Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m talking to M. Darusha Wehm about their upcoming novel The Qubit Zirconium, a brand new tale of alien detectives in the world of KeyForge. It’s due out from Aconyte Books as a global ebook and US paperback on the 13th April, with the UK paperback following on the 24th June – read on to find out more about KeyForge, the Crucible and the unusual pairing of Wibble and Pplimz! First of all though, here’s the publisher’s synopsis:
Wibble & Pplimz, the Crucible’s most unusual private investigators, must set off from their office in Hub City to clear the name of a former client. Along the way, their investigation broadens from a simple accusation of theft to include a missing person, a potential murder, and a highly unusual gem. Four interlinking incidents take them across the Crucible, as they attempt to solve the case. But there’s something more sinister lurking underneath: evidence of a secret society that aims to discover the power of the Architects, and forever change the nature of the Crucible itself.
With that done, let’s get straight on with the interview!
Track of Words: To begin with, for anyone not familiar with the world of KeyForge, how would you describe the setting and your particular take on it?
M. Darusha Wehm: KeyForge takes place on a constructed planet called the Crucible, where beings from all over the universe can find themselves mysteriously and irreversibly transported. There are civilizations that have been on the Crucible for generations, and groups and individuals who have only just arrived. The interactions between these strange and different science fantasy elements make for a world where nearly anything can happen – and probably will.
ToW: Bearing that in mind, how would you describe The Qubit Zirconium?
DW: The Qubit Zirconium is a mystery that takes place all over the Crucible, meeting many of the different kinds of beings who live there. The core of the mystery is a missing gem, but it delves deep into the heart of what makes the Crucible the fascinating – and dangerous – place that it is.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
DW: The story follows the case of the missing Qubit Zirconium tiara, as investigated by alien detectives Wibble and Pplimz who are each unique to the Crucible. Wibble is an ancient, irreverent, floating, roughly football-shaped being, whose capacity for adventure is tempered only by her penchant for finding the truth. Her partner, Pplimz, is a part-machine-part-organic dandy, who is a stickler for details and for a nicely trimmed suit.
ToW: Where did Wibble & Pplimz come from? What inspired you to create this particular pairing of characters?
DW: Their names came to me first from some strange place in my subconscious, and the rest of their characters somehow naturally followed. I’m a big fan of odd couple pairings, where they bicker and annoy each other with their differences, but those differences are their strength as a team, and as friends.
ToW: You’ve written about Wibble & Pplimz before, in a short story featured in the Tales From the Crucible anthology – how does that relate to the novel?
DW: The short story takes place prior to the novel, and while there’s a very oblique reference to it in the book, either story could be read first since there are no spoilers in either.
ToW: Were you already a fan of KeyForge before you started writing about Wibble & Pplimz, or was it your introduction to the setting?
DW: When I was writing the first Wibble and Pplimz story I made sure to get to my local board game café to play a few rounds of KeyForge. I since have acquired my own decks, as well as the RPG sourcebook Secrets of the Crucible.
ToW: While SFF, and science fiction in particular, can occasionally feel like it takes itself very seriously, KeyForge seems to offer a great opportunity to tell fun stories that pull in influences from anywhere and everywhere. What does that freedom and variety mean to you as an author?
DW: It’s absolutely delightful to be able to play in a world full of wild creatures and artifacts, weapons and locations. To be able to throw in, say, a motorcycle made of flesh and bone just for the fun of it is incredibly freeing as an author.
ToW: Where did this specific story come from? Of all the stories you might have written about these characters, what made you choose this one?
DW: I’ve always enjoyed old hard-boiled detective stories, of the Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler variety, and a jewel theft that might be more than it appears struck me as a really interesting thing to happen somewhere like the Crucible. Once I’d hit on the name ‘qubit zirconium’ for the stolen object, a lot of the plot came to me quickly. Beyond that, I wanted to write a bit about some of the challenges that would come living in a place where you didn’t choose to be, that you can’t leave – even if it’s wonderful.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
DW: I hope that readers will have at least half as much fun reading it as I had writing it.
ToW: Do you have more plans for stories featuring these characters in future?
DW: That’s up to Aconyte and Fantasy Flight Games, but I’d be very happy to follow Wibble and Pplimz wherever they may go in the future.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about other work that you’ve got coming up or have had recently released, or what you’re working on at the moment?
DW: I’ll give a quick plug for my Nebula-Award nominated game, The Martian Job, which has a similar tone to The Qubit Zirconium. It’s a text-based choice game with RPG elements, where you play as a safecracker called in to do one last job: a casino heist on Mars. It’s available from Choice of Games at https://www.choiceofgames.com/martian-job/.
ToW: Finally, if you could live anywhere on the Crucible, where would you choose?
DW: It’s a tough choice, especially since I’ve always wanted to go to Mars, but I’d have to say Hub City, if only for all the alien food restaurant options in the Melting Pot district.
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M. Darusha Wehm is the Nebula Award-nominated and Sir Julius Vogel Award winning author of the interactive fiction game The Martian Job, as well as the science fiction novels Beautiful Red, Children of Arkadia, The Voyage of the White Cloud, and the Andersson Dexter cyberpunk detective series.
Their mainstream books include the Devi Jones’ Locker YA series and the humorous coming-of-age novel The Home for Wayward Parrots. Darusha’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in many venues, including Terraform and Nature.
Originally from Canada, Darusha lives in Wellington, New Zealand after spending several years sailing the Pacific.
Check out Darusha’s website for more information.
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Thanks so much to Darusha for taking the time to answer these questions, and for giving us an idea of what to expect from The Qubit Zirconium! I’m sure you’ll agree that this sounds like a lot of fun.
If you’re in the UK and would like to support local independent bookshops, you can order The Qubit Zirconium from my store on Bookshop.org*
Otherwise, you can order The Qubit Zirconium from Amazon*
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