Stephen Gaskell was kind…

Stephen Gaskell was kind enough to do an interview for me about my book, which he titled Kickstarting Half a World. It's a pretty writerly interview, so particularly of interest to writerly types, or those readers who like knowing how writers think. :-) An excerpt below -- warning, there's a teeny tiny spoiler in my response, so if you care, you might skip that bit. It's the only one in the interview:

Stephen:

The themes and issues surrounding human sexuality are front-and-centre in your pitch for Demi-Monde, but what Im most curious about is the identity of the characters for these stories. Are there any principle characters that will form a central thread through the novel, and if so, could you describe them? To put it other words, are you intending to explore a particular culture or cultures ideas about sexuality or are your aims more universal?

Mary Anne:

Well, the planet the stories are set on was settled by South Asians, so many of the humans in the book are from that ethnic background. Several generations away from Earth, but some of them have held on pretty tightly to their cultural heritage. When it comes to sex, love, and marriage, you can expect some of that to play out in an arranged marriage culture. Its a topic Ive explored before, in stories like Seven Cups of Water, (Bodies in Motion), but with a science fictional twist. In the first story, you meet Jitender, a young Indian-descended college student  your typical science geek. But Anna, the blonde girl hes dating, is from a planet several systems away, and her fathers corporation is deeply involved in the interstellar war thats breaking out around them. Thats going to have implications for their story.

And so on, with lots more about:

• the intersection of erotica and science fiction
• the mosaic novel as a form
• crowdsourcing and Kickstarter
• writing with kids
• writing process in general
• and the ethics of writing in other cultures

Oof! That's a lot of cool stuff -- read it here!

Thanks to Stephen for taking the time to interview me! Much fun!