Realm Explorers Part LXII: Visit Shatterworld with Lelia Rose Foreman

Welcome to Realm Explorers!  In this weekly series, we visit a variety of unique worlds created by talented science fiction and fantasy authors.  Enjoy your travels!  And don't forget to read to the bottom of the post to find out more about each author and see how to purchase the featured book. 

Author’s name:

Lelia Rose Foreman

Title of book and/or series:

Shatterworld

Brief summary of the story:

Amish Wannabes take a ship to another world to set up a peaceful, agrarian society. Once they are self-sufficient, they intend to throw away most of their technology. But twelve-year-old Rejoice does not want to grow up to become a farmer. She wants to be an astronomer. She struggles to understand what God wants her to be as she discovers intelligent aliens in the sea and then discovers an asteroid that is going to destroy the colony’s new world.

Brief description of the world or location you created for this story:

New Earth, or Shatterworld, as Rejoice prefers to call the world, had been hit by large asteroids five hundred years prior to the coming of the humans. Most life on land and sea had been obliterated. Ninety percent of the world is covered by ocean.

If we were to visit Shatterworld as tourists, what would you recommend that we see or do there?

Sailing in the shallow waters would be fun, as would playing with baby hexacrabs. The occasional fair or feast is fun, but for the most part, the colonists engage in work as a godly discipline. They are not thinking about tourists.

What dangers should we avoid in Shatterworld?

Sailing in deep waters would expose you to a variety of sea monsters. Hurricanes can be severe.

Is there a distinct or unusual type of food or meal that we might be served in Shatterworld?

The colonists work hard and they do like to eat what we would consider comfort foods.

What types of weaponry or fighting styles are common in Shatterworld?

They’re pacifists! No fighting. They don’t even like contact sports.

What types of vehicles, animals, technology, etc. are used to travel in or to Shatterworld?

The colonists use VTOLs, space shuttles, boats, rollers, and camels to travel. And walking. Walking is good for the soul.

What types of plants, animals, or sentient races might we encounter in Shatterworld that we don’t see on Earth?

The most important are the hexacrabs: sentient, undersea aliens with six armored legs, six tentacles, and three eyes on stalks. The hexacrabs are trying to rebuild their shattered civilization and are looking for their lost libraries, all while fighting off sea monsters and these new creatures, the humans.

What role, if any, does magic or the supernatural play in the lives of people in Shatterworld?  If there is magic, please give some examples of what it involves or how it’s used.

These Christians love God and have banded together in a discipline that they believe will draw them closer to God. They don’t ever think about magic.

Is there any advanced or unusual technology in Shatterworld?  If you haven’t described it already, please give some examples.

If you are at all familiar with science-fiction tropes, you will recognize all the technology in the book.

Tell us about any sports, games, or activities that are available for entertainment in Shatterworld.

How entertaining do you think sermons are? Soil creation? Feeding chickens? Oh, discovering and being attacked by aliens?

Are the days of the week and months of the year the same in Shatterworld as on Earth? What holidays or special events are celebrated regularly there?

The colonists follow the Christian calendar, but divergence is coming.

Is there a particular religion practiced in Shatterworld?  Please describe what it involves.

Although none of the colonists started out as Amish, the practices they cobbled together most closely resemble the Christian Amish.

What is the political or government structure in Shatterworld?  Who is in charge there at the moment, and what kind of leader is he/she?

The colonists start out with a form of socialism, sharing all things in common, until they can separate onto individual farms. The man with the biggest voice is Brother Smith, the financier and organizer of the colony. The next most influential is the pastor. Everyone likes to think things are run by consensus.

Are there any other unique cultural practices that we should be aware of if we visit Shatterworld?

Please respect their pacifism, their modest dress, and their sexual mores.

Has anything in your actual life inspired the locations, cultures, etc. in your book?

When we were stationed in Japan at Yokota AFB, my husband explored the concept of pacifism, because if that was God’s will for us, we wanted to engage in the practice. There would have been repercussions for adopting pacifism, as the US Air Force had paid for his dental school, but if that’s what God calls you to, that’s what you do. We did a lot of study and reading. My husband retired a colonel, so you can guess which way we went. I like writing about people who aren’t me, so I wanted to write about a people the way they see themselves. What would happen if they met aliens who wanted to fight them?

What, if any, “hot-button” or controversial topics do you touch on in your book?

Pacifism. Some people consider monogamy and/or Christianity controversial. Is having some main characters with mild Asperger’s controversial?

Author Autobiography:

I’ve raised and released five children, one of them a Wookie. The Air Force gave us the privilege of living in Japan and a number of states, including Texas, Alaska, and Oregon. I have some minor engagement with ministry in Rwanda, and have begun libraries in eleven primary schools there. I also introduced Golden Grain amaranth to farmers there, which was a big hit, and purslane, which was not. They introduced me to the concept of loving and working under murderers.

Where, and in what formats, can we purchase your book?

Shatterworld can be ordered as an ebook or paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo, or from any bookstore.

Where can readers connect with you online? 

www.leliaroseforeman.blogspot.com, on Facebook as Lelia Rose Foreman, on Twitter as @LeliaForeman

I hope you all enjoyed the trip to Shatterworld.  Questions about the world or the book?  Ask them in the comments and the author will get back to you!  

Click here to read other posts in the Realm Explorers series.

Please join us again next Monday for a trip to the dystopian/fantasy world of To Nowhere, in Realm Explorers Part LXIII!

-Annie Douglass Lima