What’s next for an astronaut whose spacefaring days are over? Rosemary Claire Smith pondered this question and, in her answer, found inspiration for her latest story, “Apollo in Retrograde.” Read it in our [November/December issue, on sale now!]
Analog Editor: How did this alternate-history story germinate? Was there a spark of inspiration, or did it come to you slowly?
Rosemary Claire Smith: I would say both, if that makes any sense. I knew almost as soon as I finished “The Next Frontier, ” which was published in the July/August 2021 issue of Analog, that I needed to explore what Natalya Orlova would do next. The hard part was answering a central question: what does an astronaut do after walking on the Moon? I looked at the real lives of several Apollo astronauts for inspiration. However, I could not envision my main character taking an administrative job in NASA, or working for an aerospace company, much less going into politics like John Glenn. Nor did I see her sitting beside Walter Cronkite for live reporting on subsequent Moon landings. I concluded that the question of what a renown astronaut does for an encore is akin to what an Olympic athlete does after taking home a medal. The answer did not come to me until I realized I was not asking precisely the right question. What I really wanted to tackle in this story was how my main character carries forward the optimistic note on which “The Next Frontier” ended.
AE: How did the title for “Apollo in Retrograde” come to you?
RCS: I wanted a title that sounded ominous but not disastrous. After I thought it up, I could not convince myself that it might be literally true because NASA would have been unlikely to place an Apollo command module in a retrograde orbit around the Moon in the early 1970s. It is, however, the kind of attention-grabbing headline a newspaper of that era might splash across the front page. Side note: During the upcoming Artemis 1 mission, the Orion spacecraft is expected to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. I love playing around with titles. The final titles for many of my stories are rarely the same as my working titles. I have been known to go through three or four titles before I latch onto one that pleases me. Sometimes I must get to the end of a story before I can settle on a title that works well with the theme.
AE: Many of our Analog authors are interested in science. Do you have any scientific background, and does it impact your fiction?
RCS: My scientific background is primarily as a field archaeologist, specializing in prehistoric lithic technology. That said, I have also focused on geology, paleontology, and statistical analysis. My training informs my writing in several respects, primarily when considering how humans or other creatures will survive and thrive in a particular environment. What natural resources, including edible and medicinal plants, animals, water, shelter, minerals, and the like are plentiful? Which are scarce? What is the carrying capacity of the area given the level of technology of its inhabitants? Who else is competing for those resources? How well or poorly do the various groups get along? What environmental stresses are at play? If the natural environment is resource-poor and consequently sparsely settled, a practical knowledge of science and technology are vital. Setting “Apollo in Retrograde” on the Moon brings these basics into play. In addition, travel from place to place is difficult when there are no roads, navigable waterways, local guides, or fine-grained maps.
More generally, learning the fundamentals of the scientific method (i.e. dispassionate observation, experimentation, and data collection, which leads to the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses) aids me in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of novel ideas in various branches of science. This is just a fancy way to remind myself not to believe the first thing I read, no matter how much I would love for it to be true.
AE: What careers have you had and how do they affect your writing?
RCS: My first career as an archaeologist certainly influenced my writing in another respect. It trained me to take the long view of events. For example, years-long or decades-long gaps in the push to send humans out to explore space strike me as natural and entirely expected. Exploration of extreme environments is difficult because it is thoroughly dependent upon available technology. Think how challenging it must have been for explorers to reach the South Pole in 1911. Looking ahead, I am optimistic that we will continue to make great strides in exploring our universe, even if we do not do so as quickly as I wish.
My second career as a lawyer specializing in campaign finance gave me an appreciation of the out-sized roles that money and politics play in many human endeavors at the national and international levels. The bigger the scale of a project and the longer it will take, the more difficult it becomes to maintain progress and reach completion. Unforeseen events come into play, threatening to derail projects.
You want your readers to wonder how they themselves might respond to the predicaments you throw at your characters. Would they be brave enough or empathetic enough or clever enough or simply willing to give up what they cherish for the sake of some greater good?
AE: How much or little do current events impact your writing?
RCS: Both “Apollo in Retrograde” and its predecessor, “The Next Frontier,” were born of a desire to live in a world where women played more prominent roles in space exploration. “Apollo in Retrograde” was also informed by recent world events, such as disrupted supply chains. I took the existence of international cooperation and the benefits of greater coordination between nations much more for granted in the 1990’s and 2000’s than I do now.
AE: Do you have any advice for up-and-coming writers?
RCS: I urge you to write about stuff that troubles you, whether it concerns relationships with other people or major world events or anything in between. Don’t settle for easy, tidy answers. I try to always take to heart what science fiction grandmaster Gene Wolfe once wrote: “Almost any interesting work of art comes close to saying the opposite of what it really says.” For example, I try to avoid stacking the deck in a simplistic way as to what the most ethically sound choice for a character might be. If it is obvious and easy for a character to do the right thing, the story lacks tension. Readers are a judgmental bunch, always evaluating characters as to how well or poorly they stack up against the readers’ own moral compasses. You want your readers to wonder how they themselves might respond to the predicaments you throw at your characters. Would they be brave enough or empathetic enough or clever enough or simply willing to give up what they cherish for the sake of some greater good?
AE: How can our readers follow you and your writing?
RCS: I am most active on Facebook as Rosemary Claire Smith. You can also find me on social media as @rcwordsmith. I blog about dinosaurs and other topics at rcwordsmith.com. My interactive adventure novel, T-Rex Time Machine, is available from Choice of Games at https://www.choiceofgames.com/category/our-games/
The Astounding Analog Companion 
3 comments