SPSFC 3 Author Interview – Iain Benson
1. What inspired the world, characters, or core concepts of your story? Was it a particular event, piece of media, or a speculative scientific idea?
Weirdly, my morning commute sparked the idea for Yesterday Pill. Endlessly driving the same route made me think of escaping an omnipresent security agency. Yes. It’s a boring commute. From there, asking why would somebody need to escape. By the time I’d made a million more commutes, I had the entire story in my head. So I wrote it down.
2. How did you approach the creation of your main characters? Were they modelled after real-life figures, or did they evolve organically as you explored the world of your story?
I knew the people I’d need for the story. Anya came easiest, as she starts out with all the information. Wade and Cass were a little harder. Wade has to start wet and strengthen with the story, whilst Cass has to start stubborn and bloom in a burst at the end. I also needed an unwitting love triangle. With Wade a straight, white, Australian (and Liam Hemsworth in my head) that immediately gave me two women as the other characters. Anya had to be Turkish for a plot point, whilst Cass had to be a physics lecturer for another plot point.
3. Science fiction often delves into questions of ethics, technology, and humanity. What central theme or moral question does your story grapple with, and why did you feel it was essential to explore?
There’s an undercurrent of the trolley problem in the story. Can you sacrifice one person to save everyone else? Wade and Anya look for an alternative, but for the antagonistic organisation, Paladin, the shortcut is to remove the problem. Permanently. To lesser extents, every person makes this judgement call regularly. The right now for the future. But as people, do we choose the right option? In my experience, rarely.
4. How did you approach the integration of futuristic technology or scientific concepts in your story? Did you base them on existing theories or let your imagination run wild?
The concept of a wormhole connecting two points in space or time is a well-established theory (called the Einstein-Rosen bridge). Though the energy to keep the portal open and large enough for a person to traverse is astronomical (literally, as it would require a collapsing star). However, keeping one open that’s on the nanoscale requires a much smaller amount. On the order of an explosion at a nuclear reactor. Whilst we can send nothing physical through a nanoscale wormhole, information could be…and, in the story, is. The other tech in the story is close to our current tech. Most people in Europe drive electric cars. I needed to prevent my MCs from jumping in a Ferrari and getting where they needed to be two days later. Stopping to recharge was a useful plot tool.
5. The sci-fi genre provides a canvas to depict diverse cultures, species, and worlds. How have you incorporated representation and diversity in your work, and why do you think it’s vital for the future of science fiction?
Anya is Mediterranean, Wade is Australian and Cassandra is English. I label no characters with any ethnic ancestry. I never do unless it’s necessary for the plot. Instead, if they’re in my head as a particular ethnicity, I’ll select names that reflect that. I have a character called Kobe. Kobe is a Japanese name but I don’t say he’s Japanese. I believe diversity in fiction is important. I’m aware as a White person, I cannot know the Black experience. So I don’t write about it. However, I have intimate knowledge of the trans experience. Gender is the characteristic I explore most in fiction. Quelle surprise, I know.
6. Every author has a unique writing process. Can you share a bit about yours? How do you manage world-building, plot progression, and character dynamics in such a complex genre?
I envy pantsers. I can’t start the story until I know the ending. Knowing the start and the end means all that’s left is joining the two together. I’ll have some other scenes I will want to include, so they all get put in my story-board document. Connecting them into a coherent stream forms the backbone to the story. I hear other authors say the characters try to steer the story in different directions, but honestly, I’ve never had that. Mainly because characters and story entwine from the outset. Their change drives the plot, the plot drives their change. I’m not plotting to the level of leaves crunching underfoot, but I have major plot points and free write between them.
7. What’s next for you after SPSFC? Are there any upcoming projects you can share with us?
Too many! Seriously. Currently, I’m doing the marketing for the second in a series following a London police detective who gets the weird cases (think X-Files meets Brooklyn 999). While remembering to market my others and write my current WIP. The WIP is a portal fantasy thriller about 12 strangers on a bus snatched to another magical realm. After that, I’ll play roulette with my To be Written pile. The Gothicana ghost story or the zombie apocalypse thriller? The psi-ops thriller? Or the third in the detective series? And I really should finish my comedy sci-fi series as there’s only one book left. But the Urban Dark Fantasy might get done before that, or the story of a closeted trans police officer whose two worlds collide on a case. There are more. I have a folder filled with story boards or broad-stroke ideas. At the rate I write, I need to live to be ninety-six. Otherwise my ghost will roam the world because of unfulfilled stories to be told.
