In this episode of the "Audio Signals" podcast, host Marco Ciappelli chats with author Katherine Benfante about her book "Scattered", a historical sci-fi work that focuses on time travel.
Guests: Katherine Benfante, Author
On Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-benfante-1baa5a62/
On Twitter | https://twitter.com/KDBenfante
On Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/KatherineBenfanteAuthor/
Website | https://katherinebenfante.com/
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Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
In this episode of the "Audio Signals" podcast, host Marco Ciappelli chats with author Katherine Benfante about her book "Scattered", a historical sci-fi work that focuses on time travel. The story explores the life of physicist Ernest Rutherford's daughter who, following a laboratory accident, is abruptly transported a century into the future.
This mind-bending narrative was inspired by Katherine's personal interest in science and history, fueled by her professional background as an engineer. Couched within the sci-fi elements of the story is a profound exploration of the societal progression from the 1900s to the 2000s, through the lens of a character who has, quite literally, lived in both periods. Particularly, the book emphasizes the advancement of opportunities for women, depicted through the character's experiences.
The conversation also provides an insightful exploration into Katherine's writing process. It was revealed how she goes about creating her stories, sometimes derived from a shower thought or a moment of doing the dishes, they are added to a long list of ideas she maintains. Furthermore, Katherine confessed the struggles and challenges of narrowing down the scope of a narrative, especially when transitioning from a full-length novel to a shorter story.
Katherine's passion for writing is evidently clear throughout the discussion, affirming that her writing derives not from the desire for celebrity status or financial success, but rather out of a love for the written word and a drive to tell compelling stories. In fact, she shares that she is currently working on her next project, also within the realm of sci-fi, hinting that the journey of a writer, like time travel, truly never ends.
Listen to the episode for an engaging and inspiring prattle about writing, creativity, and the eternal enchantment of time-travel.
About the Book
In 1906, Elie Rutherford dreams of joining the physics lab her father, the great Ernest Rutherford, heads at McGill University. Elie is thwarted from pursuing her passion in an era when women are confined to female-only college classes. Fueled by her burning desire for knowledge and purpose, she rebels against societal expectations, refusing to accept a marriage proposal that would threaten to shackle her dreams.
Fast forward to 2006, where William Hertz, a brilliant graduate physics student at McGill, lives an introverted life, immersing himself in the world of astrophysics. Wounded by past experiences, he shields his heart from love, finding solace among his fellow misfit physicist friends. Little does he know that his life is about to take an extraordinary turn when a mysterious stranger appears, lost in time.
Disoriented, Elie concludes a lab mishap brought her forward a century. Trying to blend in with modern students, she hides her identity until she meets William and risks everything by revealing who she really is. Elie and William's shared passion for physics sparks a bond as they attempt to recreate the experiment that can return Elie home. Torn between her past and a 21st-century future with William, Elie faces a heart-wrenching choice. Will she find her way back to 1906 or embrace a new destiny?
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Resources
Scattered (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Scattered-Katherine-Benfante/dp/1961093162/
Katherine Benfante's books: https://katherinebenfante.com/books/
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Book | Scattered, a science fiction debut of time travel romance | A Conversation with Author Katherine Benfante | Audio Signals Podcast With Marco Ciappelli
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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[00:00:00] Marco Ciappelli: Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of audio signals. That's my second podcast which I love as much as my first one, but it's It's something a little bit different. So in Redefining Society, I talk about technology and society and audio signals. I talk about stories and storytelling, but we're all made of stories.
So even in the other podcast, I tell stories. So I know it's a little confusing, but we'll, we'll get there. Audio signal is dedicated for those of you that listen for the first time to understanding. What inspires story? How it's written and story? What is the audience that you have in mind when you write a story?
But the story could be music, a song, can be a painting, can be an illustration, can be a movie, can be anything, but often is a book. So today we're talking about a book as well and the person that wrote this book and I'm very excited before I introduce her. Welcome her to the show is the fact that we're going to talk about historical driven sci fi, which is already a mouthful right there.
But it's exciting because I love to, I love thinking about time machines exist. And, um, and at least with our imagination, we can use it, um, or kick it like they do in the movies sometimes to make it work and define the plutonium or whatever you need uranium to make it work. And, uh, but we can always use our imagination.
And, uh, but I know that there is a lot of research if you want to do a really good historical inspired. Sci fi fictional story. So enough. I'm not the one that wrote this book. The one that wrote this book. It's Catherine Benfante, which is here. If you're watching the video, you already saw her with some beautiful greenery that she'll tell us what it is in the background.
For those of you listening, here she is. Catherine, welcome to the show.
[00:02:04] Katherine Benfante: Hi Marco. Thanks for having me on.
[00:02:07] Marco Ciappelli: All right. So I already talked my two minutes. So the rest of the show is It's yours. Oh boy. No, I'll help you with the conversation. So let's start with, uh, with who you are and, uh, and also tell me about those plants in the back.
[00:02:26] Katherine Benfante: Sure. Um, my, my name is Catherine Benfante and I'm, I'm coming from nice cold New Jersey today, but I keep warm here. I get. I think to do the best job in the world, which is to write stories, I just make up things and people read them, which is a pretty cool way to, to live a life. Um, but, uh, yeah, I'm sitting here.
That's, uh, we call that room the library because that's where we keep all our books, but also there's plants in there. Um, we, we grew, uh, some coffee plants. We do bonsai. And, uh, I'm not the one with the green thumb, but I just kinda water. Things and, uh, kind of prune and I get to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
So that's fun. But, uh, but what I like to do is I like to write and, um, I'm a mom. First of all, I have two young kids and so I read a lot. I get to read some kids fiction, but mostly I read adult fiction and that informs everything that I write, I think. And, uh, before I was a mom, I was an engineer actually.
And I, I went to school up in Montreal and I, I speak French, uh, not perfectly, but I, I like it. Uh, that did make its way into my book, which is Scattered. It takes place in Montreal and, uh, yeah, I, I, I love to write. When I was growing up, I was always writing and I was the kid who. Would get a 10 page writing assignment and all the kids were moaning because it was 10 pages and I handed in a 60 page story and my teacher said, you know, you should think about being an author one day.
So, so I decided to give it a crack after I had kids. I thought, well, all right, maybe I'll try this as a second career. So I'm trying it.
[00:04:13] Marco Ciappelli: I think that never goes away. Um, I can talk from a personal perspective. I am now like into some short stories and actually talking, writing some kids story with my mom, which is another story with on his own, because she just started.
76. And we already wrote some together. Her idea. So anyway, we're not talking about me. But the point is, You postpone and postpone. Are you ever ready to write the story? It's always to me seems to write a book. It's such a big, you know, daunting adventure that it's the size of it for me. And on the other hand, you said, Yeah, sure.
You want 10 pages? I'll give you 60. Let's go with that.
[00:04:57] Katherine Benfante: Well, everything seems possible when you're young, I think. But as you get older, I mean, you just have to take things. bit by bit or uh, you know, yeah just bit by bit. I do write page then you write a chapter. OK, that's not so bad. Write another chapter then pretty soon you get 50, words and you have a book it's you just have to I think planning helps first of all so you know where you're going and don't get stuck But just making a habit of it really helps.
I get up at 6 a. m. Every day, which isn't That early, but no one else is up and I just turn on the coffee machine. I sit in the dark with my screen glowing and I write and that works for me. And I love it. I love that time of day and I get a lot done.
[00:05:45] Marco Ciappelli: Well, it sounds like you're a morning person. A lot of writers are actually a night person, at least I, some of them, um, that I talked to, they are.
Let's talk about the genre that you're writing. So Scattered is the story, a story that is sci fi, but it is inspired by an historical figure. And we were talking before we start recording on how it's. It's hard to decide where you draw a line or where you bleed. One into the other. And, uh, and, but you also said, you know, there is a lot of planning, a lot of research.
So what is the process? Uh, do you start with the creative idea, the fantasy idea, and then you plug in the reality or you go.
[00:06:35] Katherine Benfante: You know, everyone has a different process, I think, for how they begin a book. This particular idea came to me when I was literally washing dishes and my mind was blank. And all of a sudden I had this idea, and I was thinking about this physicist from The early 20th century.
And his name is Ernest Rutherford. He's from New Zealand. Um, and he was the chair of physics at McGill University where I went to college. And so I knew about him and I just had this idea. What if he was in his lab and his daughter, and at that point I didn't even know if he had a daughter, but what if one of his experiments went awry and his daughter was sent in the future a hundred years?
And then I finished washing my dishes, and I thought hard about it, and a plot just came into my head like it fell from the sky. And then I started researching because I knew about who he was just generally. He was a physicist from, like I said, the early 1900s. He was the one who discovered the nucleus of an atom.
And before that, the atom was thought of as like a chocolate chip cookie, and the dough was, you know, the positive charge, and the chocolate chips were the negative, uh, negatively charged. Uh, they didn't even know that they were electrons at that point. They just knew that the atom had to balance. Um, and so, Ernest Rutherford.
I'm going to be talking about a very, very small, positively charged nucleus in an atom. That's all I knew about him. So I started my research and I figured out he did have a daughter. And I read as many biographies of him as I could. And including One of them, which was a collection of his letters that he wrote, and I recommend anyone who wants to write about a historical figure find something that that character has written, because you can find their voice, you can find out all these tiny details about them, like, you know, the fact that they might like tea, or they like reading detective novels, or they hate the beach, or just Strange details that really bring a character to life in ways that it's almost natural for us when we're talking about someone we provide those details.
But when you get to do that sort of, you know, the first person research, those come out naturally and organically and it's authentic. And for me, I kept the characters as authentic as I could. I took Ernest Rutherford and I, I, I took his daughter. Who in reality was not born in 1886 as I placed her in my book.
She was actually born about 1901. The only thing I did was I moved her birth date a little bit, but I kept her as authentic as I could. I kept her father and all of his research assistants, you know, his knowledge of Einstein and the Curies and such, included all those details. The only thing is I just threw her in the future.
You know, just a small, small change from reality, but everything else I kept authentic. I mean, I was, uh, just extremely to the point of almost driving myself crazy, but like the moon phases, I kept the same. I went back and looked at a perpetual calendar and just these small details, it, I think it made it a very rich setting.
And I know of some authors who don't do that and their setting feels just very anachronistic. And there's something, you know, from a book has said in the 1600s and you've. You read a detail that is 200 years out of place, and you just have this feeling, it takes you out of the book for a moment because you feel like the author didn't do the research.
So I wanted to make sure that didn't happen with my book, and I think that's very important.
[00:10:24] Marco Ciappelli: Is it inspired by a passion that you have for a certain kind of? Literature or reading. I mean, are you, I mean, I know you're an engineer. So I'm imagine it's either easier for you to be logic about things and, but then you go and throw time travel.
All right, cool. Then again, you got Asimov and you got those guys out there that come up with incredible things. But. Yeah, I mean, was it something that you read and or a movie that you watched and you said, Hmm, that's I would like to write something along that line. It's
[00:11:06] Katherine Benfante: a good question. I personally read a lot of different Genres.
I, I like history nonfiction. I like historical fiction, science fiction, uh, spy thrillers, actually, uh, fantasy. I read a lot and I think you, you tend to write what you like, but also everyone has an imagination. Everyone has creativity. And if you relax your brain enough, I think you let that come out. And That's where the idea for a time travel story came to me.
I wasn't consciously setting out to write a science fiction novel, or time travel, or something with a historical figure. It's just, you write what comes into your head, I think. Um, for some people, maybe they're very regimented about that, but this just, it just happened that way. And you're right, I am very logical, very, very regimented.
And so. That's, I think, why I was very meticulous in the research. And I think a lot of writers who are historical fiction authors are as well, um, because that's a passion for them. A lot of people like history. Uh, not everyone does. I do happen to like history. I think you can learn a lot about ourselves when you look into the past, uh, because people don't really change all that much.
When you get right down to it, what you, what people want and what they strive for. Same thing over and over. You know, people want love, they want power. And they want security for their kids, and that's Same themes over and over through history. So I found that to be very true when I was writing this as well And when I was researching Rutherford and what I imagined he would have wanted for his daughter who was time traveling
[00:12:55] Marco Ciappelli: How does she time travel by mistake?
Does she just open it a door?
[00:13:00] Katherine Benfante: It was a mistake Yeah, so I mean obviously If we knew how to time travel, we would be doing some pretty fun things right now. And, and a lot of people think, all right, well, you need a, and I, I researched this as well with some physicists, how could you theoretically time travel?
And, uh, you need a very large gravity field and, uh, you know, you kind of bend space time. Uh, you might need a very high, uh, electricity source. And. Her father. Or a DeLorean. Or a DeLorean. Right, right. Well, if you're not Doc Brown, how do you manage this? So this, uh, this girl, Ellie Rutherford, she stepped into her father's lab, which was very messy at that time.
There were wires everywhere, lots of magnetic fields were created from that, and also he was running an experiment that used radium, and radium is radioactive, and so it emits various kinds of radiation, alpha, beta, and gamma rays. And so there was just a confluence of electricity, magnetic fields, a high voltage, um, uh, electrical source and this radium.
And she just touched the wrong thing at the wrong time and a poof, she found herself a hundred years in the future. I won't say it's magic, but because it doesn't exist, we sort of have to create that situation.
[00:14:20] Marco Ciappelli: So I like that. I, uh, I like the idea that you, You don't have to explain much. I, I like the idea that there is a concept, but then well know.
I don't have to explain how the, the, the weeds are, um, magic in school or my, uh, magic in school exists. Or why a hat? It's, uh, sorting you in, uh, . In Griffindor. It just does . It just does, and I like that. I'm a, I'm, I love the Alice in Wonderland. I like the nonsense. I like all of that. Right. And then I read bio.
I read real historic and I want there to be perfect. But where do you draw the line? And how do you choose? And that might be a very hard question for you, but how do you choose your audience? Meaning you're writing the book and you say, all right, this is not going to be for the person that just want just to read historical stuff.
And this is probably not going to be for the one that. You don't want to hear only stories about completely fictional character and you have to tune it. And that's why I'm picking your brain here because I personally wouldn't know if I'm adding a little bit too much of this or a little bit too much of that and then it explodes or maybe it's not going to appeal.
[00:15:45] Katherine Benfante: That's a very good question. I think no matter what you read, you want to be entertained. Even when I read nonfiction, if that book is dry, if the author doesn't bring it to life, I'm going to put it down, even if I like the subject. And no matter if you are more into science fiction or you're more into romance novels or historical fiction, you want to be entertained.
Uh, and so I personally tried to create an entertaining story, but you have to, um, you have to include details that make it believable. and that fill out your setting and round it out. Um, and so I think part of your question was, where do you draw the line on how accurate you can make things? And sometimes you will read something and you know that it, it is false because you've read, you know, something else from that time period.
And you know, some of the facts in that historical fiction book are wrong. And so, you know, you go and you go on an internet search and you look it up. And as a reader, that always annoys me because Because I want to know that the historical novel that I'm reading is based in fact. And, uh, so, yeah, I, I, I think you, you want to entertain people and you have to take liberties with the, if you're using a historical figure, you, you should take some liberties with their life by keeping them in the spirit of who they were, you know, um, you have to You have to create an interesting plot.
Otherwise, you know, you're, you might as well just be not even bothered to publish, right? Um, but what I did and what I love what other authors do is I put a for, um, an author's note at the back where I talked about what was real in the book and where I took liberties. And I did in just a few places. I did take a few liberties, but I explained about The, the science behind it, and the science in the, the modern characters too.
And then I included a couple pictures at the end to show that, hey, this, this really was definitely a real person, I'm not pulling your leg. And this is, uh, this is how it was. And I love it personally when I see that in book or when I see maps. Love that. It's grounding.
[00:18:04] Marco Ciappelli: Now you've been building your own, your own, uh, environment and, uh, and your own, your own world, which is very difficult to do as well.
It is. And be, and be relied on that for maybe, you know, the second and the third story. And, you know, and, but another part of my question was, you probably have the ideal Reader in your mind. Oh, okay. And my, my background is it's branding and marketing, so I'm always like, Hmm, how are they gonna perceive this?
What's my target audience? And ? So, and that's really bad, I think, for the writing part, when there is not a product that you need to. So are you get to a point where you're like, well, I feel like my audience is not going to go for these, even if I do want to go for this?
[00:19:01] Katherine Benfante: You know, that's a really good question.
And I personally, I should have thought of that before I started writing this book, because I created something that is hard to market. And I thought. I thought, oh, you know, every author thinks, oh, everyone's going to love this book. Well, that's not true. Like every product, there is a very specific audience.
And I did not keep that in mind necessarily. And, uh, so I'm, I'm left with something that has some sci fi. And it has some historical and it has, um, it has a love story too. It's not a romance book, but, um, I mean, even if you read A. J. Riddle or Barty Crouch, um, sorry, Blake Crouch, um, they have a strong, you know, love thread throughout them too.
So I thought, okay, even though it's science fiction, though, it's probably only going to be females, maybe. 20 to 40 who will read this. Turns out that a lot of males like it too. Uh, and, and there are a lot of older women do too. And I never thought that it would appeal to, to them, to those sections of society.
And so I think even if you try to write to a specific audience, you will be surprised at who picks up the book and you just have to roll with it.
[00:20:17] Marco Ciappelli: That's a good point. And as long as maybe in the end, it's what the artist The real artist does. You do it to yourself. You do it because it's something that you like to do.
[00:20:28] Katherine Benfante: Otherwise, you'll constrict yourself.
[00:20:30] Marco Ciappelli: Exactly. So yeah, my question was a little bit tricky because I feel I'm always pulled from just do what you want to do or, um, because of, again, that how my mind works is. Okay, who am I telling the story to? Do I need to dumb it down? Do I need to bring it up to the tech part?
And this is like this sci fi people or they weren't just more romance, but in the end, I think you did the right thing I mean you wrote something that pleases you and then you find out that people that you didn't expect They are actually like in the book. So tell me about the the romance part in in this, uh, in this story.
[00:21:09] Katherine Benfante: Sure. So there is, there's a female, she's 20 years old and at the beginning of the book it starts off with her, um, very close to entering an engagement with someone who in real life she does marry and she doesn't want to be with that person um, in the novel. She's also, she's an intelligent person and feels restricted in 1906 because there aren't, let's face it, there weren't Opportunities for women, like there were today, obviously, to study, and I go into some detail to explain why she can't go into various fields of study.
And when she is transported to 2006 Montreal, she discovers what a difference it is in terms of opportunities for women, and that's one of the things that really appeals to her. And she meets someone who doesn't see her as a You know, an object sees her as a female with a brain, and that's William Hertz, and he is a physics grad student, and he, you know, he appeals to her because he's a physicist, and she's obviously very interested in that, and so they, they strike up a friendship, but she, she does reveal that she's from the past.
He's the only person that she tells, and So he knows her secret and he agrees to help her try and get home and to recreate this set of, um, circumstances in her father's lab that sent her back. And, uh, so there's this, there's this funny dynamic there because they're friends and they find out that, you know, they really like each other's company, yet she's trying her best to leave him.
And so there's repression of feelings, and I'm not going to give away the end, but it does affect her, her choices and what she does and, and him as well, how he helps her and, uh, yeah, yeah, it's a funny dynamic of like forbidden, forbidden, forbidden attachment, but, uh, yeah, it's very clean. It's very clean thread.
[00:23:16] Marco Ciappelli: Now, it's interesting that you have the story of trying to get back, and I'm wondering the first thing that come in my mind is I know you're always going to go back. to where you, your origin is, but didn't you find a better, a better place to kind of become who she wanted to be? So why? Why going back?
[00:23:41] Katherine Benfante: Well, that's a great question. Uh, you'll have to read to find out what happens. I can't spoil the end, but yeah, that's, that is a, that's definitely a pull because I really enjoyed researching what. Females went through at that time and I found this great quote from, it was actually from 1915. Um, but looking back about 10 years prior of women who had graduated from Barnard and these were very intelligent women, had a lot of work and time put into their studies and then they married and they became housewives and had children and they talked about how their lives were very fulfilling personally, but they always felt like there was something missing.
They felt like they had wasted part of their life. Because they never did anything with the education that they received and I found that a bit tragic and so that sort of informed what Ellie Rutherford's outlook on life was So yeah, and I mean there are women nowadays who feel like that, too Not that there's anything wrong with it because there's a lot of ways you can get fulfillment in life but uh Yeah, I just that quote really stuck with me.
[00:24:50] Marco Ciappelli: And I guess the reason why I ask you that question is probably the one of the driver of the whole book. So because it's the struggle about her wanting to go back. So Yeah, that's already telling me how I could probably get into this myself. How much of that is into, is representing your life or at least your vision about the world?
And I mean, of course, you're, you're, you're a woman, you are an author, but you're also an engineer. I know you work for Military, Navy project. So you, you kind of achieve at this point that your scientific career, you know, your science and engineering career, and now you got kids and now you It's kind of like came to full circle from that 60 pages story that you wrote when you were in school.
[00:25:48] Katherine Benfante: Yeah, yeah, I guess it did inform it and I never really thought about that too much. But, uh, yeah, I, I studied engineering. I never wanted to do anything. Trivial. And I don't mean that as a knock on other things, but I really liked science. I actually wanted to be a race car engineer. Uh, that's why I started mechanical engineering.
And then I realized that you can't really have a family life very easily if you're going off to racetracks every weekend or every other weekend. So I decided to pursue something else and I just fell into military engineering. And I really liked it. It was a lot of fun. Got to meet a lot of great people.
Uh, servicemen doing it, got to, got to fire a tank gun. You know, who gets to say that? That's pretty awesome. Uh, in training, obviously, um, not training, but the, you know, testing, I should say. Um, so yeah, I got to fulfill part of that interesting life and, and I think, you know, yeah, that, that's something that I think my character wants to achieve too, is to, to say that you have done something to affect society.
Everyone wants to do that, yet at the same time, what's our, what's our job on, on Earth? We continue our species. So yeah, of course, I want to have a family and not everyone wants to, but that's always been a big drive for me. And yeah, that that plays into my character as well. She would never turn her back on that, even no matter what she would want to achieve.
Yeah, so I guess I would see a lot of myself in that character. That's never saw that before. So thanks, Marco.
[00:27:29] Marco Ciappelli: You're welcome. I'm being a shrink right now. Um, I'm going to go with something else, which I'd like to ask. Um, I mean, you said that you. You, you love writing, you've always thought about that, you did that as a younger, uh, student, a young person and then, you know, you take other choices and I'm assuming you're still writing on the side.
You have it always creative, either you publish it or not, you, you write a book. But I think when you're a writer, you're a writer. Even if you're writing a post, like a card for a happy birthday, I think if you're a writer, you can kind of tell, I don't, I don't know. Unless nowadays you just chat GPT, but that's a different story.
We're not going to go there. Although I talked a lot about that, a hard pass on that, you know, I'll talk about that on my other show. But where I'm going with this is, um, the legacy. Why do we write the book? Why do we write this story? Why do we make a movie and is it on a selfish? Fulfillment that you want to kind of be a celebrity or is this something because you want to you kind of Mentioned that you want you want to change somebody's perspective maybe on life you want to contribute to Something.
So my point is, what is, what drives you in writing and put those words on paper or audio and nowadays on the internet and it's probably going to be there forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Be careful of what you say right now.
[00:29:09] Katherine Benfante: Oh God, yeah, don't you ever. Yeah, it's hard not to self censor yourself online and even in some of my writing.
Yeah. That, that is true. But, uh, so, I mean, it would be great to make a living as an author. That would be great, but that's not really why I write. I just write because I have stories that just come into my head and you feel like they have to get out. And, you know, I've talked about this with my husband sometimes.
I said, don't you just have this fantastic idea and you just have to, you just have to talk about it, write about it. And he said, No, I, I don't feel like that at all. And you, you know, I always think that everyone is the same. No, you know, he's creative in other ways, but I, I just have to write. And some people just have to paint.
And I get that. Um, my daughter's very musical. I. Can't even, I can't even read music. I can barely sing. So for me, it's writing and I, I just, I can't stop and I did take a break for a while in college and I wasn't writing. I wrote a little bit during one, um, summer vacation and then I, I picked it up after, after I graduated and I started working and you just, you can't bottle it up that long if you're creative and I've written a couple of different I've written some kids fiction and not all of it's published.
Not all of it will be published because some of it is just not good enough, but you can't stop. And I have, I have a book that I'm about 75 percent through writing right now. I have two other books that I want to write, I think a sequel to Scattered and then something else and I can't decide what I want to write first.
And that is the best problem to have really, right? And you just, once that spigot. It opens. You can't really turn it off and you probably shouldn't because it's what makes you happy. That's how I feel.
[00:31:08] Marco Ciappelli: And what do you want people in your, in your mind, you know, when people read the book, um, what, what do you want them to be left with?
I don't know. I just tell you, for example, I do the podcast because I want to make people think. That's my thing. I want to, I want to have amazing conversation with amazing people. And, and if people listen to us, I want to have, I want them to question more things than when they started. So I'm not trying to give an answer.
So yeah, that's what makes me tick to have this conversation. So what do you want when people put down the book, be like, Oh, I really had a good time or wow, I have a different perspective on things. What?
[00:31:50] Katherine Benfante: Well, first of all, I, because This, this book scattered is science fiction. The work that I'm writing right now is also science fiction.
It would be nice if people came away learning something new and I hope to have done that. With this book. Um, I know I did. I know some readers glossed over the physics in it and they said, Oh, I still really enjoyed the book. I just turned about two pages when you started talking about the science. And that's fine.
But that's one thing. But one thing that I didn't really expect to have gotten from this is just some, you know, sort of heartwarming interactions between people and what makes us makes us make decisions and what pulls us to do things. And it's always someone else. You know, you can't really live a solitary existence.
And one of the My favorite parts of writing is writing conversations. And I didn't really figure this out until, I don't know, eight, nine years ago, but that is the easiest part for me to read. And I love putting those words in people's mouth and just finding out how they interact with each other. And I've, come back and found these golden nuggets of, of, of, you know, pull quotes of what they say that just kind of tug at your heartstrings.
And I never set out to write that, but I'm finding that that really resonates with people and it resonates with me. I'll look back and I'll say, wow, that's, that's a good line. I should remember that. And you know, I've never quoted my own book to someone, but I have quoted it in my head. And I thought, well, that's, that's, you know, Good advice, good advice about, you know, how to deal with someone or how to talk with someone.
So, yeah, I hope they take, take that.
[00:33:32] Marco Ciappelli: That's really cool so, you kind of mentioned your, your next project, which is still into the sci fi realm. And how do you pick your next project? Again, are you doing the dishes again? Something to strike?
[00:33:49] Katherine Benfante: That always helps. Going on a walk, doing dishes, in the shower.
That's when the best ideas come. Especially when you have no pen or paper. That's when the ideas really come. Right, right. Uh, no, I have a Word document. And I have, uh, maybe 40 story ideas on it. And whatever speaks to me, I will write. Next, like, I had, uh, I met a bunch of really good authors on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Uh, there's a hashtag time travel authors. Great group of people and I got invited to contribute. Yeah, it's yeah. Twitter is best for connecting with like minded people but So I got invited to write a short story for an anthology and I wasn't sure what to write and I went to my word Document and I I looked for something and something stood out to me and I modified it into a time travel story And so yeah that That document saved me.
[00:34:44] Marco Ciappelli: I love that. Um, can I keep you another extra minutes because we're at 35 and I usually kill it here, but I'm having a good time and I'm doing it for a very selfish reason, because I'm asking you a question that I often have in my head about writing. You went into the short story. And, um, I don't know.
Lately, I just love short stories. And A, To write even if Mark Twain say it takes longer to write a short letter than a long one. I need to apologize for that. I feel like I can get that, that fix. Maybe it's the podcast, um, you know, some dramatization on the radio. I'm a big radio fan. And, uh, and sometimes because I can kind of get it done while I walk the dogs.
And, uh, you know, I, I've, I've read big, long books in pieces, of course. But the idea of writing it. Um, how do you approach that and do you feel the same fulfillment maybe when you write a short story or what's the difference between for you between writing an old book with time travel one thing romance and many, many pages and, uh, and just say, I'm going to get it done in a short story.
[00:36:07] Katherine Benfante: Um, it is a very different feeling, but at the same time, it still has to have all the elements of a. Strong plot. You know, you have to have a hook. You have to build up to an event. Otherwise, what's the point of reading the story, right? You have to have a good, um, you know, an exciting incident. And then there has to be barriers to the main character to, to solve the problem.
And then there has to be a resolution. Or there should be, or your readers will be pretty Um, but it's challenging because you have to say that in a small amount of space, you have to be succinct and you still have to create a setting that's believable and round out your characters. So I find it to be a really big challenge, honestly, and it's, it's, um, it's a good challenge.
But you can't, you can't just tell a snippet in, well, sometimes you can tell a snippet in time, like flash fiction can be very good, um, you know, a thousand words or less. Um, but it always leaves me wanting more whenever I read flash fiction. But with a short story, I feel like I want to see that complete.
So, good short stories are not deep enough, and you don't feel like you didn't, you, it either wasn't resolved or just not enough happened, but a good, a good one has all of those elements. Like, like Stephen King is pretty good at his short stories, but really they're more like novellas, um. Well, some of his are short stories, but, uh, you know, it's, he's kind of an expert.
So
[00:37:42] Marco Ciappelli: he's crazy. He writes, I was actually watching a video where, uh, Martin and interview him and say, how the hell do you write all of that? It's like, I, when you write a book in what it takes me to write three paragraph. And it's like, I don't know. I just take it as a job. And I just watched it the other day, I think on Instagram, but could you have done a scatter in a short story format?
[00:38:08] Katherine Benfante: No,
no. In fact, when I have to think
about it,
Oh God, the first draft is 100, almost 140, 000 words. So I had to cut a lot as it is.
Wow. But can you give us to end this, uh, an elevator pitch for people to read it? If somebody said, tell me what is about, why should I read it?
Sure, sure. So, uh, scattered is first and foremost, uh, a time travel science fiction novel.
And, you know, one woman is faced with a very difficult choice. Does she try to adjust to a new time period and fulfill her dreams? Or does she go back and be reunited with the family she loves? And also an uncertain past that she can read in the history books, uh, which does not have the opportunities that her for future modern life could.
And it's a choice no one wants to face, but the way she does it is pretty compelling.
[00:39:07] Marco Ciappelli: Very cool. Good, good elevator pitch. And there's time travel. So I think, I think everybody's fascinated by time travel anyway. I am. Yeah. Uh, well, you know, a lot of TV series, a lot of movies, a lot of books and, uh, I think this is fascinating.
I want to thank you so much for your time and going the extra five minutes, but kind of like kick the time machine a little longer to stay here a little longer. But it's time to, to go back to where we where we belong. And, um, I invite everybody, of course, to, to read the book and to get in touch with Catherine.
There is going to be, yep, for people watching, that's the book and for people listening and anybody else in the note, there'll be linked to the book and to Catherine's website and to get in touch with her. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. And again, as I say during the show, I hope you have questions or maybe get inspired about writing yourself.
And if you have some story to share, just stay tuned or let me know. And if you'd like to listen to stories, subscribe to this podcast. And Catherine, thank you very much. Good luck with your next adventure.
[00:40:17] Katherine Benfante: Thanks for having me on, Marco. It was a great talk.
[00:40:20] Marco Ciappelli: All right. Bye bye, everybody.
[00:40:22] Katherine Benfante: Bye bye.