In “Visible Damage,” we see the world through the reconstructed eyes of an intergalactic veteran who lives and works in an art museum. What was your inspiration for this story?

I wrote this story for a contest. The prompts were “veteran” and “art museum.” I’ve written several stories set on Kata Space Station (including “Gateway Night,” which appeared in the DAW anthology Love & Rockets in 2010), and I thought that would be an interesting place for a museum, since it’s where four different kinds of people interact with each other.

The identity and treatment of veterans shows up several times throughout this piece and gives a deeper meaning to the title. How did this part of the story develop? Did you draw on any of your personal experiences?

As a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and a pacifist, I don’t have personal experience with any military battlefield, though I have friends who have been there, and I have read and thought about what it is like to go through such a life-altering experience. If we are taken from our normal lives and taught to fight and kill, then put in a place where we must practice these new skills, how can we not be changed?

In a setting with advanced technology, extraterrestrial politics, and entirely new histories, I appreciated how down-to-earth the narrator was. Do you have a process for balancing character development or character voice with the worldbuilding/ SF aspects of a story?

I don’t think I have a particular process for balancing character development and worldbuilding. I believe I am fortunate to have fantastic models for writing about things like this: Lois McMaster Bujold, C.J. Cherryh, Becky Chambers, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie, Kate Elliott, Robert A. Heinlein, Martha Wells, and so many others. Right now I’m reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, and again I find myself in awe of the characters he created and the world they live in.

Do you have any future projects you’d like to talk about?

Thank you for asking. Mostly I am teaching online these days through Fairfield County Writers’ Studio and writing short stories.