If there’s a hole in your heart in the shape of The Martian, or if you’re longing for the biggest, craziest trip ever now that you’re stuck inside, never fear: Goldilocks will soon be here. It begins with the theft of a whole space mission, and quickly becomes a mission to save humanity. But what version of humanity? And at what price? The stakes are high, and the all-female crew is up for the challenge. Goldilocks will be released May 5th, but to give you a little preview, Laura Lam sat down with us to talk about space, writing, and a brief history of female badasses, from Ancient Greece to modern times (and beyond!).
Hi, Laura! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your new novel, Goldilocks?
Thank you for having me and I’m glad you enjoyed the book. I’m Laura Lam, though I often go by the nickname El, and I’m a Californian who has lived in Scotland for over 10 years. I currently live in Edinburgh, where I write and lecture part-time on the Creative Writing MA at Edinburgh Napier University.
Goldilocks is about the first mission to an exosolar planet to save humanity from a dying Earth. Our world only has 30 years left of habitability due to climate change. The problem is, rising misogyny means that the women best suited to go to the planet Cavendish were booted off the mission at the last minute—so they decide the steal the spaceship Atalanta and go off to save humanity anyway. But when someone on board is hiding a secret, time might run out sooner than they feared (cue dramatic music).
What inspired you to write Goldilocks?
I wanted to take everything I loved about astronaut films but put women front and centre, since quite often they’re secondary characters or astronaut wives left back on Earth (which happened to Liv Tyler twice!). I also put in a lot of my fears about the future—climate change and the fragile equilibrium of society, reproductive health being legislated (usually by men with a rudimentary understanding of biology at best), the privatisation of space and whether or not that’s a good thing, and so on.
There are some urgent parallels with our current political situation, from climate to capitalism. Do you, like Valerie, think space is the answer? Or do you think there’s still hope left for this planet?
I think that any technology you’d need to get to space will be a lot harder to achieve than fixing climate change. Terraforming Mars? Really hard. Gravity ring? I think if we were to try and do it now the ring would have to be the size of a football field. Warp drive or other FTL travel? Currently impossible until we figure out how to harness negative energy and possibly access the 5th dimension (yes, the 5th). I had to take a lot of leeway with tech capabilities for the premise of Goldilocks, though I tried to stick to at least theoretical concepts like the Alcubierre drive.
The problem with saving Earth is the people, not the tech. I see the Onion headline going around from time to time and it always makes me laugh/cry: “Scientists Politely Remind World That Clean Energy Technology Ready To Go Whenever.” Unregulated capitalism is what’s hampering us. Tax the billionaires, stop voting in fascists, fix Earth, then go to space all you like. If only it could be that simple.
Motherhood is a very complex issue in Goldilocks generally, from the raising of a child to the “raising” of a planet. Did you set out to write about motherhood, or did it arise from the other themes?
Hmm, that’s a hard one to answer. I think it arose naturally out of the theme of ‘growth,’ which also shows up on various levels—most obviously Naomi being the botanist for the Atalanta. Motherhood is something no woman or AFAB person doesn’t think about at some level due to societal expectations, whether they want children or not, so it was bound to come up in my work eventually. I’m also really interested in that moment when you become an adult and start interacting with your mother on more of a peer-to-peer level, yet there are still echoes of that earlier parent-child relationship.
Each of the Atalanta Five are so distinct and interesting. Who among the crew do you most identify with?
Probably Naomi—she’s who I would be if I actually had any practical skills. But there’s probably also more Valerie in me that I would like to admit. I’m very fond of Hart, Hixon, and Lebedeva for different reasons.
From the title Goldilocks to the name of the ship (Atalanta) to the name of the destination planet (Cavendish), women’s stories and contributions permeate a narrative in understated ways. Why did you choose Atalanta and Cavendish in particular?
Good catch! Atalanta is of course named for the virgin huntress in Greek mythology who didn’t want to marry and outran any potential suitors to avoid doing so (until Hippomenes start chucking golden apples at her). She was also a damn fine wrestler and the only woman to sail with the Argonauts to seek the Golden Fleece. Her speed, strength, and willingness to buck gender trends of the time made her the perfect namesake for five astronauts’ mission.
Cavendish is named for Margaret Cavendish, who wrote The Blazing World, a work of proto science fiction published in 1666 where a woman journeys from our world to a utopian world and becomes Queen. There are a lot of fish men, bird men, very long philosophical digressions, and one of the first instances of an authorial self-insert, where Cavendish shows up in her own book and possibly falls in love with her protagonist. I read it last year and it’s quite feminist for 1666, but also quite colonialist. But colonialism is also inherent in space travel discourse, so I thought it was fitting to reference in that respect, too. In her opening, Margaret Cavendish basically apologises for daring to be a woman writing a story, and finishes with:
“Yet, rather than not be Mistress of a World, since Fortune and the Fates would give me none, I have made One of my own. And thus, believing, or, at least, hoping, that no Creature can, or will, Envy me for this World of mine.”
Goldilocks is drawing comparisons to The Martian, so what are your thoughts on Weir’s book? Did it have any particular influence on the story you wanted to tell, or was there another work that did?
It was one of my early comp titles and I still think it fits because, like Weir, I’m attempting to go into some of the science of space travel. I don’t go into quite as much detail and I also take more liberties with what will be possible, tech-wise, whereas Weir stayed fairly close to NASA tech with a few steps forward. I have a very different tone, though, so if you go in expecting Naomi to be cracking jokes while solving problems on the ship to stay alive, you’ll likely be disappointed. Other inspirations were Becky Chambers’ work, specifically To Be Taught, If Fortunate, and feminist near future dystopias like The Handmaid’s Tale, The Parable of the Sower, and some elements of The Power and Vox.
What’s your next project? Will you be returning to Cavendish or the Atalanta Five?
Though Goldilocks is presently a self-contained story, I would definitely be open to returning to these characters and this world and I have ideas of where the story would go next. Publishing is a business, though, so it’ll likely depend on how Goldilocks does. Sales are always out of an author’s control, but even more so in the middle midst of a pandemic when most bookstores are closed. This has definitely been my weirdest book launch (this is my 6th published novel).
My next published work is more women in space! Seven Devils it out on August and it’s a far-future space opera that I co-wrote with one of my best friends, Elizabeth May. We pitch that one as Mad Max: Fury Road in space. It’s more Star Wars and I lean away from describing tech in detail in that one and take a more science fantasy approach, it’s a lot bloodier, and there are more jokes. We had a lot of fun with it.
The isolation of space is far more profound than the current isolation most of us are facing, but what parallels do you see? Do you have advice based on your research?
It turns out that reading a lot of astronaut memoirs last year has become quite useful for self-isolation in 2020. My favorite one I read was Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. A lot of tips from astronauts seem to boil down to: keep to a routine, take stock of what is in your control and work towards those goals, and keep the right mindset. Another quote:
“Life off Earth is in two important respects not at all unworldly: you can choose to focus on the surprises and pleasures, or the frustrations. And you can choose to appreciate the smallest scraps of experience, the everyday moments, or to value only the grandest, most stirring ones.” ― Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
We are all in a strange situation. Frontline workers and parents are currently overworked. Many of us are at home with more free time than we’re used to, but with so much stress and worry we are unable to actually relax. While not diminishing the gravity of what we are facing, I am trying to find small pockets of joy where I can and hope that we come out of this with hope and renewed burning desire to change the world for the better.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
Rebecca Solnit’s nonfiction A Hope in the Dark touches on what I said in my last answer—she doesn’t flinch away from the horrible things that have happened in our history, but she also touches on the many, many ways humans have been absolutely incredible. I found it depressing but ultimately heartening and hopeful. And if you want a fantasy trilogy that looks at climate change in an interesting way and you haven’t yet read N.K. Jemsin’s thrice-Hugo-award-winning Broken Earth trilogy, take a look, as I think it’s incredible on a worldbuilding, craft, and character level.
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