We’re excited to have “Memories of the MindMine” in Lightspeed Magazine! How did this story come into being, and what are the inspirations behind it?

I would love to tell you this story has a meaningful origin, but truthfully, I was at Clarion, and I was working on a story that was bad (someone will nail a story that is a fantasy take on Hot Ones, but it won’t be me.) However, in that failed story was the word MindMine, and I started noodling on what that would be if it wasn’t a throwaway reference. Once I got to MindMine = mining memories, then I just needed a character who had an incentive to go into the MindMine, and Rat and the rest came together quickly.

The world-building in this story shines, especially when it comes to the dead god and its posthumous function. Can you talk about your world-building process and how you grow and develop ideas?

I typically need three things to start drafting a story: A setting/premise, a character, and an opening scene, or at least an opening line. If I have all three of those, the story will “catch,” and I can ride it to the end. If I’m missing one of those three, things usually stall out within the first thousand words.

Personally, I rarely need help brainstorming concepts or ideas. The fun for me of writing is most present in that first draft, where I get the joy of seeing where the story goes and figuring out the world’s rules and the character arcs. Where other people really do help me is on draft three forward, when the story starts to solidify in my head, but not necessarily in its best form. Special thanks on this one to Anneke Schwob, who helped move some of the events in Rat’s Maze around to maximize emotional impact.

When Rat arrives at the MindMine, he encounters workers teetering between those who are sated by answers and those who get lost in the search. What separates these two kinds of people? Is it their personality? Is it the type of answers they seek? Something else altogether?

It’s interesting that you use the term sated, because I always thought of those that lose themselves in the MindMine as just that. Lost. I would be too if I was full of memories from lives I never lived.

I think what separates those who lose themselves and those that don’t is a strong sense of identity, strong enough to have some orienting goal, like Rat and William have.

I also think there’s a third type of person, who works at the MindMine because it is purely a job, who doesn’t lose themselves because they do the work and the memory flashes are weird and horrible, but they have a family to provide for back home, or they’re out of better options. The scars linger, though. They do with every job.

If you were to tell another story in this world, what would you like to explore further? These characters? The mine’s origins? If you would never return to these characters or this setting, can you talk about why?

Never say never, but I do view this story as a one and done. However, this story is part of a shared world of fantasy standalones I’ve been writing, mostly because it lets me reuse some place names. I have a story that came out last month in Beneath Ceaseless Skies called “The Loaf in the Woods,” which takes place in this world but with a different cast of characters. If you liked this one, you’ll like that one.

If a really powerful idea came to me, I could see myself coming back, but that would require being explicit about what happens to Rat after the ending, and I like leaving that up to the reader. I did have a subplot where the North Bay Mining Company was also using the MindMine for corporate espionage, but readers found it distracting from Rat’s journey, so I cut it. I could see myself writing a story about that one day.

Are there any recently published stories or authors you’d like to recommend?

Yes! I am a huge fan of my (dear friend) Francis Van Ganson’s work. Not enough people have read their story “She’s So Lucky, She’s a Star,” in ergot. It shares absolutely nothing in common with “Memories of the MindMine,” but it’s a complete knockout. Francis’s work has a delightful bite that I’m always impressed by.

I was also lucky enough to share a Story Hour reading night with Kristina Ten recently, which was a lovely excuse to dig into her incredible, deeply human work. She has a collection, called Tell Me Yours, I’ll Tell You Mine that just came out. Buy it!

Lastly, Eirill Alvilde Falck’s “Treatise on Triangular Desire” in Carve. Eirill sees further and deeper into how relationships work, and how they get weird and inexplicable, better than any other writer I know.

What have you been working on lately? Are there any particular themes you’re exploring or exciting news you’d like to share?

I’m working on a final draft of a novel about a space empire storming the gates of Heaven, told from the perspectives of their matricidal queen and a backwater grunt on the front lines. I’m hoping to send it to agents by the end of the year.