Micro-interview with Ellis Bray

Ellis Bray, artist of “Sun-Dappled Sheets of Methane Rain” in The Future Fire #69, joins us for today’s micro-interview celebrating the release of the hopeful SF issue.

TFF: How did you go about illustrating “Sun-Dappled Sheets of Methane Rain”?

Ellis Bray: I actually created a couple of pieces for this one. The first one was a view of Saturn through a rain-streaked visor but I felt like it didn’t get the full feel of the story, which had a sense of longing to me. So I found a reference photo of someone staring off into the distance in a field, and used a combination of Procreate and NASA’s free images to build up the painting, using the reference to add our main character to the scene.

TFF: What famous work of art would you like to hang over your bed?

EB: It’s probably cliche, but I’m in love with Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

TFF: What's the most unusual or challenging medium you can imagine working with?

EB: Marble. Bernini’s ability to create flesh from hard rock is witchcraft, I’m pretty sure.

TFF: Can you tell us about an artist whose work you're particularly enjoying at the moment?

EB: I really love watching the adventures of Lisa Snellings’ poppets, which are handmade ceramic tiny dolls that she then professionally photographs in unusual situations. It’s so creative, and the poppets are eerie and gorgeous.

TFF: What else are you working on now?

EB: I’m in the early stages of a tattoo career, so I’m finishing up the last parts of the training before I can start taking clients. It’s a huge leap in mediums but everything else (color theory, composition, style) is roughly the same, which helps a lot.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/04/new-issue-202469.html.

Micro-interview with Marc A. Criley

For today’s micro-interview we are joined by Marc A. Criley, author of “Sun-Dappled Sheets of Methane Rain” in The Future Fire #69.

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Art © 2024 Ellis Bray

TFF: What does “Sun-Dappled Sheets of Methane Rain” mean to you?

Marc A. Criley: The solar system is full of wonders, so far only glimpsed through our robotic spacecrafts’ cameras and sensors. How astonishing is it going to be when we can go and see them with our own eyes?

TFF: Would you like to visit another planet?

MAC: See question 1! 😁 Seriously, all the places in SDSoMR exist—I’d like to visit them all just to get started on my planetary “bucket list.”

TFF: What is the most important thing to remember about writing?

MAC: Write the story you want to write—and read. Tell it the way you want to tell it; don’t muffle your unique voice, make sure the story is your story.

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Extract:

A few scattered raindrops float down from a hazy orange sky. They’re as big as my child-thumbs, plopping onto my enviro suit and spotting the visor. The liquid methane evaporates fast, leaving sooty splotches. The rain tapers off. Dad and I wait. I get antsy. Dad sighs.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/04/new-issue-202469.html.

Mirco-interview with Emma Burnett

We were delighted to invite Emma Burnett, author of “Escape Choice” in TFF #68, to join us for a chat about SF, the sea, and future work.

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Art © 2024 Cécile Matthey

TFF: What does “Escape Choice” mean to you?

Emma Burnett: The title, it just felt like a good fit for the things that come up in the story. People escaping from Earth. People escaping from a colony ship. People escaping from each other. They’re all choices that have to be made.

The story, I wanted Max’s decisions to be recognised as valid for him. Even if they don't always make sense to other people, his lived reality is legitimate, and I wanted him to have that space. Maybe because I haven’t, always.

TFF: Do you remember the first time you saw the sea?

EB: No. But I remember the first time I nearly died in the sea. It was nothing, we were at the beach. But a wave caught me behind the knees, and suddenly I was under water and upside down, and I remember thinking very calmly, “Oh. This is how I die.” I must have been, like, 14. I didn’t die, obviously. Except maybe in another timeline where I did. It didn’t make me scared of the sea, but it did give me what might be considered empathy for those lost in it. She’s a powerful beast.

TFF: What are you working on next?

EB: I’m always working on things all the time. I’ve always got a few short stories on the go. I’m about a third of the way through writing a novel, but then I have to type it up because I’m hand writing it like an epic loon. I'm also working on improving my handstands and learning to play the ukulele.

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Extract:

Max glanced at his mother’s face. She had that line between her eyebrows, which sometimes meant that she was thinking, and sometimes meant she was annoyed. He looked briefly at his teacher, sitting across from them. Her face was too blank for him to interpret.

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Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2024/01/new-issue-202468.html.

The Present and Future Struggle for Teen Girls’ Self-Esteem

On the planet Soranen, the Sor people are a genetic mixture of the Ellarisor and Human species, both now presumed extinct. Teen twins Lerris and Graika, defying Soranen’s laws, dare to fly a mini-jet to the edge of the atmosphere. There they uncover a dangerous mystery that inspires them to seek the origins of their Human blood.

Guest post by Anne E. Johnson

The edict “write what you know” might not seem applicable to science fiction, particularly that which takes place in the far future and in another, unknown world. But I would argue this is one of the very purposes of science fiction. A purely imaginary setting somehow intensifies the realities we face in the mundane quotidian. I tried to demonstrate this in my YA novel, Space Surfers. One of its main characters represents my late sister, Allegra, and is meant to show what she might have become if she had lived.

The twin teen characters Gaika and Lerris have the blood of two species: Human and Ellarisor, neither of which are believed to exist anymore. One of the primary arcs of Space Surfers tracks how the two protagonists learn to relate to their heritage as they sort it out. Being part Human, they both go through some recognizable problems of adolescence. With Lerris, it’s the fear that his father will be disappointed in him, and the realization that he is, in fact, rather disappointed in his father. For Graika, the problem is more general, and oh, so common among girls: she doesn’t believe that she’s worth anything or that her natural gifts are something to be proud of.

That was Allegra, in a nutshell. She was smart, funny, musically talented, and unwilling to make those traits her focus once she felt the crush of teen peer pressure. She dated boys (and then men) who didn’t respect her, married one of them, and died of cancer at the age of 29. And the last months of her life, in her final brief bout of decent health, she told me a secret: she had a dream of getting divorced and opening her own greenhouse. But that dream never came close to being a reality.

So, when I wrote Graika’s character many years later, I gave her the chance Allegra never had. Space Surfers is in part about figuring out who you are, owning it, and being proud of it. There’s a specific parallel I was careful to draw between Graika and Allegra: each had adults in her life who supported her. It’s a different problem than that faced by girls with no backing at home. Just as my parents were both professional people who took it as given that their kids had brains and potential, so it is for Graika and Lerris. Their dad designs aircraft and their mom is a chemist. The father wants his son to be a pilot, but he also expects his daughter to become some sort of professional. Their mother’s fault is putting too much pressure on Graika to excel in the sciences. The result, similar to what happened to Allegra, is that Graika rebels by burying her intellect and trying to seem “normal.”

Anne E. Johnson

I won’t give too many spoilers, but I will say that Graika eventually finds her way. She doesn’t get all the answers, of course, because none of us has those, but at least by the end of the novel she’s uncovered a sense of self-worth and a way to move forward. She figures out what her best contributions to the world might be, regardless of what the well-meaning authorities in her life advise or expect. What goes along with that change is a willingness to let herself be loved, both by her family and romantically by someone whom she would never have considered before.

Although Space Surfers takes place hundreds of years in the future in a solar system I invented, I hope it resonates with young humans of our time and our planet, especially girls and women. Graika’s lack of love for herself and her dreams may well be a universal issue—no matter where you are in the universe. I just hope Allegra’s spirit is floating close enough to read over my shoulder.

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You can purchase Space Surfers directly from the publisher or on Amazon.

Learn more about Anne E. Johnson by visiting her website or following her on Facebook.