Cameron Cooper is the pen name of bestselling author Tracy Cooper-Posey, and the author of the six-volume Imperial Hammer space opera series, the eight-volume Iron Hammer space opera series, the five-volume Indigo Reports series, the five-volume Ptolemy Lane space opera mystery series (I’m particularly intrigued by The Body in the Zero-Gee Brothel; great title)—
And all of this since 2015!
As Cameron Cooper, Tracy writes science fiction short stories and novels, including space opera. Her fiction has appeared in Shelter of Daylight, Boundary Shock Quarterly, Blaze Ward Presents, and Space Opera Digest 2021. She came fourth in Hugh Howey’s SPSFC#2 in 2023, with Hammer and Crucible. An Australian-Canadian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line. https://CameronCooperAuthor.com
We have been following Cameron’s remarkably productive career with great interest ever since “He Really Meant It” showed up in our inbox. She’s been a bit quiet lately, so it seemed like a good time to touch base with her and ask a few questions.
SS: What is the first SF/F book or story you remember reading?
CC: Oh, that’s easy. It has such a profound effect on my reading life and, eventually, my professional life, that I’ve never forgotten it.
I grew up reading fairytales, including a doorstopper of a volume of Classic Fairytales by Readers’ Digest (I was without TV or movies until I was thirteen). So one could say they are my earliest fantasy influence.
But the book that really made me sit up and pay attention to an entire genre was The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. It was required reading in my English class and was the only “required” novel that I ever enjoyed. I was, frankly, gob-smacked by story. I turned into a science fiction freak overnight.
SS: Who do you consider to be your most significant influence?
CC: That’s an open-ended question, isn’t it? Depending upon who you speak to, I’ve been influenced by a great many evil and immoral people, and it shows.
As for writers who have influenced my own writing, well, I can’t leave it at just one.
Isaac Asimov has been a major influence over my love of writing a lot, of writing more and more books. If you read enough of his autobiographical essays and epigraphs, you get the impression that he simply adored writing, that it was enormous fun for him. And that has rubbed off, I’m glad to say. I can’t think of anything that is more fun while wearing clothes than making up stories.
Consuming stories comes close, but making them up is better.
While, on the other hand, Mary Stewart, author of the historical fantasy Merlin series, had a profound impact upon my writing style. Her sense of place, the way you feel you are there, is something my reviews tell me I also manage to impart.
Desmond Bagley, the thriller writer, taught me how to make thrillers not just non-stop action, but also intelligent and, at times, thoughtful. I don’t write pure thrillers, but the action side of my stories, I think, tends to be as nuanced as his.
SS: When you write a new story, are you a plotter or a pantser?
CC: Plotter. All the way. I even plot out flash fiction and short stories. Those outlines might be three sentences long, or six beats only, but I prefer to have the story concept, the character arcs and the end of the story nailed before I write the first draft.
I didn’t always plot first. My first four novels (all trunked, now) were written without a plan. Then I picked up a book on screenwriting. Hollywood would seize and rust without their screen treatments and concept outlines, and they reach for high concepts. Writers must plot first. It’s a professional requirement. Reading about the techniques of plotting and crafting a story was a light-bulb moment for me.
I plotted my very next novel. It won a national award and was the first novel I sold.
I’ve plotted ever since. I’ve tried pantsing a few times just to see if it made better fiction for me but have never finished a single story that way. It’s too stressful for me.
SS: How do you balance writing vs having a life?
CC: A life? What’s that?
My family was a sensible middle-class Australian family who instilled in me the belief that having “a good job” that paid the bills was the best I could reach for. University was out of the question. So were high-falutin’ creative careers like acting or writing.
They were unimpressed when I sold my first story. They were equally unmoved when I sold my first two novels in the same week, a couple of years later.
I had to nurture for myself the dream of selling well enough to write full time. I held onto it for years, until I reached that goal in 2015. I worked my rear off to get there and thought that without the day job getting in the way, I would be able to relax a bit, and write all day.
Hollow laugh. I’ve worked harder, and for longer hours, since I quit the day job than I ever did while working for the man.
But…it doesn’t feel like work. I know, I know. That’s a tired old cliché, but it’s worn smooth because it’s quite true. I work ten-hour days most days, often twelve-hour days, that simply don’t feel like workdays.
And now I’m in the privileged position where my husband, my son, and most recently, my daughter, are all also working in my family corporation, so every conversation drifts in and out of shop talk, and we don’t have to explain industry stuff to each other.
Each day, we all park ourselves in our corners of the house and get to work. But it’s just not work. Not really. The business of writing and publishing fiction is the weft through which the rest of our lives warp.
SS: This story, “He Really Meant It:” is there anything special you’re hoping readers will notice or appreciate in it?
CC: I love flash fiction because of the neat ideas it presents, in one swift package. If science fiction is the genre of ideas, then flash SF is ideas stripped down to their skivvies.
But the best flash fiction, while presenting its idea, manages to impart a sense of the iceberg of a story sitting just beneath the prose.
I’m hoping that readers spot the iceberg-sized story beneath “He Really Meant It,” too.
SS: What’s next for you? What are you working on now?
CC: I received an email from a reader several months ago, demanding to know (politely!) when I was going to write another Hammer series. This took me by surprise.
I’ve already written two complete Hammer space opera series, The Imperial Hammer and The Iron Hammer. Of course, there’s always more story to tell, but I thought that writing a third series would push my readers’ patience too far.
So I put out a poll asking my readers what they thought about the idea. A massive 99.9% of the responses said, “write another series!” and most of the accompanying comments were of the “write it now” vein.
So I’m world-building and outlining a third Hammer space opera series, featuring Danny Andela, the protagonist from the previous two series.
I am, Asimov-style, having a blast.
SS: Thank you for your time, and on a parting note; if our readers want to check out more of your work, where should they look?
CC: My website, https://cameroncooperauthor.com/, is always a good place to start. But if they’re looking for free e-books and special deals, they should go to https://cameroncooperauthor.com/free-sf/. There’s always something new coming up on that page.
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