and then proceeded to google space-opera at the next break!

Turns out space opera is a sub-genre of sci-fi, hence the “space” part, that also contains elements of warfare, drama, and adventure. Think Star Wars! Horizon and Infinity certainly fall under this category. But even with this added scope, I still struggle to classify the series as such - mostly because I think the story will appeal to readers of many genres, not just sci-fi.

I was once asked to describe my story in ten words, and here’s what I came up with: Science fiction meets romance meets survival fiction meets military thriller! It’s a human story, painted on a science fiction canvas. But to tell it the way I wanted, I had to worry less about genre and more about authentically creating my characters and their worlds. The relationship between Caeli and Derek, the two protagonists, is central to the story. I didn’t want to water it down or put less of a focus on it to please a segment of my audience. On the other hand, I didn’t want to lose or disappoint readers who were counting on a sci-fi action adventure.

Ultimately, my goal is always to tell a good story, and I think readers are willing to give something a try if they believe that’s what they’ll get. So, step aboard the starship Horizon, and join Caeli and Derek as they fight for their lives, their people, and their love. And, please, let me know what you think!

I'm in There! - Authenticity in a Fictional World

I’m often asked where and when my personal experiences influence my writing, and how they add authenticity and believability to my work. Since I write science fiction, obviously much of the material comes directly from my overactive imagination! However, there’s a good deal of survival fiction in my novels. Although I haven’t had to run for my life through the uninhabited wilderness, like my protagonist Caeli in the Horizon series, I did draw on my own experiences growing up in a rural area and my later experiences hiking and camping.

As kids, my friends and I would explore acres of forest, gather berries by the bucketful, and spend entire days outside, returning home only when the sun set. The smell of pine needles and dirt still conjure memories of childhood. When Caeli was hiding in the forest for a significant part of my first novel, Horizon, and then had to cautiously trek through that same wilderness to find the resistance movement’s hidden camp in the second book, Infinity, I knew this part of the story needed to be particularly authentic. I wanted readers to squint at the bright sun, feel the biting wind on their faces, smell the muddy river water, and hear boots crunch across the frosty fields.

Like Caeli, I’ve had to find water, make a fire, set up camp, and search for food. Unlike Caeli, I wasn’t fleeing from a ruthless army at the same time! As an adult, I’ve camped on the uninhabited islands off the coast of Maine all the way down to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I’ve summited Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and I hike locally every week with a group of friends. Every one of these experiences informed and inspired my writing. There’s a particular scene in Horizon where Caeli is teaching Derek, the pilot she’s rescued, how to carve a spoon from a chunk of wood. I have a drawer full of hand carved spoons from my own adventures, and I actually imagined this scene for the book while I was sitting around a campfire whittling utensils. 

Another aspect of the Horizon series that I felt needed to be well researched and accurate were the medical scenes. I chose to keep my characters human, with physical anatomies similar to ours, so when I made Caeli a healer, and had her dealing with emergencies on a regular basis, I drew from my own experiences as an EMT. And here’s a little secret: I’m a medical school dropout. Attending med school with young children proved, for me, an impossible task. I don’t regret my decision at all, but I’m particularly vigilant about describing authentic trauma scenes in my stories. And when I’m not sure about a treatment or procedure, I call my brother-in-law, who did finish medical school and is a practicing physician!

I have great latitude as a science fiction writer. The worlds I imagine aren’t real. But to bring readers along for the ride, and ask them to suspend their belief for the duration of the journey, the places I create must feel authentic. I’ve tried to infuse my writing with color and life drawn from my own real-world experiences to do this. You’ll have to let me know what you think!