Suppose We follow the crew of a spaceship that crashes on an alien planet where the natives are so technologically advanced that humans are ignored, and they must find a way to get their attention and help. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

It seemed to me that the joy and passion of discovery in science fiction had gone for the last few years. I was commissioned by the publisher to write a series of novellas based on the exploration of space, discovering new planets and their inhabitants. In addition, I’ve lived a vegan lifestyle for half a century and finally wanted to incorporate some of that into a new planet’s ecosystem.

What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?

The main character in Suppose We is the scientist Gaston and readers have told me he is really me! Even so, I enjoy the more ‘ornery’ characters and particularly enjoyed writing Commander Penn who is an intransigent, difficult, arrogant and reckless person and a carnivore to boot!

More challenging are the inhabitants of the planet. Aliens to us humans and while their technology and science are way in advance of us they still have emotions and likes even though different than ours. I like my ‘aliens’ to be really alien rather than weird-looking yet English-speaking octopi drinking in a bar!

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

A major theme is the interaction between the advanced inhabitants and the rather clumsy humans. I needed to work on such relationships knowing that when we eventually make ‘First Contact’ with an alien species it will be very different from those often portrayed in books and movies.

Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?

The sequel is Falling Up, which relates to strange gravity anomalies on the Kepler-20h planet. In the first book a genetically-modified bacteria of human and Keplerian origins is released to solve a nasty-bacteria problem on the planet. The solution, dubbed Keeps, get out of control and some of the natives form a Purist movement to rid their system of humans and their Keeps.

Other alien forms in the vicinity of the planet have their own agender and the son of Gaston and Em has Keplerian genes too making for an interesting development in Kepler’s Son.

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