Sci-Fi Stories are Human Stories (with Jill Tew)

In this episode, we interview author Jill Tew about how she got into writing dystopian romance and middle-grade stories. Jill shares how her love of sci-fi and nerdy Black kids and discusses her new climate-justice dystopian romance, An Ocean Apart, centered on wealthy elites escaping environmental collapse on luxurious sea ships while land communities suffer. 

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:36 Jill Tew Origin Story

01:16 From Corporate to Divergent

02:37 Middle Grade Breakthrough

03:49 Representation in Dystopia

04:47 Ocean Apart Climate Plot

07:22 Social Justice in Sci Fi

10:28 Staying Grounded as Writer

12:52 Upcoming Books and Headspace

15:19 What Jill Is Reading

16:32 Community Impact Advice

17:59 Where to Find Jill Closing

18:49 Podcast Sign Off

Jill’s Books

An Ocean Apart

Rayana Johnson's Giant Leap

Kaya Morgan's Crowning Achievement

The Dividing Sky

Other Books Mentioned

The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko

Where to find Jill

jilltew.com

Instagram

Threads

TikTok

Thank you for being part of the Liberation is Lit podcast! If you have stories to share, want to suggest topics, or just want to connect, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @liberationislit or visit our website at liberationislit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review! Remember, your voice matters, and together, through the lens of stories, we're making a difference in the world.

Transcript

0:07

Hey y'all. Welcome to the liberation Lit Podcast, where the power of storytelling meet the force of social change. I'm your host, Tayler Simon, and in this podcast we believe in the profound impact of stories. And I am so excited to be joined with young adult author Jill, Tew to talk about her books and dystopian romance and middle grade novels. Hi, Jill, how are you Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Yes. So to kick us off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself as an author and why you decided to write dystopian romance and also middle grade novel, Yeah, not absolutely. the two together? Yeah, not yet anyway. No, I, are right. Well, I grew up loving stories. I was definitely like a sci-fi nerd growing up. I used to watch all the, you know, sci-fi shows with my dad, like Battlestar Galactica and Farscape and all these shows. And I also knew that I loved storytelling. I would make up stories for my friends, but I also knew that, you know, as the parent of immigrants especially, I was, my job was to get a practical job. Like that was my, that was my goal. You were staying on focus. You were staying on task. And so I did that. You know, I went to a great school. I graduated into like a very, like, corporate environment. I went to business school and so I was consulting and seeing all these companies up close and personal and felt my soul like slowly withering on like a personal and professional level that I was doing the work, but I was not, it was, it was not purposeful. It was, I was not fulfilled. And so I began to burn out like one job after another and, eventually back in 2014. Wow. Some friends suggested that we go see a movie after work, some coworkers. And so I went with them to see this movie and it was divergent. And like walking home from that theater, I was like, I remember this feeling. I remember like wanting, like getting so lost in a story and like wondering what if and thinking about the future and like the perils of society and like, I wanna get this back, like now that I have it. And so, I went home that night and instead of cracking up my laptop to do more PowerPoint presentations, I began outlining my very first story. And it took seven years to finish that draft, but that book got me my agent, so it kind of all worked out. And yeah, I think, I don't know if there's something about like having been in that corporate space that makes me lean towards dystopian stories, but I feel like I'm working through some stuff maybe. And it's, yeah, I still have more ideas. Clearly it's not outta my system yet. But yeah, I think there's that. And then the middle grade, like, to be totally honest, I never thought I would end up being a middle grade author. The idea for my debut middle grade Kaiya Morgan's crowning Achievement actually began as a short story that I wrote. And I originally wrote it as like a teenager character, so almost like a ya sort of protagonist. And I submitted it to an anthology. Didn't get into the anthology, but I grew up gonna the Renaissance Festival and grew up like kind of being that like nerdy black girl that didn't quite know where she fit. And so I had that story in me. And when Freedom Fire, which was a new imprint out of Disney books was getting started, they reached out to my agent asking if I had any ideas and I was like, I think I actually could age this down. It's a middle grade, so they only take middle grade stories. And something about doing that. Unlocked, like all of this feeling of like Kaya as this like passionate, nerdy girl who knows exactly what she's into. She's not apologizing for that. But the rest of the world needs to kind of catch up. And so like that was where that idea came from. And then from there, her, oh, I have this actually her bestie, Rihanna has her own adventure at Space Camp. And so I began this sort of, world building this like world and universe of these like nerdy kids, nerdy black kids and following their passions and then also experiencing everything else that comes with being 12. So, yeah. I really love that, and it's just like one of the nerdy black kids that would've probably grown up reading your books Yeah, there wasn't a lot of representation for really kids there really was that. Yeah. But also think about the dystopian young adult, and again, how that space wasn't really black. We had like divergent, we had hunger games, it was very white space. And I just think about the roles of those dystopian novels kind of radicalizing Mm-hmm. a young kid, even though I really didn't make the connections to, yeah, these are 16 year olds in the story, but how can I myself, take the lessons and incorporate into the real life sometimes? really liter, not really, not literal, Yeah. times that we're living Unfortunately, yeah. yeah. That's super cool. And so I also wanted to talk about your newest book, an Ocean Apart, and to ask what inspired you to write a climate justice oriented novel, and what message did you hope readers would get from reading the book? Yeah, so anytime I'm thinking about a new dystopian story there's always like the personal, like also like the romance element of it, but I always start with like what I'm trying to say or like what element of society I really want to examine and. And for notion apart, the thing that kept coming back to me is the wealthiest tendency to like insulate themselves from consequences. They've got bunkers, they've got, you know, spaceships to Mars planned out. They've got all this stuff. And many of them do have, like, it's called sea setting. They have these communities and these massive ships and floating islands that they want to create to get literally like away from the jurisdiction of like actual countries. And you know, I think when I thought about that message of like the wealthy trying to ice insulate themselves in vain, 'cause we know that we're all on this planet together, climate change felt like the natural mechanism for that. So. So in that book, you know, the wealthy and their corporations have really ruined the environment here on land. And so they kind of flee to the sea on these massive, luxurious cruise ships. And they kind of govern from afar. So they're still in charge, but they just like don't have to suffer any of the consequences. Right. So, yeah, so Eden is living on land. She's, you know, part of the, they're called the marshes. They live in this marsh off the coast of, , in Miami or former Miami that now is flooded. And life is hard there, right? There's no food. There's no water. There's disease, right? And she's mad, she's really angry and she finds out about this dating competition that one of the wealthy CEOs is having for her son on her cruise ship. Eden's like, bet, like I'm sneaking on board. I'm gonna be one of these wealthy girls. I'm gonna like end the competition, win his heart, break his heart, and seal all of the prize money back for my people. And that's kind of her her mission at the beginning of the book. Set of kinds, this backdrop of climate change and food scarcity and water scarcity, and all the things that we know are already happening. And I don't, there's something powerful too about it being set in marshy Florida.'cause I think of like Zora Neal Hurston and their eyes were watching God and just making those connections there. Mm-hmm. again, I love how it's like. Yes. Like this, oh, fluffy romance, like dating show trope in like the backdrop of something so dark is, and sinister is like climate crisis that's already starting to happen, like Yeah. Yeah. I know we, we've been talking about this, but how does social justice, really influence your writing? How much do you take from real life Mm-hmm. Do you, do you see your writing as I don't wanna say prophetic, because I hope, I really hope not. Really? Hope not. Yes. But how do you, how do you kind of take real life and talk about social justice in a way that's digestible for young people? Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, people ask a lot like, where did these ideas come from? And I'm like, I'm just pressing fast forward, right? Like, I'm just like, I see what we have. I pick, I pick a couple of elements, I like pull the string and I just see what's gonna happen. You know? I think like technology especially is fascinating because technology is just an amplifier of what we're already valuing and what we already desire as a society. So, you know, I think sci-fi stories are. Our, our human stories, right? They are showing a mirror back to us of like, well, this is what you want. Like, I'm just giving you what you want. And so we have to, look at what we're already valuing or devaluing, right? My debut, the y dystopian, the dividing sky is a lot, to do with like hyper capitalism and like productivity and the succession we have with like being productive and like, you know, treating each other like things instead of people if it means that we can get that extra ounce of time to get to work, right? So, in that book you have, people called proxies, which like, you know. Raise your kids for you or go on dates for you, or read books for you so that you can keep working all the time. Right. And I tell that premise people and they're like, oh, I want one of those. And it's like, no. Like you're not supposed to want one of those. Like, that's the whole point. Live your life for yourself, like slow down. Right. And it's only because it's already here, you know? And so I think a lot of it, it's social justice, yes. But it's also just you know, commentary on. The, how out of, how, out of whack our priorities are and what we're valuing and just trying to like reshuffle the deck a little bit to give back something that feels more natural and feels less like the, like we're running away with it, right? Oh yes. Like you said, it's already Mm-hmm. chat, GPT Mm-hmm. and miss how much rely on it to be able to just more and like, okay, I am gonna start a side business outside of my Yeah. like just finding ways to cram more productivity as in work for, because our, our whole livelihood is tied to capitalism. Yeah. yeah, while the idea of a proxy sounds like ideal in this world, Uh huh. I, I want to do more of the living. I don't Yes, exactly. Go for a walk. Right. Like cook a meal together. Like, I mean, you know, like it doesn't all have to be like maximum efficiency, right? Like not optimizing for whatever we're doing. Yeah, absolutely. So in this world of having to balance all of the things that life demands and as a writer myself, I know, like trying to unfortunately make a living, Right. In this work, what keeps you grounded? What keeps you coming back to the page and being committed to your stories in this way? Yeah. I think it's one of those things where like, I was one of those kids and teenagers that I would just like lay in my bed and daydream about stuff. Right. I, I never actually wrote, like, put down on paper any fan fiction, but I was imagining myself like, in the fellowship, like doing all the things like in all my favorite fandoms. And it took me a while to realize like, not everybody does that, right? So like, I would talk to friends and be like, oh, well, you know, if, if we had the time, everybody would wanna write a novel, right? And they were like, no. Right. And I think that that reality, that like. As writers like you are this, this kind of person that is born with story inside of you is actually not the norm. Like that's not what everybody feels. And so I think once I realized that I was lucky enough to be able to. For the foreseeable future, at least, like, you know, have a career where I get to just tell all these stories that are pouring out of me and like process the world in this way that is just like how my brain works. Like I can't not do that, right? Like, I see story everywhere. I have ideas everywhere. Because now that the tap is finally on, you know, I'm just like, why wouldn't I like do that for as long as I'm able? Like I can't not, so yeah. Yes, and I, I feel the same way when, not so fun. Responsibilities of life Yeah, getting in the way. yeah, yeah. I get like, I mean, my husband knows, like, I, I get irritable, like if I can't get a story out, like when, like my kids have like a summer break or whatever and they, you know, there's no camps in there at home and I'm just like, oh my gosh. Like I have a scene that is like going to explode inside of me if I cannot write it down. I just need like 30 minutes to go downstairs. Right. Like, it becomes like a physical, like tension, like a buzzing, right? So, yeah. Yeah, I know a lot of writers talk about that need to get it out, get it Mm-hmm. And I'm, that's why I'm always in my notes out Yes. Absolutely. the, when I sit down to the computer, I'm just like, nothing is here. But the most inconvenient times, it's like, you gotta write this down now. So, absolutely. Absolutely. yeah. what are some of your upcoming projects that you would like to share with readers? Yeah. So yeah, so Rihanna Johnson's Giant Leap comes out from Disney books April 21st. So that's my next one coming up. And that is middle grade about Rayna Johnson. She is. Hilarious and like wonderful. She's a huge space nerd, but she's also very anxious. And so like nobody really sees a side of her inside where she's like constantly thinking about like the worst case scenario. And it's like planning for it, right? And her thinking is if she plans for it, if she has a checklist or just like a game plan, then like, it won't catch her off guard when it happens. But then she goes to camp and she gets the very first period and her parents are fighting like a lot, and her friend is really distant and strange all of a sudden. All these things that she couldn't have possibly planned for hit at the same time. And she has like, no none of her normal coping mechanisms work. Like she doesn't have any of those resources there at camp. And so she really has to figure out what she's gonna do and how she's gonna survive. This devastation and there's like, you know, cool space camp stuff and fart jokes and like a scavenger hunt and their first crush. Like, there's also like lots of really fun stuff. But it very much is like, you know, who I was at 12 and all the things that are changing around you as you realize like you're coming out of childhood and into something different and. Getting involved in family issues that you used to not have to know about. Right. So, yeah, that's, that's Rihanna's story. That's April 21st, and then next year, next spring, I will have my adult debut. And that is a sci-fi romance called Headspace. But it's very much against going, going back to like the Battlestar Galactica, like Firefly days, but it's, I call it, uh, the Expanse meets Emily Henry. So the idea there is that there's a, captain of a rebel spaceship whose husband was the ship's mechanic, who kind of like defected a couple years ago, like left the left, the crew in a lurch, like, just like kind of left. He shows up back on the ship, needing safe haven from like the, the space Feds who were like after him and to keep him safe nick, this captain reluctantly agrees to harbor his consciousness in her brain. And so it's like forced proximity to its absolute limits. It's really fun. I love Second Chance Romance. It's like everything I love in this package of the book. So it's very fun. Yeah. Oh, that is Cool. exciting. And that might be 'cause I do sci-fi Yeah. dystopian side, but that one I can't wait I was like, we're going to space. Like I can't believe I get to write a space book. So I'm very excited. Yeah. Yes. Has there any been anything that you've been reading lately to give you inspiration or that you just want to of just nerd out about for a second. Yeah. I wish that I had it here. I'm reading it upstairs. So, a good friend of mine, Jordan Ifueko, who wrote the Ray Bearer series. She has her middle grade debut coming out, maybe even the same day as Rihanna. It might be April 21st. It's called the Genie Game, and it is like a dystopian middle grade. Like it actually is very cool. It's like this girl has to she makes a deal and ends up having to become like a genie in charge of this like magical boba shop. But she has to grant wishes to get points to like be able to like figure out what happened to free your sister. It's very, very good. But there's so much really smart, very like age appropriate commentary on the rat race of capitalism. And Jordan is just brilliant. And I like, I'm laughing, I'm like thinking like kids are gonna have a blast of this book. So I'm thrilled for her. And it's gonna, I think it's gonna just take the middle grade book world by storm. Oh, that is so exciting and I'm, I'm just so glad to see all this representation that didn't have as a kid. Not that the books weren't out there, but They were hard to find. They were absolutely hard to find. Yeah. Yeah, And so my last question for you today is, what advice would you offer listeners who wanna make a positive impact in their communities? absolutely. So it means so much of my work on the dystopian side is about. The intersection of capitalism and technology and how it ends up creating this very transactional kind of sheen to our relationship with each other, right? But like, it's about what you can do for me, what I can do for you, and how much we can pay each other for it, as opposed to like a more authentic, natural way of communicating and relating to each other. And so I would say start local, right? And like you think about like mutual aid resources thinking of, think about like getting to know a neighbor, like really get to know them, like what's going on, right? That these are hard times for a lot of people. A lot of people feel like they can't actually share what's up. So I would just say like, instead of jumping to immediately, like, what can I throw money at? Think about like how you can slow down and like share your, like your heart and your, like your relational energy, right? That is, I think, like the most precious resource that we're just not using right now to solve some of these problems. So. Ooh, instead, ah, I love that. Just instead of thinking about what money can I throw out the Yeah. again, that's very much a capitalist Yeah. And that tends to be more about you, right? Like how can I feel better? I know I'll throw 50 bucks over here, right? Like just slow down and Yeah, really like connect with somebody. So, Yes, yeah. relationship over that transaction. I love it. Thank you so much, Jill, Thank you. amazing conversation. Where can people find you and keep up with your work? Yeah, so my website is jill tew.com. I'm also on Instagram and threads at J two, so JTEW writes, and then I'm occasionally on TikTok these days, at Jill Tew as well. I will make sure to put all of that in the show notes so people can find it and. Keep up the links and I also put all the links to your books as well in the show notes, so I am super excited for. The middle grade book that's coming out, Thank you. 21st. Make sure to pre-order pre-orders, help authors do. Yes. the link to the pre-order will be there, as well as checking out some of the other books. But thank you again, Jill and thank you listeners for being a part of the Liberation and Lit podcast. If you have stories you wanna share, wanna suggest any topics or just wanna connect, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. At Liberation is Lit, or visit our website, liberation is lit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving your review. And remember, your voice matters and together through the lens of stories, we're gonna make a difference in the world. Until next time. Thank you.