Book Blog Tour: Author Interview and Giveaway of Kea's Flight

Today we are joined on The Australian Bookshelf with SciFi authors Erika Hammerschmidt and John C. Ricker as part of their book blog tour with Enchanted Book Tours. Erika and John are the authors of Kea's Flight, a unique sci fi story. There is a copy of Kea's Flight up for grabs too!

Meet the authors

Erika Hammerschmidt

John C. Ricker

Erika Hammerschmidt was born in Minnesota and graduated from AugsburgCollege with two language majors and an art minor. She was diagnosedwith Asperger's Syndrome at the age of 11, and has written Born on theWrong Planet, a memoir about her childhood. Her husband John C. Rickerwas born in Hawaii, received a diagnosis of Asperger's at the age of24, and studied computer science before working in vacuum technology.They live in Minnesota with their parrot, Rain Man. Together they haveco-authored the science fiction novel Kea's Flight.

Synopsis: It's the 25th century, and humans have learned how to end unwanted pregnancies by removing and cryogenically freezing the embryos to save for later. But they never planned for how many there would be, or how much control people would want over their offspring's genetic makeup.

Kea was an exile before she was born. Grown from an embryo that was rejected for having autism-spectrum genes, she has been raised on a starship full of Earth's unwanted children. When a sudden discovery threatens their plan to find a home, Kea must join with other rejects to save the ship from its own insane government.

Author Interview

Erika has taken the time to answer some questions about Kea's Flight.

What can you tell us about Kea’s Flight?It's a science fiction novel about a future where unwanted pregnanciesare ended by removing the embryos and keeping them cryogenicallyfrozen. There end up being so many that some are sent away into space,to be raised on starships and colonize other planets.Kea, the main character, was exiled to space as an embryo for havingautism spectrum genes. She grows up on a starship ruled by anoppressive crew of exiled convicts from Earth. Under constantsurveillance, she finds ways to share secret thoughts with other youngpeople on the ship, and they work together to save the ship from itsown corruption.How did you come up with the idea for this novel?John and I were having a conversation with John's father, RichardRicker, who is a Lutheran pastor. Richard loves philosophical andmoral discussions, and has a very open mind about a lot of issues, soit's a joy to talk with him about deep important topics. We weretalking about all the controversy over abortion, and I commented thatit would be great if unwanted embryos could just be removed alive andkept safe until someone wanted them. John just laughed and said thatthere would be so many that we'd have to start sending them intospace. That was where the idea for the story first began.As a couple who both have a diagnoses of Asperger’s Syndrome, howimportant was it for the readers to understand Kea’s experience?As authors and as people with Asperger's, I think we've mainly beentrying to show the humanity of our characters before their diagnoses.There is fiction about characters on the autism spectrum-- Rain Man,The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and many others--but in all that fiction, we had never seen a book or movie where thethings the autistic characters do are more important than the factthat they're autistic.The characters in Kea's Flight are on the mild end of the spectrum,and this may be because they were not diagnosed in the way realautistic people are diagnosed. In their world, technology allowsparents to screen their unborn embryos for genetic predispositions todisorders. If they have those predispositions, the parents usuallydon't want them, so they have them removed and sent away into space tobe raised on starships. The main characters in Kea's Flight have genesassociated with mental disorders, but not all of them have actualsymptoms, and those who do may have developed those symptoms in partbecause they were raised as disabled kids. They have a whole differentset of challenges, both internal and external, from the challengesthat John and I faced. But their disorders aren't the focal point ofthe story, and I think that's important.On a similar note, part of the reason I wanted to write a sciencefiction novel in the first place was so I could be seen as an authorfirst, rather than an autistic person. My first book was a memoirabout growing up on the autism spectrum, so a lot of people alreadyassociate me with autism. I wanted to be seen as a fiction writer, aswell. Has there been any feedback from the Asperger’s/ Autism communityabout your novel? What are your readers saying about Kea’s Flight?Kea's Flight hasn't been around long enough to get many reviews yet,but the people who have told us what they think have been veryappreciative. Several have said the surprise ending is brilliant, somehave said nice things about the variety of thoughts and insights thecharacters come up with throughout the book, and a number of them havesaid that they like the way people with Asperger's are portrayed asstrong and intelligent.Those who have given us feedback have mainly been people involved withorganizations we've given speeches for, and people who are fans ofAbby and Norma, my webcomic about a college student with Asperger's.Many of them either are autistic or know someone on the autismspectrum. So we're optimistic about the reception the book will havein the autism community.One challenge is that the book deals somewhat with the question ofrejecting embryos with genes for autism, which is a topic that isbecoming more and more relevant in the real world, and stirs a lot ofemotions among people on the autism spectrum. We haven't tried to tellpeople what to think on that controversial topic, but we haveaddressed both sides of it: the unsustainable situation that resultswhen selective abortion is replaced with exiling unwanted embryos intospace, but also the humanity of the people who grow from thoseembryos, and their struggles as they grow up unwanted. You can't forceparents to want a disabled child, and forcing them to carry one toterm when they don't want one will result in children being born intofamilies that don't accept them. But is that better than never beingborn at all? Kea's Flight gets people thinking about that question,but never really answers it. I'm not sure it's possible to answer it.What did you enjoy especially about writing Kea’s Flight?I enjoyed being able to work so many of my random insights into onework of fiction. The characters all have obsessive fascinations ofsome kind, and they all get a chance to explore ideas that have beensitting in our heads for a long time.What do you imagine is your ideal reader?Someone like me, with my language fascination, my love of weird plottwists, my tendency to speculate wildly about what could become of thesocial and political world. There aren't many people who are that muchlike me, but it's the only audience I understand. I can't alwaysfigure out how other people think, or why they like what they like, soI write for myself. I believe John does the same.Kea’s Flight is co-written, how did that work?There's a general perception that co-authored books can't be good. Ithink they can, if all the different tasks involved are delegated tothe people most skilled at them. If two people simply piece togetherpassages of their writing into a book, there will be a clash ofwriting styles, so John and I didn't do that. We brainstormed ideastogether, with each of us focusing on particular types of ideas--technology for John, language for me, and so on. Then I put our ideasinto writing, so that the whole book was in my writing style. I thinkit worked better than it would have if either of us had written italone.What authors most inspire you?Neal Stephenson and Charles Sheffield for science fiction. Ngaio Marshfor mystery. P.G. Wodehouse for humor. Lucy Maud Montgomery forromance and coming-of-age stories. Isaac Asimov for essays. Kea'sFlight is a little of each.After we had the rough draft done, John encouraged me to read 1984 byGeorge Orwell, because our story is a dystopian future with dictatorsand pervasive surveillance, and a friend recommended Ender's Game byOrson Scott Card, because it's about young people growing up in aspace vessel. I was reading those at the same time we were fleshingout our book, and they both may have served as inspiration in theirown ways. (I was also reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, forwhat it's worth. I think that one inspired me simply because it's theauthor's first novel. In many ways you can tell that it's his firstnovel, and yet it succeeded immensely, so it gave me hope.)What book are you currently reading?War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. It was a free download, and it's aclassic that shaped so much of modern science fiction, I pretty muchhave to read it sometime in my life.What’s next for you both? What other books have you written?I have one professionally published book, my memoir Born on the WrongPlanet. It was published some years ago by Autism Asperger PublishingCompany. The rest of my books are self-published. In addition to Kea'sFlight, I have a print collection of my webcomic Abby and Norma, and avery weird children's book called Why the Muskie Has No Toes.This is John's first time being published, but he is working on anovel about corporations ruling the world and being challenged by acyborg heroine. He has put the first chapter online at his website,YayInABox.com.We're both working on a sequel to Kea's Flight already, too. It willdeal with what happened outside Kea's ship while she and her friendswere traveling. (Remember, they were going near light speed, so it wasonly twenty years for them, but a thousand years for the rest of theuniverse.)Is there anything else you would like to add?We loved writing this story, creating all its pieces and making themwork well together. We got help and advice and feedback from so manypeople, it's hard to list them all. But they know who they are, and Ihope they know how thankful we are.Thank you so much for stopping by my blog to chat about Kea's Flight. Author links: Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11102806-kea-s-flightWebsite: http://www.erikahammerschmidt.com/kea.phpPurchase Khea's Flight:ebook for Kindle on Amazon, for $3.89ebook for Nook on Barnes and Noble, for $3.89 epub for iPhone, iPad, etc. on Lulu, for $3.89PDF download on Lulu for $3.89569-page paperback version on Lulu for $15.00, without ISBN, on standard paperGIVEAWAY: To Win a copy of Kea's Flight please follow my blog and leave a comment below with your email address. Entries close on may 15th