Carol J Parsons

Jesse Lawrence
Jan 27, 2024
5 min read

Carol Parsons lives in Tyler, Texas when she’s not traveling to points unknown—either literally or in her imagination. She’s married with children and grandchildren, loves campy sci fi shows and anime, and would rather be parasailing than cleaning house. With over 30 years in the writing business, she is a retired high school teacher and gardens when she isn’t plotting against her characters.

Welcome, Carol. It's a pleasure to have you here today. I'm excited to talk about writing sci-fi, one of my favorite genres. In your own words, please tell us a few words about yourself and what you write.

I'm a retired world traveler; that is I've been a journalist, teacher, missionary, and pastor's wife, so I've been around the globe. I'm married with 4 kids and three grandsons, so my days stay busy. I cut my teeth on StarTrek the original series, the old black and white Buck Rogers, and the original Star Wars (back before it became A New Hope). I write soft science fiction, a bit of space opera, the occasional bit of fantasy, and gameLIT.

I'm curious. Have you always been a writer at heart? Your plethora of books and consistent dedication to crafting insightful blog posts suggest you have been passionate about authorship for quite a while.

I've been scribbling stories since junior high and sometimes got in trouble in elementary for letting my imagination run away with me. I started several juvenile Heinlein-type stories in high school, but they were never publish-worthy. Most were pretty badly written, but I did have fun with them! I wrote my first true novel my freshman year in college and have been having a blast traveling the galaxy ever since.

On your website, you describe yourself as a "country girl with a yen for traveling the stars." Do your county roots inform your writing? And conversely, does your writing change how you view your roots?

I've always loved the stars and wanted to be an astronaut, but back in those days, nearsighted girls didn't make the cut. I've lived most of my life in rural areas and those family/faith values are evident in what I write. I believe Christian writers have a responsibility to their readers, so while you won't find heavy religious overtones in my books, they do proceed from a Christian worldview. Thus, you're not going to find any profanity or sex in the books. I want my books to be wholesome entertainment. On a more specific note, those country roots are what inspired my Mars series. I can't write Westerns or romance, but I loved the sheer grit and determination of early pioneers. So I transplanted a bunch of West Texans to Mars. I think writing the Mars series has made me more appreciative of the simpler lifestyle. I know that a lot of sci-fi is about the tech (which is cool), but realistically, colonizing another planet wouldn't involve a lot of tech early on. It would be a struggle to survive and you can't depend on stuff that breaks down. Also, there would be fewer "lone wolves" and more dependence on each other.

Do you mind describing the Red Sands Series on the Martian frontier?

Think a Japanese Western on Mars. The series has a strong Old West feel, complete with barroom brawls, gunfights, and other frontier tropes. But there is a blend of Japanese and Hispanic elements as well. I tried to blend the language, so there are plenty of Japanese and Hispanic terms mixed in. The settlers are tough, independent-minded folk who depend heavily on each other to survive. Neighbors look out for neighbors and MarsTex, the Earth-based company that helps folks immigrate, also manages a community pool of resources. Think co-ops. Not something you find in a big city, but there are plenty of co-ops in rural areas--businesses that provide a service to their clients, who are the stockholders, and any profit gets funneled back to the clients. Most folks live in rancheros spread across the Southern Hemisphere or in townships connected by maglev trains. Homes are mostly underground with underground greenhouses and above-ground barns for the pronghorn, caribou, and yak, which are the principal herd animals. Cats and chickens are necessary, and education is home-based via the 'Net with settlers taking turns providing the higher education and training. The largest city is Seven Sisters, where the spaceport is located, but Railhead and Edo are large towns where the two rail lines intersect.

Can you tell us about an author that has influenced your writing, and what you hope a future reader might take away from your works?

Both Essie Summers and Andre Norton are huge influences on my writing. Summers was a master at creating vivid descriptions without inundating the reader with details. She was also wonderful at creating exciting stories interwoven with historical facts, and believable and likable characters. Norton's Beast Master, is an incredible blend of Old West and modern sci-fi storytelling. her characters are ordinary people dealing with extraordinary situations and there is so much hope and redemption in her characters. Her world is dusty, gritty, and familiar. I wanted the same feel in the Red Sands series. I hope readers come away with a sense of wonder, of hope, an uplifting of the spirits, and a sense of having been entertained. I'm not out to change the world, just make one little corner of it a bit brighter.

And my obligatory out-of-the-norm question: How far does one need to travel to leave home? A block? A mile? A country?

Just open a book. Books take us to faraway places and open our minds to new ideas and new knowledge. We can make "lifetime" friends within the pages of a book, find solace for the lonely aches, fill the emptiness, and sometimes find hope. Science fiction, especially, lends itself to helping us not only "leave home," but also find the value in coming back.

Character motivation is crucial when writing any story. How do you stay in touch with your characters to make sure they behave as they would rather than how you would? (I ask because it's a challenge for me).

Good question. Whenever I hit a snag, I step back from the story and allow it to percolate in my brain. This gives my characters time to live in my head and talk me through the situation, and I can visualize different scenarios until one fits. Also, I sometimes have to do a deeper dive into their backstory. I'm not the kind of writer who completely creates a character or world before writing. I generate enough to know the character (mostly they spring full-blown in my head, although Olivia had three chapters before we decided on her name!), and then if something comes up I'm not sure about, I'll sit down and figure out what part of the background needs fleshing out to have the MC act in character.

Before we go, I hear you have another book coming out this summer. Would it be possible to hear a few words about it?

Wish Upon a Double Moon is the third book in the McKinnon clan. While Adam McKinnon is trying to figure out how to run a training program ranchero for newcomers to adapt to Mars, an Earth-based land developer attempts to gobble up large tracts of Mars land. This shouldn't be possible under the MarsTex contracts with the settlers, but tracking down the culprits puts newcomers and settlers at risk. Adam's plan to make the move from best friend to romantic interest with Lydia Landazuri, his partner in the training program, is complicated when an Earth actress has designs on Adam as her own leading man.