Why a park ranger wrote the sci-fi western ‘Cash and Gravity’
In a near-future U.S. run by corporations (sound familiar?), this action-packed sci-fi western adventure races through a climate crisis…
“I wanted to combine the facts that things are changing, and bad things are happening, BUT I don’t want to write about a hopeless world.”
Travel across the expanse of America and into space as a marine finds a piece of new technology in the desert that kicks off a riveting epic cat-and-mouse road trip in Perrin Pring’s debut novel, Cash and Gravity.
Using her knowledge from her experiences as a park ranger, Pring draws inspiration from her love of the American West and the unpredictable nature of her work to craft a story that depicts an America run by major corporations on the brink of all-out war over a piece of technology that can bring humans to the stars.
About Cash and Gravity
A thrilling sci-fi western and the first in a genre- and mind-bending series bearing shades of Old Man’s War, The Murderbot Diaries, and The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Chevy Cole is a female Launch Tech Marine who lives in a world where mega corporations battle each other for Earthly metals in the pursuit of one day getting humans permanently off planet. During a battle, Cole comes across a crash site containing a super soldier, an Ace, who has the world's first mobile fusion device.
Realizing her corporation stole the device from their rival, Cole is forced to partner with Dolon—a man so analogue he can use cash and navigate by paper map, to get them to a safehouse, thrusting them on a low tech, high stakes road trip across the American West…
About author Perrin Pring
A former white water kayaker who competed on the World Cup circuit, Perrin Pring is now a park ranger. She has worked and lived across the U.S., riding horses in the Rocky Mountains, driving Jeeps in the wilds of the desert, greeting the sunrise in Hawaii, and running chainsaws in the Sierra Mountains.
Follow Pring on Instagram: @perrinpringauthor
Interview: Perrin Pring on Cash and Gravity
Pring spends a lot of her free time recreating on public lands—and has challenging adventures on them.
“Those experiences shape my worldview. I am usually doing something hard and on public land, and that helps me write characters doing hard things. While my job is all about protecting public lands, outside of my work I call my reps regularly to tell them I want them to protect OUR public lands.”
Born and raised in the American West, Pring says that no matter where she goes, she can’t get it out of her system.
“The vast stretches of wild land live in my bones, and when I write, I always end up writing about the American West. I’m not sure if this is how everyone feels about the landscape they grew up in, but for me, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to totally shake the West from my writing.”
Working as a park ranger, she gets to experience so many new things through her job.
“My job has allowed me to learn skills which many people never get to acquire,” she says. “I get to talk to people from all over the world, and I learn through others. And I get to spend time in places which are so special, our country has set them aside to be conserved. All of this finds its way into my writing.”
Through her experiences—seeing climate change firsthand—Pring has seen many unprecedented weather/fire events the past few years. Plus she’s also read many “cli-fi/distopia” novels—which are depressing.
“I wanted to combine the facts that things are changing, and bad things are happening,” she says. “But I don’t want to write about a hopeless world. I want to write about people succeeding even when things are bad or changing for the worst, and that was a guiding tenant of Cash and Gravity.”
Cash and Gravity involves a specific piece of technology. The author shared how living in a rural part of America—and preferring to live that way—informed the focus of her sci-fi adventure in the novel.
“My favorite times in my life have been when I am less connected to the Internet—and I say this knowing I am fully addicted to checking my phone,” Pring says. “I find the desire for a less-connected life compelling.
“At the same time, the Internet has made living rurally so much easier. So connectivity vs. lack of connectivity is a balance I strive for, but don’t often find. And I think that comes through in my writing.”
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