Claudia LeBoeuf is a former NASA aerospace engineer turned wife and homeschooling mom to five wonderful children. She began writing stories while teaching her children creative writing, during their five-year residence in Chile, South America.
After returning to the States, she won the science fiction category of the 2020 Mountain Brook Fire “Fire Awards.”
Her early partiality for Charles Dickens grew into a keen fondness for well-written villains, which she endeavors to craft in her own novels as well. The exceptional worldbuilding and deep point of view writing of her favorite author, C. J. Cherryh, have also been an inspiration.
Claudia and her family now reside in central Kentucky, where she enjoys helping with her daughters’ wool business—alpacas, Shetland sheep, and Angora rabbits—as well as the other farm animals. Her favorites are their two Great Pyrenees dogs and the barn cats.
Visit Claudia LeBoeuf online
Fields of Prosperis
Space pilot Russ Atkins hungers for a fresh start. His gift of sensing telepathic interference has only brought him misery. An unexpected encounter jolts him out of his dreary existence, but restoring a telepathic adolescent to her clan in defiance of the law is not what he had in mind. The Union of Planets, governed from twenty-third century Earth, nurtures a deep-seated loathing toward its former thought-shifting overlords, the Ilanians. Aside from an enslaved group of Ilanians, many of whom are used as special agents to hunt their own kind, all telepaths and humans who help them face execution. With a death penalty hanging over his head, Russ plunges into a criminal underworld to evade capture. But a powerful Union agent from his past has plans that target both him and his young friend’s clan. Russ must search his heart to overcome his own prejudices, while his memories hold the key to defeating his thought-shifting foe.
- ISBN: B0F255XQWJ
- Publisher: Elk Lake Publishing, Inc.
Interview with Claudia LeBoeuf 2025
When did you feel called to become an author?
I have long felt fiction was a good means of reaching people with God’s truth. The writing bug didn’t bite until my mid-fifties, however, while teaching my children creative writing within our homeschool curriculum. With my background in aerospace engineering, science fiction came naturally.
The idea for my novel began with thoughts about how a telepathic family would interact with each other. It occurred to me that having a mother describe what her daughter’s thoughts were like while still inside her womb would be a wonderful prolife message. The exciting part is that I found I had so much more to say as the story developed.
What did you learn while writing this book?
My writing craft took a great leap forward as I poured into the book what I learned in courses and from critiques. Two elements that really helped me as an author were deep point of view writing and layering the setting description into the characters’ action beats.
As I developed my characters and their relationships, I realized my protagonist struggled with inner conflicts regarding forgiveness, friendship, and vocation. Drawing him to a more God-centered way of thinking strengthened my own understanding of these concepts (1 Thessalonians 2:12 ‘that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory’).
What is the toughest part of writing in your genre?
Building a consistent and realistic future world.
If someone were to look at your Google search history (all for research of course!), what types of things would we find?
Futuristic weaponry, artificial gravity, equations for a spinning space station, unique EEG signatures for each person’s brain. My 200 meter radius spaceport would need to rotate at 2 rev/minute to achieve its 1g environment, which is supposedly reasonable for humans to bear without dizziness. I decided to have all my space freighters and cruisers stick with zero-g environments. It was so much fun writing scenes for zero-g.
If you could have coffee with an author, dead or alive, whose work you admire, who would that be? What would you ask him or her?
I have read almost every novel by Charles Dickens (yes, even the super long ones – they are the best!). I admire and try to emulate his character development and the way he juxtaposes poignant, comedic, and satiric elements. I would ask him how he started the process of sketching out his characters and their relationships.
What’s your go-to drink while writing?
Dark roast coffee in the morning and fruity herbal tea with honey later in the day.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
I would tell myself to be confident in my God-given worth and to not dwell on rejections and criticisms.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
I enjoy hiking and reading. Cross-stitch and embroidery are my favorite hobbies when I want to relax – I would love to improve my knitting and crocheting skills. I help out on our small farm and love walking around our pastures checking on the alpacas, sheep, horses, and other animals.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
I am reading/studying three writing craft books, “The Emotional Craft of Fiction,” by Donald Maass, “The Anatomy of Story,” by John Truby, and “Fight Write,” by Carla Hoch. I look forward to starting the SciFi Hugo Award winning “The Three-Body Problem,” by Cixin Liu, and the Realm Award winning fantasy “Song of the Selkies,” by Sarah Pennington. I am also reading “North and South,” by Elizabeth Gaskell, after seeing the excellent BBC miniseries adaptation.
What can we look forward to next?
I am writing the sequel to “Fields of Prosperis.” It follows a grown-up Teresa navigating the world of political alliances in order to save her people from genocide.
I have long felt fiction was a good means of reaching people with God’s truth. The writing bug didn’t bite until my mid-fifties, however, while teaching my children creative writing within our homeschool curriculum. With my background in aerospace engineering, science fiction came naturally.
The idea for my novel began with thoughts about how a telepathic family would interact with each other. It occurred to me that having a mother describe what her daughter’s thoughts were like while still inside her womb would be a wonderful prolife message. The exciting part is that I found I had so much more to say as the story developed.
What did you learn while writing this book?
My writing craft took a great leap forward as I poured into the book what I learned in courses and from critiques. Two elements that really helped me as an author were deep point of view writing and layering the setting description into the characters’ action beats.
As I developed my characters and their relationships, I realized my protagonist struggled with inner conflicts regarding forgiveness, friendship, and vocation. Drawing him to a more God-centered way of thinking strengthened my own understanding of these concepts (1 Thessalonians 2:12 ‘that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory’).
What is the toughest part of writing in your genre?
Building a consistent and realistic future world.
If someone were to look at your Google search history (all for research of course!), what types of things would we find?
Futuristic weaponry, artificial gravity, equations for a spinning space station, unique EEG signatures for each person’s brain. My 200 meter radius spaceport would need to rotate at 2 rev/minute to achieve its 1g environment, which is supposedly reasonable for humans to bear without dizziness. I decided to have all my space freighters and cruisers stick with zero-g environments. It was so much fun writing scenes for zero-g.
If you could have coffee with an author, dead or alive, whose work you admire, who would that be? What would you ask him or her?
I have read almost every novel by Charles Dickens (yes, even the super long ones – they are the best!). I admire and try to emulate his character development and the way he juxtaposes poignant, comedic, and satiric elements. I would ask him how he started the process of sketching out his characters and their relationships.
What’s your go-to drink while writing?
Dark roast coffee in the morning and fruity herbal tea with honey later in the day.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
I would tell myself to be confident in my God-given worth and to not dwell on rejections and criticisms.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
I enjoy hiking and reading. Cross-stitch and embroidery are my favorite hobbies when I want to relax – I would love to improve my knitting and crocheting skills. I help out on our small farm and love walking around our pastures checking on the alpacas, sheep, horses, and other animals.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
I am reading/studying three writing craft books, “The Emotional Craft of Fiction,” by Donald Maass, “The Anatomy of Story,” by John Truby, and “Fight Write,” by Carla Hoch. I look forward to starting the SciFi Hugo Award winning “The Three-Body Problem,” by Cixin Liu, and the Realm Award winning fantasy “Song of the Selkies,” by Sarah Pennington. I am also reading “North and South,” by Elizabeth Gaskell, after seeing the excellent BBC miniseries adaptation.
What can we look forward to next?
I am writing the sequel to “Fields of Prosperis.” It follows a grown-up Teresa navigating the world of political alliances in order to save her people from genocide.
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