Author Spotlight: Si Clarke – Science Fiction without the Pew-Pew
Today, we have the wonderful Si Clarke sharing a little behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes into her cozy-ish science fiction (without the pew-pew) books. Si Clarke is the author of the Devon Island Mars Colony series—a story about building a colony on Mars from the ground up! She shares a little bit with us today about exactly how much research needs to happen before you can enjoy a life on Mars.
About the time I used writing to boost my mental health…
At the start of 2018, I felt myself sinking into depression. I’d left my job in October, but I’d had plenty to keep me busy until the new year. Once January rolled around and my partner went back to work, I had nothing. Every morning, I would search for new job adverts and apply.
So, I’d get up, spend ten minutes looking for work, then I’d go to the sofa – and I wouldn’t move again until my partner got home at dinnertime.
I did that every day for two weeks. I could feel my mental health deteriorating. I felt like I’d never find work and that my entire life had been wasted.
On Monday morning of the third week, I sat down on the sofa – then immediately bounced back to my feet. ‘Nope. I’m not going to do that,’ I told my dogs. I walked over to my desk and sat down to write.
Except, I wasn’t ready to write. Not yet.
The book I had in my head needed so much research and planning. In writing about the establishment of a fully independent colony on Mars, I researched the crap out of everything. Wherever there’s a bit of science in this story, it’s grounded in reality. There’s even a whole section on the science at the back of the book.
To give you an idea of the research that went into this series, I created endless spreadsheets and documents to calculate or understand:
- MELiSSA: The European Space Agency’s closed-loop life-support project
- How much land is required to support human life on a per capita basis?
- Hohmann transfer windows vs ballistic capture for getting to Mars
- Pooping on Mars: How to deal with human waste
- How to eliminate low-gravity bone loss
- Minimum viable population: Competing theories about the magic number
- How to dispose of dead bodies in the most efficient way
For the next five months, I spent 60 hours a week at my desk working on both the story and the science that feeds into it. I finished the first draft of the first book six months after I started my job. I was on my lunch break, typing into my phone while weaving and dodging pedestrians in London’s Canary Wharf.
As of today, I've published eight novels and I'm working on my ninth. And I'm never looking back.
You can pick up the Devon Island Mars Colony series in an exclusive web bundle on White Hart Fiction’s website.
Spiciness / Heat Level: 🍭
Representation: Aromantic, Asexual, Bi, Gay, Lesbian, Non-binary. Queer, Sapphic, Trans masc
Devon Island Mars Colony – Complete Series
Bringing together two novels and three short stories, this is a work of neurodiverse, culturally diverse, gender-bendy, socio-politico-economic, drunken-arguments-in-the-pub science fiction – not bang-bang-pew-pew science fiction.
Devon’s Island (Book #1): Planning the first permanent Mars colony…
Before we can build a colony on Mars, someone has to decide how it’s going to work. With 160 slots to fill with experts from all over the world, Gurdeep and Georgie set about designing an all-new society with its own government, economy, and culture – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Livid Skies (Book #2): Building the first permanent Mars colony…
A fresh start, a queer social liberal dream, and a planet that wants to kill you. Grappling with the realities of human nature and with their batteries slowly dying, the fledgling colony’s 150 women and 10 men must overcome their differences to create a lasting community. But things aren’t always what they seem and maybe the colonists aren’t as alone as they thought.
The Invite (a Mars Colony short)
Before they were tasked with planning the first permanent colony on Mars, Gurdeep and Georgie were just an ordinary couple.
Stardust Wake (a Starship Teapot and Mars Colony short)
They’ve been friends since childhood. But can their friendship survive adult reality?
Past imperfect (a Mars Colony short) ebook
Isolated on Mars, anyone could start going stir crazy…
Discounted Price: 7.99 GBP or 9.49 EUR/CAD/USD (Plus additional discount if you sign up for the newsletter!) || Regular Price: 10.95 GBP or 12.95 EUR/CAD/USD
Purchase Direct on White Hart Fictions Web Store!
You can learn more about Si Clarke and the rest of her catalog (such as The Left Hand of Dog—an extremely silly sale of alien abduction and Consider Pegasus—a space tale about unicorn rights) at Whitehart Fiction’s website. And don’t forget to sign up to join her newsletter.
We are so thankful for Si Clarke joining us today and sharing a very intimate look into her life as an author, not just the work that goes into it, but the reasons to keep going with it. We are looking forward to many more sci-fi stories with more cozy and less pew-pew.