Andrew Fraknoi is a retired astronomer and college professor, and the lead author of a free, online, introductory astronomy textbook, published by the nonprofit OpenStax project. He has written two children’s books, several activity manuals for teachers, and (so far) four published science-fiction stories. He appears regularly on regional and national radio, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language; colleagues have recognized his contributions to public outreach by naming asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi.
Tell us a little more about the science behind your story.
One of the most remarkable predictions of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (his great framework for space, time, and gravity) is that the pace at which time runs should depend on the strength of gravity. The stronger the gravity, Einstein proposed, the slower time would run. This was a radical idea — that the movement of time was not the same for all observers; that time, if you will, was not universally shared. Since all of us on Earth exist in roughly the same gravity, this was not something that could be measured with available instruments at the time Einstein predicted it, in the second decade of the 20th century.
But later, both astronomical observations and experiments on Earth confirmed that Einstein’s idea was correct. For example, in 1971, Joseph Hafele and Richard Keating flew a very accurate “atomic” clock on an airplane and compared the pace at which it measured time to a similar clock on the ground. Because the clock aboard the plane was further from the Earth’s center of gravity, it experienced (slightly) weaker gravity, and ran a tiny bit faster than the clock on the surface of our planet. Today, orbiting satellites which provide the GPS (global positioning system) signals that help us drive our cars to the right destination must be corrected for the tiny difference in time where the satellite orbits and the time in our cars on the ground.
The most dramatic example of Einstein’s prediction comes about near black holes, the “corpses” of dead stars, which have collapsed upon dying. Gravity near a black hole is outrageously stronger than gravity on Earth or in empty space, and so time would run much slower if you could venture close to a black hole. This is what the protagonist in our story does — by approaching the black hole, he slows down his own pace of time when compared to the rest of humanity.
I should mention that we don’t recommend trying this experiment in real life — once you get that close to a black hole, really bad things will happen to your body. Let’s assume you are moving toward the black hole feet first. Gravity would be so strong, that the pull on your feet (closer to the black hole) would be immensely stronger than the pull on your head (further from the black hole.) That would mean your feet would be pulled away from your head by a big difference in force. The human body is not particularly stretchable, so you would soon feel your feet pulled out of your ankles, your ankles out of your calf, your calf out of your knee, etc. At that point, worrying about a disappointing love affair would be the last thing on your mind. (I made up something in the story called “Berenskov-effect shielding” to protect our narrator from getting stretched like this.)
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
I am a retired astronomer and college professor. I have been writing non-fiction for a long time, including three different astronomy textbooks (with two co-authors) and two children’s books. But I have only been writing science fiction seriously for about five years. I have been a science fiction fan since I was a teenager; in fact, I learned English when I came to America, at age 11, by reading science fiction comics and later books. When I taught astronomy for non-science majors, I always recommended science fiction stories to my students that showed astronomical ideas and phenomena in realistic ways. I still keep a web page of science fiction with good astronomy, at: http://bit.ly/astroscifi All those years, I thought about whether I could retrain my brain to write fiction (instead of just fact) about astronomy. Then, in retirement, I decided to try, joined a writer’s group, and have been writing stories regularly.
If you could go back and find yourself five years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
In your stories, make sure characters come before the science. If you don’t create interesting characters, no one will pay attention to the astronomy in the story.
What is your favorite type of fiction and who are your favorite authors?
Having read the above, you will not be surprised that I like “hard science fiction” — the kind that stays close to what we know about the real universe. My favorite authors these days are Gregory Benford, Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton, and Stephen Baxter. My early inspirations included Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Alfred Bester. I also enjoy many other types of books, including other kinds of fiction (Philip Roth and Rex Stout are among my favorite non-SF authors.)
How do you measure success when it comes to your writing?
As a new writer, I am happy whenever one of my stories is published. (This is my fifth published story since I started.) Heck, I am even happy when the rejection letter includes a personal, encouraging note from the editor. I always have some stories circulating among science fiction magazines and try not to be too discouraged when I get a rejection.
What tips do you have for finding time to write?
Of course, asking a retired person this question is a bit like cheating. I didn’t have time to write fiction when I was teaching college full time. But now, I find that putting time aside each day just for fiction writing is a good way to have discipline. It also helps to be in a writer’s group, and to have deadlines for when it’s your turn to submit a story.
Have you attended any conferences or writing retreats? What was the experience like and do you have any to recommend?
This is perhaps an outside the box answer, but over the years, I have always had a little notebook with me when I went to astronomy conferences. If I heard about a discovery or project that I thought might make an interesting kernel for a story, I would jot it down. So by the time I started writing fiction, I had 30+ years of notebook entries to inspire me. I have also been fortunate enough to be asked to speak (as an astronomer) at science fiction conferences, and meeting successful science fiction writers there and talking to them about how they do their writing has been inspiring.
Were you taught anything about creative writing in high school or college that just didn’t work for you?
Quite the opposite. I went for high school to the Bronx High School of Science, one of the nerdiest of the special schools in New York City, fully intending to be an astronomer. But I took a writing class with a wonderful, but demanding teacher named Jacob Luria, a published poet, who saw something in my writing and encouraged me to stretch my writing skills. As a result, I was able to enjoy writing throughout my career, and practiced by writing articles and books explaining astronomy to beginners. For a kid, especially one whose first language was not English, such early encouragement and training really meant a lot.
Do you participate in any online or in-person critique or writing groups?
As I have already mentioned, I do. We have about 8 people, and meet every two weeks to critique two stories each time. So you have to be ready to submit something every 8 weeks, which keeps me disciplined. And the group is really good at giving specific feedback and writing help (we are fortunate to have one of the editors of the local newspaper as one of our members.)
What are your writing goals for the next twelve months?
To send my fiction to an even wider range of magazines and not to get discouraged by rejections.
What are your writing goals for the next five years?
To write as many different stories as I can and be able to grow in doing characterization and dialogue.
What book are you reading right now?
Shadows of Eternity by Gregory Benford, Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Finally, is there anything you’d like to plug? Feel free to share a link.
You can learn more about my work popularizing astronomy and read my other published fiction at my website: http://fraknoi.com
