I was lucky to get an interview with Joseph “Captain” Picard, the Canadian author of hard science fiction like Rubberman’s Exodus and Lifehack.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I can’t really fight the “captain” bit, I guess. There was one kid in jr high who called me that. At first, he was calling me Jean-luc until I played along, put on my best snotty English accent, did the “Picard manoeuvre” and lectured “YOU WILL ADRESS ME AS ‘CAPTAIN’ OR ‘SIR’!”

“Yes, Sir!” I love that story. What else can you tell us about yourself?
Well, I’m in the Vancouver area of Canada, which I’ve been in and about since ‘92? Something like that. Between that and 1976, there was a lot of moving. To dodge the Saturn mafia, of course. I think I’ve finally escaped those lousy ring-heads. Pardon the slur.

I’m livin’ with my wife and 2 kids… as of recently, the younger of the two officially became a teenager. So, you know, look out.

In 2001, I got in a fight with a Ford Mustang, and it won, so I’ve been in a wheelchair ever since. A couple years ago, multiple sclerosis joined the party, so, whee!

I’d been writing and drawing little things forever, but around 2002, the characters from the story that would become my first book, Lifehack, decided I needed to get more serious about this writing stuff, and the characters have been running the show ever since. Lifehack opened the world, became a series, then there was another series, and I’m now in early stages of novel 8. (2nd book of my 3rd series.)

Why should I buy your book?
This is the 3rd and final book of the Rubberman series. Maybe I should be pitching the first book in the series- and there’s a few bits in book 3 that perhaps are better appreciated after reading previous books, but I make sure every book is readable as a solo, without confusion…. Aaaand, I’m always the most in love with my most recent release. C’est la vie!

Rubberman’s Exodus makes the 2000 residents of the shelter face some realities that they’ve been hiding from for generations… over a century. In the name of survival, their little society had regressed in many ways…. Some more harmful than others.

As their generator gives up the ghost, it’s up to head Engineer (Capitol E!) Tara and her assistant and lover Sasha to find a way to keep the lights on, the elevators running, hydroponics lit, water and air flowing through the filters.

It’s a challenge that the facility has never faced, and it’s going to impact everyone. Thankfully, the Engineers are….. ‘capable’, and most of the facility is onboard. But they’re going to need more help.

Tara and Sasha learn more than they were ready for about the facility, and themselves as unimagined challenges are discovered. They thought they understood the Enemy that’s been keeping them underground all this time.

Layer of ignorance are peeled back from the various factions, each living under different layers of misinformation. At one point, they’re going to meet a dog. And discover coffee. That’s around the time when things start going bad. It’d not the dog’s fault, or the coffee. It’s not even the Enemy’s fault.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
OOOF. Heck, I’ve done short stories for myself and friends for as long as I could string two sentences together on a page. It always goes back to a “Wouldn’t it be neat IF…” and then explaining how such a thing could be plausible.

And then I need characters, and then I fall in love with them. Some of them fall in love with each other, some of them hate each other and make life difficult.

Moving towards full books was… Well, I had one short story that I really really liked, so I made a sequel.. and another sequel.. and a prequel. And I realized that I essentially had all the bits necessary for a book. Which was terrifying. Once I’d tamed that terror and gotten the first book out, writing a whole stinkin’ book didn’t seem as impossible anymore. It’s just time.

With multiple sclerosis becoming a factor, I didn’t think I’d have any more books in me after Exodus, as my concentration levels are now VERY unreliable. My characters weren’t putting up with that. So, on we go…. Slower still, but onward.

Why did you choose to write science fiction? And why pick this particular science fiction subgenre?
Well, I’ve been called ‘hard’ scifi, because I don’t do things like go into space, or use things like warp drive or transporters. There’s enough to do with cool stuff on earth to keep my characters busy.

Nanotech has a lot of potential, and where Tony Stark might be able to summon tech nearly out of thin air and cite ‘nanotech’, I treat it more literally as a programmable molecule. Powerful, yes, but slow. I might build a roof-mounted rail-cannon thanks to nanotech, but it will be assembled manually by humanoids being controlled by nanotech. And that’s slow.

But I’ve gone on a tangent. Why write scifi? Particularly hard scifi? To do cool stuff in a plausible way. To build a playground for my characters.

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
My last name is a small hint. Despite Trek not being hard sci-fi most of the time, there are concepts I branch out from. Stargate SG-1 is another show that exposed me to ideas…. Book wise, I have to give a nod to Robert J Sawyer. I especially like his WWW series, and its take on AI, which shares a handful of attributes to the AI characters in many of my books.

On the zombie front, WWZ (omg, skip the movie!) and Zombie Survival Guide made their mark with me, even if I don’t agree with all of the tactics in survival guide.

I wish I could remember the novel I read while in the hospital in 2001 that involved nanotech. but I was on some pretty heavy painkillers at the time. Co-incidentally, I was still on similar painkillers through the first draft of Lifehack. Explains a lot, huh? :P

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Being on my characters’ shoulders, finding out where they take me. Their discoveries, their loves, their triumphs, then wrapping it in a world, and sharing it in our real world. The characters are all me, each with a twist here and there in different ways, and we often share in the discoveries.

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
Huh…. My concentration levels. My MS means that often, my brain just says “NO”, and I have to let it recharge. I want my next book sooner than later.

And sometimes there’s a gap in story I need to write my way across. There’s always a straight line option, from point A to B, but that’s boring for everyone- so I’m forced to lay some obstacles down in front of my beloved characters. They usually make it through.

Do you have any tip or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
I’m always singing the praises of Libre Office. (And it’s spiritual predecessor, Openoffice) It’s free, and for me, better than Microsoft Office. I moved away from MS office because it couldn’t do the things I needed at one point, and the longer I was in OpenOffice, the more I decided I liked the way it behaved.

Google docs is also useful, and it’s nice to be able to quickly make some notes on my phone in the middle of the night, but the formatting options are a little limited.

I find in my early, early stages of a book, a very basic outline is useful. Very basic. Like a dozen points for the big plot points. It gives you events to write towards. One point might take a chapter or two of three to reach. As you’re going from point to point, that’s when you’re ‘pantsing it’. Let the characters to what they want on the way, but nudge them a little so they don’t end up having a 10-page conversation about nothing. Of course, you might find that the points to set in the beginning has to change. Your first ideas aren’t set in stone.

Also… if a section starts to bore you as a writer, it will bore readers. Don’t be afraid to summarize a multi-paragraph long sequence into a line or two, unless the way your hero ties their shoes is important for some reason.

Similarly… if a line feels a little awkward when you read it, but is understandable when you take a moment to read carefully... NO, bad writer. Hammer it down. Don’t give the reader work. Make is smooth for them. Rewrite big gobs if it can make it smoother. You want the reader to focus on the story, not untangling awkward-but-technically-correct grammar.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
Muahaha. My 3rd series, Daughter of Erebus is very close to launching. In my 3rd book, Echoes of Erebus, we met Sarah Hartford, who comes to the realization that she’s pretty much entirely artificial. At the end of that book, she’s still stuck with being made of illegal nanotech, and the legacy of her creator, Erebus, is still looming.

Daughter of Erebus: Sparrow follows Sarah as she defends the life she’s built for herself, and faces the L word. And other other L word.
She’s eyed with public suspicion when a new high tech threat emerges, and Sarah is forced into a new little avian body to dodge possible execution.

DOE: Sparrow is in the hands of my editor, Michelle Patricia Browne, as I chip away at the next DOE book, and work at putting together a collaboration with half a dozen authors or so, featuring EXTENDED excerpts from some of their books. The title isn’t set yet.. the working label is “Sampler Pack”, and it’s going to be a freebie!

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
My characters are lined up with the stories they want to tell. I work for them, and I want to let them tell their stories to as many people as possible. I have no specific aspirations of fame, or a specific number of books. There’s always going to be another one waiting for my attention. And getting them read as audio books is always a treat.

My son is also leading me on a painting adventure. I’ve been drawing forever, but not so much painting. When my son got serious about painting, I was along for the ride. We’ve both learned a lot, and I have problems keeping up with him. My painting are ROUGH, but now and then, one isn’t terrible.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
Happy pride month! If I didn’t mention before, a lot of my characters are gay and their love lives are often a significant sub-plot, often pushing to be the main plot. One goes though self discovery in that area (no spoilers on who at this point!), Regan in Lifehack has to chase her new true love, Cassidy in watching Yute… has a bad time, Tara and Sasha in Rubberman’s Exodus are a committed couple, start to finish. When Lifehack came out, was warmly greeted by lesbian and other LGBT readers. I hope to serve the often forgotten audience with heartfelt characters and loves.

That was some interesting answers!
I wish you the very best of luck finding readers for your book, and thanks for doing the interview.