Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: We can all use some beauty in our lives—the open ocean, teeming with life, the unshackled consciousness we call dreams, and the joy of sharing both with each other. Clara Ward’s ecofiction gives us all of these in their book, Be the Sea. Clara, can you introduce us to your book?

Clara: Be the Sea dips into a queer neuro-inclusive future with chosen family, sea creatures, and mysterious dreams.

In November 2039, marine scientist Wend Taylor heaves themself aboard a zero-emissions boat skippered by elusive nature photographer Viola Yang. Guided by instinct, ocean dreams, and a shared birthday in 1972, they barter stories for passage across the Pacific. Aljon, Viola’s younger cousin, keeps a watchful eye and an innovative galley. Story by story, the trio rethink secrets, flying dreams, and how they experience their own minds.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Clara: My earliest memories are of the ocean. I was born in Kāneʻohe, Hawai’i, back when loving the ocean meant fighting to protect Kāneʻohe reefs from human sewage.

Rocking on a boat or standing with surf lapping at bare feet has always been my happy place. After half a century, I realized that wherever life threw me, I always returned to the ocean. My fight has grown to include climate change, ocean acidification, plastic and other pollutants—too much for a single person or a single lifetime. Alongside this realization came the characters for my story, a near-future chosen family drawn together by mysterious forces and their love of the sea.

Zilla: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it—your own chosen family of readers?

Clara: While writing, my head was full of characters who cared enough to act. Whether a teacher, scientist, sailor, photographer, lawyer, or marine lifestyle entrepreneur, each found their own path to preserving the ocean. I wrote my characters’ grief over losing the coral reefs alongside their drive to protect a giant manta ray. I believed readers as diverse as my characters could share a sense of wonder and be inspired with love for the ocean, the earth, and each other. People want to save what they love. I pledged all my royalties to Conservation International and launched Be the Sea out into the world.

I found plenty of kindred spirits while speaking on environmental and marine science panels. However, the readers who embraced the book most fiercely from the start, some literally hugging the book to their chests, were those who saw themselves in my neurodivergent, nonbinary, and queer protagonist. Those readers not only changed my connection to our community, but they literally changed the trajectory of Be the Sea a month after it came out. Neurodivergent readers especially told me they, or someone they wanted to share the book with, needed an audiobook version right away. I told my tiny indie publisher, Atthis Arts, and they supported this shift in scheduling. The audiobook for Be the Sea came out in December!

Zilla: If your characters met you, what would they say to you?

Clara: I live in Silicon Valley now, and half the young people I know have jobs that could be read as science fiction by outsiders. They challenge society to accept them as they are: queer, trans, neurodivergent, proud. They ask when—not if—sea level will rise a meter, and they take for granted that we need alternatives to fossil fuels and plastic packaging as soon as possible. It has become common to hear people of all ages say that we need a solution for these problems yesterday. Sadly, although my book takes place fifteen years in our future, that’s what I hear my characters saying to me. I did the best I could, and wrote Be the Sea for them, yesterday.

Zilla: I love this. Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Clara: You can find me (and lots of bonus material for my book!) on my website (https://clarawardauthor.wordpress.com/novels/be-the-sea/). Be the Sea is available at your favorite online or brick-and-mortar bookseller.  Or go directly to my small press publisher, Atthis Arts (https://www.atthisarts.com/product/be-the-sea/) and use code BETHESEA this week only to get 20% off your entire order and a free Sea Creature postcard!