SPSFC 3 Author Interview - William Long

What inspired the world, characters, or core concepts of your story? Was it a particular event, piece of media, or a speculative scientific idea?

I have always been a child of cinema, so movies have definitely inspired my approach to the genre, but conceptually, Children of the Black began as an exercise in imagining fatherhood. I always felt that I’d have a daughter, and Vision was my best guess at what she might be like. Years rolled by, and eventually, I learned just how right and wrong I had been. What I had underestimated was just how much my old way of life became incompatible with having others depend on me, and this final of the story is pinned fairly heavily on that.

 How did you approach the creation of your main characters? Were they modeled after real-life figures, or did they evolve organically as you explored the world of your story?

I try not to build characters around people I know. Elements sneak in, of course, but it’s easier to have friends and family read what I write when I don’t reflect them in my work. So, I begin by mixing and matching traits until a personality takes shape. From there, the world nurtures them into full-on people who dictate what they will and won’t do more often than I should probably admit.

 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?

 If there is a core concept that Children of the Black revolves around, it's knowing how, when, and why to relinquish control. It requires an immense amount of trust in yourself and others, the latter of which doesn’t come easily for me personally. So, I tried to explore it from multiple angles in what I consider to be a relatively safe environment.

Basically, it's a debate with myself.

 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?

 Since the world of Children of the Black is so foreign to our own, I got to imagine quite a bit. There really are few rules when dealing with alien technology, but there are several places where I wanted to find some facts and expound upon them in a way that made sense to me. I won’t get into spoilers, but there is a significant focus on the human nervous system in the book, and I spent a decent amount of time cross-checking the wild concepts I had with actual anatomy to make them at least plausible at a glance.

 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?

  I tried not to put a focus on that, honestly. Other cultures exist throughout the story in an organic way. If you read it with that lens, you will find things there, but they aren’t spotlighted or anything like that. They simply exist. Race, orientation, and religion aren’t things people define themselves by in this universe. Those issues are largely solved.

As for the future of sci-fi, I believe the most important way the genre can influence change is by showcasing the very real truth that what we do is and always will be of greater significance than how we look, where we worship, and who we love.

 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?

 Notebooks, notebooks, notebooks. I have dozens of them crammed filled with snippets of history, dialogue, sketches of ships, room layouts, and plot outlines. I basically build a blueprint of the story elements and test it out in prose. Sometimes, it all holds up. Other times, it comes crashing down around me, and I have to find where it doesn’t hold weight. With Children of the Black, I was lucky. It evolved fairly naturally over a number of years, but its sequel has been a bit more troublesome. You should see the stack of notebooks I have on that one.

What's next for you after SPSFC? Are there any upcoming projects you can share with us?

Next up is The Hound of Greyvor, the second book in the Silver Sights Saga. I’m excited about it and have it out to Alpha readers right now, but in the future, I plan to do something more contemporary. There’s a ghost story I promised my wife I would finish back when we were still dating. That was fifteen years ago, so…