Lauren C. Teffeau is joining us today to talk about her novel, Accelerated Growth Environment. Here’s the publisher’s description:
Dr. Jorna Benton is proud to be the Principal Scientist for the Climasphere, a massive, sea-going ecological nursery capable of supporting nearly every biome on Earth. On its inaugural mission to restore and re-wild collapsing ecosystems along the Atlantic coast, Jorna manages the Climasphere’s habitat and harvest, while her colleague-and inconveniently attractive commander-Ava Kaysar directs the rest of the vessel’s critical operations.
When an explosion rocks the Climasphere, Jorna’s carefully-managed world is thrown into chaos, threatening both her personal and her professional future. And worse: she’s the prime suspect.
To clear her name, save the mission, and preserve her chance at a future with Kaysar, Jorna must finally confront the secret she’s been running from all these years: a family and a faith that could destroy her.
What’s Lauren’s favorite bit?
I need to be in love with each and every one of my writing projects in order to get them over the finish line. And not just getting to “The End,” but out into the world and into readers’ hands. It takes a monumental amount of work, not to mention uncertainty, and only love can make that kind of endeavor worthwhile. So when it comes time to play favorites, well, it is hard to choose because how can I separate the parts from the journey as a whole?
For my latest release Accelerated Growth Environment, a sapphic eco-thriller that came out this March from Shiraki Press, determining My Favorite Bit feels a little like choosing a favorite child. Is it the high-tech rewilding the world premise I’m most proud of, or the main characters, two professional women of a certain age navigating their careers, love, and fears that a terrorist could take that all away? Is it the blend of action and romance, or the quieter moments that make the story come to life? I love this book for what it has to say about optimism for our collective future and the people we choose to be in our lives going forward, but if I had to pick one aspect to discuss today, it is what came after the story was finalized and then brought to life by cover artist Stephane Martiniere.
Signing with a new press is an act of faith. Not only in your own work but the people who have chosen to champion it. With the team at Shiraki Press, I was struck by the care and consideration they put into every step of the publication process. And I got a front row seat, being their first acquisition and release. It’s always an honor to have your work chosen for publication, even moreso when your story is selected to set the tone for a brand-new publisher.
So when they told me they were going to be commissioning cover art, I was over the moon. A career-first. The striking cover for my first book, the cyberpunk/solarpunk adventure Implanted, were graphics developed in-house. My second, the desertpunk fantasy novella A Hunger with No Name, licenses the moody and thematically spot-on painting “Star of the Hero,” by Nicholas Roerich. For Accelerated Growth Environment, Shiraki Press contracted Martiniere to bring to life my concept of the Climasphere and the setting for the book—a sea-going ecological nursery growing the plants necessary to rewild the world at each stop it makes on its maiden voyage.
I wasn’t sure what he was going to come up with. I could only pray to the cover gods I’d luck out once more. But I needn’t have worried—he nailed the scope and included details that kept the piece in conversation with his past works like a true auteur. It puts you right into the setting of the story and the middle of the action, which is invaluable particularly for novellas like Accelerated Growth Environment where you don’t have the space to describe everything and have to trust the reader to meet you half way. With Martiniere’s cover, we can hit the ground running, and I hope you’ll join us on the journey.
LINKS:
BIO:
Lauren C. Teffeau is a speculative fiction writer based in New Mexico. Her work examines environmental issues and the role of technology in our lives through fantastical adventures and immersive worlds. Her books include the eco-thriller Accelerated Growth Environment (Shiraki Press, 2026), the desertpunk environmental fantasy A Hunger with No Name (University of Tampa Press, 2024), which came in third place in the third annual Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship, and the cyberpunk/solarpunk adventure Implanted (Angry Robot, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Compton Crook Award for best first SF/F/H novel and named a definitive work of climate fiction by Grist. Over twenty of her short stories have appeared in venues like Sunday Morning Transport, DreamForge Magazine, After Dinner Conversation, and the Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror. To learn more, please visit: https://laurencteffeau.com
*Mary Robinette an affiliate of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This does not increase your cost; it simply helps support her work