Q&A with Perrin Pring

  

 

Perrin Pring is the author of the new novel Cash and Gravity. She is a park ranger, and she lives in the Rocky Mountain West. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Cash and Gravity, and how did you create your character Chevy?

 

A: It was inspired by a cross-country drive with my husband. We started talking about technology that could change the world, and the conversation morphed into a big what if premise. What if the government quit funding science and corporations pursued science instead? What would that world look like? How would society work?

 

And from there, I realized I had a pretty cool premise for a story, but without characters, all I had was a premise. So we brainstormed Chevy, and then Dolon, and Izan. At the time I think my husband thought we were just passing time while we drove across Nevada, but I was like, I could write this! And so I did.

 

But Chevy changed A LOT while I drafted. I wrote the story in 2020 and it sold in 2025. In that time I got multiple promotions, moved twice and got an MFA in creative writing from the University of Riverside California, Palm Desert, and so the Chevy we dreamed up on that fateful car ride half a decade ago was only a shadow of who she is today.

 

Q: How did you create the world in which the story is set?

A: I am not a huge fan of dystopia fiction because I find it really hopeless. I also think that the 2020s have been really tumultuous in America.

 

I wanted to write a story about a near future where things did not all go right, but people were still hopeful and doing their best. And Chevy is always doing her best, despite often messing it up. And the more I spent time learning who she was, the clearer the world became.

 

Q: The writer Ivy Pochoda said of Chevy, “Pring ushers in one of the most badass main characters in recent memory.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: Ha. I mean, I love it? It’s super flattering, and I hope my work lives up to the hype.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: Oh, this novel has been redrafted and redrafted and redrafted. I have no idea how many drafts I wrote. When I started it had four POVs, Chevy was male, Izan was female, and all sorts of other things were happening.

 

I always knew the end though, although I altered it a little once I got several years in. But this novel is a lecture on the power of revision. Never quit revising, even though you hate it.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently finalizing book two to turn into Diversion Books. So Chevy and the crew will return!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you so much for taking the time to read my work and interview me. It’s really humbling. I appreciate it so much.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb