Links: Author's Website / Gate Crashers Review / Starship Repo Review /



Patrick S. Tomlinson is the author of Starship Repo about a con-girl turned more or less legit, out this month, as well as Gate Crashers in the same universe, where humanity finds that the final frontier is marked off with warning buoys marked "Human Wildlife Sanctuary", and don't think it's funny.

His works, on the other hand, are funny, but there's not so much humor it gets in the way of telling some really good stories. He took time out from working on his next book or pitching movie scripts to answer a few questions.

Ernest: What was your first close encounter of the SF kind and how did it affect you? What had the deepest impact on you as an SF fan?

Patrick S. Tomlinson: Like most people of my generation, my first brush with SF came at a very early age with Star Wars. Reruns of Star Trek followed closely thereafter, with then new episodes of Next Gen. By the time DS9 and Babylon 5 came along, I was hopelessly addicted and haven't bothered going into recovery.

Ernest: How is Gate Crasher's your first novel? Didn't you write the Children of the Dead Earth series first? You're credited with Larry Rostant for the first, but none of the others. I'm confused!

Patrick: Well that has to do with the order of operations. Gate Crashers was the first novel I ever wrote. Back then, it was under the working title "A Hole in the Fence". Its earlier drafts were ... let's say meandering. It wasn't until two entire books later, with The Ark, that my craft had tightened up enough that someone actually gave me money for a book. So While Gate Crashers was my first novel, The Ark was my first published novel. Oh, and Larry Rostant wasn't a co-author, he was the cover artist for the first print runs of The Ark and Trident's Forge.

Ernest: When did you transition from whatever you were before to an SF writer? By the way, what were you? How did Gate Crashers wind up at Tor?

Patrick: I started single-mindedly pursuing writing sci-fi and fantasy around 2010. Prior to that, I was an insurance agent specializing in senior healthcare for almost ten years. The money was good, but it didn’t exactly spark my soul. After landing my debut trilogy with Angry Robot Books, I took a few months to really cut and polish Gate Crashers into fighting shape before turning it over to my agent and asking him to give it a swing. The sci-fi comedy niche is a small one, and there are only a handful of successful series in that space, but he bit down hard on it and shopped it around with enthusiasm, eventually finding a buyer with Tor.

Ernest: There aren't a lot of authors that can do comedy and SF together, but when its done well it's very good. What does humor do for the story that telling it straight doesn't do? How much should it get?

Ernest: (My own belief is that it sets up a contract between the author and the reader that says, hey ... I know we're jumping the shark here, but I'm being straight about it rather than pretending that 'reversing the polarity' is a real thing, so by hanging a lantern on it, I'm actually showing you respect. But that's just me.)

I find any story that avoids comedy to be flat and inauthentic. It ruins my suspension of disbelief if there isn't at least one cut-up saying something wholly inappropriate at the worst moment, because that's how people deal with impossible situations. From war zones, to the back of an ambulance, to a divorce hearing, gallows humor is ever-present. So when the crew is staring down the cybernetic reptilian overlord with nothing but a pointy stick and a colander, somebody better make a quip about tossing his salad or I'm out.

This was my biggest issue with the rebooted Battlestar Galactica as the series wore on, a show that I am still an enormous fan of, but the non-stop, oppressively dour tone weighed on me as a viewer. The episodes with any sort of levity and emotional relief were too few and far between.

Ernest: When you think of the intersection between comedy and space opera, you have to think about Seth McFarland and The Orville. So, what do you think about when you think about them. Bonus question, if you were pitching an episode, what would it be about?

Patrick: I unabashedly and unapologetically love The Orville. It's the best Star Trek on TV in twenty years. As far as what episode I would pitch, I'm toying around writing a spec script right now, so I'd rather not say.

Ernest: When you think about the exclusion zone in the Venn diagram of comedy and space opera, you have to think about ST: Discovery. Not only are they the darkest Trek yet, nobody on the ship has a sense of humor. What do you think of them and what would you do to lighten their mood, or is saving all the sentient life in the galaxy sort of a buzzkill?

Patrick: I have not watched an episode of ST: Discovery yet, despite really wanting to. Just haven't carved out the time in my limited availability to do so.

Ernest: Wow. Well, schedule some couch time and watch it. Season One is a bit painful, but they're doing better now.

I really liked the tribute/references to other science fiction works dropped into your stories. My favorite may be when the main character in Starship Repo wants to name a racer 'Razorback' and someone drops the Expanse quote "You can't take the Razorback" verbatim, exposing yourself as a fan. I was surprised that you didn't quote Repo Man (The life of a repo man is always intense) but what others should we keep a lookout for?

Patrick: Man, two in a row. I've also never experienced Repo Man, so it's not referenced. As for other works hidden in the series, there are obvious nods to Hitchhiker's Guide, Star Trek, Red Dawn, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Less obvious Easter eggs are in there for Ghost Busters, Farscape, Ben Hur, Larry Niven's Ringworld, David Weber's Honorverse series, and a loving tribute to Abbot and Costello.

Ernest: Movie scripts? So now you're writing scripts between novels? How did that happen, how's it going, and what are they like? We'd like to hear your elevator pitch.

Patrick: Four of them and counting now. The first of them came about when a friend who'd come up through the Milwaukee comedy community with me but later moved to LA sent me a panicked DM saying he needed a sci-fi script to give to a film and TV producer. So we sat down and over the course of three months pounded out a screenplay adaptation of The Ark. Much to my surprise, we actually optioned the damned thing and it's getting passed around a couple of the major studios as we speak. The odds are still incredibly long, but it's further than most scripts ever get.

Ernest: Speaking of movies, what are your 5 favorite SF films? It's not a fair question, but hey, it's not a fair universe.

Patrick:

The Abyss (Director's cut)

(Director's cut) Aliens

The Matrix Reloaded

Inception

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Ernest: Who would you read if you'd already read everything you've written (I'm asking for a friend.)?

Patrick: James L Cambias's A Darkling Sea is a severely underrated book that deserves far more recognition than it received when it first came out. It has not one, but two of the most thoroughly and convincingly realized alien species and societies I've ever read.

(NOTE: We agree. You can see the review of A Darkling Sea here).

Ernest: What science ficton technology would you most like to see realized, and what one would you most like to see never happen?

Patrick: FTL, hands down. We need to shrink this universe down. And I'm never stepping on a transporter. They boil you alive and rebuild a clone on the far side after you're dead.

Ernest: On a completely different note, if you could have any Mustang ever built, which one would it be?

Patrick: Despite appreciating the history and heritage of the Mustang, I'm not actually that nostalgic. I have my eye on a 2019 Bullitt Edition for my next car. If money was no option, give me one of the 2020 Shelby GT500's with the track fittings. 700+ hp and a sequential dual clutch gearbox? Yes, please.

Ernest: Also, will you miss the roar of the engine when we all drive electric cars? Did you know that Harley Davidson added noise into the design for their new electro-bike so it would sound cool? And wait, you live in Wisconsin. Isn't it dangerous not to love Harley?

Patrick: Y'all can drive what you like, I'll be in a Mustang with V8, even if it is a hybrid. And I did know that about the Harley electric. I actually sat on the prototype around 2015 at bike night at the Harley Museum here in town. I liked the way it sat and the fit of the bike, but $30,000 for a bike with less than 100 miles of range is insane. And it would be dangerous not to love Harley if they made a single bike that could keep up with my Triumph Thruxton R. But they don't.

Ernest: Here it is! The when will we see the next book in the current series question?! Does it finish a trilogy? Do we get the characters back from Gate Crashers and Starship Repo. (Remember, Firstname was promised a 'seat at the table' by none other than Tiberius Maximus, savior of Earth.) Oh, and what's it called?

Patrick: Excellent question with an open-ended answer. While the books in The Breach share a common universe, they were intended to be only loosely connected so each could act as an independent jumping off point for new readers, much like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I have plans for the characters we've already met to have crossovers and team-ups in later books, and I have around six novels already fleshed out in my head centering on both new and existing characters. There's an overarching plot to serve, but also a lot of fun detours to explore in the meantime.

As far as when the next book in the series is coming out, that's more difficult to say. In the near term, my next book with Tor actually starts a whole new series and universe. Called In the Black, it's a mil-spec sci-fi mashed up with some corporate espionage for good measure. It's a subgenre I've been a fan of as a reader for a long time, so I was eager to try and make my mark in it. I actually wrote the book on spec a couple of years ago just because I couldn't get the ideas out of my head.

Hopefully, Gate Crashers and soon Starship Repo sell well enough that Tor will be excited to get me working in that world again and I can spend the next decade or so jumping back and forth between the two series. An author can dream.

Ernest: So can we. Thanks Patrick.

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