I love my antho sister, Stacy Gail, and I was soooo happy to hear that she was going to be a part of another fantastic Carina Press Anthology this year! I have to tell you, I think she took it as a dare that my story Far From Broken made her cry last year, so she was determined that I would be the one who cried after reading HOW THE GLITCH SAVED CHRISTMAS....which I DID! SO FREAKIN' HARD.
I'm happy to welcome her today, with her new antho-sisters, Anna Hackett and Sasha Summers!
~JK Coi
First off, thanks so much to
JK Coi for hosting us. We—Anna Hackett, Sasha Summers and Stacy Gail—are so
glad to be here!
In Carina Press’s sci-fi
anthology, A GALACTIC HOLIDAY, some serious out-of-this-world imagination had
to be engaged in order to create the distant world of Perma, the ice moon of
Galileo and a futuristic Chicago cityscape.
From foods and traditions to sights, sounds and smells, these three
worlds had to be alien and different enough to bring the reader along on a
far-flung journey of wonder, and consistent enough that these imagined worlds
could gain a foothold in the reader’s reality.
But how do you make an
imagined world become real in a reader’s mind?
The three authors from A
GALACTIC HOLIDAY put a vast amount of thought into how they built their sci-fi
worlds, and each one went about it a little differently. Come to find out, there’s no wrong way to
build a world.
Anna: When I started thinking about
combining sci-fi with the holidays, I wanted to explore the winter holiday of
Yule – so an ice planet came to mind. With science-fiction, you are always
trying to balance the sci-fi elements with elements that are familiar to the
reader. In WINTER FUSION, my heroine, Brinn is from the ice world of Perma. It
has some technology but not too much as they are a developing world. There are
plenty of familiar elements – people still cook their food, they sing, they go
to work. But they also happen to have interstellar ships, cars with autopilot
and nanocoatings that stop ice melting. But an important aspect we can all
relate to is the Perman need to look after the environment of their planet.
My hero, Savan, on the other
hand, is from a planet covered in a megacity. Rendar is an energy-dependent
world -- everything is powered and people live for personal gratification and
success. While this world is different from our own, I think their issues are
ones we all worry about today – our reliance on energy, the increase in the
“gadgets” in our lives, the fast pace of life.
What I love most about
writing science-fiction romance is that even on amazing distant worlds with
incredible high-tech gadgets, things that are important to us
today—environment, energy, family and love—are still vital.
Sasha:
I just kind of dove in. I started in space, in Riley’s (the heroines)
ship in GALILEO'S HOLIDAY. Space (‘the black’) is cold and sterile, metal and minimalist, and her
‘happy place’. And since Riley was going
to have to face all sorts of things outside of her comfort zone that meant
Galileo’s Station had to be the exact opposite – low-tech and crowded. Once I
had that figured out, I could focus on the gadgets – the tools, the shields
that protect the Station from cryptids and raiders, the food (or lack of real
food), the chutes, – even the plumbing. Basically, I let my imagination run
wild – and had oodles of fun with it!
Stacy: Whenever I write a futuristic
romance, the first thing I do is make a list of ordinary events that everyone
on the planet normally does…and then I try my best to re-imagine what those
ordinary events might be like a century or two from now. For instance: The brushing of teeth? That would be replaced by a single swish of
plaque-killing, tooth-brightening Denti-Wash. Five seconds and you’re done.
What about the daily hassle
of popping contacts into poor blind peepers?
Forget it. In my world the gene
for bad eyesight is modified, so now virtually everyone has perfect
vision. And for those who want
more-than-perfect vision (like me!), there would be expensive/black market
optic prosthetics that would look just like the real deal. (It’s not just pervy adolescent boys who want
X-ray vision, you know. ;) )
But the most important—and
potentially dangerous—facet of the future that I can truly see happening is the
creation of human-like androids to do humankind’s menial tasks. These robotic creations—these fake people—are
the very elements that live in the heart of HOW THE GLITCH SAVED CHRISTMAS. It’s a fine line humanity
treads when they make machines look like humans, and all too soon the question
of what truly defines “life” arises.
These worlds are full of
adventure, wonder and the enduring power of love. The authors of A GALACTIC HOLIDAY hope that
you’ll enjoy reading about them as much as they enjoyed creating them.
Take a moment to enter our
fabulous giveaway! :)
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