1. Please introduce yourself so that the readers will get to know you better.
I am Kristen Keenon Fisher, author of the The Quantum Cartographer, which was my debut novel and a “distinguished favorite” in the New York City Big Book Awards. I am from the Eastern Shore of Virginia and I studied audio engineering and graphic design in Rockville, Maryland.
2. What inspired you to start writing?
Well I’ve always written short stories and poetry for as long as I can remember. The inspiration for a novel came from a challenge to myself. I once told myself that I could never write a novel. It was too complex, too involved. I could never do that. So one day I decided to prove myself wrong. I dared myself to write a novel. I made a deal with myself to finish no matter what. I wouldn’t give in to any doubts I had or excuses, I was just going to take my time and persist. I started having a lot of dreams at that time to. They were random but very vividdepictions of people, places and events. I used a lot of the details from the dreams in the story.
3. What do you hope your readers take away from your book “The Quantum Cartographer”?
I hope they see The Quantum Cartographer as an intriguing journey with many interesting and thought provoking destinations along the way. I want it to be something you read and then read again to catch all the synchronicities and moving parts. I hope they find it to be more than just another tale of time travel and discover deeper themes and ideology. The Quantum Cartographer is a journey for your mind.
4. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing I enjoy anything inspirational. I enjoy, gaming, reading, meditating, drawing. I’m just obsessed with art and creativity and being inspired to create things that might inspire someone else to create something.
5. Have you ever seen a time machine? Do you actually believe that it works?
I have never seen a functional time machine but I do believe the technology is possible. Rumor has it that Nikola Tesla invented one. It was one of the ideas posed as the catalyst for the “Mandela effect,” which was the name given to the growing phenomena of multiple groups of people from all around the world who remember certain historical events happening differently. Theoretically to time travel successfully, you would need to travel faster than the speed of light. And in the phenomena of black holes, light is actually slowed down tremendously. So, if you could somehow manage to harness the power of a black hole you could conceivably create a time machine. Easy.
6. What is your favorite Quote?
“The opposite of an idea is the absence of the idea itself. Absence is the absence of justice. Presence is the absence of absence.” —Unknown
7. What are you working on next? Are you planning to release another book soon?
I am currently working on a second novel as a matter of fact. It will be set in a colorful, beautifully rendered, and foul mouthed alternate universe.I would say expect to see it maybe late this year or early next year. The only thing I can say about it is … There will be machines.
8. Which is your favorite Time Travel fantasy book?
My favorite time travel story is “All You Zombies” Robert A. Heinlein, which was adapted into a movie in 2014 called Predestination. The paradoxes created in the story are mind-blowing. I don’t want to give away too much about it in case there’s someone reading this who hasn’t read the book, or seen “Predestination” which was a film released in 2014 that was based on the short story by Heinlein,but it was definitely one the most magical efforts of storytelling I’ve ever witnessed.
9. How do you come up with the idea to write a science fiction involving time travel?
The idea of time travel has always fascinated me. And with storytelling you can do some really interesting things with it and create what I feel is a “beautiful conflict” within the reader, wherein the sequence of events becomes entirely distorted. If past events influence the future and future events influence the past in this seemingly never-ending loop, which came first? Is time itself really just an illusion and do our actions as transient beings cause ripples not only in the future but the past as well? And in the case of reincarnation, what if your next life wasn’t in the future at all? What if a soul could reincarnate into the distant past? I wanted to explore these ideas and many others.
10. Lastly, do you want to give any advice to your readers and aspiring writers?
Keep writing. I think we have a tendency as writers to feel as if we have to have it all planned out and write the greatest story ever told on the first draft or we have some form of writers block. But in fact, writing can be more akin to an excavation process rather than a performance art. We have the luxury of doing “not quite the right thing” and editing and perfecting until it is the right thing.
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