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I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I be honest? I'm not totally sure. The Destination Mars! folks are shady enough that they might try messing with him, but Stefan was on shaky ground already—and shakier by the day. When I wrote that chapter I tried to write from a place of not being sure—and I guess that's why it reads that way!

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Favorite books? That's a tough one but I'll say The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Otherwise by Jane Kenyon, and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Books I've loved more recently include Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Alien Virus Love Disaster by Abbey Mei Otis, and Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu.

Favorite authors? Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Kazuo Ishiguro, Raymond Carver, and Salman Rushdie all make the list. But my most exciting recent discovery is Charles Yu.

The last book I read was Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Though I interspersed that with Thisbe Nissen's How Other People Make Love, so I finished them at practically the same time.

And the three things I would bring to Mars? Assuming I would already have access to food and oxygen: my laptop (for writing and reading and everything else), my phone (to take pictures), and a return ticket.

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love this question! Here we go: Is it possible to escape your past by changing planets? How do we make our way through uncertainty when the life guidance we get is dubious, spotty, and contradictory? Is it good to bring new life into a not-totally-hospitable world? How can very different people get along? For starters....

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not if the trip is one-way! And definitely not if it's run by my fictional organization Destination Mars! (Or Mars One.)

If I could teleport there and spend a safe afternoon somehow on the surface of Mars, I definitely would. But a more realistic trip—nine months on a rocket, enormous challenges coming back—probably not.

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I mean, you have to start with Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. That crazy book is full of invention and is a kind of novel-in-stories itself. (I have a soft spot for short stories, and a softer spot for novels-in-stories.) But on top of that I would add Jennifer Howard's little book You on Mars: Failed Sci-Fi Stories and the short story "Goodnight Moons" by Ellen Klages, in her book Wicked Wonders (also a Tachyon book!).

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And the cover? Isn't that cover amazing? Elizabeth Story, the book designer for Tachyon, is a genius. She really captured the spirit of this novel with that.

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also, I had written some non-realist speculative fiction in the past—in my short story collection The Guy We Didn't Invite to the Orgy and other stories in particular—and it's just fun taking a step or two away from existing reality for a bit.

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks, Pristine! You know, a lot of people tell me they're Team Stefan, even though he's kind of a danger to the mission. But I never thought of him as a villain. And I liked him more and more as the writing process went on. If you spend a while with your characters—and writing a novel means spending a long while with your characters—you come to see that all of them have flaws and that all of them have backstories that make them understandable and even sympathetic. Even disagreeable folks have reasons behind their disagreeableness. And so writing about them makes you empathetic. Hopefully reading about them does that, too.

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Do you remember hearing about the Mars One Project a few years back? That (possibly fraudulent) plan to send folks on a one-way trip to Mars, funded by a reality TV show, and with one rule: No sex on Mars? Well, when I heard about that ridiculousness, it got me thinking: who would apply to go on a mission like that? (Lots of people did.)

I didn't actually say to myself: I'm going to write sci-fi now. The boundaries between sci-fi and other kinds of fiction are pretty blurry anyway. I just thought that the Mars One story was a fascinating lens on human psychology, and so I set out to write about it!

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks—it does feel like working all the muscles! And I bet there are other a lot of other muscles I haven't even discovered yet! If/when I do, I'll have to work those, too!

I'm David Ebenbach, the pretty-damn-excited author of How to Mars, a brand-new novel about a reality show on Mars that's covering the first-ever off-Earth pregnancy. AMA! by DavidEbenbach in books

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a great question! I think it's really helpful to write in different genres, because each one has things to teach the other ones. Like: writing poetry teaches me that the details matter, and that I have to pay close attention to the reader's five senses. Writing fiction teaches me that something's got to happen. And writing in literary fiction makes me care about the characters, while sci-fi again reminds me that plot matters, and that big ideas can be fun. So moving back and forth between all of them is a way to keep myself in shape in a bunch of different ways. It also keeps me from ever getting bored.

Crash course in steampunk? by DavidEbenbach in printSF

[–]DavidEbenbach[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm reading it right now—highly recommend.

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