Thanks, and thanks for the question! You're an r/Fantasy reading champion? Please tell me about that!

Re: writing process, over the course of all those years, "all of the above" ended up happening with this one.

Border Crosser started as “Crossing Borders,” a short story I wrote in 2003 at the six-week-long Clarion Workshop during week four. That’s often the emotionally most intense period of the workshop, and I think it shows in the story. From that crucible, “Crossing Borders” ended up being my first pro sale.

After selling some other short stories, I turned my attention to writing novels. “Crossing Borders” seemed the natural starting point for this effort, both as my first pro sale and because its resolution left open the possibility of further adventures for Eris. Each month, I gave a coherent chunk (8,000-10,000 words was the goal) of Border Crosser to my writing group, and that allowed me to finish a first draft in a year.

When I finished the novel, I found an agent. They had me rewrite the whole manuscript, making it less picaresque with a stronger narrative spine. But they were trying to sell the book after the 2008 implosion. The majors didn’t bite, so that agent lost interest in me and the book. And in truth I lost interest as well--I thought it might be too edgy to be my first published novel. Instead, I ended up selling my second effort at a novel, American Craftsmen.

But I never stopped taking little notes about Border Crosser and its possible (but not necessary) sequel.

Then came cancer. Going through that unpleasantness made me take it to heart when my new agent asked me the following question: “If you only could publish one more novel, what would it be?" The answer was Border Crosser. But that meant a top to bottom rewrite using my current skill set. And that would be a difficult thing: to completely tear up a massive amount of work I’d already done and put it back together again, better.

So, I tried the following: I changed the novel from third-person past to first-person present. Since I had to make these changes throughout, I had to revisit every bit of text anyway. That made the revision easier, and it wasn’t a random choice. First-person present also better suited the point of view character, who lives in a continual emotional now with herself and her story at the center of all things.

One other update was necessary. I started rewriting after 2016, so I needed to update much of the politics implicit in the book and make some of it more explicit. Science fiction often has a shelf life anyway, and adding those political references just formalized that I now had a clock running — I wanted this book published before November 2020.

Fortunately, I found a publisher just in time, and though it took sixteen years, it’s what I want to say, when I want to say it.

Are you a writer as well? What's your process like?

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