What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
The story grew out of my fascination with biology, perception, and the enormous variety of life. I enjoy the classic big-headed gray alien or space elf as much as the next person, but I find it extremely unlikely that life developing somewhere else would conveniently resemble us, think like us, or organize itself in familiar ways. Even on Earth, where every known organism emerged from the same evolutionary tree, life has taken an astonishing range of forms. A banana and a human being share a somewhat disturbing amount of genetic material and basic biological machinery, yet no one would mistake one for the other. That made me wonder how profoundly different life might become if it began somewhere else entirely, under different physical conditions and evolutionary pressures. I appreciate explanations like the one in K-PAX, where humanoid life is compared to soap bubbles naturally taking the same shape, but I do not personally expect alien life to work that way. I am much more interested in organisms that initially seem incomprehensible and in exploring how their environments shape their bodies, senses, societies, and understanding of reality. I have always enjoyed studying insect life for the same reason. Insects inhabit the same planet we do, yet many of their environments and behaviors can already feel remarkably alien. Burning Salt grew from asking what life might look like if I pushed that unfamiliarity much further.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be?
I do not really have conventional theme songs in mind for the characters. The closest comparison would be the music created by the Belters in The Expanse when they remixed transmissions from the protomolecule into music. I imagine something like the auditory equivalent of fractal mathematical art. The sound would emerge from repeating patterns, variations, and structures nested inside other structures. It might not have been created as music at all. It could begin as communication, movement, biological activity, or some other natural pattern, with a listener recognizing the hidden rhythm and translating it into something musical. That feels more appropriate for the characters in Burning Salt than assigning them familiar human songs. Their music would reflect the ways they perceive and organize reality, even if a human listener could only recognize fragments of the meaning behind it.
What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
My favorite genre to read is alternate history. Harry Turtledove is probably the best-known example, but my interest goes well beyond his work. Like many people, I am fascinated by the question, “What if this had happened differently?” I enjoy tracing how one changed decision or event might reshape everything that follows, whether that means imagining a different version of history or projecting a possible future from choices being made today. That is not yet the genre I have written most often. Most of my published work has been memoir, drawn from my own life and experiences. However, I had the most fun writing this science fiction book because it gave me the freedom to build unfamiliar worlds and explore ideas that could not fit within memoir. I would like to write historical fiction next, particularly alternate history. Before I do, I want to put in the research needed to make the foundation convincing. Even when the history eventually changes, the real people, places, technology, and circumstances leading up to that change need to feel accurate.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
Assuming TBR means “to be read,” mine is a fairly eclectic pile. Right now, I am reading historical works about the Spanish Civil War and the Roman Catholic Church’s official and unofficial actions during World War II. Much of that reading is connected to ideas I may eventually explore in historical fiction, so I am trying to build a solid factual foundation first. On the fiction side, my wife introduced me to the Fourth Wing series, so I am eagerly awaiting the next installment. I am also still participating in the years-long wait for The Winds of Winter. Beyond that, I would like to reread Dante’s Inferno. I read it years ago, but I do not think my understanding of it was as complete as it could have been. I am interested in returning to it with more life experience and seeing what I notice this time.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
My favorite scenes to write were the sections involving the planar universe. They make up only a relatively small part of the book, but I enjoyed thinking through the possible challenges one would face when interacting with life that exists in only two dimensions. The idea was partly inspired by discussions of Flatland, as well as episodes of Star Trek and The Orville that explored two-dimensional life forms. Science fiction also often considers what it might be like to encounter beings from a fourth or fifth spatial dimension, but that is extremely difficult for a human mind to visualize. A two-dimensional universe is still challenging to imagine, but approaching the problem from below our own dimensional perspective makes it somewhat easier to explore. What interested me most was not simply describing a flat world, but asking how a three-dimensional species could observe it, enter it, or communicate with its inhabitants without unintentionally harming them. Those scenes allowed me to turn an abstract mathematical idea into a practical challenge for the book.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
I do not have a lucky mug or a particular writing spot. My quirk is probably the writing process itself. I spend a great deal of time ruminating on an experience or idea and talking through it into an audio recorder. I then transcribe those recordings, organize the material, and gradually refine it into something resembling a book. That process can be extremely nonlinear. Some ideas begin as minor observations and develop into surprisingly complex concepts, while others receive an enormous amount of thought and development only to be abandoned entirely. Much of my writing happens before I ever sit down to type, and sometimes the most elaborate paths lead nowhere. Even when an idea does not survive into the finished work, however, exploring it often helps me better understand the ideas that do.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
“Fail. Learn. Pivot. Maybe fail again.” Failure is rarely the end of anything. It provides information about what worked, what did not, and what needs to change. The important part is being willing to learn from it, adjust your approach, and try again while accepting that the next attempt may not succeed either. Progress is often less about avoiding failure than continuing to move forward through it.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
I would want readers to remember just how wild, varied, and astonishing life on Earth already is. We sometimes picture alien life as strange versions of ourselves, but our own planet is filled with organisms that barely resemble what most people would imagine as life. Take the sea pig, Scotoplanes globosa. Seriously, look it up. It looks like something a science-fiction artist invented, yet it lives here on Earth. If life exists beyond our biosphere, developing from an entirely different origin under unfamiliar conditions, it may be far stranger than anything we currently expect. More than anything, I hope the book leaves readers with a renewed sense of wonder about life itself, both the life surrounding us and whatever might exist beyond our world.
