Author Spotlight: In Conversation with Atlas Laika (they/them)Atlas Laika is author of the highly successful queernormative sci-fi space opera Aurethia Rising. With book two in The Great Remaking series set to be released this summer, we spoke to Atlas about what makes them tick. Last year you released your debut novel Aurethia Rising, can you give us the cliff notes? I did! Basically, Aurethia Rising is a royal blind-date gone very right, and very wrong. When a courtship two centuries in the making finally commences, the Greater Universe is thrown into political upheaval, and the pair at the center of the controversy must balance honor, duty, and familial expectation within the intimate grip of undeniable romance.
Where did the inspiration come from? I took inspiration from a lot of places, but I think what sparked the idea that I could write my own space opera was sitting in the theater, watching Dune. I remember listening to the score, watching the credits roll, thinking I haven’t felt this way since Lord of the Rings. And it was true! Then Dune: Part Two came out and I toppled headfirst into daydreaming, brainstorming, doodling [and] scribbling. Science fiction has always been a great love of my life, but I never thought I could do it any justice. It was too big for me. Too complicated, and grandiose — it required too much talent. I went to a local café, wrote the outline for Aurethia Rising, and gave it a go, though. Just to see. I couldn’t get Elio and Cael out of my head; I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until I brought their love story to life. Other than Dune, I’d say C.S. Pacat is a huge inspiration for me. Maggie Steifvater. Samantha Shannon. Essa Hansen. Star Wars, of course. Alien. I love gritty, chewy, expansive worldbuilding, and I love challenging prose, lush writing, and decadence. Experiencing the sort of storytelling I loved to read helped me piece together the book I wanted to write. Why space opera? You know, I think there’s something really cool about outer space. Not to be a total nerd — I am a total nerd — but deep space exploration is super rad. Our universe is infinite, gigantic, and mysterious. Envisioning a future where we as a society have advanced to the point of embracing multi-planet living, complex, multi-species collective citizenry, and high-speed space travel is so cool. I also love being able to play in a new timeline, in a far future setting, in a vast world where I get to make and break the rules. Space opera is, and always has been, in conversation with progressive thinking, historical reflection, critical colonization analysis, and systemic adaptability, and I appreciate being able to lean into those themes while still having a grand ol’ time. If you could be any character from your books, who would it be and why? Lorelei, for sure. She’s fiery, whip-smart, fearless, and unapologetic. I remember being so excited to get to part two of Aurethia Rising, because that meant I got to flesh out her character more, and really let her shine. It was so much fun. I’m also really attached to Ian. I won’t say he’s entirely a self-insert, but there’s a lot of me in him, for sure. |
 What did you find most challenging about writing? To be honest, I don’t find the writing part all that challenging. I enjoy pushing myself, mulling over plot points, detailing scenes, even going back to rewrite something that wasn’t exactly working to begin with. That’s all part of the fun. I feel like I’m growing a muscle, honing a skill. But being able to shut out the very loud, very coercive yelling on social media has been the most challenging part for me. It’s so easy to fall into a trap, start comparing yourself to other people, get wrapped up in a bad group chat, catch a nasty shoulder-check from an insecure colleague, or just start second guessing yourself and your creativity based on someone else’s highlight reel. Taking a step back from social media was the best thing I could’ve possibly done for myself in my debut year, and I’m so glad I did it. Book two, Serpent Song, releases soon. Does this follow the same characters or will there be some new faces? Ah, yes! Serpent Song is coming out on June 2nd. You’ll be following a couple familiar faces — Kindra Malkin and her brother, Kasimir — as well as two new characters, Ian and Blair. This part of the story takes place six years after the end of Aurethia Rising, so we take a bit of a leap into the future.
You recently announced that you are working on a contemporary romance as well, what can you tell us about it? I am, yeah! Right now, I’m focusing on Heir Ascendant, book three in The Great Remaking, but I did start writing a contemporary romance about two actors who are cast in a big budget television adaptation of a mega-popular queer fantasy series. It’s sweet, sexy, comedic, and a whole lot of fun. I’m super excited to get back to it after I wrap up my third space opera. Do you think queer and LGBTQ+ fiction are seeing more of a spotlight these days? I’m actually not sure about that. I think we still have to worry about systemic bias. Conservative propaganda and religious extremism fuel pushback against LGBTQ+ media, especially queer media featuring or created by people of color, leading to book banning, lower advances in the traditional market, bare-minimum marketing, and a much, much higher standard for success. I want that to change. I hope it’s changing. But right now, I think a lot of the heavy lifting is being done in the indie community. The traditional market is leaving money on the table — stupid, if you ask me — and readers who aren’t dialed into the indie book scene aren’t finding diverse literature, because they don’t know where to look. Queer books are put under a critical microscope, leading to lower ratings on review sites, and many writers are held to unfair obligations by the online community at large: revealing sexual history, sexuality, gender, identity, etc. in order to write “real” or “authentic” stories. There’s so much at play here. So much nuance. It’s hard to churn through everything cleanly and politely, but in the end, I just hope we get more. More queer science fiction. More queer romance. More queer horror, and fantasy, and literature. More queer everything. What is your advice to any aspiring queer writers? Not to sound like a Nike commercial, but just do it. Write it for you, write it because you love it. A big thank you Atlas for taking the time to sit down and chat with us. You can find Atlas on all socials as @mousyatlas or on their website atlaslaika.carrd.co Ezzy Limmack (She/They) |
