Archives for 2024

Our featured writer today is our very own Kristine.  Let’s give her a warm welcome!

If you would like your talent featured in Authors in Our Midst or Artists in Our Midst, send me an email message.  Don’t be shy!  I have no more Artists or Authors posts in the queue, so please get in touch if you would like to be featured.

Speculative Worlds

by Kristine Smith

Hello, Balloon Juice. I’m Kristine Smith—longtime listener, semi-regular caller. Many thanks to WaterGirl for the invitation.

I’ve been writing for publication since the late ‘90s. Novels and short stories, mostly science fiction along with a little fantasy and supernatural suspense. My science fiction series follows the evolution of a woman named Jani Kilian from fugitive to major player in the ever-evolving relations between humans and the alien idomeni. There’s an Earth-based government, the Commonwealth, overseeing over forty colonial worlds. The relationship between Earth and the colonies is rocky, as is that between the Commonwealth and the idomeni. Then there’s Jani’s health, which is rocky for Reasons. I describe it as socio-political SF with hard medical detail.

One of the cultural aspects of the books is that paper documents have made a comeback. Paper had been out of use for so long in the Commonwealth that humans adopted the system developed by the idomeni. Kilian was one of the first humans sent to study documentation at the idomeni Academy, and her skills with paper play a major role in the series.

I’ve also written two novels under the pseudonym Alex Gordon, supernatural suspense about witches in northern Illinois (Gideon) and western Oregon (Jericho). They tell the story of Lauren Reardon, a woman who learns after her father’s death that he had been far from forthcoming about his early life and that she is part of a centuries-old battle between good and evil.

First chapters and other info about all my books and short works are available on my website.

I started writing seriously rather late. My early work consisted exclusively of essays and the occasional bit of fiction for grade school and high school assignments. My single attempt at college-level creative writing ended with my dropping the class when the instructor encouraged me to join the pre-law students and stick to essays. After that, I didn’t think at all about writing until my early 30s. I was working as a chemist in a large pharma company and when a number of my co-workers returned to school for their MBAs. I decided to sign up for a writing course and call it my MBA. I hunted around and settled on a Writer’s Digest correspondence course in science fiction/fantasy novel writing. This was the early ’90s, so I wrote using my clunky electric typewriter and snail-mailed the assignments to my instructor.** Every so often I grew frustrated and gave up—as in crumpled up drafts and burned them in the fireplace—but I always wound up going back. The story that I wrote and rewrote again and again turned into Code of Conduct, the first book in my SF series. In 1998, a few months after my 40^th birthday, I signed my first publishing contract. Code was released the following year. Four more books in the series followed. Then came a fallow period as I wrestled with Gideon, which was finally released in 2015, the follow-up, Jericho, came out in 2016.

My trad publishing career definitely had its ups and downs. I won the Astounding Award (formerly the John W. Campbell Award) for Best New Writer in 2001. My books garnered some lovely reviews. But sales weren’t where they needed to be, subsequent proposals were declined, and over time I realized the business side of things was killing my desire to write. That was when I decided to give indie publishing a try. Over the years I’ve gotten back the rights to all the books in my SF series. I also decided that Jani’s story wasn’t finished after all—I completed a sixth book, Echoes of War, this past December.

All the books have been released via Book View Café, a writer-run co-op. I’m hoping to get back the rights to the Gideon books eventually, and will re-release them via BVC as well.

Over the next few years, my goals are to wrap up the Jani and Gideon series, write more short stories, and maybe start on a suspense/women’s adventure tale that’s been bubbling in the back of my mind for a while. No shortage of ideas.

Thanks again for giving me the chance to talk about my work.

 

**Her name is Katharine (Cat) Eliska Kimbriel and she’s written some dandy SF and a wonderful trilogy about a young witch named Alfreda growing up in an alternate 1800s Michigan Territory. She’s also a member of BVC.

Kristine – Speculative Worlds!Post + Comments (66)