Charon Dunn never met a school she liked long enough to graduate from. All her marketable experience involves deep controversy. Originally from a remote colonized island which is slowly being destroyed by the privileged idiots who gentrified it, she currently enjoys being agoraphobic in San Francisco and it is very rare to encounter her more than two miles from home. She has a day job doing geeky things she can’t really talk about, for lawyers. A relationship-averse asexual who has been living in the same apartment for thirty years, Charon enjoys spending too much money going to see offputting bands. She has zero literary awards or other forms of acclaim because the neurotypicals tend to chase her out of their territory unless she has psilocybin and is willing to share, but she has self-published several novels so far. Because she was born to write, and nothing short of death will stop her.
If you could time travel to any point in history, which era would you choose, and why?
Since I’m female, the idea of time travelling into the past has a few added risks, so I’d have to contemplate situations that would make it worthwhile, such as whether I can save lives, and which ones. I am not a native Hawaiian but I was born there and have a special fondness for the place and its unique culture, so with that in mind, I’d like to show up in Honolulu in about 1800 with a literal boatload of vaccines for smallpox, measles, mumps, and leprosy – lots of penicillin too. Some historians think the death toll from introduced diseases killed off over 80% of the population within a few decades from contact, and I’d like to see if I can decrease those numbers out and maybe also do a little bodysurfing, eat some poi, check out the sunsets, hang loose.
If you could choose any real-life celebrity to make a cameo appearance in one of your books, who would it be and why?
Normally I make up fake celebrities for my stories, such as the various entertainers and billionaires the hero of Star Language encounters once she starts translating for aliens. My book Approaching Storm is set in 2021 during the covid lockdown period though, so I included lots of musical references both to set the time period (Elton John’s duet with Dua Lipa, Billy Strings, Taylor Swift, Nickelback) and establish character (Grateful Dead, SHINee). That particular book is dedicated to a member of SHINee who provided the visual inspiration for Marissa’s mysterious extraplanar lover, so he’s got a cameo appearance in the form of a brief reference to a SHINee video playing on a particular character’s monitor.
If you were to write a love story between a human and an alien, what challenges would they face?
Coincidentally, I just did that. They’re happy for a little while, but I’ll just say that their romance is based on situations from Stranger in a Strange Land as well as the relationship between colonizer Cortes and Aztec interpreter Malinche. Melina and Morvain overcome many cultural struggles during their relationship, as well as a significant height, age, and weight discrepancy. They have a rough time with communication though, as well as significant struggles involving their parental relationships.
If you could have any magical power, but the catch was that you had to perform a ridiculous dance every time you used it, what power would you choose and what would your dance look like?
Since I’ve already revealed that I’m a K-Pop stan (or actually more of a music stan, with omnivorous tastes), I’d have to go for the walk in SHINee’s Sherlock video. And I would use it to pause time for thirty minutes while everyone collects their thoughts. Probably lots of drama could be averted that way.
If you had to choose one of your books to be turned into a cheesy made-for-TV movie, which one would it be and who would you want to play the lead roles?
Star Language is actually inspired by telenovelas, which make cheesy made-for-TV movies look restrained and classy. There’s an intense mother-daughter rivalry, and I think Britney Spears could turn in a magnificent performance as the abusive mother, Karen, based on her life experience interacting with suboptimal parents. She and her daughter have a scene together at a music festival featuring a has-been child star who just got out of rehab, which would be a perfect role for Justin Timberlake.
Charon Dunn can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Manganela and on her blog at https://charondunntheblog.blogspot.com/
