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How did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?
The story concept was inspired by the work of SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and the music of Train (Drops of Jupiter), Muse (various songs), and Brian May/Queen (’39). I started wondering how space tourism might affect the people of Earth on a global level--would people scramble to get ahold of tickets, camp out to watch and celebrate the first launch, or camp out to protest the launch, or perhaps bond across the globe, like during the World Cup?
I also wondered how the premiere launch of a tourist spaceliner might affect people on a personal level too--the impact of a space station on the Canada-United States border, the use of methane as a fuel for the spaceliner, how to protect from sabotage, what it might be like to pilot a spaceliner versus study the universe as an astronaut, etc. I wanted to explore all of the possibilities inherent in such a scenario. The New Year’s theme came much later--Devine Destinies put out a call for holiday-themed science fiction novellas, and this story fit the bill nicely, so I ended up setting it in the three days leading up to a New Year’s Eve launch.
The episodic, multi-viewpoint structure of Lift-Off was initially inspired by a movie I saw as a kid, called Thank God It’s Friday. There are lots of films and books structured this way--for example Game of Thrones, and Love, Actually--but Thank God It’s Friday really had an impact on me and never left the back of my mind, even after so many years. I wanted to write an episodic story like that, one that showed people making their dreams come true--like Donna Summer’s character did in the movie--and it has been in the back of my head since then. The concept for Lift-Off--of following several people’s lives that revolve around, or are somehow affected by the main event of the spaceliner launch--was perfect for this episodic, multi-viewpoint structure, so that’s how I decided that.
As for the characters, most of them just came from my brain, LOL. I knew I wanted to tell the stories of people from various walks of life--tweens to senior citizens--and each of them needed a BIG dream, one that was somehow related to the spaceliner launch, and one that was also very unlikely to happen. The novella would tell the story of each character’s struggle to achieve a near impossible dream before the spaceliner launched.
I knew I wanted the spaceliner to be fueled by methane, so that prompted a methane corporation heiress who wants to go on the inaugural launch but gets kidnapped instead. I also wanted a teen scientist and her grandmother, both of whom want to go to space, but for entirely different reasons. I imagined a gay rockstar of the century from small-town Texas who wants to live beyond all limits but is afraid to love, and a hungry young songwriter from the Canadian prairies who will do anything for her big break. There’s a Mexican-American military vet who dreams of trailblazing a new industry--space tourism. There are mischievous tween twins, a veteran astronaut who’s never been to space, and more!
As each of my characters struggles to achieve a near impossible dream, an inspiring, adventurous, and heart-warming tale unfolds. I sincerely hope you enjoy!
Hi! Thank you for hosting me as part of the blog tour for my novella Lift-Off! Best--Fiona Lehn
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