The Hard Science Fiction Writer's Toolkit: Build Believable Worlds with Real Science

Kellie Harperhall is a speculative fiction author and science communicator based in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in *Analog Science Fiction and Fact*, *Clarkesworld*, and *Lightspeed*, with multiple stories recognized in the annual *Year's Best Science Fiction* anthologies. She holds a degree in astrophysics from the University of Washington and spent six years working in exoplanet research before transitioning to full-time writing.

Her debut novel, *The Sky is Not the Limit*, won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel in the science fiction genre. Subsequent novels include *The Gravity of Orbits* and *A Hymn for Silent Worlds*, both of which were finalists for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Her short fiction has been translated into twelve languages and has received three Hugo Award nominations.

In addition to her fiction, Harperhall writes the monthly column "The Science in the Story" for *Locus Magazine*, where she analyzes how contemporary SF integrates scientific research. She has served as a judge for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and as a guest lecturer at Clarion West and Viable Paradise writing workshops.

Harperhall lives with her partner and two cats in a house built on a steep hill that she maintains is "geologically stable enough for fiction purposes." She is currently working on a near-future novel about asteroid mining, orbital infrastructure, and the regulatory capture of space resources by Earth-based corporations. She regrets nothing about the research rabbit hole she has fallen into regarding the legal status of resources extracted from celestial bodies under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and she will talk about it at parties given the slightest encouragement.