Scifipulse recently caught up with Manda Benson. She is a scientist and writer from the Midlands in England who has worked in research and taught science at undergraduate and A Level. Manda is the author of Pilgrennon’s Children; a technothriller series about an autistic girl with the power to mentally control computers and other devices, as well as the Beasts trilogy, which explores a future vision of the age-old symbiosis between animals and humans. During this interview; Manda talks about worldbuilding in her books, neurodiversity in fiction and her personal top 5 science fiction novels.
SFP: What made you want to be a writer?
Manda Benson: All my life I have made up characters and stories as an escape and a coping mechanism. I have always loved reading. I have a slight speech impediment and can’t really express complicated ideas verbally, so I always found writing things down a better way of organising my own thoughts, and if I’m required to speak I can’t do it without writing notes beforehand.
When I was young, I was told this wasn’t a viable option for making a living, and that I should do something else, which led to training in chemistry and biochemistry and an interest in writing about science. It’s something of a compulsion as I invariably keep coming back to it, and I usually end up writing to make science accessible even when I’m on hiatus from fiction.
SFP: How do you approach worldbuilding in your books?
Manda Benson: Most of my fiction is set in the known world or something closely extrapolated from it, so it begins with reading about a location and visiting it if possible. I try to research even if it’s a place I’m familiar with, as histories, cultures, and myths that I might not be aware of can offer intriguing details. I have a novel coming out later this year called The Lambton Worm. ‘Lambton Worm’ in the book is the name people start calling a computer virus that is causing international chaos, but it comes from a legend and accompanying song from northeast England about a mythical creature that caused chaos not far from the place some of the story happens.
I recently had published in a magazine a contemporary ghost story called Shade. The initial idea of it was to come up with a modern take on Charon the Ferryman. I decided to set it in Coventry and it ended up being about WWII history and the Blitz. It doesn’t really fit properly into a genre, but it’s my favourite piece of short fiction I’ve come up with so far.
Writing about strange environments usually starts with research about geology or engineering. The design of Suichūtoshi, an underwater city in a novel called Pilgrennon’s Gambit, started with the idea that it would need to have a modular construction, and went from there into practical considerations about how atmosphere control and safety airlocks would need to be incorporated, and how submarines can dock to it.
With short fiction, the entire plot can evolve from this sort of thing. In the past I’ve had published a mystery story called Radiosynthesis, set on a world accreted from destroyed planets and debris ejected from a supernova, which has seams of radioactive ore in it and ecosystems in caves inspired in part by the lightless volcanic vents in oceanic trenches. Another short story I wrote set on a tidally-locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star is hopefully being published this year, funnily enough in a fantasy publication, as people who read it often think it’s a fantasy story, so the research ended up rather like complicated clockwork hidden from view.
It’s worth mentioning that you can drive yourself potty worrying about accuracy when doing research. It’s impossible to be an expert on everything, mistakes happen, and sometimes it’s necessary when telling a story to exaggerate, simplify, or take liberties. All you can do is try your best and hope to strike a balance.
SFP: Which writers are you inspired by?
Manda Benson: Nevil Shute, HG Wells, Arthur C Clarke, Temple Grandin, Richard Dawkins, Daphne Du Maurier, Lionel Shriver, Michael Crichton, Agatha Christie, George Orwell.
SFP: What are you working on at the moment?
Manda Benson: I have recently completed the first novel in a mystery series. I’ve also just written a short piece of fiction about aquaponics.
SFP: What are your top 5 SF novels and why?
Manda Benson: On the Beach by Nevil Shute. At the time it was written, the fear of nuclear apocalypse was very real, and sadly it hasn’t much changed.
The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells. Adventure, horrific experiments, and uncomfortable questions about what separates humans from animals. What’s not to like?
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Just a great story that explores intellectual disability sympathetically.
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O’Brien. It’s full of ethical nuance, and NIMH was a real institution the author had experience with which created an experimental mouse utopia with unexpected and shocking results.
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor. It’s funny and the character dyad of a slovenly laid-back man sharing a cabin with an uptight neurotic man is perfect.
SFP: Have you got any advice for aspiring writers?
Manda Benson: Read a lot. Write a lot. Join critique groups. Never stop learning and don’t underestimate the value of helping others with their writing and developing your own technique. Put in the work to understand how your professional background might hinder your ability to be engaging. What I mean by this is that most of us will come from either scientific or legal backgrounds, or perhaps journalism and fields of that sort, and bring with us from that jargon and bad habits that aren’t appropriate for writing fiction. A great book I read on this topic recently is Sir Ernest Gowers’s The Complete Plain Words.
SFP: What do you think the future of neurodivergent representation in science fiction looks like?
Manda Benson: In 2006 I wrote a novel called Pilgrennon’s Beacon. Those who gave me feedback on it thought it would be best pitched as young adult science fiction, so I sent it to the small number of agents in the UK that would consider material of that description. The feedback I received all agreed that there wasn’t a market for this, that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as the only successful book I was aware of at the time was occupying all available space in this niche, and one person said that he did not believe the audience would find an autistic girl relatable as a protagonist. Possibly it is no longer acceptable to say things like that.
I haven’t been involved with the publishing industry with anything overtly about neurodiversity since then, although coincidentally the mystery novel I recently finished has neurodivergent characters in it, so I may be about to find out. As I understand, it’s still very difficult to break into the advance-paying publishing world unless you have contacts or you already have an audience built up from TV appearances or blogging or playing the social media game. I wouldn’t read anything specific into that, other than it’s a business and they’re mercenary and are only going to want to invest when there’s a strong chance of a return.
On the other hand, it’s never been easier to publish your work and get it out there. That’s a double-edged sword, though, as you have not only valid competition from the work of other writers to contend with, but the online environment is being flooded with adverts and AI-generated material that is making it increasingly difficult for audiences to find books, whether they’re about neurodivergence or anything else. The same problem sadly applies to music and illustration.
It’s encouraging that the number of decent smaller publishers seems to be on the increase. I had some books published with a couple in the early ’10s, but they were all American back then, and they insisted on changing the spelling and language. I wasn’t entirely happy with that because when I read an American book, I like to have an immersive experience in the writer’s culture and language, and nearly every American I’ve met reciprocates that sentiment! One of them insisted on paying royalties in cheques drawn in US funds, which was a major headache.
SFP: What obscure creator do you think deserves to be better known?
Manda Benson: I’d like to mention an independent Norwegian band called Keldian which I think your readers might enjoy as a lot of their music has a far-future space travel theme. I especially love their songs Never Existed, I’m the Last of Us, and Redshift.
SFP: And finally, if you could write for any major sci-fi property, what story would you tell in that universe and why?
Manda Benson: That would have to be Jurassic Park. Dinosaurs were a passion of mine as a child, and the first film came out when I was a teenager and it blew my mind. I would want to write about the other animals and plants as well as the dinosaurs, and I don’t think I’d write it with them being highly intelligent, though. I’ve spent time around ratites and although they’re not harmless, they’re actually incredibly thick, so I don’t think prehistoric theropods would pose a threat to people unless said people were drunk or extremely foolish! Actually, if I could think of some excuse to write something set in an ecosystem of the Antarctic Circle during the Cretaceous, that would be great! It’s fascinating to think about how plants and animals managed to adapt to total darkness throughout the winter months.
Scifipulse would like to extend our most heartfelt thanks and warmest best wishes to Manda Benson for so graciously taking the time to answer our questions.
Manda’s Facebook: Manda Benson | Facebook
Her website: Tangentrine.com
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