For r/books, Kress (tablecozy) recently participated in her first REDDIT AMA.

KingNewbie
Two questions:

1. I’ve read (and enjoyed) Beggars in Spain and Beggars and Choosers. Of your catalog, what should be the third book I read?

2. From when you started writing about genetic engineering to now with CRISPR and a host of others, how has the technology tracked compared to your imagination back then? Where was it most accurate?

tablecozyAMA Author
You should read SEA CHANGE! CRISPR is a technique for achieving a genemod result, and fiction focuses on the results and their impact on society. In hard SF, anyway.

copywrtr
Thanks for doing this! I’ve been thinking about writing SF, short stories and eventually longer. How much of a drawback is it to not have a scientific background?

tablecozyAMA
What kind of SF do you want to write? For stories without hard science, it’s not a drawback at all. If you want to write hard SF, you will need to read about the area of science that interests you: astrophysics, cosmology, genetic engineering, epidemiology, whatever. I do not have a science background. I was an English major.

copywrtr
I do enjoy hard SF, but not sure i can write it, lol. I saw your other comment about starting with the characters. It helps to think of it that way instead of trying to figure out the science first. Thanks.