Author Interview: Digital Extremities by Adam Bassett

Thank you so much for joining us for this Q&A! We’ll start off with one of our standard podcast opening questions–tell us something great that’s happened recently.

Thanks for having me! At the time of writing I just got back from a weekend at a local writing author’s festival, and am part way through what will likely be my final pass through Digital Extremities. Septuple-checking for grammatical mistakes, but I also got some good feedback from one of the authors at that festival, and a few editors I’m working with.

What are you currently reading or what’s up next on your TBR? What made you pick up this book?

I’ve almost finished Season of the Dragon by Natalie Wright. It’s egregiously long-overdue. Natalie gifted me a copy of the book back in 2022 after I illustrated maps for it, but at the time I was moving across the US and then I kind of fell off the reading wagon. 

Pushing myself to read more this year, though! I’ve started writing reviews for FanFiAddict’s blog, which has helped motivate me to focus on that more.

Can you give us an elevator pitch for your book?

I began writing Digital Extremities because I wanted to see what cyberpunk settings such as those in Neuromancer or Cyberpunk 2077 might look like in rural spaces. We rarely see anything beyond the city in stories like these, after all.

It took a while, but the collection ultimately stays pretty true to that original concept.

Genre definitions vary broadly from person to person, would you tell our readers what genre(s) you consider Digital Extremities and why?

Digital Extremities is cyberpunk in the way that it is at times fatalistic and bleak, concerned with unfettered capitalism, climate change, and inequality. However, it is not only these things.

The stories are heavily inspired by literary fiction. They’re character-driven, contemporary, with a keen interest in real people’s lives. For the most part they aren’t concerned with world-affecting issues. Those things (the aforementioned capitalism and climate change) happen in the background, but the stories focus on personal problems: dealing with a loss in the family, affording rent, or a good old-fashioned detective mystery.

It’s a strange blend, no doubt influenced by my love of genre fiction with an education in contemporary and classic Western fiction. I’m a strong believer that those subjects can work together, though it is admittedly quite difficult to discuss concisely.

I’ve been calling Digital Extremities a sci-fi slice-of-life short story collection, which is probably close enough.

Can you tell us a little bit about your characters in these stories? What are your favorite kinds of characters to write?

The first story, “Alone / Together” has a dual point-of-view. Sayra is depressed after a miscarriage. Her husband Carl is doing his best to keep things running at home—at the cost of suppressing his own feelings. They are never openly in conflict with one another, but often push indirectly against each other. Their grief pushes them to make some arguably poor decisions… One of my beta readers said it well when he said he hated what they did, but completely understood why they did it.

Even in that grief, Carl and Sayra find ways to lighten the mood or poke fun at something. I think that’s really important—no matter the circumstances people are always finding ways to create moments of levity.

As for what kind of characters I tend to write, overall, that’s a tough one. I tend to have to do a lot of experimentation with my characters. I’m not really sure who they are or what they need until I’ve written about them, from their perspective.

I like stories that have a message. The character has to serve that message. Sometimes I know one, but not the other. That was the case for “Alone / Together.” I knew what the general plot was long before I knew who Carl and Sayra were, and it took a while to discover that. But they were molded by the story that needed telling. Altogether I was working on that one sporadically for about two years. Others came together over a matter of days.

If you could choose one worldbuilding detail (a place, ability, or creature, for example) from any of these stories to exist in the real world, what would it be and why?

The tech you see in Digital Extremities is pretty grounded overall. The first few stories take place at the end of the 21st century, and the final ones in the middle of the 22nd, so cars still look like cars. You start to see more of those typical cyberpunk body mods as the stories go on, but they’re very practical: heat shielding for people who work near a furnace, cranial implants that improve a surgeon’s memory, and so on.

A common piece of tech that you see right from the beginning is the lens. It’s essentially a contact lens that gives you a heads-up-display, similar to Google Glass or Apple Vision Pro, but in a much smaller package. Honestly, I would be surprised if something like it didn’t get made this century.

How did you choose which story to title the collection after? 

Digital Extremities isn’t based on any of the stories’ titles, actually. It was a temporary title I gave the project based on the podcast and video series, Extremities. A few of the locations in the book are inspired by episodes of that show, such as Longyearbyen, Norway, and Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy.

Over time, the temp title just felt like the title. It also related well to the stories’ march into the future, and each other location was either rural or remote. So, I decided not to change it.

Do you have a favorite story in the collection?

It depends on my mood. “Alone / Together” was the first story I wrote for the collection, so I’m a bit sentimental toward it. “Buying Time” has always felt very personal. Something about the main character’s journey and his sense of feeling trapped resonates with me.

I think the one I’m most proud of is “Fireworks Above the Badlands.” It’s the final piece, the most cyberpunk-feeling, and my first real effort at a detective mystery. It’s set in a fictional city surrounding Civita di Bagnoregio, an ancient town originally built by the Etruscans c. 2,500 years ago. I love that blend of the classic cyberpunk city with this ancient ruin towering above it—the city literally provides retaining walls that prevent the ruins from collapsing. 

A huge thanks to one of my editors, B.K. Bass, who had written similar detective noirs in the past and gave me the courage to try it myself. I’d expected him to tear it apart, but I think it was one of his favorites, too!

Were there any stories that got cut from this collection?

A few, yes! For one reason or another they didn’t fit the right tone, or structurally just weren’t quite working. One was a thought experiment on how hunting might evolve in the future if wild animal populations were all too endangered to hunt for real anymore, and the virtual reality games that might emerge to replace that. I really liked that story, but it was quite long, and needs more work if it’s ever to be released.

Another was a very short exploration of Digital Extremities’ concept of the Net / Internet / Cyberspace, whatever you want to call it. It was going to be in 2nd person, to make the reader feel the same sense of detachment as the main character felt, which I thought was a fun gimmick. Unfortunately, it came very late in the process, and couldn’t quite find the plot in a way that made sense to the rest of the collection.

Perhaps they’ll re-emerge in some other form later, who knows?

What would you like readers to take away from this collection?

I’d love for people to connect with whatever parts of the story resonate with them. Whether that’s feeling the grief of Carl and Sayra’s loss, relating to the urgency of Hernán’s rent increasing, or anything else. There’s some common threads in Digital Extremities, but each story explores something a little different: different places, times, and situations.

Is there anything you can tell us about any current projects you’re working on?

I’m also working on a book about fictional map design! It’s a blend of real-world science and ideas on how to apply that to fictional worlds. For example, how The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin uses tectonics as a basis for her magic system, and the way climate can impact culture in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. 

Plus, I’ve added some thoughts about the way maps affect other things in your story, such as the cultures and wildlife. There’s a long, self-indulgent section all about the moa-nalo, and how the geography of Hawaiʻi likely led to the bird’s success and extinction.

If you’re at all interested in fictional maps, or want tips to make your own, keep an eye out for that around the start of 2025 (hopefully)!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! Do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to leave for our readers?

Thanks for having me! Digital Extremities comes out this September, but you can sign up to read the ARC early if you’d like to check it out sooner! You can also add Digital Extremities to your Goodreads.

And finally, where can you be found on the internet if our readers want to hear more from you?

You can follow me @adamcbassett on Twitter, Threads, or Instagram. Or, check out my website and newsletter.

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About the book:

A collection of eight stories, Digital Extremities shines a spotlight on ordinary people in a callous yet hopeful future. Set in small towns and remote islands, where neon flickers against old homes and oaks, it paints a unique view of a traditionally cyberpunk setting.

In 2089, a woman miscarries and seeks a way to find peace amidst overwhelming grief. Years later, a young man must seek a way to pay rent outside of his job at the glassblowing studio. A pair of students, excited to go to college, install new hardware that promises to improve their cognitive functions. A private investigator searches for a missing child who has a reputation for embarking on risky adventures. Each tale is shaped by love, loss, and perseverance, weaving a vision of life outside of the megacities.