Ask the Author: Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Answered Questions (11)
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi David,
Huh, you're right! Whoops. To be honest, I'm old enough now they all start blending together.
Huh, you're right! Whoops. To be honest, I'm old enough now they all start blending together.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
The last man in the world sat alone in a room. Then he heard a knock.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Mark,
The Osk evolved as subterranean ambush predators, similar to the trapdoor spiders of Earth. They're most comfortable living in underground tunnels or close to the ground.
Gau was part of a colony of Osk who settled on a world controlled by humans. They hoped to learn more about humans, but culture clash and xenophobia between our two species led to a tragic conflict that forced Gau to flee for his life.
The Osk evolved as subterranean ambush predators, similar to the trapdoor spiders of Earth. They're most comfortable living in underground tunnels or close to the ground.
Gau was part of a colony of Osk who settled on a world controlled by humans. They hoped to learn more about humans, but culture clash and xenophobia between our two species led to a tragic conflict that forced Gau to flee for his life.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Ella! I definitely perform research as part of the worldbuilding for my books. I strive to make sure the "science" part of my science fiction is accurate, and that the parts where I stretch science - using wormholes to get around the speed of light, for example - are based on plausible theory.
My favorite place to start for research is the internet; many research papers are available online for free through academic portals. I've also been lucky enough to know people working in fields such as biochemistry and counterintelligence who have offered their expertise, told me what I got wrong, and how to fix it!
My favorite place to start for research is the internet; many research papers are available online for free through academic portals. I've also been lucky enough to know people working in fields such as biochemistry and counterintelligence who have offered their expertise, told me what I got wrong, and how to fix it!
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Ella!
This is a tough question to answer, because there were several influences! I started the story in part as a subversion of common alien invasion story tropes that present humans as the Good Guys fighting against inexplicably hostile aliens. It seems like this is the plot of so many stories where aliens and humans clash, but it seems to me it wouldn't really be that simple. Any intelligent beings necessarily have to have motivations and values just as we do, even though they'd likely be different than ours. I took influence from more nuanced stories involving human-alien contact and conflict, such as the Star Trek universe, the Mass Effect video game series, and Iain M Banks' Culture novels to create the Expansion universe.
This is a tough question to answer, because there were several influences! I started the story in part as a subversion of common alien invasion story tropes that present humans as the Good Guys fighting against inexplicably hostile aliens. It seems like this is the plot of so many stories where aliens and humans clash, but it seems to me it wouldn't really be that simple. Any intelligent beings necessarily have to have motivations and values just as we do, even though they'd likely be different than ours. I took influence from more nuanced stories involving human-alien contact and conflict, such as the Star Trek universe, the Mass Effect video game series, and Iain M Banks' Culture novels to create the Expansion universe.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Melinda! Finding a publisher takes a lot of persistence and time. You need to research the market you're writing for, and the publishers whose catalogue you think your book would fit into. Larger publishers almost always require that authors be represented by an agent, and the process for finding an agent requires similar research: looking at the authors they represent, the books they've sold and to whom, etc.
It also involves a fair amount of luck to connect with the right person. My first short story sale was to a Canadian science fiction anthology: I just happened to have a manuscript that fit their theme, and they accepted it a week after I submitted. In contrast, I spent 3 years looking for an agent and getting some nibbles before I decided to go indie. Many authors spend far longer searching before they get a publishing deal, if they get one. It's a lot of work with no guarantee of success.
The second book will be released in the spring of 2019. I'll announce the exact launch date, once I have it, to my mailing list, website, and social media channels, so make sure to follow me in at least one of those places!
It also involves a fair amount of luck to connect with the right person. My first short story sale was to a Canadian science fiction anthology: I just happened to have a manuscript that fit their theme, and they accepted it a week after I submitted. In contrast, I spent 3 years looking for an agent and getting some nibbles before I decided to go indie. Many authors spend far longer searching before they get a publishing deal, if they get one. It's a lot of work with no guarantee of success.
The second book will be released in the spring of 2019. I'll announce the exact launch date, once I have it, to my mailing list, website, and social media channels, so make sure to follow me in at least one of those places!
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Elma! There's a lot riding on a book's cover - it's often the first part of my book that a reader sees, and it has to offer a hint of the whole story in a single image while also suggesting the genre and tone.
I'm not a visual artist or designer, so my process is to tell my cover designer as much as I can about the story, the genre, and the feeling I want the cover to convey. He then comes up with a rough mock-up of the illustration and we tweak it together. For Absence of Blade, I wanted the main alien species to be represented on the cover, as well as the landscape of the planet where some of the action takes place. In general, I think the background should hint at the setting of the book, while the foreground should hint at the characters and the action.
I'm not a visual artist or designer, so my process is to tell my cover designer as much as I can about the story, the genre, and the feeling I want the cover to convey. He then comes up with a rough mock-up of the illustration and we tweak it together. For Absence of Blade, I wanted the main alien species to be represented on the cover, as well as the landscape of the planet where some of the action takes place. In general, I think the background should hint at the setting of the book, while the foreground should hint at the characters and the action.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Phil, great question! Usually if I feel like I'm not connecting with what I've read recently, I'll go back and reread an old favorite, or a new work by an author I already know and love. I just read Greg Egan's novella "The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred" and thought it was phenomenal. Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, and Lois McMaster Bujold are also old touchstones I can always count on for inspiration.
Conversely, sometimes I'm in a rut because I've only been reading in one genre for a month and need a change. In that case, reading something in a totally different genre, or different format like a graphic novel or an audiobook, can be invigorating!
Conversely, sometimes I'm in a rut because I've only been reading in one genre for a month and need a change. In that case, reading something in a totally different genre, or different format like a graphic novel or an audiobook, can be invigorating!
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Getting to imagine an entire world and translating that made-up world to someone else's imagination! Prose writing is the only art form I know of where the artist can create a fully believable world with no special effects budget, no actors, no soundtrack -- the only limit is your imagination and ability to take what you see in your head and render it on the page. To me, that's one of the closest things we have to magic.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Roger! It helps that I read super widely within sci-fi and fantasy, so I'm familiar with many of the hallmarks of both. I think keeping true to the genre is often a matter of focus and the kind of story I want to tell: for instance, fantasy is often oriented toward the past, so a story about forgotten histories coming to light might work best as a fantasy. A story about a new discovery could be better as sci-fi, since that genre is typically future oriented.
Caitlin Demaris McKenna
Hi Chris! It's hard to say for sure which book was the very first, but *one* of the first was Brian Aldiss's The Long Afternoon of Earth! If you've never read it, it depicts a far future where the Earth has stopped rotating and the parts in sunlight have been overgrown by a giant banyan tree. Humans have evolved into small green gnomelike creatures preyed upon by carnivorous flora.
This book had a huge impact on my ideas about humanity's place in the universe. It decenters humans within Earth's ecology and suggests that to survive we need to be symbiotic with other organisms in the ecosystem rather than dominate them. After all, such dominance is always fleeting. It's also a viscerally biological book: Aldiss took great joy in describing all kinds of mobile plants, fungi and other strange creatures. As a direct result, I think, my own sci-fi has a distinct focus on creatures rather than machines.
This book had a huge impact on my ideas about humanity's place in the universe. It decenters humans within Earth's ecology and suggests that to survive we need to be symbiotic with other organisms in the ecosystem rather than dominate them. After all, such dominance is always fleeting. It's also a viscerally biological book: Aldiss took great joy in describing all kinds of mobile plants, fungi and other strange creatures. As a direct result, I think, my own sci-fi has a distinct focus on creatures rather than machines.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more