Space Opera Fans discussion

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

The first author to answer our SOF Awesome Author Interview is L.J. Cohen, a poet, novelist, blogger, ceramics artist, local food enthusiast, Doctor Who fan, and relentless optimist, to speak about this month's group read, Derelict.



L.J. and I both belong to Broad Universe, an organization which promotes female sci-fi, horror, fantasy and speculative fiction writers, and we have done live readings together at ARISIA, READERCON and BOSKONE (and then going out drinking together afterward, be we won't speak about the Con parties, shall we, eh?)

More importantly, L.J. has a background in both computer science and also physiology, so when her protagonist in Derelict reprograms a defunct AI to make it functional again, the heroine actually knows what she is doing!

[*unlike MOI, whose computer programming skills consist of CTRL+ALT+DELETE, the off button, and 'Husband minion!!! Help!!!'*]

So without further ado, I hand you my teenage daughter's heroine, L.J. Cohen to tell you the scoop behind the murderous AI in Derelict.

Be epic!
Anna Erishkigal
SOF Borg Queen

P.S. - L.J. will be answering questions about Derelict, science, and her other books both here and in the book discussion thread, so feel free to drop questions into the thread below.


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Here you go!

1. What books have most influenced your life?

The book that I return to again and again is Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. I read it when I was a tween and for the first time, I saw a protagonist who was like me. Meg wasn't popular, she wasn't beautiful, she felt awkward, she had a temper, she wasn't patient. And yet, she was smart, resourceful, and persistent and she was absolutely the hero of the story. The story of a young woman finding her own strength and making her own choices resonated with me then, and it resonates with me now.

In adulthood, I found the books of Patricia McKillip, and while most of her work is fantasy and retellings of fairy tales, she wrote one SF book that I have probably read twenty times. It's called Fool's Run. It may be one of the most beautifully written SF books I've ever read. And her protagonist was a big influence on the character of Barre, the musician in the Halcyone Space books.


2. How do you develop your plots and characters?

Almost every one of my novels starts out with my version of the game 'Clue', but instead of Miss Scarlet in the drawing room with a candlestick (if you remember that game, you had to figure out the murderer, the location, and the weapon), I have a character in a situation with a problem. For DERELICT, it was Ro, stuck on a space station, trying to get away from her emotionally abusive father.

Once I have that 'nugget' of the story, I fill in the blanks just enough to start writing, then as I come up with a world/plot/character question, I fill in some more.

I tend to know the end of the story and some way points through the middle. My process is not quite plotter, not quite pantser, but something that combines elements of each.


3. Tell us about your Space Opera Fans book?

When I was brainstorming DERELICT, I thought of it as Firefly meets Lost in Space. It's what you get when you throw together a computer programmer/hacker working to get away from her manipulative and abusive father, the son of a disgraced diplomat trying to genetically modify illegal drugs, a talented musician who is a constant disappointment to his physician parents, and his little brother who isn't, with a derelict space ship whose fried AI thinks the war that ended 40 years ago is still being fought.


4. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her?

Ro Maldonado is the main protagonist of DERELICT, in that it is her actions that propel the story and her character arc that travels the farthest. At the start of the story, she is defensive and mistrustful, because that's what she knows. Her father is controlling and paranoid and has kept her fairly isolated her entire life. In her drive to escape him, she inadvertently wakes up the heavily damaged AI that controls the ship. It tears itself away from the space station it is tethered to, taking Ro and an accidental crew of Barre, Jem, and Micah with her.

Ro was influenced by my long-ago college roommate. Felice was brilliant, ascerbic, impatient, and leery of emotional attachments. For whatever reason, she and I became close friends and Ro is, at least in part, based on my early memories of Felice.


5. A good villain is hard to write. How did you get in touch with your inner villain(s) to write this book. Was there a real-life inspiration for him/her/it?

I tend not to write stories with a particular villain. While in DERELICT, Alain Maldonado - Ro's father - is an antagonistic force, the true 'villain' of the story is internal to the characters. It is their difficulty in trusting - themselves and one another - that they must overcome to survive. The external forces arrayed against them are manifestations of that issue of trust.


6. What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

While I am almost 52, and by rights should be completely confused by all things computer, the truth is, I started programming when I was in Junior High School and our district was given a donation of an old mainframe. So in the mid 1970s I was a member of the computer club and learning BASIC and FORTRAN, creating versions of Dungeons and Dragons on punch cards. I owned my first PC in 1984. I've always loved the puzzle-solving and logic aspects of programming and taught myself HTML and how to create custom databases for fun. I also had a near 25 year career as a physical therapist, so anatomy, neuroanatomy, and physiology has always been an interest and knowledge area of mine. Which means injuring my characters in various ways comes naturally. :)


7. Sci-fi fans love techno-porn! What real-life science (or pseudo-science) did you research for your book?

I fell down the rabbit hole of plant DNA research. I read tons of papers and descriptions of how to do genetic assays and the problems of plants created with sterile seeds so I could realistically write Micah's scenes.



8. What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Keeping track of the timelines of all the characters. There are 4 main POV characters and 1 secondary POV character and figuring out who was where when and what each of them knew and didn't know was a challenge. I needed to keep it all on a large whiteboard on my desk.


9. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

There's a chapter about at the 3/4 mark that I call Micah's 'bad ass' moment, where he is shackled in motion sensitive cuffs that trigger nerve pain when he moves. Figuring out how he gets out of them and then writing it was intense. But I love that scene and his transformation within it.


10. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

That no matter how much I plan, I always hit a place somewhere in the middle where I'm sure everything's going to fall apart and I'll never finish the story.


11. Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp?

I tend not to want to write 'message' fiction, but if there's a theme woven in the book, it goes back to the issue of trust and learning to trust yourself and your choices.


12. What are your future project(s)?

Ithaka Rising, Book 2 of Halcyone Space just released, and I'm in the brainstorming phase of book 3. Unusually for me, I already have a title. DREADNAUGHT AND SHUTTLE will center around Micah and his 'cat and mouse' game with the drug cartels. Of course, Ro, and company will be drawn into the fray.




13. If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?

Running a think tank. My favorite thing in the world is when I get to connect people and ideas - be a matchmaker of sorts.



14. What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

In order of my activity on the platform: G+, blog, FB page. I am on twitter, but I find it a bit overwhelming, so I'm not all that active there. I can also always be reached by email.

Google+: https://www.google.com/+LisaCohen
Blog: http://ljcbluemuse.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ljcohen
Twitter: @lisajanicecohen
email LJ: [email protected]
Homepage: http://www.ljcohen.net/


15. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to the Space Opera Fans community members?

Thank you so much for picking DERELICT for your July 2015 read. I hope you enjoy it and would love to have you toss more questions my way, anytime. And I'm always looking for good recommendations to read, so I'd love to know your favorite Space Operas.

Interview granted to SOF: 2015.07.04

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P.S. The BOOK DISCUSSION THREAD for Derelict can be found HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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LOL, Anna. Thank you for inviting me to participate. Halcyone's not murderous, she's just confused and a bit traumatized. ;)

Lisa you genuinely sound like a fascinating person and I'm looking forward to reading your book. Thanks for sharing this interview with the group.

Rion wrote: "Lisa you genuinely sound like a fascinating person and I'm looking forward to reading your book. Thanks for sharing this interview with the group."

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it!

Just bought it on Amazon so let's get this party started!