Nebula Award-winning author Catherine Asaro is one of those writers who have made the transition from a career in hard science to writing hard science fiction. She blends strong female characters, romance, and hard SF into stories that have kept readers coming back for twenty novels to date. But even within the staunchly rational and quantifiable boundaries of her training and earlier profession as a theortical physicist and academician, there was a deep well of creativity that spans music and dance as well as a writing. That creativity quickly becomes evident in her books and in our conversation.
TH: Can you give a brief arc of your career thus far as a writer/author?
CA: I started to write seriously in graduate school, as a way to relax from doing my doctorate. I wrote the first version of Catch the Lighting, The Last Hawk, A Roll of the Dice, Aurora in Four Voices, Light and Shadow, and Primary Inversion, and I already had worked out the stories for The Radiant Seas, Schism, The Final Key, Skyfall, parts of The Quantum Rose, and various other bits. My first fiction publication was “Dance in Blue,” a novelette in a Christmas anthology edited by David Hartwell at Tor. He also had Primary Inversion, and I think he wanted to see what I was like to work with before buying the book. I was very pleased with the story; he’s a good editor. I’ve been fortunate to work with excellent editors, all of them. My first story in Analog was “Light and Shadow.” The editor, Stan Schmidt, found it in the slush pile. Primary Inversion was my first book, and I’ve had over twenty since then.
TH: When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? How did you know?
CA: Well, I tried to write when I was eight, but decided I didn’t know enough. I didn’t try again until my last semester in undergraduate school, at UCLA. It took over! I knew then I couldn’t write in graduate school, or it would take over again and distract me from my work. So I didn’t for a few more years. But eventually I did start writing again. And it did indeed distract me. I suspect it added another six months to the time it took me to finish my doctorate. The writing just grabs you by the shoulders and won’t let go until you let it have its way with you.
TH: Are you a writer who puts herself out there, or one who stays in and scribbles in private?
CA: I write in private, but I always give my work to other people to get their comments. I’ve found it invaluable. I’m not one to think my work can’t be improved. Good readers can pick up things I didn’t see, didn’t know, didn’t make clear, or didn’t who-knows-what-else. A good reader is worth her or his weight in gold.
TH: A lot of established writers seem to have a stack of writing somewhere stuffed in a shoebox. I’m talking about stuff that perhaps helped you learn and develop your craft, but will never see the light of day, like the five novels the author had to write before he could get to the good one. Do you have anything like this? What’s in your shoebox?
CA: Well somewhere packed away in some box is that story I wrote at UCLA. I’ve no idea where it is, though. It wouldn’t work as a book now because it was an earlier version of the Ruby Dynasty, in a story that is at odds with most of what I’ve written since.
TH: Of course, most writers want to have bestsellers or make some sort of artistic or literary impact, and you have numerous novels to your credit. Are there some unrealized accomplishments that you’re striving for in the near future?
CA: Yeah, sure. 😀 I’d love to have a bestseller.I’ve been on some of the less well known lists, and I’ve skimmed the bottom of some of the bigger lists, but I’ve never made it high up. Yet! It’s important to me that my work be artistically satisfying. Some literary types scoff at science fiction, romance, and fantasy as genres, but I see absolutely no reason why genre fiction can’t be literary. Of course, what people define as literary varies a great deal. It isn’t just genre versus non-genre, either. I’ve noticed it with all types of groups. For example, women and men have somewhat different ideas about it. Men sometimes refer to what women consider literary as fluff, and women sometimes wonder what the heck is all the ado about with some works that appeal more to the male literary types.
TH: What are some of the things that most inspire you?
CA: I listen to music a lot. I like all kinds. This month I’m working on a book about a rock star in the future, so my June 2008 playlist has a lot of rock music in it. Here are some samples of what I’ve been listening to, mostly rock from current works in 2008 all the way back to the late sixties, but also with some other music I enjoy:
- Because The Night, by Patti Smith
- Bolero, by Maurice Ravel
- Breath, by Breaking Benjamin
- Canon in D, by Pacho Bel
- Carry Me over, Avantasia
- The Crystal Ship, by the Doors
- Don’t Stop Believin’, by Journey
- The End of Nothing (plus hidden track), by Point Valid
- Everybody Wants to Rule the World, by Tears for Fears
- Forever Young, by Alphaville
- Love Reign O’er Me, by The Who
- Maleguena, by Ernesto Lecuona
- Miracles, by Jefferson Starship
- The Mummers’ Dance, by Loreena McKennitt
- No Cars Go, by Arcade Fire
- Nothing Else Matters, by Metallica
- Rhiannon, by Fleetwood Mac
- Superman (It’s Not Easy), by Five for Fighting
- Take On Me, by a-ha
- Viva la Vida, by Coldplay
- What You Leave Behind, by Edenbridge
- Wheel In the Sky, by Journey
TH: A lot of genre writers might be hungry to know more about the process by which you built a readership. What are the most successful ways you have used to promote yourself and your work?
CA: I wish I knew. Then I’d do more of it. 🙂
TH: Was there a point at which you realized that you had “made it” as a writer and author? Are you there yet? If so, can you describe the milestone or circumstances? Do you recall how that felt?
CA: Not there yet. I make a living as a writer, but if I had to support a family alone on what I make, it would be tight. Winning the Nebula Award was one of the high points of my writing career. I was surprised The Quantum Rose won. It’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and also an allegory to quantum scattering theory. The sf world is more male dominated, so romantic stories receive less critical approval than in other genres (I’m being tactful here {wry smile}). But it won anyway. I was convinced it wouldn’t, and if Nancy Kress hadn’t made me write an acceptance speech on the back of my name-tag during the banquet, I wouldn’t have had anything prepared to say. The theoretical physics allegory is based on my doctoral work, because I was working out the story around the same time as I was writing my thesis. Everything in the book has a meaning associated with quantum scattering theory, and it’s all intertwined for me because that was so much a part of my life then, it was impossible to separate the physics from the writing. I almost didn’t include the essay in the back of the book explaining the allegory. I was writing close to deadline, and I had to do it really fast, which is why it’s not as well explained as it could be. I’m glad now, though, that I did include it. People tell me they wouldn’t have realized what I was doing with the physics otherwise. I dedicated the book to my thesis advisors, of course: Alex Dalgarno at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who was just about as great of an advisor as you can get; Kate Kirby, Co-Director of the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, who had an office right next to mine when I was in graduate school, and who was an incredible role model; and Eric (Rick) Heller, who is also a professor and Harvard and ITAMP. Rick was my Honors Thesis advisor when I was an undergraduate at UCLA, and he’s the one who recommended I work with Alex at Harvard for my doctorate. Eventually Rick came to Harvard, too, though that was after I graduated.
TH: Theoretical physics was part of my undergrad engineering curriculum, and some of the most eccentric (and from a writer’s standpoint, interesting) people I have ever met were theoretical physicists. Do you borrow directly, purposefully from people you have met in your fiction, or do aspects of certain people come through naturally?
CA: Hah! Actually, most of the theoretical physicists I know are ordinary people. Delightful as friends, but no eccentric traits. I try not to write about people I know, unless I purposely Tuckerize them with their permission. Otherwise, it constrains what I do with the characters. One time I met someone who had some notable similarities to a character in my books. I soon found myself thinking, “I don’t want anything bad to happen to that character.” It made it almost impossible to write about him. So I changed the character to take away enough of the similarities that he no longer seemed so much like anyone I knew.
TH: Do various quantum particles have their own identifiable character?
CA: Well, particles have all sorts of quantum numbers that define their properties … Okay, maybe a physics lecture isn’t the best answer. 😀 When I was making up the story for The Quantum Rose, I was also writing my doctorate, which used quantum scattering theory to give a coupled channel formalism for describing polyatomic photodissociation (such a catchy subject, soon to be a major movie … or maybe not). I used to lie in bed at night, thinking about my work. The way I relaxed was to let stories evolve in my mind, so the story for The Quantum Rose evolved right along with my thesis work. Pretty soon I was associating characters in the book with quantum scattering processes. It was fun, like putting together a puzzle.
TH: Do you write full-time nowadays, or are you still involved with theoretical physics?
CA: I also coach math. My program has produced nationally ranked teams. I’ve had students invited to the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), which is used to select the American team for the International Math Olympiad (IMO), the “Olympics” of math. I also took the Chesapeake team to the American Regional Math League (ARML), and they ranked fourth in the nation in B Division. One od them was one of only thirteen students in the country asked to take the IMO selection test. Another made the national tie-breaker for the ARML. Yet another was a Gold winner in the USA Mathematical Talent Search. Heck, I could go on with their accomplishments all night! I’m like a proud parent for these young people. It’s a real pleasure to work with them. By the way, I have a Facebook account now with pictures and info about my books, if folks would like to stop by there. It’s probably too short of notice for this, but also, I’m doing an interview on Second Life this weekend. Here’s a link with info about it. http://eventsinextropia.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/catherine-asaro/
TH: What can readers expect to see from you in the near future? What are you working on?
CA: Well, my fantasy novel The Night Bird just came out. It’s from Luna books. It’s a big epic type fantasy. If parents are thinking of it for young adults, though, they should know it’s sexier than some of the other books I’ve written. Diamond Star, the book about the rock star in the future, will be coming out in May 2009. We’ll be releasing a CD to go with it. The band Point Valid is doing the songs, which are mostly the songs I wrote for the book. I did the lyrics and some of the music, and the band did the rest of music. Hayim Ani, the lead singer/guitarist for the band, wrote a lot of the music. He also wrote the lyrics for three songs in the book. I’m learning a lot about the music business and recording in the studio and sing two songs on the CD. The band is great, and is doing good work. A cut from the CD is up at: http://www.fast-forward.tv/audio/carnelians.mp3
TH: Do you have a background in music that helped you with writing the songs for Diamond Star? Or did you delve into the music skills as necessary?
CA: I started taking ballet and playing piano when I was about five years old. I’ve danced all my life, so I’ve been saturated in music. I still dance, but I don’t practice the piano as much. I can still play some things, a little Bach, Mozart, Malaguena, some popular music. I compose more on the computer, because you aren’t limited by your hands. Of course, that means I come up with some weird arrangements that aren’t comfortable to play. I grew up surrounded by music. My father was training to be a concert pianist before he decided that to support a family he should have a more secure job. So I grew up immersed in piano and ballet music. And I listen to music constantly. I like rock, Spanish, and classical the best. I’m on my August playlist now. I didn’t have one for July; the June list sort of morphed into this one. This month it’s more symphonic metal than anything else, but there’s other stuff, too. This is what I listen to while I write.
- Angels, by Within Temptation
- Carry Me Over, by Avantasia
- The End of Nothing (plus hidden track), by Point Valid
- Forever Young, by Alphaville
- Love Reign O’er Me, by The Who
- Everybody Wants to Rule the World, by Tears for Fears
- Farewell, by Avantasia
- Lost In Space, by Avantasia
- Memories, by Within Temptation
- The Mummers’ Dance, by Loreena McKennitt
- No Cars Go, by Arcade Fire
- Nothing Else Matters, Metallica
- Take On Me, a-ha
- Viva la Vida, by Coldplay
- What Kind of Love, by Avantasia
- What You Leave Behind, by Edenbridge