My short story "Space Junk" in Seed Magazine

I am thrilled to announce that my short story "Space Junk" is featured in the current issue of Seed Magazine, one of five works of scientific fiction included in their second annual literary supplement. The story is about a woman who sends her husbands remains into space orbit and then must deal with the personal and philosophical ramifications of that act.

Seed apparently does not intend to post my story online, so I will make a podcast of me reading it once the issue is off stands. However, I do encourage anyone who is interested to pick up an issue (it's June/July), which includes stories by four other women writers -- all of them far more accomplished than yours truly. If you are in New York, an event and reading will be held on June 26, time and location TBD.

I'm posting below a brief e-interview I had with Lee Billings, who works in the editorial department, about my piece.


What was the inspiration for your story? Did you need to do much research before writing the story?

A few years ago, I was up one morning at sunrise and I happened to look up and see what I would later learn was an Iridium Flare, created when the sun reflects off the panels of an Iridium communications satellite. It gave off an incredibly beautiful orange glow and it the way it cut in a perfect line across the sky was absolutely hypnotic. Even though I knew I was looking at a hunk of equipment that had been tossed into the sky, I was filled with a sense of awe and felt a strong personal connection to it. Within minutes, I had the kernel for this story; it is my attempt to re-create for readers what I experienced that morning.

Writing and researching the story went hand-in-hand. I started by learning about Iridium satellites. I also spent a ton of time on the Web site of a company that provides space burials. That's how I learned that you could actually track the orbit of your loved one, an idea that quickly became central to the story. I was heavily influenced by the artist James Turrell, whose sky spaces and monumental earthwork Roden Crater are attempts to alter our perception of, the very shape of, the sky. I actually visited the glacier in New Zealand and did that extremely difficult hike myself while I was working on this story.

Does your story have a message or a theme?

I am very interested in modern notions of the sacred and the profane. In the Romantic/Emersonian worldview, which I think still has a great deal of influence in our culture, nature is sacred and the manmade is profane. We typically think of technology and the scientific worldview as antithetical to transcendent and, even, spiritual experiences. But I think technology and the scientific worldview can be portals to states of awe and enlightenment in their own right. There's a great Carl Sagan quote on this, but alas I'm away from my library right now and can't retrieve it.

If you're an atheist like me, the vastness and age of the universe can be quite an overwhelming thing to contemplate; it can make you feel quite small and insignificant. That's certainly the case with Sonia in this story. Unlike her husband who revels in the "big questions," she avoids them, preferring to concern herself with practical matters. But when Sonia sends Seymour's remains into space, she finds a personal connection to that ponderous starry void and through that connection comes to accept that space, and life itself, is both the great, impersonal, random unknown and at the same time it has as much meaning and import as one brings to it, which is quite a lot.

Not sure they qualify as a message or a theme, but these are some of the ideas that were rattling through my head as I worked on this piece.

Was there any challenge or difficulty for you in writing this piece? If so, what?

No more than any other story. I tend to write first drafts very quickly and then spend years revising them. I've revisited this piece several times over several years. It's been through a couple major revisions and a lot of fine tuning. Precision of language is extremely important to me.

What, if anything, does the inclusion of valid science within fiction have to offer audiences? Do you think this idea of "science in fiction" or "scientific fiction" is a valid genre with something to say?

My background is in science and technology journalism. While I've found that writing nonfiction is a great way to disseminate information and ideas (and for me to learn about what I'm interested in), it's not particularly useful if you wish to explore the meaning and implications of that information and those ideas. My desire to do the latter is really why I started writing fiction, and "science in fiction" or "scientific fiction" strikes me as one of the best means at our disposal to understand a world in which technological intervention and the scientific worldview are increasingly woven into the fabric of our daily lives. It's not only a valid genre, but it's a very important one.