Contemporary Authors

• Lotus Blue ( science Fiction novel) Talos Press (New York, NY), 2017

• Cat Sparks Home Page - https://catsparks.net/biography/

  Bio
  Cat Sparks was fiction editor of Cosmos Magazine from 2010-2016. She managed Agog! Press, an Australian independent press that produced ten anthologies of new speculative fiction from 2002-2008. She’s known for her award-winning editing, writing, graphic design and photography.

  Cat was born in Sydney and has traveled through Europe, the Middle East, Indonesia, the South Pacific, Mexico, North America and China. Her adventures so far have included winning a trip to Paris in a Bulletin Magazine photography competition; being appointed official photographer for two NSW Premiers and working as dig photographer on three archaeological expeditions to Jordan.

  A graduate of the inaugural Clarion South Writers’ Workshop, she was a Writers of the Future prize winner in 2004. She has edited five anthologies of speculative fiction and sixty-five of her short stories have been published since the turn of the millennium.

  Cat has received a total of nineteen Aurealis and Ditmar awards for writing, editing and art including the Peter McNamara Conveners Award 2004, for services to Australia’s speculative fiction industry. She was the convener of the Aurealis Awards horror division in 2006, a judge in the anthologies and collected work category in 2009 and the short SF division in 2013.

  An active member of Science Fiction Writers of America, her fiction is represented by Jill Grinberg Literary Management, New York.

  Her short story collection The Bride Price was published by Ticonderoga Publications in May, 2013. The book was nominated for an Aurealis Award and won the Ditmar for Best Collected Work in 2014.

  Her story ‘All the Love in the World’ was reprinted in Hartwell and Kramer’s Years Best Science Fiction, Volume 16.

  In January 2012 she was one of 12 students chosen to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop as part of the Key West Literary Seminar Yet Another World: literature of the future. Her participation was funded by an Australia Council emerging writers grant.

  She is currently studying for a Doctorate of Philosophy – Media, Culture and Creative Arts through Curtin University.

  Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Skyhorse Press this year.

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catriona_Sparks

  Catriona Sparks
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Catriona (Cat) Sparks
  Cat Sparks.jpg
  Cat Sparks (author)
  Born 11 September 1965 (age 52)
  Nationality Australian
  Genre Speculative fiction
  Website
  www.catsparks.net
  Catriona (Cat) Sparks (born 11 September 1965, Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian science fiction writer, editor and publisher.

  As manager and editor of Agog! Press with her partner, Australian horror writer Rob Hood, Sparks has produced ten anthologies of speculative fiction. She is also a writer, graphic designer, photographer and desktop publisher, with stories and artwork appearing in a selection of magazines and anthologies. She has won thirteen Ditmar Awards for writing, editing and artwork,[1] her most recent in 2014, when her short story Scarp was awarded a Ditmar for Best Short Story and 'The Bride Price' one for Best Collected Work.[2] She was nominated for the Aurealis Peter McNamara Convenors' Award for Excellence in 2003 and won one in 2004 for services to the Australian SF publishing industry. In 2006 Sparks was convenor of the Horror judging panel of the Aurealis Awards, and in 2008 she was Guest of Honour at the Conflux 5 Science Fiction Convention in Canberra.[3]

  Sparks has concentrated on her writing in recent years.[4] In 2004 Sparks graduated the inaugural Clarion South Writers' Workshop in Queensland and won third prize in the first quarter of the Writers of the Future competition.[5] Her short fiction has been nominated for the Aurealis Awards in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.[6] Her short story Hollywood Roadkill won both the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story and the Golden Aurealis Award[7] in the 2007 Aurealis Awards. Her short story Seventeen won the Aurealis Award for Best Science young Adult Short Story[8] in the 2009 Aurealis Awards.

  In 2010 Sparks was announced as the new Fiction Editor of Cosmos magazine[9] replacing Damien Broderick.[10] Cosmos Magazine ceased publication of short fiction in 2016.

  In January 2012 she was one of 12 students chosen to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway[11] workshop as part of the Key West Literary Seminar Yet Another World: literature of the future. Her participation was funded by an Australia Council emerging writers grant.

  In 2012 she became a provisional candidate for a Doctorate of Philosophy – Media, Culture and Creative Arts through Curtin University.

  Her 2013 collection The Bride Price won the Ditmar Award for Best Collection.

  An active member of Science Fiction Writers of America, her fiction is represented by Jill Grinberg Literary Management,[12] New York.

  Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Talos Press in February 2017. Lotus Blue has been described as “Mad Max meets Terminator meets Ghost in the Shell.”[13]

  Contents [hide]
  1 Bibliography
  1.1 Novels
  1.2 Short fiction
  1.2.1 Collections
  1.2.2 Short stories
  1.2.3 Work published in anthologies
  1.3 Anthologies edited
  2 See also
  3 References
  4 External links
  Bibliography[edit]
  This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  Novels[edit]
  Sparks, Cat (2017). Lotus Blue. New York, NY: Talos Press.

  Short fiction[edit]
  Collections[edit]
  Sparks, Cat (2013). The bride price. Introduction by Sean Williams. Greenwood, W.A.: Ticonderoga Publications.

  Short stories[edit]
  Jericho Blush (2016), Cyclopean, Issue #2, Ed. Chase Capener, Cyclopean Press
  No Fat Chicks (2016), In Your Face, ed. Tehani Wessely, Fablecroft Press
  The Seventh Relic (2015), Focus 2014: highlights of Australian short fiction, ed. Tehani Wessely, Fablecroft Press (reprint)
  New Chronicles of Andras Thorn (2015), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Ed. Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, Ticonderoga Publications (reprint)
  Hot Rods (2015), Loosed Upon the World, Saga Press, ed. John Joseph Adams (reprint)
  Veterans Day (2015), Hear Me Roar, Ed. Liz Grzyb, Ticonderoga Publications
  Dragon Girl (2015), The Never Never Land, CSFG Publishing
  Hot Rods (2015), Lightspeed Magazine, ed. John Joseph Adams
  Street of the Dead (2015). You’re Not Alone, ed. Damien Broderick (reprint)
  New Chronicles of Andras Thorn (2014), Dimension 6, ed. Keith Stevenson, Coeur de Lion Publishing
  The Seventh Relic (2014), Phantazein, ed. Tehani Wessely, Fablecroft Publishing (winner of 2014 Best Short Story Ditmar)
  Dark Harvest (2014), Solaris Rising 3, ed. Ian Whates, Solaris
  Chinaman’s Bluff (2013).[14]
  Scarp”, In The Bride Price (2013). Ticonderoga Publications
  Beyond the Farthest Stone (2013). In The Bride Price, Ticonderoga Publications
  Daughters of Battendown (2013). In One Small Step, ed. Tehani Wessely, Fablecroft Publishing
  The Alabaster Child (2011). In Gutshot: Weird West Tales, ed. Conrad Williams, PS Publishing - Anthology nominated for a British Fantasy Award
  The Sleeping and the Dead (2011). In Ishtar, Morrigan Books - Nominated for a DITMAR Award
  Dead Low’ (2011). In Midnight Echo #6, The Australian Horror Writers Association - Nominated for an Aurealis Award
  Beautiful (2011). In Anywhere But Earth, Coeur de Lion Publishing
  All the Love in the World (2010). In Sprawl, ed. Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
  The Piano Song (2010). In Scenes from the Second Storey, eds. Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshaw, Morrigan Books
  Heart of Stone (2009). In X6, ed. Keith Stevenson, Coeur de Lion Publishing
  The Snow Leopard (2009), Borderlands Magazine, #11
  Seventeen (2009), In. Masques, ed. Gillian Polack, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild. Awarded Best Young Adult Short Story in the 2009 Aurealis Awards
  Piper (2008), Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #36.
  Palisade (2008). In Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, ed. Mike Allen, Norilana Books
  Shadows of Our Gods (2008), Borderlands Magazine, #10.
  Sammarynda Deep (2008). In Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, ed. Ekaterina Sedia, Senses Five Press. Awarded Best Fantasy Short Story in the 2008 Aurealis Awards. Reprinted in Award Winning Australian Writing 2009, Melbourne Books
  A Million Shades of Nightmare (2007), Dark Animus, #10. Recorded as a podcast for Outlandish Voices in 2009
  Hollywood Roadkill (2007), On Spec, #69. Awarded both Best Science Fiction Short Story and the Short Story Golden Aurealis in the 2007 Aurealis Awards
  Right to Work (2007). In Workers Paradise, eds. Russell B. Farr and Nick Evans, Ticonderoga Publications.
  Champagne and Ice (2007), Aurealis.
  A Lady of Adestan (2007), Orb, # 7, June. Nominated for Best Fantasy Short Story in the 2007 Aurealis Awards
  The Bride Price (2007), New Ceres, #2, 2007
  Arctica (2007). In Fantastic Wonder Stories, ed. Russell B. Farr, Ticonderoga Publications. Nominated for Best Science Fiction Short Story in the 2007 Aurealis Awards
  The Golden Hour (2006), WyR[E]d, November.
  The Jarrah Run (2006), In c0ck, eds. Andrew Macrae and Keith Stephenson, coeur de lion press.
  The Delicacy of Dragonflies (2006), Fables and Reflections, #8.
  Street of the Dead (2006), Cosmos, #9, June. Reprinted in Greek Newspaper Eleftherotypia, 2009
  Blue Stars For All Saviours' Day (2006). In The Outcast, ed. Nicole R. Murphy, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild.
  The Ice Bride (2006), Shadowed Realms, #9, The Redback Edition.
  Message in a Bottle (2005), Borderlands, #6
  Macchiato Lane (2005), TiconderogaOnline", #5. Nominated for Best Horror Short Story in the 2005 Aurealis Awards
  Historical Perspective (2005), Simulacrum, July.
  Arcana (2005). In Mitch? 4: Slow Dancing in Quicksand.
  Home by the Sea (2004), Orb, #6. Nominated for Best Science Fiction Short Story in the 2004 Aurealis Awards. Reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2005, eds. Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt, MirrorDanse Books
  Last Dance at the Sargeant Majors' Ball (2004). Borderlands Magazine, #3, 2004. Reprinted in L Ron Hubbard presents Writers of the Future, vol XXI, 2005.
  Meltdown my Plutonium Heart (2004). In Encounters, eds. Maxine McArthur and Donna Maree Hanson, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild.
  I am my Fathers Daughters (2003), Visions Magazine, #23.
  The Birdcage (2003). In Elsewhere, ed. Michael Barry, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild.
  Our Lady of Spatial Anomalies (2003), Fables and Reflections, #5.
  Song of the Crescent Moon (2003), Gynaezine.
  Gracelands (2003), Dark Animus, #3.
  Roswell 14 (co-written with Max Blaxall) (2003). In Consensual 2: The Second Coming.
  Cross the Nullarbor to the Sea (2003), In Glimpses, Vision Writer's Group.
  Pod (2003). In Ideomancer Unbound, eds. Mikal Trimm and Chris Clarke, Fictionwise.
  Rats Nest (2003). In Potato Monkey, #3,
  14 Shopping Days Till Xmas (2002), Vision Newszine.
  Birthmark (2002), Antipodean SF, #55.
  Arthur Nolan's Twilight (2002), Aurealis, #30.
  Rites of Passage (2002). In Mitch?3: Hacks to the Max.
  100% M-Hype (2002). In Passing Strange, ed. Bill Congreve, MirrorDanse Books, 2002
  Reigning Cats and Dogs (2002), Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, #1.
  Meltdown my Plutonium Heart (2002), Borderlands Convention Program.
  Epiphany on the Wirewalk (2002), Fables and Reflections, #1.
  Hollywood Hills (2002), Antipodean SF, #45.
  Fuchsia Spins by Moonlight (2002), Redsine, #7
  Invasion of the Latte Snatchers (2001). In Mitch?2: Tarts of the New Millennium.
  Work published in anthologies[edit]
  AustrAlien Absurdities (2002), ed. Chuck McKenzie and Tansy Rayner Roberts, ISBN 0-9580567-1-4
  Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales (2005), ed. Rob Hood and Robin Pen, ISBN 0-9580567-4-9
  Daikaiju! 2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters (2007), ed. Rob Hood and Robin Pen, ISBN 978-0-8095-7231-1
  Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monster vs The World (2007), ed. Rob Hood and Robin Pen, ISBN 978-0-8095-7233-5
  Canterbury 2100: pilgrimages in a new world (2007), ed. Dirk Flinthart, ISBN 978-0-8095-7328-8
  Anthologies edited[edit]
  Agog! Ripping Reads (2006), ed. Cat Sparks, ISBN 0-8095-6237-5
  Agog! Smashing Stories (2004), ed. Cat Sparks, ISBN 0-9580567-3-0
  Agog! Terrific Tales (2003), ed. Cat Sparks, ISBN 0-9580567-2-2
  Agog! Fantastic Fiction (2002), ed. Cat Sparks, ISBN 0-9580567-0-6
  The Scary Food Cookbook, a compendium of gastronomic atrocity (2008), ed. Cat Sparks, ISBN 978-0-9580567-5-5

• Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Sparks/e/B006HUNF7W/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

  Cat Sparks is a multi-award-winning Australian author, editor and artist whose former employment has included: media monitor, political and archaeological photographer, graphic designer, Fiction Editor of Cosmos Magazine and Manager of Agog! Press. A 2012 Australia Council grant sent her to Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop. She’s currently finishing a PhD in climate change fiction. Her short story collection The Bride Price was published in 2013. Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Talos Press, an imprint of Skyhorse, in March 2017.

• Australian Women Writers - http://australianwomenwriters.com/2017/04/interview-with-cat-sparks/

  Interview with Cat Sparks
  by Rivqa Rafael | Apr 14, 2017 | Author Quiz, Guest author, Interview, Speculative, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Science Fiction | 1 comment
  Today we feature award-winning speculative fiction writer Cat Sparks, whose debut novel, Lotus Blue, was released in March. In conversation with Cat is author and editor Rivqa Rafael.
  sparks-lotus-blueYour debut novel, Lotus Blue, is ambitious in its scope – several point-of-view characters, some of whom aren’t all (or at all) human, and a very far-future dystopia. It’s clear you didn’t take an easy road with this one. What drove you to write a book like this, and will you do it again?
  A simple answer: I didn’t know what I was doing when I started – or for a good deal of the process. I did not comprehend the vast expanse between the viable mechanisms of long fiction as opposed to short. Years of writing short stories had locked me into a particular set of rhythms and habits. I failed and failed and failed again, binning at least 300,000 words in the process. Sheer blind stubborn force of will kept me getting back up and trying again. In 2011 I managed to score myself a New York literary agent. I reasoned that failing on my own was one thing, but failing to deliver a viable narrative with a kind, patient and encouraging agent standing by to sell the finished product would be something entirely more shameful. Meanwhile, I acquired a secret weapon – a brutally honest first reader, a talented writer himself who had known me long enough and well enough to have the guts to not pull any punches. My early drafts were truly abysmal. A lesser friend would have lied to my face – lucky for me, this one didn’t. The big light bulb moment came while reading a Jo Nesbo thriller. I attempted to mimic the structure of one of his books, recognising that the environment was a character in itself and needed room to breathe and be showcased. I figured the best way to achieve this was through multiple POVs.
  When your excellent short story collection, The Bride Price, was published by Ticonderoga Publications in 2013, I remember you telling me that it was satisfying to finally be able to show a real, live book to your hairdresser. How does it feel waving a rather heftier novel around?
  I finally feel like a genuine author. I know that sounds insufferably lame, but my experience has been that the world at large (so much as it acknowledges science fiction authors at all) only respects you in regards to your claimed profession if you have a professionally published novel on the shelf. Now that I’ve achieved this feat, I’m hoping I’ll get over the need for hefty waving.
  One effect of your apocalypse being so far in the story’s past is that people have lost the connection that we have with technology, and most of your characters seem to barely understand it. This peculiar state leads to an almost steampunk vibe; was that intentional, or a natural consequence of this world’s history?
  Not intentional at all – my ambitions were solidly rooted in the decades old traditions of post apocalypse literature. I’m happy if the book somehow managed to spill beyond its envisioned parameters, but steampunk attributes never entered my consciousness.
  Lotus Blue hints at a climate change-related apocalypse in its distant past, as do many of your short stories. Climate change is obviously a huge threat looming over us all, but what’s motivated you personally to write about it so extensively, and for so long?
  Because I am scared witless, both of it and of our inability to get our collective acts together and fight such a grave existential risk. Because, as Margaret Atwood has pointed out, it’s not climate change, it’s everything change. I’ve been reading post apocalypse novels since I was a kid and I totally believe we are capable of trashing our own future to such catastrophic extents. Of course, there is always the distinct possibility that we will demolish ourselves via rampant, unleashed synthetic biology, cyber hacking or rogue AI before we reach catastrophic climate alteration, so there’s that.
  In addition to your climate-change fiction, you’re currently undertaking a PhD on the topic, specifically “The 21st Century Catastrophe – Hyper-capitalism and Severe Climate Change in Science Fiction”. How has this endeavour changed your reading and writing of the genre?
  I have become a research junkie. I read more deeply than I would ever have thought possible and I take notes. Lots and lots of hand scrawled, undecipherable notes. The PhD changed everything, ramped up my absorption and comprehension levels to 11. It has made me smarter, but a total bore at parties.
  Like me, you’re an editor as well as a writer. From this position of sitting on the fence, what’s your best advice for a new writer hoping to attract positive attention from fiction editors?
  Write sharp and sassy – style is not an optional extra. Have something to say. Familiarise yourself what others have written before you and alongside you. Consider your prose as value adding to the genre rather than just about expressing yourself. It’s a frantic, digitally vertiginous landscape out there. Make your input worthy.
  You’re one of the most extraverted writers I know, and being a people person certainly goes against the stereotype of the writer as an awkward hermit. I imagine the solitary endeavour of writing might be difficult for someone who prefers the company of others – is that the case for you? And does extraversion offer any advantages for your writing?
  My big problem is that I can’t say no, whether to dinner invitations, anthology invitations, offers to direct festivals, speak on radio, on panels, teach school students, write cli fi essays…whatever. I go “hey, yeah, that sounds great!” and meanwhile my fiction word count lags steadily behind. If I want to have another novel on the shelf within a reasonable timeframe, I am going to have to start saying no. The writing itself isn’t the problem, it’s the perpetual distraction.
  Just a few months ago, you moved from Wollongong to Canberra. What has this meant for you in terms of community, and writing space?
  Our new house is cool beyond belief. Three levels made of Jarrah wood perched upon a hill, it has the ambience of an old wooden clipper so we call it the pirate ship. We moved interstate to be closer to friends. Wollongong was lovely, but isolated. We wanted more face-to-face contact with the spec fic writing community, amongst few other things.
  Where do you keep all your awards, anyway?
  Since the move, they’re stuffed into a cardboard box at the bottom of the wardrobe in the guest room. I had them displayed on the top of a set of drawers in Wollongong, but I reckon they’ll be staying in that box indefinitely. Which doesn’t mean I don’t care for them, it just means it’s time.
  ~
  Synopsis of Lotus Blue
  Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age.
  But when the caravan witnesses a relic-Angel satellite unexpectedly crash to Earth, a chain of events begins that sends Star on a journey far away from the life she once knew. Shanghaied upon the sandship Dogwatch, she is forced to cross the Obsidian Sea by Quarrel, an ancient Templar supersoldier. Eventually shipwrecked, Star will have no choice but to place her trust in both thieves and priestesses while coming to terms with the grim reality of her past—and the horror of her unfolding destiny—as the terrible secret her sister had been desperate to protect her from begins to unravel.
  Meanwhile, something old and powerful has woken in the desert. A Lotus Blue, deadliest of all the ancient war machines. A warrior with plans of its own, far more significant than a fallen Angel. Plans that do not include the survival of humanity.
  ~
  Cat portraitAbout Cat: Cat was born in Sydney and has traveled through Europe, the Middle East, Indonesia, the South Pacific, Mexico, North America and China. Her adventures so far have included winning a trip to Paris in a Bulletin Magazine photography competition; being appointed official photographer for two NSW Premiers and working as dig photographer on three archaeological expeditions to Jordan. A graduate of the inaugural Clarion South Writers’ Workshop, she was a Writers of the Future prize winner in 2004. She has edited five anthologies of speculative fiction and sixty-five of her short stories have been published since the turn of the millennium.
  Cat has received a total of nineteen Aurealis and Ditmar awards for writing, editing and art including the Peter McNamara Conveners Award 2004, for services to Australia’s speculative fiction industry. She was the convenor of the Aurealis Awards horror division in 2006, a judge in the anthologies and collected work category in 2009 and the short SF division in 2013. She can be found via her website and on Twitter.

• My Life My Books My Escape - https://mylifemybooksmyescape.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/author-interview-cat-sparks/

  AUTHOR INTERVIEW: CAT SPARKS

  Today I am interviewing Cat Sparks, author of the new science-fiction novel, Lotus Blue.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  DJ: Hey Cat! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!

  For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

  Cat Sparks: Sure thing, DJ, I’ve been a rabid science fiction fan since I was a kid, growing up on a steady diet of Doctor Who, Thunderbirds, Star Wars and everything else in between – and I do mean everything… I wrote so much sci fi when I was a teen that an English teacher actually banned me from writing it in her class. You can see for yourself how well that plan turned out…

  I have a BA in Visual Arts and have had some interesting (and not so interesting) jobs across the years: media monitor, political and archaeological photographer, graphic designer, Fiction Editor of Australia’s Cosmos Magazine and Manager of Agog! Press. In 2012 I was privileged to score and Australia Council grant, which sent me to Key West, Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s brilliant The Time Machine Doorway workshop.

  I am currently finishing up a PhD examining science fiction and climate fiction and its potential responsibility to the future. My first short story was published in 2000. Lotus Blue took 10 years to complete, a process in which over 300,000 words ended up in the bin. I’m not sure if that checks the box for stubbornness or crackpot perseverance.

  DJ: What Lotus Blue about?

  Cat: Lotus Blue is the story of Star, a girl who can’t remember her past. The tough life she shares with her elder sister as part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic Sand Road traders changes forever when the Van witnesses a relic-Angel satellite plummeting to Earth, kick starting a chain of events that send Star on a perilous journey that makes Van life seem comfortable by comparison.

  Slowly she’s forced to come to terms with the horror of her unfolding destiny—as the terrible secret her sister had been desperate to protect her from begins to unravel.

  Meanwhile, something old and powerful has woken in the desert. A Lotus Blue, deadliest of all the ancient war machines. A warrior with plans of its own, far more significant than a fallen Angel. Plans that do not include the survival of humanity.

  DJ: What were some of your influences for Lotus Blue?

  Cat: I was very much inspired by Frank Herbert’s classic Dune, which I read when I was a teen. There is something epically attractive about deserts and the tough types who inhabit them. Also, Australian author Terry Dowling’s Tom Rynosseros stories which, I believe, will be back in print via PS Publishing before the end of the year.

  I’ve always been attracted to post-apocalyptic landscapes and narratives, the brutal romance of surviving the end of the world. I should also mention a few well respected non-desert end-of-the-world stories: John Christopher’s Tripods series, George R Stewart’s Earth Abides, John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids & The Chrysalids, Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow, Neville Shute’s On The Beach, Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower & The Parable of the Talents, David Brin’s The Postman…

  DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?

  Cat: Protagonist Star, only seventeen, with no memories from the first years of her life, placing all her trust in her decade-older sister Nene, but reaching the point where she plans to break out and follow her own path. Instead, the responsibility for the survival of humanity itself gets thrust upon her.

  Nene, fighting the good fight, day in, day out, trying to heal broken bones and broken people, fighting to make things better in a fast disintegrating world.

  Tully Grieve: street kid, grifter, thief and habitual liar, always looking out for number one, always, always, except for maybe this time…

  I have a particular fondness for Quarrel, the battered Templar supersoldier. He used to be a contender, back before the world got broken beyond repair, and now he’s been dragged out of mothballs and forced back out onto the sand on a deadly assignment. Fragmented memories tumble relentlessly through his damaged, addiction-ravaged brain, but he’s still in there somewhere, fighting to get free.

  DJ: What is the world and setting of Lotus Blue like?

  Cat: I don’t actually state it anywhere in the novel, but Lotus Blue is set in a far future Australia. Australians will pick up odd references here and there — it’s a landscape that was ruined by severe climate change, bad choices made by weak governments, in particular the decision to sell off vast tracts of uninhabitable interior land to foreign governments and corporations, allowing them to do whatever they wanted with it. Weapons testing, experimental prototypes, dangerous synthetic biology, dumping of toxic waste. After civilisation disintegrated and the rich bunkered underground, semi-sentient weaponry was left up top tearing up the dust and contaminated sand. Rogue Tankers are hunted for their nano-oil and “heart-and-brains” in the fashion of 17th century whaling… except on land, not sea.

  There are no countries any more in the future world of Lotus Blue, just towns and tribes and affiliations. Technology might have fallen by the wayside, but commerce thrives, particularly the relic scavenging business, where old tech is salvaged under dangerous conditions and sold to the Fortress cities, underground enclaves with the knowledge of how to make partial use of it.

  The desert, known as the Dead Red Heart, is literally crawling with monsters leftover from various ancient wars. It’s across that Desert that Star must go to fight for the future by confronting the demons of her past.

  DJ: What was your favorite part about writing Lotus Blue?

  Cat: Developing the centuries-old super soldier characters Quarrel and Marianthe. They’re both so complex by default, having lived through the fall of civilisation — seen the worst and survived, albeit plagued by fragmented and often horrific memories, damaged well beyond repair. Quarrel ended up an object of religious reverence in an underground bunker temple, whereas Marianthe struck out aboveground to form a quasi-religion of her own in the ruins of a radio telescope dish. She’s spent decades honoring the fallen, taking in bedraggled refugees, teaching them how to farm and forage, even though she thinks the world is dead and there’s barely any point to living anymore.

  And then there’s the General – the Lotus Blue, an AI who believes himself to be an uploaded human consciousness, who wants access to a long dead world he knows only through false memories, a war machine with the power to blast everything to dust if things don’t work out the way he wants.

  DJ: What do you think readers will be talking about most once they finish it?

  Cat: With any luck they’ll be asking me for a sequel!

  DJ: What was your goal when you began writing Lotus Blue? Is there a particular message or meaning you are hoping to get across when readers finish it? Or is there perhaps a certain theme to the story?

  Cat: My goal was to produce a worthy addition to the genre I love with all my heart. The themes at the heart of this story are that diversity is not a curse, it can be weaponised,; that good people are worth fighting for, no matter how bleak things seem. That what we think of as our ‘humanity’ comes not from our biology – our meat and bones, but from spirit. Like most post-apocalypse narratives, Lotus Blue can definitely be read as a cautionary tale, warning us to take better care of our planet before its too late.

  DJ: Now that Lotus Blue is released, what is next for you?

  Cat: I’m running very behind on my PhD, mostly because of this novel and how it managed to spill across more months than anticipated. Everything always takes me longer than I think it will. But the PhD must be finished this year so I can get on with writing another novel. I have an idea for a sci fi thriller set in the present day, but I’d also be keen to write a sequel to Lotus Blue if the book sells well enough.

  DJ: Where can readers find out more about you?

  Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006HUNF7W

  Blog: catsparks.net

  Goodreads: Cat Sparks

  Twitter: @catsparx

  Website: catsparks.net

  DJ: Before we go, what is that one thing you’d like readers to know about Lotus Blue that we haven’t talked about yet?

  Cat: That it was a labor of love and writing it nearly killed me!

  DJ: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to answer my questions!

  Cat: Thanks very much for inviting me, DJ!

  Cheers, Cat

Sparks, Cat: LOTUS BLUE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sparks, Cat LOTUS BLUE Talos Press (Children's Fiction) $15.99 3, 7 ISBN: 978-1-940456-70-6
A post-apocalyptic vision from Australia.Seventeen-year-old dreadlocked Star and her older sister, Nene, a medic and
the closest thing she's got to a parent, are part of a nomadic group of travelers and traders enduring hard lives and
journeys across the Sand Road, traversing a desert overrun with vestiges of rogue semi-sentient machinery and other
monsters from a time and war long past. When their 13-wagon caravan witnesses a relic Angel satellite crash to Earth,
a chain of events is set into motion that launches Star on a voyage far away from the familiar life she yearns to leave--
but close to discovering a secret her sister has desperately tried to protect her from. As all of this takes place, an old
and powerful entity has awoken in the desert: a Lotus Blue, the deadliest of all war machines of the past and a soldier
with its own agenda. Star's journey crosses paths with various soldiers and survivors in this complex tale, and
knowing whom to trust, including herself, may be the key to her survival. Sparks' debut is ambitious and, at times,
convoluted. The worldbuilding is so detailed that language borders on repetitive and tedious, and the narrative sets up
a daunting array of characters, but patient readers will find it ultimately rewarding. The epitome of a slow burn, with a
drawn-out plot and leisurely pace, this jigsaw puzzle requires full attention to piece together. (Science fiction. 14 &
up)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sparks, Cat: LOTUS BLUE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479234585&it=r&asid=123105e3ce5ce3b7ea54cbc5f8b2c5f4.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479234585
10/15/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508099031767 2/2
Lotus Blue
Publishers Weekly.
264.5 (Jan. 30, 2017): p184.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Lotus Blue Cat Sparks. Talos, $15.99 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-1-940456-70-6
Australian author Sparks's debut novel, set in a strange postapocalyptic world, is all middle with no beginning or end.
Star is a child of the Sand Road who dreams of wealth and adventure in the port town of Fallow Heel. Quarrel is an
ancient warrior who knows his current mission will be his last. Both are forced onto the Black Sea, not to seek their
fortunes but to continue a war that most of the world thinks is over. Sparks demonstrates technical skill with prose, but
the start of the book is a confusing jumble, fragmented by the introduction of several characters' points of view
scattered over a variety of settings. The mood is relentlessly bleak. The protagonists lack agency, which leads to a
feeling of prologue rather than resolution. A satisfying conclusion is impossible; the book ends with the feeling that a
stage has been set, but the story is yet to come. That promise is the only hope Sparks offers in this relentlessly grim
narrative. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lotus Blue." Publishers Weekly, 30 Jan. 2017, p. 184. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480195193&it=r&asid=fa03a77b5449d58a629af11769c9f9e5.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A480195193

• Locus
  http://www.locusmag.com/Reviews/2017/03/gary-k-wolfe-reviews-cat-sparks/
  Word count: 732

  Gary K. Wolfe reviews Cat Sparks

  — posted Thursday 23 March 2017 @ 3:58 pm PDT
  Lotus Blue, Cat Sparks (Talos 978-1-940456-70-6, $15.99, 380pp, tp) March 2017

  The post-apocalyptic desert wasteland was a staple of SF long before the Mad Max films – think of Zelazny, Ellison, Walter M. Miller, Jr. – but I suppose anyone invoking such a setting these days is fated for the ‘‘Mad Max meets so-and-so’’ treatment, just as anyone invok­ing a rainy, overcrowded dystopolis is likely to get Bladerunnerized. This is probably even more the case for an Australian writer such as Cat Sparks, although her fine first novel Lotus Blue, set in a far future Australian wasteland, is as evocative of Terry Dowling’s Rynosseros stories, with their neat sandships, or even of David R. Bunch’s surreal Moderan stories, as it is of George Miller’s monster truck rallies. The setting, in fact, is violent and inventive enough that it almost serves as an additional character, and it would make a terrific template for a video game of some sort, with its weaponized super­storms, vast tracts of obsidian from melted and fused cities, and long-buried giant war machines stirring awake. While there are suggestions of a climate change theme – ‘‘Once this was all green pasture and rolling hills, filled with animals and plants and other things that were not trying to kill you’’ – the main source of devastation is a series of ancient wars lasting for centuries (we’re only given one brief clue as to dates, and it places the narrative sometime after the 24th century).

  The story begins with the main character Star and her sister Nene making their way across the bleached landscape called the Sand Road as part of a caravan of solar-powered wagons. Things begin to seem odd when they witness a ‘‘fallen Angel’’ – apparently an ancient satellite being brought down from orbit – and not long after­ward another anomaly, an enormous sandstorm, destroys the caravan, leaving Star largely on her own to make her way to a remote city called Fallow Heel, where Nene tells Star a long-held secret that will eventually lead Star to question not only her identity, but even her humanity. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to a colorful cast of other point-of-view characters, including an old woman named Marianthe who maintains a kind of refuge at the Temple of the Dish (an apparent reference to the Parkes Observatory, though there are likely several other references to actual Australian landmarks that outsiders like me aren’t getting); the cyborg supersoldier or ‘‘Templar’’ Quarrel, who believes himself to be the last of his kind; the street-kid grifter Tully; the well-to-do antiquities merchant Mo­handas and his spoiled daughter Allegra; and, perhaps most fearsomely, the newly awakened General, its once-human mind uploaded into an enormous war machine, one of only a handful of color-coded ‘‘Lotus Generals’’ created prior to the 24th-century Lotus Wars and thought to have disappeared long ago. His old designation was Lotus Blue, and he means trouble for just about everyone else in the book.

  While there may be much that seems familiar in this scenario, with echoes not only of the Mad Max films but of Robocops, Terminators, and doomsday machines, there’s also a good deal that’s original – I especially enjoyed those bilious, churning green storm clouds that chase everyone with their own terrifying version of acid rain. While this exuberance of invention is what initially draws us in to Sparks’s world, her narrative energy builds admirably as we learn more about the characters’ true identities and secrets (pretty much everyone has at least one) and of past connections between many of them. Eventually, the various viewpoints overlap and converge, with (needless to say) the very survival of these hardscrabble communities at stake in a climactic confrontation. At the same time, there are tantalizing hints of other parts of this world, such as the fortified underground city of Axa or the ‘‘Risen Sea,’’ which suggest Sparks may not be quite done with this set­ting. In the end, though, the fierce landscapes can only take us so far, and it’s the engagingly flawed characters like the teenage Star or the aging Marianthe and Quarrel – both refreshing reminders that adventure tales can also feature older characters with actual memories – that will keep us coming back.

• Starburst
  http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/book-reviews-latest-literary-releases/17092-lotusblue
  Word count: 429

  LOTUS BLUE
  PrintE-mail WRITTEN BY IAN WHITE
  Lotus Blue is sci-fi author Cat Sparks’ debut novel, and for a first journey it’s a hell of a ride. Because it’s the kind of book you should know as little as possible about before you begin reading, here’s a brief synopsis: in a post-apocalyptic future, something tremendously ancient and powerful awakens in the desert. It’s called Lotus Blue and, despite its rather cosy nomenclature, it is far from friendly. In fact, it is the deadliest of all ancient war machines, and it will stop at nothing to carry out its mission.

  But Star and her sister Nene have problems of their own. They are nomadic orphans travelling in a thirteen-wagon desert caravan, and they have just entered a forbidden territory known as the Dead Red Heart, a ruined landscape preyed upon by long-forgotten monsters and rogue technology. The sisters are used to living with danger, but when an archaic satellite smashes to Earth the stakes are raised nightmarishly high. Star is forced to begin a journey that will take her dramatically away from the life she knows, and a secret that her sister has spent her whole life trying to protect Star from will begin to surface.

  And just when things couldn’t get worse, Lotus Blue is waiting.

  Where YA fiction is concerned, post-apocalyptic universes and teenage heroines are a dime a dozen, but it’s the environment that makes this novel so fresh and engaging. From the opening paragraphs you can feel the desert heat and the sand whipping your face, and smell the bodies that are packed into the wagon where Star is sitting. Perhaps inevitably it also conjures up images of Star Wars’ Tatooine - this is definitely a place where George Lucas’s Tusken Raiders would feel at home - and maybe because of Cat Sparks’ Australian heritage, there’s also a sense that this is a place where Mad Max could be living somewhere among the rocky outcrops, watching the caravan wind its tortuous way along the harsh Sand Road. But Lotus Blue is more than a pastiche of cinematic imaginings, it’s an intensely written story that has a unique flavour all its own. And, like all very good YA fiction, its audience is universal.

  If post-apocalyptic Cli-Fi is your thing, and you’re looking for a story that is as intelligent and thought-provoking as it is exciting, you’ll find a lot to admire in Lotus Blue.

• Newtown Review of Books
  http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/2017/03/07/cat-sparks-lotus-blue-reviewed-keith-stevenson/
  Word count: 1095

  Posted on 7 Mar, 2017 in SFF | 0 comments
  CAT SPARKS Lotus Blue. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
  Tags: Andrew Macrae/ Cat Sparks/ Frank Herbert/ JG Ballard/ Terry Dowling
  World building is the real star of Lotus Blue, the debut science fiction novel for Australian author Cat Sparks.
  Very quickly in this novel Sparks creates a vision of a future Australia – an already ancient land – that’s further weighed down by centuries of environmental disaster, turmoil and wars so that the ‘present’ of the novel feels old and tired indeed.
  Caravans wend their way across the land between scattered outposts as the red desert encroaches more and more on what semi-fertile land is left; towns ruled by bandits or merchants squat in the heat, their dirt walls studded with old and broken tech; deep beneath the ground others rich enough to be able to turn their back on the wars live in hermetically sealed arcologies reliant on failing machinery to keep them alive. Out in the desert battle machines called Tankers, running on corrupted programs, patrol the slagged remnants of the past, hunted by modern-day whalers crossing the wastes on jerry-rigged sandships. And then there are the cyborg Templars, genetically and mechanically enhanced human troops, the last of whom have all but lost touch with their humanity. It’s a monumental feat of imagination and the details build through the early chapters until you can see the ruin around you and understand the misery that created it.
  Memory intruded as she stood there in the sun, eyes closed, soft winds teasing the hem of her skirts, sand skinks dodging around her shadow. Visions of great reliquaries of old tapping the deep, hot rocks beneath the ground. Blasting fissures in the brittle crust, sucking up their heat and oil and ore.
  Clandestine bases swarming with quicksilver drones, zipping overhead to missions in far-off territories. Emblazoned with the insignia of nameless foreign corporations. Swarms of human misery moving from county to county, stripping and consuming greenery like locusts.
  Big reds bred mean to patrol the razor wire perimeters. Replaced in time with barriers of lantana raze, a particularly virulent form of weaponised weed, coded feral when the government defaulted on suppliers. Genes programmed with a killer switch, once initiated, fated to grow forever, consuming everything in its path. The land became exhausted, eventually stopped giving and started taking back. So the white-coats panicked, manufacturing strange new plants and animals tailored specifically to suit the harsh terrain. New soldiers too. Stronger, tougher. Better. TEMPLARS, they called them—she couldn’t remember why, even though she knows she is one of them herself.
  The story of Lotus Blue is far more straightforward. Star is bored with life as an itinerant traveller on one of the many perpetual caravans and pushes against the constraints imposed by her elder sister Nene, who holds the important position of medic. Star dreams of running away to the settlement of Fallow Heel and reacquainting herself with Arabella, a rich merchant’s daughter she’d met last time their caravan passed through. But ancient forces are awakening beneath the desert and when a storm destroys the caravan, and those left alive have to walk to safety, she learns a secret about herself that changes her life forever. In Fallow Heel, she falls foul of a Templar called Quarrel and is forced into taking a sandship journey where she will confront what she is becoming and face the terrible truth of Lotus Blue.
  She had never set foot upon a ship before this day, either sand- or the ocean-going type, although she had once stood upon the cliffs of Usha and watched three ocean vessels bound for foreign lands.
  Glorious and mighty, their sails had puffed out like chests, moving headstrong into the breeze, as if with a will and purpose of their own.
  There was nothing glorious about this ship. The deck was made of ancient timbers meshed and mashed with other salvage. Old world metals, wire, and plastics. Broken doorways, window frames, and doors. Unsettlingly uneven. Construction that creaked and squealed with every slamming gust of wind. The railing rattled wildly beneath her grip, threatening to snap and send her hurtling over the side at any moment.
  No part of the ship matched any other. The same could be said for the crew. The sailors were not uniformly large, nor uniformly male, as she had initially supposed. At first they had seemed alike as brothers, exposed flesh patterned with inkings that told her these men and women had crewed a lot of ships. They had hunted tankers and survived the experience.
  Lotus Blue has a number of point-of-view characters through which the story unfolds. Star, of course, and Arabella, the proud daughter of Mohandas, Fallow Heel’s pre-eminent merchant; Quarrel and Marianthe, both Templars, and petty thief Tully Grieve. All of them help to build up a strong picture of the world and there’s a nice manipulation of their timelines, which may not all be synchronised with the main story arc. Some of these characters appear very infrequently, which made me question why the reader was asked to invest in them. But that’s a minor quibble.
  Jack Dann has often said that novels and stories are conversations between authors working in the same genre. We read the work and it has an effect on what we in turn produce. Certainly there’s a strong sense of that in Lotus Blue, and in her afterword Sparks acknowledges the influence of Frank Herbert’s Dune, Terry Dowling’s Tom Rynosseros stories – influenced in part by JG Ballard’s Vermillion Sands collection, and featuring a more romantic view of sandships – and the ruined machine-punk world of Andrew Macrae’s Trucksong, reviewed in NRB a couple of years ago. It’s a gracious statement but Lotus Blue also stands on its own as an impressive piece of imaginative writing, and one you’ll enjoy from start to finish.
  Cat Sparks Lotus Blue Talos 2017 PB 388pp $22.99
  Keith Stevenson’s science fiction thriller Horizon is now only $2.99. See www.keithstevenson.com for purchase links. You can subscribe to his free newsletter Beyond for lovers of science and science fiction at http://eepurl.com/btvru1
  You can buy Lotus Blue from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or you can buy it from Booktopia here.
  To see if it is available from Newtown Library, click here.