First Saturday Sci-Fi - July 2018
Here we are in beautiful down town July already! That makes Christmas just down the street and around the corner! Better start on that list !
For this month we're talking with a former catalogue librarian with two graduate degrees, Lorinda J. Taylor. Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she has worked in several different academic libraries before returning to the place of her birth, where she now lives. She has written fantasy and science fiction for years but began to self-publish in 2011. Her writings combine many aspects of science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, future history, off-world adventure, psychological fiction, and even a love story. She always strives to engage readers emotionally and give them something to think about at the end of each book.
1. Tell us about your favorite work… what makes it special ?
I’ve self-published 15 books now, including one 2-volume novel. I like all of them, but I have to say that I’m proudest of the 7-volume series, The Labors of Ki’shto’ba Huge-Head, which I think is the most original thing I’ve done. There is a reason I’m known as TermiteWriter around social media. I created an extraterrestrial species of giant intelligent termite (inspired by viewing the documentary Mysterious Castles of Clay). I took their Earthly termite characteristics (one single breeding pair per termitarium, three castes who are totally interdependent on one another, instinctive builders, growers of fungus and eaters of cellulose, etc.) and extrapolated how evolution might have produced an intelligent creature out of all this. I introduced these termite people in The Termite Queen, where humans make first contact with the Shshi and are required to figure out how to communicate with this deaf and two-thirds blind species. Then I sent the termite Champion Ki’shto’ba Huge-Head off on a quest, during which it and its Companions relive Greek and medieval myths. I also wrote a constructed language for the Shshi to speak. I doubt that anyone else has done anything quite like all that.
2. What do you think makes for good Sci-Fi ?
I write literary science fiction, even if I’m writing about giant termites. By that, I mean characterization takes precedence over action. A lot of my books emphasize psychology – what goes on inside the heads of the characters. Even Ki’shto’ba (just like its mythical counterpart Hercules) goes mad at one point of the narrative and has to undergo a healing process. In my series The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, the title character spends the whole second volume recovering from PTSD. But I do think science fiction needs some science in it. I have plenty of fictional physics and technology in my books, along with some real science, like entomology, linguistics, anthropology, astrophysics, etc. I’m not fond of space opera and shoot-‘em-ups.
3. Do you think your books can help shape the future and if so how?
This question hits on something that is usually overlooked in my writing. I write future history – my books are laid in the 28th or the 30th century, following a total meltdown of Earth’s civilization – the Second Dark Age. Humans have managed to pull themselves out of their dystopia and reconstruct a more humane culture. It’s based on something called the Mythmaker philosophy, with humanist underpinnings. To get the best idea of what this entails, you need to read my books. The Mythmaker philosophy first appears in The Termite Queen and is more fully elaborated in The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, but there are elements of it even in the Ki’shto’ba series. The 20 Mythmaker Precepts are printed at the end of each volume of Man Who Found Birds. I would like to think that my views might have some influence on the future, but somehow I doubt that will ever happen.
4. Do you have inside jokes or true events hidden in your writing?
I do have a number of inside jokes or allusions that I think are a lot of fun. One example is in The Termite Queen, where my heroine Kaitrin Oliva goes to visit a woman who lives on Far Point Road (a bow to the very first episode of Star-Trek: The Next Generation). I have other allusions to Star-Trek (at one point Robbin Nikalishin says this: “Just to be able to say, the offspring of Earth are no longer bound to their own solar system – ours is the generation that has learned how to go where no human creature has gone before!” Obviously, Robbie couldn’t have known anything about Star Trek.)
And some things even creep into the termite stories:
“Once, Ru’a’ma’na’ta explained to us what these helpers of Champions were called in her speech. She said it could be translated into our language as mu’it’zei| da| soi’zi|. [foot-strikers on the body’s side] Yes, that is what I said, Chi’mo’a’tu. I really cannot understand it, either. But I think it is some kind of Star-Being jest that does not seem humorous when it is put in our speech. I once told Wei’tu about it and it became quite indignant. After all, who would want a helper who kicked one on the side?
“Or perhaps the phrase means a defender – someone who stands at one’s side and kicks one’s enemies. But you are right – most Workers could not fill that role … ”
5. Which do you prefer… model your characters after people you know or just make them up?
I think a writer can’t help being influenced by people she has known and by her experiences, but basically I make up my characters out of whole cloth.
6. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to take away?
Definitely. See No. 3 above. Of course, I want my books to be entertaining, but I also want them to be compelling and thought-provoking, leaving the reader with something to think about at the end. And a little emotion never hurts anything. Can you believe some of my termite people’s adventures have made people weep copiously? In a Goodreads review of The Valley of Thorns, the reviewer says “Ms. Taylor managed to make me cry over a fictional termite, a termite for heaven's sake! I have enjoyed all the volumes of the Labors thus far, but I believe this is the best one yet!”
7. What is your favorite review?
I have many good and even outstanding reviews, but I think my favorite is one that appears only on Amazon.ca. It’s a review of The Termite Queen, v.2: The Wound That Has No Healing, and it’s by an entomologist whose research formed the basis of a lot of my knowledge of termites. He captures the essence of TQ better than anyone else has. Here it is:
The Termite Queen is a novel unlike any other. Bio-science fiction at its best! A story that brainy girls may especially enjoy. It involves a tragic romance set 1,000 years in the future between a young female associate professor linguist and a senior expedition leader, who is a xeno-entomologist, one who studies alien insects. Aboard the outbound flight our love struck couple tie the knot amid a ship of mixed alien commarades. Having reached the target planet, a new intelligent life form, analogous to earth's termites, is discovered and its language is cracked by the brilliant young linguist. We are talking social science and biology here, a refreshing switch from physics and technology-based scifi. We are taken into the social world of strange creatures and embroiled in their political intrigues. But on the brink of the homeward departure the nefarious plotting of the alien termites brings tragedy to the love struck couple. Dark questions are raised about consciousness and morality. Even more disturbing questions have been raised about our protagonist entomologist. Every psychological thread is following in detective fashion to reconstruct the troubled mind of a lost lover. Mind blowing and heart wrenching. A gripping and thought provoking story that will keep you rapidly flipping the pages to the end.
What comes next?
I’m continuing to work on The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, Part Five: Phenix Rises. The principal defect in that series is that it’s way too long, and I’m not having much luck cutting it. I also have several books in my head that I would really like to write, but since I’m now 78 years old and my energy is flagging, I may never get them written.
Where can we learn more?
https://termitewriter.blogspot.com (Ruminations of a Remembrancer) Deals with general topics and reviews, focusing on The Termite Queen and The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars.
https://termitespeaker.blogspot.com (The Labors of Ki’shto’ba Huge-Head) Deals with the Ki’shto’ba series and with mythology.
Twitter @TermiteWriter
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Termitewriter
My Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Lorinda-J.-Taylor/e/B007AKHZW4/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1528386207&sr=8-1
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TermiteWriter
My books are also available at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, etc.
