Happy Friday! In today's interview with Kristy Gardner, we get to learn all about The Stars Inside Us, the new installment in her sci-fi series, Broken Stars. She shares with us what inspired this series, how she's reaching into her life when writing, and about her relationship with food, which influenced not only her award-winning cookbook, but her stories as well.
Thanks for joining us, Kristy! Let’s start with an introduction to you and your sci-fi series, Broken Stars. What can readers expect to find in your work?
Thank you for having me! I tend to lean toward character-driven and plot heavy stories. I like a lot of action and emotional damage to drive the story forward, fielded by complex characters who are trying to find their place in an often broken world–whether that’s on Earth, or a reimagined future. There’s lots of dark twisty places and unexpected surprises (why should the story be straight when I’m not?). As a bi woman myself, I’ve wrangled with questions of belonging my whole life, and that theme shows up a lot in my books. There’s queer joy, queer angst, and most important–queer love. For each other, the planet, and ourselves.
What inspired you to write the series, and how did you come to be an SFF writer?
I hit my pain threshold and needed an outlet. Or therapy. Probably both. Haha…
Actually though, I didn’t realize I was writing my own history. It’s a series written out of fear, loneliness, and like I mentioned before, love. When I started writing this series, I’d spent the better part of a decade neglecting my needs and stuffing my voice deep down inside to the point where I became emotionally paralyzed. For most of my life I was living two selves at once: the one the world demanded I be, and the one who was curled up inside, screaming to get out.
Tbh, I’m still on that journey. It wasn’t until I started to break free of those patterns, starting with this series, that I began to heal. Nine years later I’m putting me back together, piece by piece. And a big part of that process was writing the Broken Stars series and Calay’s journey. Sci-fi gave me a space to explore the hard things in a safer way–plus, aliens are cool.
Tell us about the newest installment, The Stars Inside Us, and how it leads on from the previous two books.
The Stars Inside Us is special. It’s different from the first two books. It has more hope, more friendship. Calay finally finds her power and figures out how to wield it–she’s no longer as confused and broken. She took a long time to get here between an alien apocalypse, feral monsters, and more shocking secrets than she could count; she’s seen some shit. Now, she’s finally starting to fling some of her own in a really authentic and empowering way. It’s the light at the end of a very dark, twisty, winding tunnel.
Your story takes place within science fiction and dystopian settings, with horror thrown in the mix. What was the process behind building this vast universe, and were there any challenges in including so many elements, such as time and space travel?
My process was born out of a marriage between my obsession with speculative fiction and education–gender studies. I studied sociological and philosophical studies on human behavior and related material. I analyzed works like Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment, Jeremy Bethem’s Panopticon, Judith Butler’s Undoing Gender, and Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation. The deeper I dug, the more obsessed I became with WHY we behave the way they do, how we’re shaped by internal and external forces, and what that means for our future.
Fun fact–the major events that shape the backstory to the Broken Stars series is something that actually happened: two billion lightyears away there’s a galaxy called Galaxy 3C303. The University of Toronto measured radio waves there and found it has a giant jet of matter shooting from its core. The energy being released is an electrical current with the strength of a trillion bolts of lightning and it’s the largest electrical current ever discovered in space. I get into this in the books, but folks can Google it if they’re interested in learning more about it.
Can you tell us a little bit about your characters? Which, if any, do you identify with most and why?
I like to think they’re real–honest. Unique. Flawed AF with fears and hopes and complicated histories. People aren’t perfect and neither are my characters. In fact, elements of them were inspired by real people in my life and the challenges we’ve gone through together, for better or for worse.
Calay’s first love–Tess–is beautiful, clever, and ruthless. Jacob is kind, generous, and yet comes with his own mysteries. In The Stars Inside Us, we get to meet a whole gang of characters that are quirky, queer, and all shades of grey.
While I identify with aspects of all the characters, Calay is the one that resonates the most for me. She isn’t the most likeable of people, especially in Book 1. I’m not sure what that says about me, haha. She makes impulsive decisions based on unresolved traumas, has serious trust issues, and some fairly unhealthy coping mechanisms. I like to think her relentless hope redeems her a little bit though. We’ve both been to the dark place, and survived. I guess that’s why so many readers also identify with her and have reviewed the series as “visceral”. I wanted them to feel her pain, to venture into the darkness with her, to grab hold and make their way to the light.
The book features a queer romance (yay!). What are your favourite tropes to read and do any make an appearance in this love story?
Yay indeed! Hell yes favourite tropes make an appearance in this story. I desperately wanted to write books with queer enemies to lovers, only one bed, fate/destiny, (broken) love triangle, hate to love you, and sapphic love at first sight. Wrapped up in a dystopian universe and burn it to the ground vibes–chef’s kiss.
Your books include pansexual, bisexual, and neurodivergent representation. Why was it important for you to include these identities and stories both in general and within the SFF genre?
We write what we know, don't we? It was important for me to include these identities and voices in my stories because I needed them. On a deep personal level. To take up space and be seen. To make sense of everything I’d been through and my inner world.
SFF has historically been a cis-white, straight male space. In the larger ecosystem of our society and the issues surrounding who gets a voice/visibility/personhood, that isn’t breaking news. But it’s a little shocking this is the state of the genre since so many “space stories” already ask the question, “what if?” … What IF the landscape becomes more inclusive of diverse voices? Sharing LGBTQIA+ experiences makes more people feel seen. Loved. Validated. Human. It makes us kinder. More empathetic. It makes us a better species. The way we queer space is changing and with it, the depth in which we explore and understand experiences. The way we explore and understand ourselves.
Are there still more Broken Stars books to come, or will The Stars Inside Us be the final installment? What can readers expect from you next?
This is a good question. For the time being, The Stars Inside Us is the third and final book in this series.
I’m funneling my energy into two other projects at the moment: a cozy sci-fi about a woman who wins an all-inclusive vacation to an alien planet, and a sapphic time-travel novel. I’d also like to do some shorter, novela length writing.
Did you find any challenges while writing these books? How did you overcome them?
I had a difficult time writing the first book because it was the first novel I’d ever written. Between that one and the third, I’d written several other books. So for this last one, it wasn’t, “How do I write a novel?” but more, “How do I give Calay the ending she deserves?”
There was also a specific scene, which I can’t share because spoilers. But let’s just say it breaks Calay and nearly broke me–I suddenly burst into tears myself writing it. There’s actually been a scene like that in each of the books in the Broken Stars series. Readers have sent me emails and DMs when they’ve gotten to them, expressing their shared experience. I’m grateful the emotion between the pages has connected us.
Have any shows, movies, books, or games influenced your own work at all?
Yes! My whole life I’ve been deeply inspired by character-driven, emotional sci-fi and I think the Broken Stars series is a culmination of my love affair with The Walking Dead comics, the TV shows Colony and Falling Skies, and books like Veronica Roth’s Divergent or Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games. But make it gay.
If you could give any advice to SFF authors struggling either with the writing or publishing process, what would it be?
Put your butt in the chair and write the stories you want to read. Pull from your experience, even if your stories are brimming with aliens and hellfire. Tell the truth. Readers will connect with it, and so will you. If you can find a few other writers in your genre, buddy up, have writing dates, and share your experience. They make the long path to writing (and publishing) a book a little less lonely.
As both a queer author and reader, what do you hope to see more of in the SFF genre, or in queer book spaces, in the coming years?
More. Just more. More queer voices, experiences, and stories. My dream is a (bookish) world where cis-het isn’t the expectation or the norm. We all deserve space and to be seen.
You also have an award-winning cookbook under your belt! Does your relationship with food influence your fiction writing at all, or vice versa?
I do! I spent 11 years writing a food blog before I finally put my pen to fiction. It culminated in a cookbook, Cooking with Cocktails (Countryman Press). I always pulled from my life experiences when crafting recipes and I guess it does make its way into my stories now–you’ll see Calay has an intense dislike for some foods and a very vivid memory around others. Food isn’t central to this series, but it’s woven through the fibers.
Our podcast focuses on media we’re currently loving. Are there any books, shows, movies, or games you’re enjoying at the moment? Any recommendations for our audience? Bonus points if it includes sapphics!
Shouldn’t every book, show, movie, or game include sapphics??
For books, my top five reads over the last year were The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer, Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth, Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White, and Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin
For shows and movies, I’m obsessed with Yellowjackets and recently watched Bodies Bodies Bodies–gruesome and hilarious.
About Kristy
Kristy Gardner is a bi sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writer. She is the author of The Broken Stars sci-fi series, and the award-winning cookbook, COOKING WITH COCKTAILS.Furnished with degrees in Gender Studies and Sociology, she crafts queer characters that adventure through space, time, and emotional maelstroms questioning what identity – and home – really mean.
When she’s not jet-setting words on her laptop, she’s chasing stars, mountain adventures, belly laughs, curating playlists for her books, and packing her carry-on for another escape to SE Asia. She resides in Vancouver B.C. with her partner.
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