Welcome Stacy Overby!
Tattoos is a military style space opera and is the first book in the series. The back blurb can answer the rest.
One hushed cry in the middle of the night, and
Eli Thorson's life unravels. A highly trained Black Ops specialist, he's used
to danger, but Eli's path forces him to confront the illusions he's been taught
his whole life-ones that make him question all the good he thought he was
doing. Unable to work for a command that defiles the oaths he swore, he works
to untangle the web of lies and deceit he finds woven throughout his worlds.
The tattooed marks of his profession run more than skin deep. As a specialist,
it is his job to protect the peoples, laws, and all the United Earth Government
stands for, even if it means taking down the entire Black Ops Division to do
it.
I had to create/recycle languages for this
series. With the space opera style, it didn’t make sense to have everyone
speaking the same language. There is Universal, which is a common language, but
there are multiple other languages out there. I’ve used bits of Greek for some
of it and old Norse for other pieces, including some rather interesting insult
exchanges.
My characters see quite a few climates. They
haven’t played a huge role in the series so far, but they are there. Deserts,
rainforests, and more all have had their parts. As for changes, each world is
unique and has seen changes over time. One world became a desert, while another
has trees that dwarf the Redwood Forests in California.
Faith systems haven’t really come up yet in
the series, though they do exist. In Tattoos, Eli’s background is a blend of
Vikings and Greek cultures. Without giving spoilers away, there are some nomadic
cultures I’ve borrowed bits from to create a culture that fits living in more
of an arid/desert like area.
This depends on the people you’re referring
to. The main characters in Tattoos are descendants of people here on Earth, so
many of their fun activities are similar to the kinds of things we do now. The
one major thing that’s different is that they sometimes take off flying into
space for a while just for fun. It’s the equivalent of going for a drive now.
For other species and inhabitants of the Black
Ops universe, they have some other interesting past-times I haven’t fully
explored yet.
There are different races in Tattoos along
with humans who have unique abilities. The races aren’t too prominent in
Tattoos but develop more as the series goes. Tattoos focuses on characters,
both human and not exactly human, who have empathic abilities.
Your Process
When you build a world, what is your process like? Do you do a lot of research upfront, wing it completely, or something in between?
I am a total pantser. The very first draft of
Tattoos was written during NaNoWriMo 2011. I didn’t research much of anything
at that point. Research has come into play quite a bit since then as I’ve
revised and rewritten things. The next two books in the series and the couple
short stories set in this world have been more of a mix of research and winging
it. I find if I research too much, I end up getting stuck and the story suffers
for it.
I would say it’s a little of both for Tattoos.
Mostly, the setting is backdrop. However, there are some key events that happen
where setting mattered quite a bit. Honestly, setting tends to be one of my
weaknesses in that I see it in my head but don’t always do well translating
that onto paper. Hence my eternal gratitude to my editors who prod me into
getting those details out so they can help influence and spur events in the
story.
I do a little bit of both. Again, some of that
is because in early drafts I tend to be a little too sparse on those details.
But, by the time Tattoos hits print, the details are much more solid. I try to
interweave them into the action of the story when I can. It helps avoid long
drawn out explanations of setting that my ADHD does not play well with. And
because it’s easier to get those details in on subsequent revisions that way.
Hard scientific fact is a very minor part of
my world building. I do try to keep the world of Tattoos realistic with itself,
though. I think that leads to a blend of some fantastical and unexplainable
with some science. For example, science has not yet proven a way to have
interplanetary space travel like you often see in space opera, but is a staple
part. This is some of the fantastical. However, I also make sure that weapons
and technology are fallible, make sense within themselves, and are similar
enough to what we know in today’s world to be plausible scientifically.
I work in behavioral health as a program director.
I did direct contact counseling with teenagers for nine years before stepping
into my current role last year. As anyone who has ever worked with teenagers
knows, you need to pay attention to details and look to the world around them
to understand what’s going on. I think this skill has helped me learn to look
at world building from an interesting perspective.
Most of it lives in my head. Which makes it
challenging when I have to try to figure out the details of something I can’t
quite remember. I am working now on adding these things to a three ring binder
since I have two more books and several short stories that come after Tattoos.
Consistency in the series is critical to me.
I think some of the most challenging things in
world building for Tattoos were that some of the things I needed to have happen
just plain don’t exist to research and I didn’t want to do the exact same
things other authors and worlds have done. So I had to create a space opera
universe of multiple planets and systems but find ways to make it just a little
different from other space operas.
Where can people find you on the web?
Thanks for stopping by and always know where
your towel is. Mine? It’s here at my booth. Come by to check it out - https://owscycon.ourwriteside.com/forums/topic/stacy-overby-author-booth-3/
Or you can find me in any one of these places:
For more stops on our World-building Showcase,
visit the tour page on the OWS CyCon website.
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