Author’s note: Zoe Kaplan has passed at the tragic age of 28. We are hosting an article and an event for her memorial here. If you have a memory to share, please share it.

Lancelot Schaubert — Zoe Kaplan, thanks for joining us for the Of Gods and Globes III launch, to which you contributed a story. When was the first time you speculated in a scifi or fantastic way?

Zoe Kaplan — Probably infancy, but the earliest physical evidence I have is a fantasy “novel” I hand-wrote on notebook paper in the 5th grade. It was based on a game a friend and I played with barbies and involved a lot of murder.

Lancelot Schaubert — Barbies and Murder. I could do that anthology. If you were to write a Barbies and Murder specific story today, where would it take place? What would be the murder weapon? Would they speak Kengon?

And what were your first favorite books?

Zoe Kaplan — I think I’d go more princess-y than the recent Barbie movie. Lots of court intrigue and secrets, that kind of thing. And maybe I’d make the murder weapon a crutch, as an homage to that original game (in the narritive, it was a dagger, but they don’t make barbie daggers, so the cruch was as close as we had)

Early favorite books include A Wrinkle in Time, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The King in the Window, The Witches, and the Dragonsong books. I also had this Kingfisher treasury of Princess stories that I read a million times

LS — Game of Barbie?

Barbie’s House of Cards?

ZK — Yesss.

LS — I feel like that’s already a toy line in some Nora Roberts hell. What did you like about those?

Like what draws you back over and over again to these kinds of stories?

ZK —  I was clearly a macabre little kid, and I found stories like ASOUE and Roald Dahl really “edgy” and exciting. I was also crazy about fairy tales—the “twisted” ones obviously, but also funny or lyrical or historically-grounded ones. If it had a princess or a dragon, I was so there. But what makes those books stick even within the subgenres I loved are the characters. Kids who persevere despite being constantly out of their depths, mostly with passions that sustain them.

LS — Passions as in ultimate desires or as in mere day to day desires?

ZK — Like artistic ambitions, or weird specialized skills!

The Dragonsong books, for example, are all propelled by how badly Menolly wants to make music, no matter how much trouble that causes for everyone around her — but of course, that also gives her the skillset to fix problems as well.

LS — Gotcha, yes indeed. Now your story for Of Gods and Globes III was romance. Do you think scifi has been sufficiently plumbed for romance?

ZK — My story is not particularly a romance — I definitely steal the structure of romance stories, but the protagonists part as friends. That said, I think there’s plenty of room in sci fi for romance! Sci fi is about people, even if those people have tentacles or computers in their brains, and falling in love is one of the things people tend to do. Sci fi gets to play with the limits of what that looks like, and what kinds of obstacles lovers face, in a way that other genres aren’t able to.

I recently read The Seep by Chana Porter, which is also not a romance, but the protagonist’s wife decides to leave her behind and start over as a baby. You can’t get that drama anywhere else!

LS — Sure, I should clarify: it’s a relationship arc.

ZK — 100%

LS — Buddy Cop fits that too, etc.

Do you think we need more relationship arcs? Who else does it well?

ZK — Absolutely! Especially as traditionally published sci fi moves towards more diverse authors, who explore kinds of relationships that have historically not gotten the spotlight in the genre. Becky Chambers’ cozy sci fi all does this really well: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet has an adorable romance, and the Monk & Robot books have a really fabulous platonic relationship at their center. I’m also crazy about the will-they won’t-they situation in Adkady Martine’s Texiclaan series, and I’ve got to shout out Tamsyn Muir for her complex web of (mostly toxic) situationships in the Locked Tomb books

It’s not my personal genre, but I know there are romance-genre sci fi romances, and it seems like that crowd is having fun 🙂

LS — For sure.

What’s your day job?

ZK — I work in Managing Editorial at Simon and Schuster. It’s basically being a project manager for books: I ensure titles get through all the parts of the publishing process and make it to the printer on time

LS — Any specific genres?

ZK — Not particularly! I work with the Simon and Schuster imprint (within the Simon and Schuster company, it’s confusing) which publishes all kinds of books — SFF, lit fic, thrillers, memoir, history, politics, etc. I don’t pick the books I work on, but I don’t actually read them as part of the job, so it’s not a hardship

LS — Haha. Did you ever find a book you worked on through work that you adored? Or one you hated?

ZK — Interesting question. There’s definitely books I’ve worked on and loved, but that I would have probably picked up regardless–The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter comes to mind!–but in terms of books I found through work exclusively… I grabbed a middle grade book called Naomi Teitelbaum Ends the World from a free books shelf in the office, not expecting much, and ended up adoring it! On the flip side, Reluctant Immortals really seemed like it was going to be for me, and it really, really wasn’t.

My biggest claim to fame is working on Jeanette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, but I haven’t actually read it yet, oops!

LS — Haha. Well Tara loved that book so I’ll wait for her to discover that tidbit.

What is it specifically about the story you wrote for Of Gods and Globes III that readers, friends, fans, family and strangers will like?

ZK — I think people will enjoy the flipped script on gendered conversation styles. And the space pirates. Everyone likes space pirates.