Brenda Cooper

Brenda Cooper is a technology professional, a science fiction writer, and a futurist.

Last year, she applied the Page 99 Test to The Silver Ship and the Sea, the first book in The Silver Ship trilogy. Her new book, Reading the Wind, is due out in July.

Earlier this month I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:

I'm always reading a lot. The most recent book I recommended on my site is The Final Warning, by James Patterson. I enjoyed it for a few reasons - as a pleasure read, it's fun. Mr. Patterson is good enough at the hook that he can get me through his books without my writerly-mind derailing into studying technique on the first read, so they entertain (yes, I do go back and try to learn from him. I don't want to write books that are quite that fast paced, but I would love to be that good at hooks). The Final Warning is also an engaging look at a tough problem I'm otherwise blogging about. And besides, his main character, Max, flies. My first novel has people who can fly in it, and so does the one I'm working on now (my fifth). And no, I don't often have flying dreams.

I'm also reading about and studying Eva Peron. I love the musical, and that made me want to know the story, and the story is interesting enough I keep finding new references. Someday, bits of her story will work their way into one of mine, although I don't know how yet. This moment, Barb and J. C. Hendee's "Noble Dead" is a series in progress, and Paul Melko's "Ten Sigmas" is burning a hole on my desk.

Brenda Cooper is the co-author of the novel, Building Harlequin's Moon, which she wrote with Larry Niven. Her solo and collaborative short fiction has appeared in multiple magazines, including Analog, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Oceans of the Mind, and The Salal Review.

Visit Brenda Cooper's website and her LiveJournal; read an excerpt from The Silver Ship and the Sea, and learn more about Reading the Wind.

The Page 99 Test: The Silver Ship and the Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue