A Guest at the Armchair: Peter J. Foote
We pull up a second chair for Peter J. Foote and his novel Encrypted Starpath
Welcome to A Guest at the Armchair, where we pull up a second chair for an author we admire and talk about one of their books. This time the signal's coming through from Peter J. Foote, beaming in to tell us about himself and Encrypted Starpath.
I’m Peter J. Foote, a science fiction and fantasy author originally from Woodville, Nova Scotia, where I grew up on an apple farm. These days, my wife and I live in Coldbrook, and I spend my time balancing writing with a blue-collar trades job, community work, and trying to keep up with life.
Since publishing my first short story, The Silence between Moons, back in 2016, I’ve published over thirty short stories and eight self-published books. Most of what I write falls somewhere under the science fiction and fantasy umbrella, though I tend to lean toward softer sci-fi where the focus stays on the characters rather than the technical details. Mostly because my math sucks.
Writing wasn’t something that came naturally to me growing up. I struggled quite a bit in school and spent plenty of nights frustrated around the kitchen table while my parents tried to help me improve my reading and writing. For a long time, I thought of myself as imaginative more than creative. I always had stories and adventures running around in my head, but I never expected I’d eventually become a published author.
Honestly, I kind of fell into writing by accident. After getting out of a long, toxic relationship, I realized I didn’t really have anyone to talk to, so I started writing instead. That eventually became my first published story, and things just kept growing from there.
Over the years, I’ve developed a writing process that works for me. I’m definitely a plotter, but not an overly rigid one. I like to know where the mountains are in a story — the big moments and major turns — while still leaving myself room to explore the valleys in between. Plotting is still my favourite part of writing. Give me a notebook, a pencil, and a “what if?” question, and my brain will happily disappear for hours.
Self-editing remains my eternal enemy. Passive sentences, runaway commas, awkward phrasing — those things still give me headaches, so I love my editor.
One of the best parts of writing has been the people I’ve met along the way. Other authors were generous enough to help me when I was starting out, and I’ve tried to pay that forward however I can. That’s part of why I founded the Genre Writers of Atlantic Canada Facebook group, help admin Atlantic Canada Author Events, and run workshops with writing groups and at conventions. The writing community has done a lot for me, and I try to give back where I can.
Right now, I just finished Encrypted Starpath, the first book in my Jupiter’s Eye series — basically, I asked myself if you took Zoe and Wash from “Firefly”, jammed them in a “Expanse” style universe, and had them deliver the mail, what would happen? That was enough to get the hamster wheel in my brain spinning, and my happily married couple battled mega-corps, rescuing a scientist and her family, and oh yeah, did I mention the space mushrooms that can terraform dead worlds, or kill living ones? When I’m not writing, I’m usually reading, cooking at home, doing CrossFit with my wife, or puttering around the house. Life’s busy, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Liam and Rosario deliver messages across the solar system. It’s simple work—move data, haul cargo, and try not to get caught sabotaging the mega-corporations that rule humanity.
Escorting clients isn’t part of the job.
But when a distress call for rescue hits their scanners, their quiet rebellion threatens to blow up in their faces.
The client, Dr. Santos, has uncovered something tied to the Interstellar Gate orbiting Jupiter—something that could give humanity countless new worlds. But she must escape her corporate overlords or the future won’t belong to anyone but those who can afford it.
Saving her means doing something Liam and Rosario have never done before:
Deliver a passenger instead of a message.
Available in all the shops here, or direct from Peter here.
A Guest at the Armchair is a recurring feature from Armchair Alien, where we pull up a second chair for an author we admire and talk about one of their books.
And there is more from Peter here.