This distinctively Canadian hard-SF story has been published in ANALOG SF & Facts, vol XCIII, 5-6 (May-June 2023)
Kuiper Pancake
by Michèle Laframboise
The thick smell of maple syrup welled up in my olfactive memory when I rolled into the kilometer-wide depression under a bowl of clear, unblinking stars.
A long time ago when I still had legs under my body, I had tasted my grandmother’s warm pancakes, flat wheat flour disks covered with bubble cavities, looking like the face of the Moon. We didn’t get real, grown wheat flour often, maybe it had been contraband from northern Alberta, but wow! did it taste awesome with the reconstituted maple syrup! I called to mind the homey scents of the kitchen and the rumor of the city behind gran’s windows, the basil and spice and coffee (not for me, that), to help me face reality.
My gran’s kitchen was hundreds of millions klicks away now. Her smile had evaporated decades ago, the price every Scout or Explorer paid for getting an extended life span.
Here in the Kuiper belt, I didn’t possess any sense of smell, except in a very practical, this-could-save-your-life row of chemical gas samplers, apt at identifying the spicy sting of toxic compounds that could eat my hull and nibble at the precious wetware inside. Mechanical vibrations were similarly filtered and transcribed into sounds, along with the IA voice of the Explorer talking to me.
My current body had grounded to a stop, a six-wheel tank spiked with sensors and samplers, its huge swiveling head crowned with an array of cams and antennas and teacup radio-receptors.
Presently, that huge swiveling head was stuck in the throes of indecision, like a teenager.
At certain times, science-fiction and gardening afficionados do mix!
I had a wonderful weekend meeting new readers at the Blooming Boulevard annual native plant sale. Here’s my table by Sunday. My Gardeners’ civilization SF graphic novels were a hit, as were my birdwatching stories!
How this non-literary event came to be ?
Two years ago, I was impressed by a neighbour’s indigenous plants garden, set in the grassy band between the sidewalk and the street. As a staunch environmentalist, I was considering doing the same with my own curb band. But, book fairs and deadlines loomed, and I missed the opportunity.
According to the Blooming Boulevards web page:
We are a group of civic-minded Mississauga residents who love gardening and want to do what we can to help the environment and promote community well-being. We became a not-for-profit Ontario corporation, a Mississauga community organization, and developed the mission and goals of Blooming Boulevards in early 2019.
It took me two summers to gather the courage and contact the founders. And then, everything went fast, as Jeanne and Wayne came to see my modest space, and drew up a plan for indigenous plants, and gathered the forms to get an “encroachment” permit from the City. This was at the end of April.
This as how the space looked before I took out the grass. There were steps well explained before planting.
Before…And after! The completed garden.
Now, I must be patient to allow those plants work on their roots before investing in foliage and flowers. Stay tuned for next year!
How my signing table planted itself there?
When the nice Blooming Boulevards people learned I was a writer, and when they saw my Gardeners’ Universe graphic novels, they invited me to sit at their annual plant sale!
The plant sale. My table was to the right of those chairs
And, ooh , that went so incredibly well!
The signing table on Saturday, a little cramped, but they put my publishing company sign up!
I did not have any expectation beside talking to gardeners who are better at their hobbies than I am. In most literary events, I am used to people ignoring my table.
Not here.
Visitors were intrigued and many stopped by (if their arms were not loaded with seed boxes!) And some gardeners were also science fiction readers, so I gained new fans! Two people even went back on Sunday to get my books signed!
One colour pencils signing of Mistress of the Winds, available in electronic format here along with my other books.
It is very rare that half the books I bring at any event fly out, but it happened here.
The advantages of an in-person, non-lit event
My esteemed colleague writer and indie publisher Mark Leslie Lefebvre regularly attends non-lit events in his home area, and I can now confirm that it is worth my time.
Rose du désert, my YA SF novel, is finalist at the 2025 Trillium Awards! The intrigue is set on the same world and starts some time after the events in LeSecret de Paloma. It features an autistic spectrum heroine with a pessimistic temper, an attitude illustrated on the cover.
The awards will be given soon,on June 18th in the Toronto Reference Library, at the Bram and BlumaAppel Salon.
Whether my book places or not, it is a wondrous occasion to meet fine Ontario Writers like in 2013 (article on my French blog). Meeting Gil Adamson, author of The Outlander (2007), Ridgerunner (2020) and other books, was my favorite award!
Meeting Gil Adamson in 2013!
Meanwhile…
Another Gardeners’ Universe story is coming in the July-August 2025 issue of Asimov’s. It will be my seventh publication in this magazine.
The July/August 2025 issue will hit the newsstands on June 8, 2025, with my novelette In the gardener’s Services, set in my SF universe. That story will explore the past of one of my favorite characters in the YA series La Quête de Chaaas.
You can also subscribe to Asimov’s Science Fiction inprintor in various digital formats.
Looking back, here are my contributions to the larger field of SF in 2024. Several short-stories, one graphic novel, one novella, and the links to the publishers.
(That post is for all those interested, wheter tyou are eligibile to vote for the Hugos or not. )
When my dear father Jacques E. Laframboise was very ill, in 2014, we talked a lot about Science fiction, of which he was a avid reader. We were discussing dirigible flight, for my steampunk universe. He was the one to introduce me to the genre, especially with the Asimovian robots. I had gone on to become a scientist then, later, a science-fiction writer.
So there at the hospital, I promised him two things: that one day, I would get published in Asimov’s magazine. Which happened in 2021. The second thing I promised my dad was that, one day, I would hold the Hugo rocket, as a winner.
This might be a far-fetched dream. First, there are many wonderful writers out there who craft deep, original universes and mind-bending plots. Second, winning an award it is less important than telling many good stories. Third, I already have several awards under my belt. But I am still thinking about that promise.
Maragi’s Secret is my first novella-length story published in Asimov’s SF magazine.
So, here are my 2024 publications, and some links to read them. The nomination deadline is March 15th, final voting at the Seattle Worldcon.
Maragi’s Secret, Asimov’s May-June 2024 – 20 000 words
CATEGORY : novella
genre: SF steampunk (nothing to do with the big robot on the magazine’s cover!!!)
Short blurb: Maragi learns the ropes as a mast «monkey» aboard her father’s heavily-mortgaged airship, climbing its glacial hull six thousands meters over the poisoned Earth’s surface. She hopes to navigate the endless sky, humanity’s last refuge, but must face the scorn of crewmen who resent her presence. Little do they know the worse fate waiting a motherless girl in the straight-laced, rigid Cloud society.
Then, a fragile secret left by clandestine passengers forces a hard choice on her. Is saving it worth losing everything she cares about?
The When Words Collide convention in Calgary from August 16 to 18, provided a golden occasion to see old friends again and meet new writers and readers! It is an annual ReaderCon, meaning, focusing on books and reading more than movies and media SF.
Hanging out with friends
Yes, there are the presentations, lectures and workshops, but also, just meeting people from the four corners of the country and the US, people I haven’t seen since before the Covid, is a great moral booster. I met some of them in Montréal at the Scintillation 5 organized by Jo Walton and a dedicated team.
At home or visiting family, I rarely discuss my WIP, my projects (all the contrary in my teens).
I do mention the novels I’m working on, briefly, but expending about any challenge, lack of inspiration, difficulty would bring glazed eyes. But in a convention, interacting with peers who experience the same kind of problems give me courage.
Friends recharging their batteries in the central lobby of the Delta: Robert Runte (who knows a lot about Canadian SF) , Graeme Cameron, waving (who does a lot of work publishing Polar Borealis), Allan Weiss (Making Rounds) and a fine author I don’t have a name for.Michele with Susan Forrest (at the launch of Undaunted) on August 15thWith Brenda Carre, whom I met in 2016 at an Anthology workshop in Lincoln City. Brenda had a beautiful vest.Lyn Worthen and Michèle. Lyn writes dark fantasy and thrillers.
Books, books, books!
A host of new books covering the coffee table!
Adding to my pile of books:
Super Earth Mother, Guy Immega. Guy does hard-SF and takes his time to craft a believable story.
Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies Den Waldron
Making Rounds, Allan Weiss
A crane among Wolves (just for the cover)
Undaunted, Dave Sweet with Susan Forrest
Skeletons in my closet, Dave Sweet with
War of the Words, a collection of short stories
Those I met but in passing, Rob J Sawyer, who in a presentation explained how the J in his name help people find him among the thousands of Robert Sawyer. Robert Runte, knowledgeable in Canadian SF.
Enjoy the Slush fiction!
I was deeply impressed by Rhonda Parrish, Adria Laycraft, Shirlee Smith, Ella Beaumont, Greame Cameron: super editors, able to detect a story’s faults and clichés. The panels of slush fiction I attended were fountains of fun (to put a bad cliché) and really instructive. Some pet peeves here:
Starting a story with a character waking up in bed
Having a POV character looking, observing… doing nothing.
Form the start, we need to know WHO is telling the story, or WHo we follow, and the story problem.
The Slush fiction panel with Left to right: Greame Cameron, Susan Forest, Michael Martinek, Ella Beaumont, Kevin Weir. Thank you!
Know your rights: contracts with Den Valdron
Den Waldron handing out a book to an audience member.
Den is a fantastic author of fun or gritty Sf books, but alse a lawyer, and here, he walks us through the pitfalls of copyright and contracts, those contracts that writers are soooo eager to sign to get published!
I never saw Den pleading in court, but as a presenter, he is lively as he walks around and tells it as it is. His booming voice still echoed in my ears as I write this.
Stop pushing us onto the sidelines!
One of the most useful panels about the presence of “disabled” persons in stories, and how they don’t want to be seen as a sidekick to the abled hero. A lot of good discussion. Left to right: Cait Gordon, Arlene F. Marks, Madona Sakoff, Rick Overwater and Fiona McTaggart.
Too often an author introduces a disabled secondary character into a story, mostly to check the disability box. BUT the treatment shows that often those writers have no idea what it’s like to live the experience. (I plead guilty here at least once, however, in Phoenix Clouds, Blanche is the heroine.)
My favorite panel, We are the heroes, not the sidekicks: Building worlds and stories in SFF that center disabled protagonists, with Cait Gordon, the author of this book, Iris and the Crew tear Through Space, and her colleagues: Arlene Marks, Madona Sakoff, Rick Overwater, Fiona McTaggart. Few people marginalized because of a disability recognize themselves in fiction.
“it’s just as infuriating when the person who looks like us is just a sidekick. Or, we “cure” the person’s disability and there, yahooo, everything is beautiful!” says Cait Gordon.
Or, the hero saves a pitiful disabled person but, oh the lottery winner! that person turns out to be the talented “whizkid” who will save the colony!
I learned a lot, and appreciated this inclusive vision. We need to stop ignoring persons who just have special needs for technical assistance and accommodation. In Cait Gordon’s universe, everything is accessible and no one considers themselves “disabled”.
One person noted: this is similar to the trap that many Paralympic athletes experience: pity or inspiration. Just for that panel and the friends I met there, the trip to Calgary (with the patient husband) was worth it.
Exploring around Calgary
After saying goodbyes to many new author friends, we went on a beautiful promenade at heritage Park.
Lake near the Bow River, Heritage Park
After the convention, my husband and I walked in the Heritage Park, passing close the the Owl’s Nest Bookshop that was present at the Convention. The next day, we follwed the trails along the Bow River, to the Calgary downtown.
My author interview is out, published in the Astounding Analog Companion. There, I discuss the premises of my new story, Maragi’s Secret, a novella set in a distant future where humanity has taken to the…. sky. The full story is available in the current May-June 2024 issue of Asimov’s.
There’s some cool factoids for the hard-SF aficionados out there, plus photographs of me learning to fly a glider (taken by my wonderful father at the time). It was a fantastic experience, even if I did not pursue that activity. There, you learn to respect the three ‘Ws’: wing, weather and wind. I had a few bad landings (not shown on the pics) before getting the hang of it (ha-ha).
The world-building was, and still is, challenging. And fun, even if the plot seems to swerve in unexpected directions!
I consulted several sources about living in altitude, health problems, not forgetting the perils of dirigibles, especially in the first part of the XXth century. You would think lifting humans in a floating balloon would be a simple volume-weight equation, but the engineering challenges and the huge size of those mastodons, with the then-available materials, were daunting.
Nowadays, the are start-ups trying to push the concept off the ground (in the literal sense). Beside slow traveling, transporting heavy loads over harsh terrain, if time is not of the essence, can be done.
I love to illustrate writing hurdles, so here is one below. That manuscript was a hard act to follow, to say the least.
There may be several stories coming up in this universe, so stay tuned!
Analog Science Fiction & Facts has a blog where the editors interview the authors. This is my Q&A session for the latest story, “Living on the Trap”, published in the Nov-Dec 2023 issue of this SF magazine. And yes, I put on this picture, illustrating the perils of writing hard-SF !
First, a big, warm thank you to all of you that I met at the Winnipeg Pemmi-Con and other occasions of celebrating science-fiction.
September – new book!
I am launching a French SF book this fall, Rose du désert, Éditions David, about a very pessimistic, troubled teen living on an hostile planet. Rose can’t relate to other teens, is painfully aware of her cognitive lapses and waits for the end. Nevertheless, when the drought threatens everyone’s survival, she must come out of her shell…
For you English-speaking, the illustration on the cover is from me.
It was not supposed to be. I usually send a crude sketch to my publishers, and the graphic designer takes on. But changes in the format of the collection – and to the covers – prodded me to complete this illustration of Rose, entirely done with Clip Studio.
The official launch of the novel will be in the Congrès Boréal, a French-speaking Canadian Science fiction convention in Montréal, on October 21st.
My most recent publication « Tears Down the Wall » is out in the September-October Asimov’s issue. Check out my wonderful cover neighbors!
« Living on the Trap » will be out at Analog in November-December 2023
« When the Last Writer Died” is out in Polar Borealis 27. Polar Borealis is an online fanzine enturely supported and edited by Richard Graeme Cameron.
And… for he first time ever, I am included in a « Best-of » of Canadian SF authors by . The reprint contract has been signed for « Rare Earths Pineapple » published in Analog last year.
The Pemmi-Con, the 15th North American Science Fiction Convention opens today at the RBC Convention Center at Winnipeg, 20-23 July 2023. Meet me at the dealer’s room with my indie publishing house Echofictions.
Short and sweet chocolate SF stories for the busybodies!
(Echofictions’ corner table at the back of the Dealer’s room)
“Echofictions provides short and sweet books for readers living with a limited attention span (a public nobody seems to care for), for people learning a second language or the everyday busybodies who lack free time! At the end of each book is a blank friendship list that allows the reader to pass it on. Most Echofictions books and graphic novels offer upbeat SF suitable for all ages, created by multi award-winning author Michèle Laframboise. “
With more than 40 titles out and counting, Echofictions stories are never boring and offer a range of hard-to-soft chocolate SF whose flavor will stay with you for a long time.
WHAT: Michèle Laframboise’s books, graphic novels, postcards, in French and English
WHERE: RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg 375 York Avenue, Winnipeg MB R3C 3J3
Echoes of a Sunday artist 
