Quick! What's the first sci-fi thing that pops into your head!?

Space toast. No, wait. Can I take that back? Dang. OK.

Original trilogy, prequel trilogy, or sequel trilogy?

We're obviously talking about Dune books here, so. OG Dune is the book for me. Everything else was too grimdark or uncomfortably smutty. Dune itself broke my mind and put it back together again slightly differently. I'm really excited about the movie.

So, how has Tevun-Krus changed your life today?

While I was cleaning, I was plotting my next story! Strangely, because of the time loop that we employ on the mothership, I haven't written it yet, but you've already read it. Confused? Don't worry about it. However, it does make deciding who does the washing up really complicated, especially when half your crewmates on the rota haven't even been born yet. 

With your lifeline to your spacecraft broken, you hypothetically drift away into the depths of space. What's your last message to Earth?

Have I left the fridge open?

Do you remember the first author to really grab you as a reader? Are they still someone you read?

There were a few. I'm choosing Alan Dean Foster. As a kid I owned 'Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker', the original novelisation of Star Wars. It was ghost written by Foster, although Lucas had his name on it. I read it over and over and over again. These days I am less enthusiastic about that franchise, but I totally appreciate how it hooked me in and made me run around shouting pew pew pew!

Explain your writing process for your fellow mothertroopers. Do you find real life adds "flavours" to your writing, or is it all imaginary?

For TK, I plan it in my head before I put it down. Sometimes I pants it a bit, but, generally, it's all laid out (often when I should be doing other things). Real life: I research endlessly, especially for my fantasy stuff. I like reading about the history of science, in particular, because I think you can learn so much about how to apply it to the future.

We all have advice for our fellow writers. But what's your advice to novice sci-fi writers on what not to do?

I'm glad you asked: I'm writing a whole book about it! It's called An Idiot's Guide to Line Editing. It's all about that phase of editing when you polish each individual sentence, generally the last edit phase. I've been researching and publishing it as I go. There's lots of stuff there that might be useful, but the chapter that I think I am most proud of is about adverbs. When you start you use a lot of 'em. Then you'll read some terrible piece that tells you not to use them at all, that adverbs are evil, and you'll freak out. My advice is to stop and understand them, and then think about how they can work for you, and where they are not your friend. Plus I wrote some sweet Stephen King fanfic for you to enjoy. Go read it!

What's a story of yours every mothertrooper should read? Give us an exciting excerpt!

So I have this novel. I was shopping it around for trad publishing, but honestly I don't think I'm going to get a nibble. So I'm going to publish on Amazon. Here's how it starts.

Much to Bilen's annoyance, the first thing that Alejandro Molina did in the New World was to piss.

'The Father Patriarch blesses the new land with water, I bless it with me!' he shouted to the sailors.

When the rowing boat's bow crunched onto the beach, he threw off his sword and pistols, and leapt into the shallow water, splashing through the surf. As soon as he was more or less on dry land, he hollered triumphantly. 'It's time! I can hold the spirit in me no longer!'

He pulled down his britches and projected a pale arc onto the golden sand.

The sailors cheered as they pulled the boat up the shore.

Bilen sighed and wondered if it had been a good idea to bring him. She gently tucked Molina's weapons under her own seat in the boat. Once the sailors had pulled the boat onto the beach, she grabbed both their bags, and splashed through the ankle-deep sea to him, enjoying the way the sand sucked beneath her sandals.

'Oy, Alejo!' she called. 'I'm not your damn mule! Carry your own bag!'

As she shouted, the land lurched under her, and she found herself face-down in the wet sand.

Molina roared with laughter, and lurched over. At least she wasn't the only one struggling with her land legs.

If your lifeless corpse were to be blasted out of the Mothership and into the nearest stellar body, which 3 pieces of music would be played alongside such an occasion?

You know what you need? You need an upbeat inspirational song about life! The tiger is sung by Michael Bolton, by the way. Watch to the end!

https://youtu.be/JQQPyb1hQSg

But the fact is, I have seen stars in the water. This isn't the best Atomic Hooligan song but it's the best that's available on YouTube. When I was younger these guys were my absolute favourites, and their stuff still holds up today. Go listen to the album You Are Here on Spotify. Oh Lord, shine a light...

https://youtu.be/SzKM1crjI6E

And now to modern rave. Giorgia Angiuli is a classically trained musician who makes nuanced, melodic, accessible techno music. And then, sometimes, she throws all that out the window and drops an absolute banger. This track, Dirac Equation, is one of those and is from the album Quantum Love. I love writing to her music and this is the track where I type like a demon.

https://youtu.be/zW5rRxvI2w8

What's the deal with the singularity? Would you ever become one with the machine if things were to go loco?

I'm more machine than man now. Heck yes, I write about robots a lot. I basically think we're terrible and they will replace us, and we should be completely happy with that.

Would you ever get a pet robot, assuming such a thing becomes affordable, available, and socially acceptable?

I already have one! I love my robot vacuum cleaner more than any pet I could ever have. It's called Beep Boop. Everyone else is jealous of the affection I heap onto it. You could, I say to them, maybe clean up as well as it does? And they slink away, leaving me to the laundry and Beep Boop to the hoovering. And we are both happy.

What would you do if you woke up one day and suddenly realized you were a synthetic human raised by machines? Be honest.

Worry about zero-day vulnerabilities. What's my patching schedule? Argh!

Do you have any favourite foods? Let the Mothership know.

I love cooking. My current project is to make a really good vege tagine from scratch. They are surprisingly hard. Each time I get a bit closer. It's already pretty pleasant, but it's not quite silky and mouthfeely enough for me. When I nail it, it will be amazing.

Who would win if the Terminator faced off against the Predator? Now what if it were a musical?

As a Warhammer 40,000 player, I chose to interpret the Terminator as being one of the Emperor's finest, a veteran of the Space Marines in tactical dreadnought armour, in which case the Predator is about to be beaten over the head with the soggy end of his own limbs. Dancing though: man, you couldn't dance in one of those suits. It's one all at full time.

What's something you'd like to see Tevun-Krus take on in a future issue?

Tricky! I wondered about us doing some more non-fiction stuff. Nab does sterling work with her Nebula, which is focused on the fiction landscape, but we could also do some things with the tech side of things. We have a lot of expertise on the Mothership. Having said that, I know we've shied away from that: we're primarily a fiction vehicle so maybe that's a terrible idea.

The other idea I had is to lean into more of the non-SF spec fic genres. Horror and fantasy spring to mind. But then, that might not be our core vehicle either.

Any last words, 'trooper?

Permission to return to scrubbing sub-deck thirty eight sir? Thank you sir! Sir, yes sir, it will be done by last month!