Eliane Boey: 'Worldbuilding isn’t just in the sensory environment, but also in the lesser habits and workings of your world'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
12th Sep 2023
Eliane Boey studied on our Edit & Pitch Your Novel and Writing a Psychological Thriller courses in 2021. Her debut, Other Minds (a duology of two novellas), was published by Dark Matter Ink earlier this month.
We spoke with Eliane about the inspiration behind her debut, her advice on worldbuilding for aspiring speculative fiction writers and her debut speculative novel, Club Contango.
You took our Edit & Pitch Your Novel and Writing a Psychological Thriller courses in 2021. How did your time studying with us impact your writing journey?
Writing a Psychological Thriller was my first writing course. Sarah Hillary brought real feedback and discussion to Erin Kelly’s lessons, and I left it with a clearer understanding of what makes a good hook and how to tighten my writing. I won my place in the Edit & Pitch Your Novel course, at the #CBCSummerStory challenge. The sessions on framing pitches certainly contributed towards landing my contract with my publisher, Dark Matter Ink!
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met during the course?
Fellow students are what made the courses so memorable. I’m lucky to count Helen MacDonald and Ruth Clarke-Irons, from the thriller course among the friends I made at CBC. Our forum threads branched from feedback on the assignments, to chatting on future projects, and what we were reading.
Your debut Other Minds was published by Dark Matter Ink in earlier this month. The collection contains two speculative fiction novellas set in the near future. Can you tell us a bit more about the book and the inspiration behind it?
Other Minds is a duology of two novellas, 'Signal\Tracer', and 'Carrier', set about 40 years apart in a near-future Southeast Asian-centric world.
'Signal\Tracer' is about two former best friends, Xi and Wei, who investigate election fraud in a nostalgic virtual mirror of their city, with IRL political stability at stake. But are they on the same side, if they don't share the same reality? It’s a cyberpunk mystery, mostly inspired by my love for the Infernal Affairs film trilogy (by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak).
'Carrier' is psychological horror, set in space. It’s about a disgraced engineer who builds the world's most advanced intelligent luxury residential orbiter to save her career, and her relationship with her daughter; until the ship begins to show a mind of its own during the test flight. I’ve always wanted to write something like 'Carrier' since watching Event Horizon (when I was way too little) and reading Michael Crichton’s Sphere. It’s also inspired by the film Ex Machina.
What do you enjoy most about writing in the novella form?
I love novellas, I think they’re my favourite form. Short stories train you to be merciless, and make every word count. Novellas bring that briskness, with the freedom to dive deeper with an idea, or to add a subplot. You can build plausible worlds with more definition than in a short story, without losing a reader in extra subplots or details they might skip past. Most readers finish a novella in a day, and there’s something to be said about holding their attention for the length of the story.
Worldbuilding is incredibly important when writing any kind of speculative fiction/sci-fi. Do you have any tips on worldbuilding for aspiring speculative fiction writers?
I’m still learning, myself! I’ve learnt that worldbuilding isn’t just in the sensory environment, but also in the lesser habits and workings of your world. As a reader, I have a geeky interest in economic structures, legal and trade rules of other worlds, and yes, food! When these smaller details come to bear real consequences later, it makes the world feel plausible, and almost a character in your story. It works to scatter detail and exposition throughout the story, and resist the urge to front-load the information, before the reader is committed. That’s one I keep having to remind myself of!
And read science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories, they have so much to teach about tight and effective worldbuilding.
Who is your favourite fictional protagonist?
This is the hardest question! In recent science fiction and fantasy, I’d pick Thera Garu. Thera is the daughter of Kuni Garu, in Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty series. Thera’s gentle nature, love of knowledge, and belief in justice is in constant opposition with her practical understanding of how wars are won and nations governed. She’s a self-doubting, questioning, fallible, and thoroughly believable heroic character who anchors the story for me. I’m so sad this series has concluded!
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I just signed the contract for my debut speculative novel, Club Contango. It’s about a single mum on a space station who runs an illegal micro-casino with her best friend, until a dead business associate and the fine print on an old AI training job set her in a race against versions of herself. It’ll be out Nov 2024, and it’s my second book with Dark Matter Ink.
I’ve also just started querying a new speculative novel that I’d pitch as an anti-corporate Ad Astra meets Courage Under Fire. I’m pretty excited about it. And I have two science fiction short stories forthcoming in genre magazines this year.
Other Minds is out now.
Interested in studying with us like Eliane? Find out more about our online writing courses: Edit & Pitch Your Novel and Writing a Psychological Thriller.