In December 2019, Deadset Press published fifteen short stories in their Journeys anthology. Chris Foley wrote “Journey of Life”—a thoughtful, thrilling tale with great twists and two lovely protagonists. Chris was kind enough to answer questions about his story and his writing life.
Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from/where are you based?
I’m a Melbourne-based writer. My passions are history and science fiction, but (sadly) they don’t pay well. At parties, I tell people that I work as an IT Consultant because “Information Management Consultant” is a mouthful and it is a little difficult to explain. However, there are some crossovers—in my day job, I encourage my clients to imagine a future in which technology works for them(!). Artificial intelligence and software programming usually figure as part of plot twists in my speculative fiction.
What drew you to writing speculative fiction?
Speculative fiction, and specifically science fiction, has been a big part of my reading and watching diet all my life. And therefore, writing my own stories is a logical extension of consuming stories for me. However, as much I enjoy the archetypes and settings common in the genre, I like to subvert expectations about them in my writing. Otherwise speculative fiction becomes just about romantic heroes and heroines doing conventionally heroic stuff. In my Milo and Freya stories, for example, I pose the questions (which is logical for me, with my day job working with digital data): Do you need to be able see in order to navigate a starship? Is being able to look out the window a prerequisite to having a rich and fulfilling life?
What other stories have you published? What projects are you working on?
Short stories are my main output, though I have drafted novels that I hope one day will be published. Short stories offer a short turnaround time from inception and publishing, giving a quicker return on the effort in the context of my busy life. Additionally, each story (whether successful or unsuccessful in getting to be published) helps to sharpen my skills for the next project.
My “Journey of Life” story in Journeys can be read as a standalone story but it is also set in a shared universe with two reoccurring characters, Milo and Freya. Once I’ve completed a story arc of short stories, I intend to republish all their stories in a single volume. Milo is a spacer-for-hire struggling with past trauma when he meets Freya, his future partner and pilot. The twist? Freya is blind. The intention is to normalise something that should be treated as normal. In the course of the stories, they deal with gangsters, ex-girlfriends, rogue AI computers, and authoritarian governments.
Two other stories in the series are due to be published this year:
- “Us”, Lighthouse Anthology (to be self-published by participating authors): Milo and Freya encounter an AI controlling a remote navigation beacon who is experiencing rapid emotional development, having recently become self-aware.
- “My Name of Milo”, Secrets and Lies Anthology (Melbourne Writers Group): Milo, weighed down by past trauma, finds himself kidnapped by one of a former shipmate and learns the truth about what really happened when their ship had exploded in deep space.
Other published stories:
- “Next Journey”, Beginnings Anthology (2018) (Aussie Speculative Fiction): An insurance salesman dies in his sleep and wakes up in the anteroom to the Afterlife, unable to proceed.
- “Achilles Heel”, Heroes and Villains (2018) (Melbourne Writers Group): A secret policeman, long experienced with interrogating suspected enemies of the State, finds himself under suspicion and interrogated.
- “None So Blind”, Utopia Pending Anthology (2018) (self-published by participating authors): Milo visits the planet of Mizaru, the famed “Planet of the Blind” and finds a utopia that isn’t so cheery.
What genres/topics do you like to write about, and why?
My stories are space opera, with a physical journey serving as an external expression of an inner journey experienced by the main characters. I also like to have twists, not least of which is Freya herself. Often I’m asked by people intrigued by my stories: “How can a blind woman pilot a spaceship? She has to see, right?” Through my stories I try to normalise blindness, and through technology show that “sight” is only one sense out of several. Freya sometimes pokes fun at Milo because he, as a sighted person, is fixated on the importance of sight himself.
Are you a plotter, pantser, or something in between?
I would dearly love to be a plotter, as it would save so much time. I draft an initial plot and then, when writing, a stronger and sometimes quite different plot emerges. As the writer, I discover the story while drafting just as my readers discover the story when they read them.
What authors or stories would you say have influenced or inspired your writing?
Watching Mr. Squiggle as a small child was an early influence, especially with respect to quirky twists. Later it was space opera with Andre Norton, Star Trek (TOS), and Star Wars (Episode IV). Jerry Pournelle and H. Beam Piper exposed me to complex political and military worldbuilding, while Lois McMaster Bujold explores the architype of the “wounded hero”. My ambition is one day to write a story to rival “Specter General” by Theodore Cogswell (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1952), a largely forgotten author, and probably the quirkiest science fiction story I’ve ever read. It has a political system in meltdown, a cargo-cult-like military culture, and a satire on the usefulness of a formal education.
Tell me about your writing space. Do you have a routine to your writing sessions?
Writing part-time is like having two spouses in that you must continually rob time from one to spend it with the other. I write, work full-time, and my wife and I look after foster children. When there are lulls (often unexpected) in all the other activities, I rush to resume writing. Usually in blocks of 1 to 2 hours at a time.
What are your likes and dislikes regarding writing?
Brainstorming ideas is fun as ideas can flow thick and fast. The drafting stage follows, which can be excruciating if the plot is slow to reveal itself. Mature drafts are best fun of all, because the story and characters are clear, and I can spend time enjoying the setting, characters, and their problems as I refine the story with successive reading.
What moved you to write for the Journeys anthology?
Journeys (excuse the pun) are core to space opera, so in sending my characters on a journey, I have the perfect opportunity to explore something in their characters’ personalities and the evolving relationship between Milo and Freya. I was published in the Beginnings anthology in 2018, so I took a punt that I might be published two years in a row (heaps of thanks to Aussie Speculative Fiction for publishing me twice).
How did you think up your story for Journeys?
As with all my stories, I think there were many influences on my story. Gangster stories, such as The Sopranos, often pivot upon bitter rivalries and are set in places (such as casinos and the like) where ordinary people frequent, oblivious to the criminal element around them. I also introduced a philosophical element, in which a funeral ritual includes taking the body of deceased individual on a final physical journey.
What is/are your favourite story or stories in the anthology?
I found many of the stories haunting, with common themes of death, desolation, and a yearning for a new life (of some kind). Most left me feeling unsettled. I’ll name just a few stories. “Fields of Green” (Tee Linden) and “The Game” (Kevin Klehr) drew me into the subjective viewpoints of the protagonists, giving me a “what the …?” feeling once the twist was reached. “Pilgrimage to Earth” (Nick Marone) and “Deportation” (Austin P. Sheehan) offered two different takes on an Earth rendered unliveable for normal human existence. In each case, the question is posed—without Earth as our anchoring point, what are we missing in our humanity? “Pilgrimage to Earth” left me feeling that while humans could and had made new lives themselves elsewhere in the Solar System, Earth itself would eventually find a new stasis without humans. And human beings became like supplicants, making a “coming of age” pilgrimage to a flooded Earth to reflect on what humans had done to the planet that had conceived our species.
Where can readers find you and follow you?
Readers can find me on my author Facebook page. Here I share my observations on science fiction and, from time to time, snippets from my works in progress.
“Journey of Life”, by Chris Foley, can be read along with fourteen other great stories in Journeys: Aussie Speculative Fiction: Volume 2, edited by Alanah Andrews, Austin P. Sheehan, and Jocelyn Spark, published by Deadset Press.
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