Science and art might seem opposites, but San Antonio author Isa Arsén deftly combines them in her debut novel, Shoot the Moon, a period tale of a young NASA secretary who works her way into the ranks of the Apollo engineers who send 6 million-pound rockets into space.
Arsén has written stories since buying a notebook with gift money from her grandmother at “a very young age,” but her wide-ranging curiosity led her to study computer music composition in college.
Music made with computers and stories woven from human imagination are similar, Arsén said during a phone interview from her San Antonio home.
“A lot of the principles are the same, where you have to make sure that there’s a solid arc between points A, B and C. We are still telling a story, but you’re using instruments and melodies and harmony to do it instead of words,” she said.
“Principles of orchestration, of pacing, of timing, of tone, how to balance what you’re trying to say implicitly versus explicitly, it’s all very similar. It’s just in a different language.”
A pulpy tone
Shoot the Moon frames the story of fictional Annie Fisk, a physics graduate who is relegated to a secretarial position at NASA in the 1960s, when gender discrimination was the norm — particularly in the sciences.
Never mind dry images of men with crewcuts standing around banks of dials and switches in NASA’s control room, though. In florid language pulsating with vivid descriptors, Arsén weaves complex science and physics into a riveting tale of human emotion as we follow Fisk through relationships with family, female and male lovers, and a life-altering teacher.
Arsén’s unabashed embrace of a pulpy tone is evident in the novel’s first lines:
I blew a piston of smoke through the open window and took another draw on its heels, my eyes fixed on the waxing moon hanging high above. The sill dug softly into my elbows as I drank the fresh air.
All the elements of the story to unfold already have appeared: Fisk’s earthy nature, the moon’s elusive mystery and the pain of yearning to reach things that seem achingly distant.
Texas settings
Though a native Virginian, Arsén often visited New Mexico and grew to love the arid western desert. Her grandmother’s house in Santa Fe plays a significant role in the book, as does San Antonio where Fisk attended college at the fictional St. Christopher the Martyr, based on the University of the Incarnate Word.
Varying Texas landscapes from Houston to West Texas unfold throughout the tale, and a certain well-known Marfa phenomenon makes a subtle appearance at the culmination of Fisk’s adventures when fringe physics and gritty human experience combine.
The Texas scenes of Shoot the Moon will feel familiar to anyone who, like Arsén, has traversed the state’s byways. Arsén’s professional work as an audio engineer brought her and her spouse to Austin in 2018, but the distinctive qualities of San Antonio beckoned and they relocated in 2022.
“We fell in love with Texas and wanted something that felt a little bit more permanent. Austin is not really a permanent place,” she said. “But San Antonio has a really good idea of what it is and what it’s trying to say and what it’s all about. I love the culture here. I love the people here. I love the pace of life here. It’s such a special spot.”
San Antonio is special enough for Arsén that the national book launch will take place here with a free event at Nowhere Bookshop on Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. The author will be present.
