What was the inspiration for this story?
Gasfish is based on one of the themes that powered much of my SF: What is the definition of “human?” We have no definition and as we move into a very near future of engineered human genomes and human/computer interfaces, we still have no answer to the fundamental question of “what is it that makes us human.” What is it? I don’t have the answer yet, but we’d sure better think about it, because it’s going to open a huge can of legal worms very soon now.
What are some of your favorite short stories?
I love the stories that challenge our concrete preconceptions, and the number of individual stories is too large to list here. Some of the authors that challenge your perceptions of “the way things are” and our notion of “human” include Nancy Kress and Octavia Butler among others. Hmmm. Is it a surprise that women authors, who were so marginally included in “human” for so long, are often the ones to explore that definition? I wonder.
You have one wish, you can make one from a story or novel you've written a reality. What would it be?
Wow. You are talking to the near future writer whose dystopian Drylands world that fueled many of my short stories is coming true in my lifetime. But hey, the cellular construction technology that I described in Skin Deep, originally published in Asimov’s, is now a reality as we use 3-D printers to create new skin from human cells, with the potential to grow organs the same way. So hey, some of the good stuff is coming true, too! But, the tracking technology of Search Engine is also a reality, or pretty darn close to it. Although we’re not required to wear chips. Yet . . . So reality has always walked hard on my heels, both good and bad.
Do you have anything coming out in the months ahead?
Ah, I got into content editing for new authors, which I find that I love as much as I love writing. It started because I watched my writing students get totally scammed by the fake “publishers” that started taking advantage of the publishing revolution. After spending thousands of dollars and selling maybe ten copies, the authors believed their books were failures, where it was a matter of no quality editing and bogus marketing promises. I find that I get a lot of pleasure out of working on a book with an author, making it as strong and engaging as it can be, helping that author understand the publishing realities, and seeing that book show up on the online bookstore shelf as something that readers will be happy they purchased. Actually, my enjoyment of editing surprised me, but then again, I always hated the first draft, loved the revision part of writing—the real part of writing to my mind—so maybe it’s not such a surprise!