When did you start writing Bloodstone?
I’d had the story circulating in my head for a while, but I started writing this story in earnest in 2015. It’s been through many, many drafts, and there were lots of gaps while I worked on other stories.
What inspired you to write this story?
Old-fashioned westerns. Bloodstone is the story of people in a frontier environment, facing challenges from nature, from cultural conflicts, and from the universal frictions of prejudice and greed.
Tell us about Patch.
I got tired of reading stories about beautiful women of extraordinary ability who juggle villains and lovers with equal ease. Where was a protagonist I could relate to?
Patch is no princess and not particularly heroic. She’s just a woman trying to keep her business and her family together. She accepts that she’s not pretty and she’s proud of her physical strength and business acumen. She has glaring blind spots in her judgments about people, especially her brother and her best friend, Archer.
What about Gavorans?
One of the great things about science fiction is the exploration of “what if?” What if humans had developed just a little differently? Gavorans are descended from Neanderthals, a human subspecies. They are physically very like us, but strongly matriarchal, with females as the more sexually aggressive gender. Sex is casual, relationships are fleeting. The strongest social bond is with the clans, organized into caste-driven social roles.
In Patch’s time, expanding interracial contact has caused social unrest on Gavora: young Gavs yearn for the social freedom that Terrans enjoy while the clan matriarchs retrench to the traditional Gav values of obedience and loyalty to the clan.
Will the Sparrowhawk crew have more adventures?
Absolutely! Coming in 2020, the full-length novel Ghost Ship continues their story.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed Sparrowhawk Legacy and Bloodstone, please leave a review!