Lina Rather is a speculative fiction author from Michigan now living in Washington, D.C. Her stories have appeared in various publications, including Shimmer, Flash Fiction Online, and Lightspeed.
Her current work, Our Lady of Endless Worlds, is a space opera about faith and duty, redemption and revelation, and nuns in a giant slug in outer space. The first book in the series, Sisters of the Vast Black, won the Golden Crown Literary Society Goldie award and was shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Its sequel, Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, is now out to all the places that sell good books—possibly interrupting Lina’s non-writing pursuits of cooking overly elaborate recipes, reading history, and collecting cool rocks and terrible 90s comic books.
Click through to read more about squishy technology, advice for burgeoning SFF authors, and some amazing SFF litfic reading recs!
How would you describe Sisters of the Forsaken Stars to someone new to your work?
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars is the sequel to Sisters of the Vast Black (definitely start there!) and follows an order of interplanetary nuns as they travel in their living slug-ship between worlds in need of charity or medical help. In the second book, the Sisters are on their own, cast out of the Church after uncovering a terrible conspiracy—the whole foundation of their lives has changed. They have to deal with that grief and trauma while also choosing what role they will play in a war that is surely coming.
SOTFS is the second novella in your space opera series. Did you always envision a series?
Not initially, but by the time I finished the first book, I knew I wanted to spend more time with the women aboard the ship, Our Lady of Impossible Constellations. Each of them is a little bit of me in a different way, and I loved following them as they found their way down new paths in the wake of the first book.
The Sisters in SOTFS all have very different personalities. How do you approach writing different personalities’ coping mechanisms?
Each of the Sisters has something they truly cherish in life. Whether that’s faith, stability, or community, the events of the previous book have shaken those tenets. I focused on each of those things—what does it feel like for each of them to lose their grounding? What will they do to regain it? What happens if they can’t?
There are several intricate and complex bonds between characters in SOTFS—for example, a romantic lesbian relationship that’s refreshing in that it isn’t a focal point of the story and gets to just be quiet and tender. Did you enjoy writing that relationship?
I did! With Gemma, I wanted to write about someone who is going through a new “coming-of-age” later in life and having to learn who she is and how to be part of a relationship. I think many queer people, myself included, are familiar with feeling like they’re stumbling through another adolescence after coming out or leaving home. Too often, starting a relationship is the end of a story, but so often, that’s just the beginning—Gemma may love Vauca, but at the start of SOTFS, she doesn’t know how to do the work of that.
The living ships are such a brilliant element in the series, bringing up questions of agency and validity of the more-than-human. What first drew you to blur the lines between technology and animals?
I love organic technology—the squishier, the better! And because so much of the Sisters’ vocation is about care and community, it seemed natural that their ship should also be a member of their community, one they have to care for. It’s been really interesting to see different readers’ perspectives on the ship and its relative level of sentience and autonomy.
You have reworked your stories for audio; what’s that process like? Have you written for radio from scratch before?
I’ve only done a little bit of adaption for audio—mostly smoothing out things that look good on paper but sound funny narrated. For the most part, my stories have appeared in audio after appearing in print, so changes have to be small. I would love to write for a narrative mystery or horror podcast, though. I’m a huge fan of the genre (shoutout to Arden, Magnus Archives, Passenger List, The Last Movie…)!
Does your approach differ according to the format you’re working with (short story vs. novella, for instance)?
I tend to have the same process for most of my work—I’m a very methodical writer, and by the time I start a draft, I generally have a beginning, an ending, and the general feeling of the story in between. On the upside, that means I usually only write one (very, very slow) draft that is very close to the final product. On the downside, it means a lot more fallow time. SOTFS was a little different because I had an external timeline. I ended up writing all of the big scenes out of order, then fitting them together like puzzle pieces and filling in the connective tissue.
Do you have any advice for writers starting in SFF and hoping to make a career out of their writing?
Take risks—write that oddball story—and make friends! Writing is a lot more fun when you have a group of people pursuing the same goals (whether in real life, on a forum, or social media). Writing can be a weird and insular world.
What’s next for you?
I just sold the last short story I had in the archive (about an old cheesemaker and the king of death, forthcoming in Lightspeed soon-ish), so I would love to take some time to play in that sandbox again. Between the Order of Endless Worlds books and general life in the pandemic, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to. But I really enjoy the short form, and you can try out weird and wacky ideas that can’t sustain a longer work (maybe I will finally finish my “talking goat goes to see the world’s largest rubber band ball” story).
Do you have any hopes for the future of the SFF genre? What would you like to see more of?
I would love to see more slipstream and litfic-y SFF coming out. Some of my favorite books are speculative fiction published by non-SFF publishers (let me drop a plug for the very weird Secret Lives of the Monster Dogs and Famous Men Who Never Lived here). I also want to see a new venue for this kind of short fiction crop up—this corner of the market has really suffered in the past few years with the loss of Liminal, Shimmer, and now Lackington’s. I adore this subgenre, and it deserves more appreciation!
Thanks to Lina for her brilliant answers! Sisters of The Forsaken Stars is out now!
booklr, arise!! i am once again soliciting recs. specifically, i need your Best SFF/Generally-Speculative Books About Revenge (or at least with a Prominent Revenge Subplot). i will also accept Classics™, but they’re on thin ice.
preferably not YA (no shade to YA, but it’s not what i need Material for right now), preferably not a series--i’m looking for self-contained and actualized Revenge Stories. sci-fi or weird preferred to fantasy; magical realism also good. bonus points if it’s vaguely superpower related, more bonus points if it’s also queer.
hit me with your best recs, please!!
(an incomplete list of relevant things i have already read are below the cut!:)
- VICIOUS/VENGEFUL by Schwab (you see what i’m looking for, huh)
- THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
- SIX OF CROWS/CROOKED KINGDOM by Bardugo
- THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA by Lynch
- THE PRINCESS BRIDE by Goldman
- RED RISING by Brown
please note: i am NOT interested in THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO et al. OR anything ~Steamy~, which is what Goodreads keeps giving me
Also having finished RoW and wanting to take a long break from Brain Sandman, I'd love to hear any folks' SFF book/series recommendations!
Anything goes tbh I'm mainly open to reading anything rn
It’s is a story about the 5 boroughs of New York City having their own personalised avatars. Those avatar have different personality and they need to team with each other to fight against outsider who created chaos in their city.
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≫𝐑 𝐞 𝐯 𝐢 𝐞 𝐰
I really like the idea of the book, and it seems that Jemisin has try her best to emerge racial or sexual issue in her story. I like her fantastic writing, moreover, it’s really interesting to see that Lovecraft’s elements appeared in the novel. However, it might be because I’d never been to New York, I don’t related to either the character or the issues she presented. Overall, I like the concept, but the plot and the characters didn’t work for me.
Containing 14 new stories blending steampunk and spiritualism, “Spirit Machine” is one of the coolest and most unique anthologies I’ve had the privilege to contribute to. It includes my short story “Become Death,” in which the British Empire has used ghost-powered airships to dominate the globe —but at the cost of more souls than those fed to the engines of war.
If you’re into spaceship graveyards, ectoplasmic astronauts, and weaponized ghosts, consider backing “Spirit Machine” on Kickstarter! The basic pledge level gets you your copy of this gorgeous book. The print run is limited to 375 copies, so back it today!
