Meeting Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner // “Unearthed” Tour

Back in 2016, I read the first book in what was to become one of my favorite series of all time: the Starbound Trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. It’s a sprawling sci-fi trilogy with dynamic characters, heart-pounding moments, and some of the best romance I’ve ever read. So when I found out last year these two women were collaborating on a new space book, Unearthed, I had to read it. I managed to score an advanced copy of Unearthed back in July and flew through it in a couple days – and you know what? It was every bit as exhilarating and fun as I hoped it would be and immediately went onto my “Favorites” shelf next to Starbound. 

Needless to say, going to see Kaufman and Spooner while they were on their Unearthed tour was a no-brainer for me. The event stop I attended was hosted by One More Page Books, and if you’re ever in the Arlington/D.C. area I highly recommend dropping in at this sweet little bookstore! Not only do they have a solid, fresh selection of books but they also have wines and ciders for sale. I don’t know about you, but I think that makes for a pretty fantastic combination. 😉

Amie and Meagan sat down with the moderator and spoke about a variety of topics: how they work together, traveling, and some very interesting science-y topics behind the more difficult parts of Unearthed. Since this is a sci-fi novel, Amie and Meagan had to do a lot of research into making sure readers could properly immerse themselves in the book without thinking any aspect was too far-fetched. Because, just like in Starbound, this book has topics including space travel and foreign planets.

“Our goal in general,” Meagan said, “is that the science in our books doesn’t necessarily need to be possible right now, but it needs to be plausible. We don’t want someone to read it and be like, ‘Oh, well that’s clearly just bull, that’s not even a thing!'”

“It can’t all be possible right now, because if it was, we’d all be having this talk up in a spaceship right now! Well, we’d be in a spaceship right now, anyways,” Amie laughs, gesturing to herself and Meagan.

Another one of the science-based problems the characters face in the book is that the air is breathable, but only for a certain time. “Over time, it [the air] really starts to take a toll on you,” Amie explained. “And we had to really work on that because we didn’t want them to be in spacesuits because, for a start, a spacesuit is super limiting.”

Meagan jumped in and added, “And it makes it really hard to make out when you’re in a spacesuit!” Amie nodded. “Plus everyone in one of those spacesuits is wearing a diaper and that’s not sexy at all.”

Personally, I thought this discussion was one of the highlights of the event. It was a fascinating look into how an author has to go about examining their work from different standpoints and picking apart the loose threads. Both authors agreed that some of their friends were valuable people to know; between the two of them they know physicists, botanists, musicians, ecologists, and more. Amie and Meagan, who both said they hadn’t studied “hard science” in school, said they found themselves drawing upon this knowledge base to help them solidify various aspects of Unearthed.

“We didn’t want it to feel like they had just landed on Earth,” Meagan explained. “We wanted it to feel like they had to work to exist on an alien planet, and that it was challenging.”

Unearthed does science very well. Yeah, it takes place on an alien planet, but nothing ever feels cheesy or ridiculous. Instead, the science and information builds up in a steady way that allows the reader to slowly immerse themselves into the world. Unearthed also uses familiar aspects (such as a group going on an archaeological dig) to give the reader clues as to how this story is going to unfold.

UNEARTHED FUN FACT:  Although it is never mentioned in the book, the planet Mia and Jules are exploring has a very interesting way of producing oxygen. Amie and Meagan revealed that “Cyanobacteria is the answer!” Since everything gets eradicated by regular solar flares, the authors had to figure out how their characters could work without air filters for any period of time.

The question was also asked: What is the other’s writing tell? How could one of you tell something was written by the other?

Meagan commented, “Amie has a very strong physical type when it comes to her characters. It took us a while to get her away from the tall, dark, and handsome. Like Tarver.” She also mentioned that she believes many writers outgrow their more common tells, or identify them after awhile and just become more aware of them.

Amie’s answer? She said, “I would know something is a Meg book two ways: I think one would be like on a thematic level that all of her books contain an element of speaking truth to power. The other way I would know a Meg story is that one of the things she’s really good at is action action action happening, and then she just manages to slowwww everything right down so that you live inside one amazing second.”

Meagan laughed at this. “Wow, your answer was way better than mine!”

And finally, the question everyone needs an answer to:

Is there going to be more Unearthed???

YES! Amie said, “The intention is that you will see it twelve months from now, and it will wrap up the whole thing. The sequel picks up right where the first one left off.  We’re currently calling it Unrevealed because we’re not telling anyone what the title is yet.”

Meagan added, “If we don’t have something to call it, we’ll accidentally say the actual title and then we’ll get in trouble.”

I know I’m not the only one who is nothing less than psyched to hear about more sci-fi goodness from these amazing authors! Like I said, I read it back in JULY so the wait for the sequel is going to be pretty painful. At least I have plenty of time for a Starbound reread! 😉

Oh, and if you’re wondering what books these authors are reading at the moment: Meagan says she’s currently reading A Natural History of Dragons and is really enjoying it. And Amie read This Mortal Coil recently and says it was one of the best books she’s experienced.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you are all having a fantastic week – and that you’re going to start reading Unearthed as soon as possible! 😀

Until next time,

Deborah xx