Eva Elasigue and Bones of Starlight

We had an enjoyable chat with author Eva Elasigue about the world she's creating for Bones of Starlight. She told us about thinking through what kind of physical and cosmological rules she wanted to have for her fantasy space opera, which explores broadly.

She said the story comes first, but she enjoys questions like "How fast does lava move on this world?" She says she also invented living beings that interface with the universe differently, with human technology evolving with alien technology. Her society is an Imperium in an alternate futuristic universe.

The aquarii people perceive different parts of the spectrum from humans. Dragons are living elementals in a world where elements can be conceptual (sunlight, icy currents, rumor, etc.). Eva asked, what would be the properties of phosphorus if it were alive?

She says she blurs the lines between fantasy and science fiction.

Within the Imperium lives an innocent main character who is a non-royal vagabond, but whose life goes into upheaval. Two of the characters are members of the ruling family of the Imperium divided by generation and by their beliefs.

She described a system of transportation similar to that in Dune, where the aquarii sun-singers are vital to using intergalactic transport gates powered by technology from a private corporation.

She says the main driving element is the Hero's journey.

She talked about having fun writing from different points of view.

I asked about an interesting element of the city architecture, a psychically sensitive mural installations, created by artists who could perceive a wider spectrum than humans. She described it as taking extra sensitive elements and turning them into paint. People get used to having them around, but they function like a "room full of mirrors."

She tries to use relative measurement so as not to commit to a particular Earth measurement system. This includes time, which has periods named after the ruler during that period. Eva enjoys languages and aims to make things sound polyglot. She also uses material from Earth like Gilgamesh and Japanese and Finnish folk tales.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Eva! And thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.