Welcome to another fantastic stop in our World-building Showcase blog hop! On this stop, we’re highlighting a story where the world changes or ends as we know it, but you can find a full list of authors and topics on the OWS Cycon website. Let’s dive in!
Welcome, Alison Lyke!
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, what is Forever People about?
Camille is a salty mercenary out to hoard as many Points as possible by exploiting the dying with illegal technology. She's on the hunt for Toy, a rebel leader who uploaded lethal technology to her own brain in an attempt to wipe out everyone’s Node Points.
Camille goes to increasingly dangerous lengths in pursuit of Toy. She soon finds that the Node is full of warm reunions with loved ones and otherworldly creations. It’s also full of lies.
What are the main differences between the “regular world” and the world on the other side of your barrier?
The regular world is pretty similar to ours, with the exception that people who die in “netted” areas are uploaded into a computer-generated afterlife. The world on the other side is the “Node,” a digital heaven where anything is possible as long as you earned enough “Node Points” while alive.
How is travel through your portal/rift/gateway possible? Is it easy to reverse?
The only obvious way into the Node is death in a netted city. There might be other, little known and illegitimate ways in, but there’s a heavy price to pay for those who would trespass into the afterlife.
Does language play any role in your world? Does everyone speak the same language, or is there variety? Did you invent any new slang or terminology during your world-building process?
My idea is that progress ground to a halt after the Node was invented, so there is very little new technology and almost all slang revolves around the Node system.
I wanted to create a world with very little government interference, so all of the government-funded services are now private. The various police forces, for example, are named after whatever group owns them.
What kinds of climates do your characters experience? Do they see a lot of change or is it always the same? Has your world always had this kind of climate, or has it changed over time?
The primary location in Forever People is Zeta City, which based off of New Orleans. I thought it would be a fitting place for the original death city. The climate is pretty much the same, but hotter. Other, nicer cities have climate control.
Is there any kind of faith system in your world? Did you draw inspiration from any real cultures, living or dead?
Almost everyone has swapped religious faith for faith in the Node System. The only people who still follow a religion are the few who live outside of nets and those rich enough to have hobbies outside of striving for Node Points.
What do people in your invented world do for fun? Are there sports, games, music, or other activities they do in their free time?
Holograms are the main form of entertainment and news. Most places have a blank wall, and an empty area set aside for holoprojections. A few folks have portable holograms they wear on their wrists or arms.
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 find some idea I like and just jump. For Forever People, I read about an emerging technology to help Alzheimer’s patients. Scientists are trying to develop a technology where people’s memories are stored digitally, so I took that idea and thought about where that technology could go and what a world with the possibility of digital minds might look like.
How central is the setting of your story to the story itself? Is it more of an interesting backdrop, or is it integral to the events of the story?
The world and how people are desperate to change it is an essential part of Forever People. The setting is vital in science fiction, but, to me, not as important as the character. Of course, I want a cool world with exciting features, but I want real people moving through it.
When helping the reader get to know the world you built, what techniques do you use? Do you tend to be upfront about things, or keep the reader in the dark and feed them only bits at a time?
I try to let the reader know enough so that the world makes sense, but I don’t want to ruin any surprises or give so much information that it’s overwhelming. I want as much of it to be as organic as possible. I want the reader to learn about my world like they would a foreign country they were visiting for the first time.
How much of a role does realism and hard scientific fact play in your world-building? Do you strive for 100% accuracy, or do you leave room for the fantastical and unexplainable in your world?
I like my worlds surreal, so while I use science as a jumping off point and I like things to be believable, I have no problem with things getting fantastic.
How do you keep all of the details of your world and characters straight? Do you have a system for deciding on different factors and keeping it all organized, or does it live more in your head?
Most of it lives in my head, and it’s crowded in here. I do keep notes on my world and my characters, but they are rarely more than a page or two long.
Did you experience any difficulties while building your world? Any facts that refused to cooperate or inconsistencies you needed to address while editing?
I kept mixing up the names of the Nets, which were all named after Greek letters. The netted cities are all based on real locations in the United States, but the nets are so important that the places took on the names of the nets. So, I had to remember, for example, which city Gamma was initially, which characters came from there, and the ways that the city had evolved since the introduction of the Node System.
Where can people find you on the web?
My website is here: https://www.alisonlyke.
You can find my OWS CyCon Booth here: https://owscycon.ourwriteside.com/forums/topic/alison-lyke-author-booth/
I’m also on
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlisonLyke
Thank you to all of the organizers at OWS CyCon and a huge thanks to my awesome blog host!
For more stops on our World-building Showcase, visit the tour page on the OWS CyCon website. You can also find more great Sci-Fi authors and books on our main Sci Fi event page.
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