Q&A With Amanda Dier
Emergency dispatcher and writer Amanda Dier makes her Analog debut in our [May/June issue, on sale now!] with the story “Perturbations.” In this enlightening interview,
vigna
Emergency dispatcher and writer Amanda Dier makes her Analog debut in our [May/June issue, on sale now!] with the story “Perturbations.” In this enlightening interview, Dier discusses the origins of her latest story, as well as some of her research interests in obscure medical history and paranormal festivals around the US, and why roadkill and insects could make for viable food sources in the future.
Analog Editor: What is the story behind this piece?
Amanda Dier: I had been doing a lot of research into planetary and asteroid mining for a different project, and without the development of artificial gravity, eventually, you’re going to have people living a life-sentence in space due to bone loss and other microadjustments the body might make to long-term zero-gravity. I wanted to see what that might be like and how people who live full-time in space might help populate zero-gravity jobs. Transporting gasses and other materials from the outer solar system towards Earth for processing is a very interesting concept, but it requires a lot of planning and math, and you have to make sure you get everything just right or things can go very wrong very slowly. I love the mobility of ships in other sci-fi universes that can go where they want when they want, but the reality is that humans are going to be attached to planetary orbits for a long time. That includes how fast things can move, and just like we’re still watching satellites and interplanetary exploration missions take a long time to go from planet to planet, it’s still going to take a while to go from the outer solar system to Earth.
AE: How did this story germinate? Was there a spark of inspiration, or did it come to you slowly?
AD: Kind of all at once. I knew I wanted to write something with a malfunctioning automated system, and I knew I wanted to address certain themes I’ve seen pop up in retro sci-fi: duty, sacrifice, and loneliness. There’s an idea that’s been around for decades now, that blue-collar jobs are going to be replaced by automated systems, and while some things can be automated, when there isn’t a human oversight or some kind of emergency shutoff switch, things can go terribly wrong. Even where this story is set in the future, there’s still going to be a need for a human to oversee things and come up with occasionally unorthodox solutions.
AE: Do you particularly relate to any of the characters in this story?
AD: Felix, honestly. Working solo is a pretty great gig, and if I started to see my workplace as my home, I wouldn’t want to leave it or share it with anyone else, either. I’m not saying I’d sabotage my workspace to make that happen, but when you’re not dealing with annoying coworkers or people you don’t get along with, it can make a stressful day better.
AE: What other projects are you currently working on?
AD: I’m working on a travel guide for folk and monster festivals across the United States so that’s been really fun to explore. I’ve found a ton of new places I want to explore, met a ton of cool people who absolutely love their cities, and discovered a lot of folktales and UFO stories that have my brain fired up for other projects.
I’m also partway through a paranormal police agency novel that keeps getting sidetracked by other projects, but I’m determined to get that out sometime next year. After her small-town police departments get swallowed up by the county Sheriff’s office, Kita starts to realize that the old way of just trusting locals to avoid the known haunted spots was a stopgap at best. When a vanishing car starts running down seemingly unconnected people on the streets of her small agricultural community, she’s going to have to use local trust and her burgeoning skills to figure out who or what is driving the car before more people die.
AE: What is the weirdest research rabbit-hole that working on a story has led you down?
AD: I am a pro at playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with research jump-off points, so while I might start researching something like the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, within a few clicks I could be learning about Uner Tan Syndrome. Working on that book about weird festivals around the US led me down a fascinating rabbit hole about alternative food sources and how America has kind of latched onto this idea that fresh roadkill and insects are absolutely a no-no for cuisine.
There’s so much food waste from animals that meet their end by way of a car bumper, and we’re even worse when it comes to bugs as a food source. There’s a window of edibility that’s a lot larger in colder regions of the world (I live in Florida. The only way I’d grab something is if I saw it get hit right in front of me), and there are more than twenty states that allow roadkill salvage, though the rules vary and you probably need a permit. Alaska even has a program that allows moose and caribou to be offered to one of several listed charity groups, who then distribute the meat to local families.
Both roadkill and bugs are unfortunately sustainable sources of protein, and while I don’t like eating either, I’ve tried both and I’m hoping they become more common in the future. On the sci-fi side of things, I honestly do believe that when humanity does eventually take to the stars, crickets and other farmable insects are going to be where we get most of our protein. This is partially due to space and weight constraints as well as outperforming more conventional animals in sheer efficiency. Roadkill might be our immediate future, but insects could be the long-term solution.
AE: If you could choose one SFnal universe to live in, what universe would it be, and why?
AD: I really, really love Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series. There’s such a rich tapestry there of different alien species with a ton of different cultural interactions both with humans and each other, and they aren’t always overwhelmingly positive. Humans do have opportunities to travel and explore, whether it’s back to a reclaimed Earth or to smaller mixed-species colony sites on strange worlds. While there are humans who aren’t living such a great life or on worlds that aren’t working for them, there are options for easy immigration. It’s such a hopepunk universe and I think I could live and die happy there, as long as my time came to a close in the hands of the caretakers.
AE: What SFnal prediction would you like to see come true?
AD: Going back to Becky Chambers, this time to the Exodian Fleet. Seeing how far humanity has come in a million different ways is a really enjoyable experience. I adore the gender-neutral honorifics, the positive attitude towards sex workers, how the family homes and the hexes and the neighborhoods and the hubs, and how there’s a fantastically even distribution to how people receive goods and services and can bargain for anything extra. I also love her depiction of recycling, which is done at stations. Nothing goes to waste, food is served wrapped in throw-cloths that can be cleaned and reused, and the whole of it paints an incredible future for humanity that I can only hope for.
AE: What careers have you had and how do they affect your writing?
AD: Currently, I work as a 911 calltaker and have been doing so for the last decade. It’s really given me an appreciation for communication and crisis management, and I think that comes through in a lot of my writing. I’m always finding myself exploring how people respond to unexpected situations, how they work together to solve them, and maybe a little too much interest in what could go badly wrong. It’s also given me new perspectives on mental health struggles and the liminal space between different cultures living shoulder to shoulder.
Aside from that, I spent a little time after college working as an archaeologist, so that gave me some options to explore cultures very different from what I grew up seeing.
AE: How can our readers follow you and your writing? (IE: Social media handles, website URL…)
AD: https://twitter.com/DearDeerDier
https://deardeerdier.bsky.social/
