How did “Lament of a Specialist in Interspecies Relations” originate? What inspirations did you draw on?

I find aliens offer interesting opportunities to think about what’s familiar and unfamiliar and why. Often, though, aliens are depicted as incomprehensibly strange. I wanted to explore an alien who is both strange and comprehensible. The alien in this story, a shapeshifting tourist seeking change experiences, sees Earth, its many creatures, and ways of living, through a very different epistemological lens than humans—to the specialist’s occasional despair, but following logics adjacent to our own. I’d love for this to prompt questions about categorization systems and the ways societies currently respond to different kinds of change. Or wonder. Or amused pleasure. Any of those would be good.

Did you get stuck at any point while writing this? How did you get past that?

Oh my goodness, yes! I had trouble with the ending. Thankfully, one of the other members of the Nautilus writing group reminded me of James Patrick Kelly’s great advice: when you’re struggling with an ending, draft ten different endings, but don’t rush, write these over at least twenty-four hours (I’m summarizing, you can read the whole thing in Clarion West’s Pocket Workshop). I’ve found this so helpful. For this particular story, ten didn’t quite do the trick, so I kept at it. In the end, I believe I wrote over forty different versions of the ending, although I stopped numbering them in my notes at twenty-three.

Is there anything you want to make sure readers noticed?

Two things. At one point the story asks, what if we understand being changed and making change as inextricably entwined? That’s something I’m thinking about a lot and I’d love readers to think about, too. How might we rethink our ideas of change so that we move smoothly from learning to acting without stalling in between? I think about this particularly in conjunction with social media and twenty-four-hour news, which can be useful resources for learning about instances of oppression and injustice, tragedy and disaster, but can also overwhelm and discourage, particularly when reports lack information about how to meaningfully help.

Second, although they appear here in my phrasing, I didn’t invent the many hyperboles the story mentions—the flying pigs and white crows and blossoming flagpoles—these draw from cultures around the world. In fact, this type of hyperbole is even recognized as a rhetorical device in its own right, known as adynaton.

What are you reading lately? What writers inspire you?

I somehow only just this past year started reading Lois McMaster Bujold’s books. How did I never read these before? They are brilliant—I’m inspired by the way she deftly mixes action and character, humor and thought-provoking questions. I read a lot and widely so my inspirations regularly shift, but other current inspirations include speculative works by Katherine Addison, Ryka Aoki, Aliette de Bodard, Sarah Beth Durst, T. Kingfisher, Yoon Ha Lee, and Caitlin Starling. I’ve also recently returned to reading crime fiction and am loving Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series and Ruth Ware’s suspense novels. Oh, and Claudia Gray’s The Murder of Mr. Wickham—that book was so well done.

What trends in speculative fiction would you like to see gain popularity in the next few years?

I’d love to see the recent punk subgenres develop further and become more popular—I’m thinking particularly of solarpunk and hopepunk, which tend to explore themes such as planetary and multispecies wellbeing, community, and care, while challenging systemic injustice and failure.

What are you working on lately? Where else can fans look for your work?

I’m currently finishing a speculative suspense novel, my first, which I can’t wait to share with readers! I’m also working on several new short stories. You can find more on me and my work at amyjohnson.com—I’m in the process of updating the site, it will soon include a sign-up for a low-volume newsletter for folks interested in upcoming publications. You can also find me on Twitter as @shrapnelofme and on Mastodon at wandering.shop/@shrapnelofme.