Wole Talabi makes his Analog debut with “Blowout,” now available in our [July/August issue, on sale now!]. Read our Q&A with Talabi to find out his influences, the very first story he ever wrote, and why he chose the title “Blowout” for this story.
Analog Editor: How did this story germinate? Was there a spark of inspiration, or did it come to you slowly?
Wole Talabi: Back in 2012, I started writing what I thought would be a novella about the children of inventors who die early and how their traumatized children, two siblings, deal with the aftermath of their deaths differently, but it never went anywhere. However, fragments of that story have woven their way into several other stories over the years, including, “Home Is Where My Mothers Heart is Buried” which first appeared in FIYAH magazine and is also in my collection Incomplete Solutions, “Abeokuta52” which was first published in Omenana magazine, and this story, “Blowout”.
The fragments of that abandoned novella remain in the relationship between Femi and Folake and the memory of their parents, how that affects them. For this story though, I also wanted to explore what the early days of exploration and settlement on Mars could be, and what unexpected problems might be encountered. The idea had been swirling around in my head for a while, but I never got around to writing it until January 2022, when a friend told me that the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award Contest for realistic hard science fiction about what can be achieved in space exploration in the near future was open. It seemed like a perfect fit for the story I had been thinking about but there were only a few days left to the deadline. So, I wrote fast, and submitted the story just in time. I was very pleasantly surprised when it was selected as one of the ten finalists. It didn’t win in the end, but the judges really liked it and decided to award it an ‘Honourable Mention’ which they usually don’t do. I guess it was just a very good crop of contest stories that year.
AE: What made you think of Analog for this story?
WT: Being a lifelong fan of Hard SF, I’ve always wanted to sell a story to Analog magazine. So when the Jim Baen Memorial Award contest administrator, the wonderful Bill Ledbetter, who also really liked the story made the suggestion to submit it to Analog for possible publication, I jumped at it. And I guess he was right. Thanks Bill! I’m very grateful to Trevor Quachri for accepting and publishing it.
AE: How did the title for this piece come to you?
WT: “Blowout” describes both what happens physically on Mars—an uncontrolled, explosive flow of underground fluids during drilling and what happens to the relationship between our two main characters Femi and Folake.
AE: Who or what are your greatest influences and inspirations?
WT: There are a lot of them. Far too many to list. I’m influenced by almost every author I read. But I’m primarily influenced by authors like Neil Gaiman. Ursula K LeGuin. Isaac Asimov. Cyprian Ekwensi. Stephen Baxter. Kojo Laing. Carmen Maria Machado. Nnedi Okorafor. Philip K. Dick. Abdulrazak Gurnah. Ted Chiang. Sofia Samatar. Octavia Butler. Stephen King. Tade Thompson. Ken Liu. Derek Künsken. Cory Doctorow. Lauren Beukes. And so many, many more to varying degrees.
AE: What inspired you to start writing?
WT: I honestly don’t know. I suppose I’ve been writing stories for as long as I remember. I wrote what I thought was a novel back when I was eight or nine—a notebook’s worth of story. All I remember about it is that there were ninjas and my mother hated it. But I haven’t really stopped since, just started to share that writing with an audience.
AE: What is your process?
WT: I like to think about stories for a while before I write and then once I start, I like to write fast and get all my ideas out on page and then afterwards edit it all into a shape that makes sense. I am not a fan of editing while writing the first draft. It is very easy to get caught in a loop of second-guessing myself and getting stuck. I prefer to draft first. Get everything down on the page, quick and dirty—a muddy slurry of words that contains the gems of the story that was in my head, then refine-revise and edit. Typically, I do my writing early in the mornings before work. Especially when I am drafting.
I feel that drafting and editing are two separate things. Drafting is where I have fun, let my imagination and creativity run free without overthinking anything. Editing is where I become more deliberate and calculated about what matters in the story, what works. I believe trying to do both at the same time reduces my ability to do either of them effectively.
AE: Are there any themes that you find yourself returning to throughout your writing? If yes, what and why?
WT: Yes, there are.
The idea of alternative consciousness, in particular, artificial intelligences or digital consciousness based on recorded human minds is one I find fascinating and keep returning to. I have written about digitally recreating human consciousness via technology several times now and in fact, four of these stories share the same characters and timeline:
- “A Dream of Electric Mothers,” in Africa Risen, 2022.
- “Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application For An Eternal Spirit Core”, in Clarkesworld magazine, 2021.
- “The Regression Test”, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF), 2017.
- “Connectome, Or, The Facts in the Case of Miss Valerie DeMarco, (Ph.D)” in TNC, 2013
I supposed this latest story in Analog, “Blowout” also has elements of that in the ‘Ibeji’ technology that is used to remotely operate a device on the surface of Mars.
I am fascinated by the concept because we know a lot about the biology and chemistry of our brains but so little about our minds and our emergent consciousness. In that lack of knowing, there is a lot of room for speculation and imagination.
AE: What other projects are you currently working on?
WT: I have a fantasy novel called Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon published by DAW/Gollancz coming out in August 2023 which is already available for preorder. I’m editing a new anthology called Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology which contains stories set in the Sauútiverse—a fictional science-fantasy secondary world based on a blend of African cultural worldviews and inspirations. The anthology will be published by Android Press in November 2023. I am also working on a new collection of short fiction and my second novel.
AE: What are you reading right now?
WT: I’ve just finished reading More Perfect by the excellent Temi Oh which is a brilliant cyberpunk reimagining of the Eurydice and Orpheus myth as well as the Yoruba myth of Moremi. A book that is full of big ideas about connection and consciousness, things I find fascinating as I mentioned above.
I am just starting Paradise by Nobel prize winner, Abdul Razak Gurnah, whose work I always find deeply affecting.
AE: Many of our Analog authors are interested in science. Do you have any scientific background, and does it impact your fiction?
WT: I am a chemical engineer and have worked in geoscience, energy, and software development so inevitably, it affects my writing. In fact, my father was also chemical engineer, and my mother studied English literature I like to say that I was sort of genetically predisposed to enjoy science fiction, the intersection of those two things. My engineering background has an influence a strong influence on my writing, and I often find myself transposing science and engineering concepts and ideas into my writing. For example, some of the technologies I speculate on in this story “Blowout” are based on extrapolations of real designs and principles I have encountered. Science fiction, and in particular, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series also played a big part in my decision to become an engineer. So, for me, engineering and writing have always affected each other and probably always will.
AE: How can our readers follow you and your writing?
WT: You can find me online at wtalabi.wordpress.com (where its best to subscribe) and @wtalabi on Twitter/Instagram/TikTok.
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