An Interview with Stephanie Osborn, Author of Burnout

March 12, 2009 - PRLog -- Welcome to 10 Quick Questions with Dave. I’m your host Dave Tallman. Chatting with me today is Stephanie Osborn, author of Burnout. Thanks for the opportunity to interview you. To be a writer one should have some formal education, but you don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist unless you’re Stephanie Osborn. How did you get involved in the space program? How many degrees do you hold?

Stephanie: Hi. My pleasure.

I have a BS with majors in physics, chemistry, & math & a minor in geology. I have a MS in astronomy. I started on a PhD in astrophysics but got into the space program & quit from lack of time.

I wanted to work in the space program since I was little. Between the original Star Trek series & the Apollo-1 accident, space got my attention & held it.

A grad school friend got a job in Huntsville on a Phase 1 R&D program. They needed an astronomer; he suggested me. Phase 2 was prototype testing, some aboard the Shuttle. I was a payload specialist candidate. But Challenger blew, the fleet was grounded, & Phase 2 was cancelled.

My company had a space division that provided payload flight controllers for Shuttle missions. I transferred & the rest is history.

D: I noted you worked on the Shuttle & Station programs & trained astronauts. Can you share with us about those experiences?

S: Everybody thinks it’s glamorous, but it’s hard work & being up strange hours. There’ve been missions when I went for weeks, living in the same house with my husband & not seeing him.

The exciting parts are the missions. In between missions are months of working to set it up. And when they’re on orbit you WANT to be bored because that meant everything was going according to plan. If you weren’t bored things were going bad.

There is NO ADRENALINE RUSH like launch. Sitting console for it is even better. I suppose the best is to be aboard at launch; but I can’t speak to that.

D: How many novels do you have out? Where can we find them?

S: Burnout is out now as e-book but not in hardcopy until 15 April. The Y Factor will come out as e-book in June; in paperback this fall. Order at www.twilighttimesbooks.com, Amazon, BAMM, BN, Borders, or your local independent bookstore. The ISBN for Burnout is 978-1-60619-200-9. We’re still editing The Y Factor.

D: You’ve co-authored novels with your mentor, Travis "Doc" Taylor, & Darrell Bain. Could you tell how those relationships began & give us some background on the novels?

S: Trav & I haven’t worked together. We’ve talked about it but he’s busy. We met through my husband Darrell Osborn. He’d done some art for one of Trav’s books & told him I had a book I wanted published. Trav offered to look & make suggestions then take it to his publishers. The first declined but the second took it.

Darrell Bain is an award-winning writer with Twilight Times. He & Trav wrote a book called Human By Choice. When Trav was unavailable on the sequel The Y Factor, Lida Quillen of Twilight Times recommended me then snapped it up when we finished. I’m honored that he tapped me to work with him.

D: Let’s talk about Burnout. What kind of story is it?

S: Burnout is an SF mystery about a Shuttle disaster that’s no accident. It has 2 heroes, “Crash” Murphy & Dr. Mike Anders. Murphy, an ex-Flight Director, is tapped by his government to investigate the disaster, & Anders by HIS government to study some odd signals from space.

It’s soon apparent that whatever happened to Atlantis was deliberate, & he starts nosing further into the matter. When people around him start dying in “accidents,” he flees, taking what evidence he can, & looks for Anders.

Anders has gotten suspicious about those signals. Their investigations dovetail, & the 2 men work together to unravel what happened to Atlantis, running for their lives & wondering who they can & can’t trust.

D: How much influence was the Columbia tragedy on you personally & on Burnout?

S: The Columbia tragedy had no influence on Burnout; the rough draft was in Trav’s hands at the time Columbia went down. The influence was Challenger, because it was the only shuttle disaster that had occurred when I wrote the rough draft. But I chose a scenario as different from it as possible, because I didn’t want anyone thinking I was playing off a tragedy. Challenger occurred on ascent, so I chose an entry disaster. It was coincidence that it mimicked Columbia. When the CAIB Report came out I read it, comparing it to my scenario; I didn’t have to change anything.

The personal influence of Columbia was tremendous. Columbia was the bird I’d worked with most in my career, & I had a friend aboard, Kalpana Chawla, I’d helped train for her first mission in 1997. It was one of those times when I knew TOO much. I am often asked about it at SF cons. I’m just getting where I can discuss it, & I ONLY go into what the CAIB Report says. Anyway, I’m not any kind of official NASA spokesman.

D: I know when a writer has a vast set of skills in a particular area, it can be hard for them to create within that genre, because they know their subject matter so well they forget the reader does not. With your extensive aviation & space science background, was it hard to find a level where the “common man” could comprehend the technical aspects & linguistics?

S: On Burnout it was hard, because of needing to use NASA jargon where they’d realistically use it. There’s a glossary for those less knowledgeable on it. I try to insert a layman into technical conversations so the reader has a foil in the book who asks questions like, “What the HECK are y’all talkin’ about?!”

D: In creating your characters, did you draw on your own life experiences & people you have known?

S: Every character I write is some facet of me, even the bad guys. I’ve been told I write cinematically & that’s my intent. I’m watching a movie in my head & writing it. I’m the screenwriter, director, the cast & crew, in one. My biggest compliment is for a reader to say, “It was like watching a movie!” I definitely use the advice of friends & colleagues.

D: When you’re writing, what methods do you use to keep on track? Do you employ timelines or storyboards?

S: Sometimes I have a plot that needs a timeline. Usually I realize it after I’ve started, & go through what I have to retrieve times, & build the timeline on it. Then I can finish writing the story & know it’s reasonable. I don’t do storyboards because I can’t draw.

Sometimes when I get the idea for a plot, I’ll write it in rough outline form. It isn’t formal with Roman numerals. I indent a lot. I don’t write manuscripts in sequence; I write the scenes that hit me that day. I leave blank space, & as I get the ideas for how to fill in, I use a rough outline to sketch out what goes between written scenes, & stick it into the manuscript. Once the section is written, the notes are deleted, leaving the finished manuscript.

D: Where do you see yourself a year from now? 5 years? Beyond?

S: In 1 year, I’d like to see Burnout popular, with The Y Factor right behind & to finish their sequels. I have another book ready, the 1st in a series, where a scientist finds a way to access alternate universes. It’s large, with the origin story; I’d like a publisher for it. And I’d like SF cons coming to me to be a guest speaker.

In 5 years, I’d like to complete or continue the Cresperia series with Mr. Bain, & my other series trucking; have some new series; a few stand-alone books. I’d love to be a Guest of Honor at SF cons!

I want to be a solid, established SF writer of good reputation, able to mentor writers. An award would be nice, but unnecessary. I write for enjoyment. If I’ve got a good fan base that loves my books, I’ll be happy.

Full interview @:
http://reviewabook.ning.com/group/interviewsandpressrelea...

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Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, a veteran of 20+ years of working in the civilian & military space defense programs. She holds degrees in 4 sciences & writes sci-fi mysteries based on her knowledge, experience, and travels.