from the back
The year is 2320. Andi Lloyd is content with her life as the assistant to her adoptive father, a starship doctor, but her secure world turns upside down when she begins uncovering secrets from her past. When her father mysteriously starts losing his mind, she finds that she can no longer count on him to guide or help her. With mutiny breaking out on the ship, and two factions desperate for a valuable secret she holds, she must race to help her father and herself before time runs out.
from the horse's mouth
1. Other
than C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy, I haven’t read a lot of
“science-fiction.” In light of that, can
you bring me briefly up to speed on your book?
Firmament: Radialloy is a Christian young-adult sci-fi book, the first in
a series. It introduces us to Andi
Lloyd, a young girl who works with her father, who is a doctor. That doesn’t sound very sci-fi, until you
realize that her father works on the starship Surveyor, which has been
their home for many years. But in the
course of the book, mysteries from her past are revealed, the doctor starts
mysteriously going insane, and various factions determine to gain a valuable
secret her body holds.
2. Did
you consciously choose to write a science-fiction novel or did the genre choose
itself? Is science-fiction a genre that
you read a lot of?
I don’t read much
science-fiction at all, though I hope to read more soon. I do, however, watch a fair amount of
science-fiction, and I love it. Since
the novel was somewhat inspired by Star Trek, I guess you could say the
genre chose itself. I had, however, been
interested in writing science-fiction for awhile before I wrote the novel, and
had long been convinced that it was an important genre for Christians to be
involved in. So I wasn’t adverse to the
choice.
3. Tell
us about your main character. Is she a
lot like you, or is she pretty much her own person?
Andi is a lot like me in many
ways. She has some of the same strengths
and weaknesses, but she also has some strengths that I lack and wish I
had. For instance she’s very
affectionate and sometimes sarcastic, with a good dose of doubt and impatience,
like me, but she has a certain confidence and assurance in herself that I don’t
have. So she’s a bit like a dramatized
version of me, in some ways.
4. Would
you mind giving us tasty excerpt from Radialloy to give readers a sense
of your style and the book’s content?
(I struggled with what sort of
excerpt to share--an actiony one? A
tragic one? A fun one? I finally settled on one of my favorite
light-hearted bits, near the beginning, which gives you a taste of some of the
relationships.)
Positioned near the window was the small
table, where the Captain and one or both of his close friends often shared a
drink. I approached the Doctor and stood behind him, laying a hand on his
shoulder.
“Are you all right?”
He shrugged, and I let my hand fall away.
“I’m just so tired. Maybe I’m getting too old for this job.”
“Oh, nonsense, Gerry.” The Captain
finished the dregs of his drink and pushed his cup away. “You do a fine job.
You’re just a little run down. Maybe I’ll hire a nurse sometime, let you take a
vacation. It’s been too long since your last shore leave.”
I hated when the talk of nurses came up,
and I cut him off as soon as I could without being disrespectful. “Did you get
any rest earlier?”
The Doctor shook his head. “I tried, but
couldn’t sleep.”
“Go rest, Gerard,” Guilders suggested,
pushing his drink aside and moving a checker.
The Doctor shook his head. “I’ll go in a
minute. What did you need, Andi?”
“Nothing, I just...”
“Would you do me a favor, then?” the
Captain asked.
“Yes sir.” I straightened up, prepared to
take orders.
“It’s just that Crewman Baker always
forgets to dust my books. I would do it myself, but Guilders wants me to
play...”
By Guilders’ quiet scoff, I gathered that
it was more the other way around, but I smiled. “Of course.”
“Cloths are in the cabinet. Thanks, Andi!”
The Captain moved his piece.
The Doctor grunted. “Trent, you’re a big boy. Can’t you keep your
room clean yet?”
“Never learned,” the Captain said,
studying the board.
5. What
books or movies or people helped inspire Radialloy that were not
science-fiction?
Laurie R. King’s book The
Beekeeper’s Apprentice was something of an inspiration. I liked the central relationship between
Russell and Holmes, and how strong and deep yet bantery and realistic it was,
and I wanted the same general feel for the relationship between Andi and the
Doctor. Honestly though, most of the
influences were science-fiction, other than general writing influences.
6. Who
would you say this novel is written for?
The target audience is
Christian young-adults, so it’s geared for ages 13-21 or so. However, I intentionally made it very clean
as far as content, so I hope that younger kids can enjoy it, and I hope that
older readers will be able to enjoy the story as well. But the theme, the content, the tone, and the
style was all written with teens and early twenties in mind.
7. I
understand Radialloy is part of a series. What are the other upcoming books that
readers can look forward to?
The series is intended to be
eighteen books long, and the other books are In His Image, Machiavellian,
Reversal Zone, Gestern, No Man, Eleftheria, Humanoid,
Intoxication, Till Death Shall Part, Timestream, Wandering
Jew, Hypochondriac, Programming, Pandemonium, Phagocardiosis,
Myopia, and Stars (titles subject to change). In His Image is written and awaiting
revision, and Machiavellian is in the drafting stage. I’ve also written bits and pieces of scenes
from Gestern, Till Death Shall Part, Programming, Phagocardiosis
and Stars. I don’t like to lose
good scene ideas, so I jot them down as they come to me.
8. Can
you tell me what inspired these unique names?
I’m going to do a whole post
on titles later, but the short of it is that each title is based either on the
theme or the premise of its corresponding story. Some of them are rather obvious, some of them
are made-up words, some of them are cryptic and mysterious. As for Radialloy, that is a made-up
word that is the name for the central object of the book.
9. Is the
novel “overtly Christian,” or is it simply written on Christian principles?
This particular novel is overtly Christian. Andi and her father are Christians, and there
is occasional praying, Bible quotations, and the topic of God and Christianity
frequently comes up. Not all my writing
is overtly Christian in nature, but all the books in the Firmament
series are.
10. I
understand you have a busy year charted out with lots of writing projects in
the wings. Roughly speaking, can you
tell me how long it took you to write Radialloy itself?
Yes, it’s going to be a very
busy writing year! Radialloy took
exactly sixty-six days to write, and two months is a pretty standard time for
my novel writing. The revision stage was
much longer, with at least ten revisions spread out over two years. But it was my first revision, and I had a lot
to learn, so I’m hoping future revisions won’t be quite as hard.
Thank you for having me on
your blog, Jenny!
You're very welcome, Grace! As for the rest of you, Firmament:Radioalloy can be purchased on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle edition. To keep abreast of J. Grace Pennington's work be sure to check out her website and blog, or follow her on Twitter (@jgracetheauthor). There are more books to come. Check it out!
That graphic makes me giggle. But poor Pluto!
Great questions, Jenny; and great answers, Grace! I enjoyed learning even more about the book. And you write your novels in two months? ...I am currently somewhere between awe and pea-green envy.
May I copy the exact comment of Abigail, please, pretty please?!!!
Great interview on both sides. I have to admit that the more I hear of the book, the more interested I am to looking it up. Hmm! Ohh, I wish I can write books as quickly as you, Grace. How do you do it?
I love all the names you've got for the series... really creative and intriguing.
God bless,
~Joy @ joy-live4jesus.blogspot.com
The excerpts and sneak peak at the titles of the future books get me even more excited about reading the first!