A Mini Interview With Speculative Fiction Author Krista D Ball

Today we have author Krista D Ball dropping by for a visit. Krista D. Ball is a speculative fiction writer living in Edmonton, Canada. When no one is looking, she dabbles in freelance writing. She's also a slave to a herd of cats and in her free time enjoys RPG'ing.

Krista has several short stories available from MuseItUp Publishing and a forthcoming novel. She writes historical fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, pretty much any genre that allows her to speculate and play with reality. She also wrote non-fiction guide to blogging for authors, "No More Blank Screen: Blogging Ideas for Fiction Authors".  Her works are available on Smashwords and Amazon. She has two forthcoming novels, a sci fi military, "Road to Hell", due to be published Nov. 2011 by MuseItUp Publishing, and a high fantasy novel, "Tranquility's Blaze", expected publication is the first quarter of 2012 by Mundania Press.

You can find Krista all around the web. She has a blog and website, and she can be found on Twitter and facebook. Stop by and chat her up, she's friendly and just a bit crazy. :D I reviewed a short story of hers, "Harvest Moon" last fall but didn't begin chatting with her until this past winter when a mutual acquaintance RT'ed a tweet by Krista that she was looking for bloggers for a summer blog tour. Since I had enjoyed "Harvest Moon" so much I clicked on the link, signed up, and started following her on Twitter. We chat several times a week and I am looking forward to her novels, even "Road to Hell" though I'm not a fan of military fiction and I'm picky about my science fiction. :P

As part of her summer blog tour, I asked Krista a few questions about her short story "Flying Kite, Crashing Ship" and she was kind enough to take the time to reply. (The questions and answers will make more sense if you read my review first.)

Bea: What prompted this story? Was there a specific event that inspired you? Do you think that you will write more in this world?
 

Krista: Flying Kite Crashing Ship was me wanting to write a Regency story that was not based on romance. It's a favourite historical period of mine, yet it's so difficult to find stories about this area that aren't romance or erotica. So, I decided to have a lot of fun and have folks from the far future drop in on the Regency period and see what would happen.

Bea: I hadn't heard the term "flying kite" before your story "Flying Kite; Crashing Ship"; from your use of it, it seems to be not a kite but more of a hot air balloon. Is that right? Have you ever gone up in a hot air balloon?
 

Krista: I don't remember where I read the term. I know it was in an historical document, but for the life of me I've forgotten where I saw it. In any case, the term stuck in my mind. I imagined a flying kite as something like a hybrid weather balloon, though I think it might have referred to just a basic kite (in the original document). But, I don't let small things like that stop me :)

I've never been in a hot air balloon and I doubt I ever will. At least, not while sober. Or, conscious. I'm afraid of heights and it seems to get worse the older I get. I think a hot air balloon would do me in.

Bea: What was with the blue goo? :D I kept picturing it as a sort of futuristic air bag.

Krista: It was totally an air bag! Well, a goo bag.

Bea: What's your take on time paradoxes? Can they be avoided? Are they inevitable? Is at all a bunch of hooey? :D Why is it such a popular theme?  

Krista: I think one should not think too much about time paradoxes or else they will drive you insane.

Time travel is something we all do every time we pick up a photo album or read an old book. We see the past and wonder what it would have been like. It makes sense that it would seep into fiction.