Michèle Laframbroise on Sustainability

hosted by Nina Munteanu

August 15 2026 - 13

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The Sustainability thread is a thematic series of articles, curated by Canadian SF author Nina Munteanu and sponsored by Reality Skimming Press. Pieces in the series appear twice a month. Query Nina Munteanu about appearing on the thread at nina.sfgirl@gmail.com

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My guest today is Canadian artist and author Lynn Hutchinson Lee.

Interview with Michèle Laframbroise

My guest today is Michele Laframboise, an award-winning Canadian artist, novelist and prolific

short story author. She is also the publisher of Échofictions an indie publishing house in Ontario.

Laframboise explores sustainability in her fictional Gardener’s civilisation, portrayed in several

of her short stories and novellas.My My guest today is Canadian artist and author Lynn Hutchinson Lee.  

Canadian Artist and Author Michele Laframbroise

Nina:  How would you define sustainability and what do you consider the key components to be sustained?

Michèle: The key elements for me:

“Balance”: balance of work and activism and rest, to keep our health and achieve long-term

goals.

“Generosity” or giving back to the universe: I strive to give as much as I have received from the

Earth and my family, minding the chain of obligations to nature*, and friendship.

“Social biodiversity”, where a rich tapestry of people helps boost the creativity needed to solve

our current problems like war and unchecked greed. People of every color, orientation and

neurological condition.

“Conviviality”, the reality of living together and sharing the world as friends.

“Welcoming” is another world I like.

Sustainability for me is achieving a balance between my (and our family’s) needs and the rest of

the planet’s (including plants, animals and humans!) needs.

* which is minimizing the energy budget of every activity/production to maximize the planet’s

bounty. (And beauty of course.)

Nina: What does the phrase of our thread title "Sustainability Before Ambition" mean to you and how does it affect you: how you live, what you write?

Michèle: To answer that is walking on a fine thread, because my ambitious dream of being

magically “discovered” is rearing its seductive head from time to time. I still feel invisible, the

lot of many older/mature woman artists. Even with all my literary prizes for SF works.

The younger me dreamt of hitting the notoriety wall, both for social validation and for material

wealth — that would have allowed let me buy a house for my aging parents and siblings (didn’t

happen). I have seen a lot of shooting stars, but I plan to contribute for a long time, and to

leave a fair body of work.

My counter currently sits at near 100 short-stories and 20 trad-pub novels, not counting the 45

books/ebooks published by my company Échofictions.

For now, my quest for the perfect, regular and sustainable pace has not been achieved.

In theory, I have entire days to write my fun SF stories. In practice, my actual writing time is less

than 2-3 h a day, this when I am not disturbed. Since I moved my office from the kitchen into

the basement, there are less distractions (like husband/son opening the biscuit cupboard next

to my writing desk…)

My concentration levels are the opposite of diving decompression stages. It takes me a full hour

to “dive” deep enough to feel the story. But anyone calling on me makes me emerge fast, and if

it is more than two minutes, my concentration is busted. I may spend 10 hours to write a short-

story to an approaching deadline.

Maintaining a day-to-day presence in social media is exhausting. And Booktok with all its thin

girly “influencers” expels me like an alien body. I loved Instagram because of the authors I

follow, but the algorithm conveniently “forget” my preferences.

I still love to share my process and books I loved, so, I send an author newsletter. Again: once a

month, not every week. I know how rare a resource is attention, and I don’t want to hog it all.

I do write with my heart and mind, and have penned hard-SF for two decades. Hard-SF does not

mean heartless. My challenge is to translate my YA novels and get a new publisher in English.

Nina: In your community, what do you see as the major barriers and facilitators of sustainable

living?

Michèle: Facilitators are the neighbors net, indie bookshops, and a very well managed public

transit system (in Mississauga). Everywhere people can reach someone. We do have recycling

and organic waste collections.

Obstacles are the social medias & medias that make it very difficult to act on our knowledge,

with the algorithms working to keep our attention. And I do not enter into the housing

challenge, the speculation bubble, the homeless, the First Nations needs…

Nina: What do you think are the major barriers and facilitators for organizations and nations?

Michèle: The incredible pollution led by the fossil fuel industry, and the information infestation

by billionaire companies to control our lives. The concentration of money and resources. Cory

Doctorov’s enshittification of the platforms have dampened my enthusiastic embrace of

Internet. And now, fossil oil greed that fuels wars that in turn raise the temperatures, deforests,

and destroy cities and their infrastructures. The facilitators are, for me, indie journalists and

medias that I support.

Nina: Industry and corporations (and governments, including our own) use the phrase

“sustainable development.” What are your thoughts on that term? Do you think it is a

useful term or not?

Michèle: I would be happy if they didn’t hide what they do when they say “development”.

I see our Ontario PM lauds the developers who destroy vast tracks of forests to sprout

McMansions, which won’t help the lower-earning people. Same for the autoroutes. That

development is sustaining fortunes. Same for the fossil oil reserves: no finite growth can last

forever. The faster we get off fossil fuel, the better.

The words sustainable development should be changed to “sustainable activities” or “convivial

creations.”

Nina: What is your opinion of the Sustainable Development Goals set out as part of the 2030

Agenda for Sustainable Development by world leaders at a UN Summit in 2015?

Michèle: It’s never enough but we have to start somewhere.

Nina: Do you think it is possible to achieve sustainability within a capitalist system? Explain.

Michèle: Yes, if we were all angels… instead of speculators. When the private property concept

entered the mindset of humanity, the need for domination of nature, accumulation of riches

and statute went up.

I believe in creative anarchy; and in accountability of any structural management we choose to

adopt. I believe in the participation of all, but not all at the same time or the same level of

investment, taking into account the unique needs of different people.

Nina: What do you do to be sustainable?

Michèle: As a writer, I have embarked on a sustainable practice that mixes trad pub and auto-

indie pub. That does not mean that I do not err on the side of overworking, but I have now

solidly put behind me the “best-selling author” route. My newsletter is about 200 fans and

growing, slow as a tree.

I do not need to be read by millions of people, but I hope the few hundreds whom my stories

could help face hardships will find them. And if they never find mine, I am confident that my

writer colleagues also have excellent, uplifting works for those who need it.

And I love meeting fellow writers at Cons. (I’m back from Scintillation 7 in Montréal) . All the

people discovering my stand are enthralled by the “friends lists” at the end of my books. I do

most of my sales in-person because I reject Amazon/Facebook ads. So lower online sales on the

platforms.

With Échofictions, I endeavor to give the best, upbeat stories for my fans. No water-gurgling

generating AI models for me. And I use my aborted scientific career (I perished instead of

published) in geography and engineering to create fun SF stories.

In the personal sphere: cycling inside a 4 k distance; using transit; mending holes in garments to

make them last. I do not let anything go to waste. I also limit my consummation to fair-trade

and ecological products (as much as I can verify the provenance).

Nina: How does your company put sustainability into practice?

Michèle: A SHORT-RUN, LONG-TERM PUBLISHING PRACTICE

Échofictions s is a proud Ontarian indie-publisher that wishes to reach its public but eschews

the waste of a large-model distribution where books are on sale like lettuce for 3 weeks before

getting returned/destroyed.

I do all the graphic design and covers (so my ongoing costs are InDesign subscription, Clip studio

and Vellum) plus a three-passes self-editing process. Échofictions prints its books in Québec, in

short runs, and keeps the prices as low as possible. The same goes for the electronic editions. 

All published books are:

• Printed in Montréal using Canadian labor

• In a 5 x 8 in format, easy to mail, easy to put in a recycled milk bag.

• Inexpensive: all 10 or 15 CAD, the upcoming larger novels at 20 CAD thanks to the rising

paper prices.

• Distributed in independent bookstores in Mississauga and Montréal that we visit in-

person

• Available as paper copies for mail delivery elsewhere in Canada, and several world

countries

• Contain a “Friends list” page at the end

• All books sold in rinsed milk bags and reused paper bags

Échofictions actively promotes a circular economy by allowing readers to pass the book along.

The last page of any paper book is a special space dedicated to the chain of friendship, where

readers can write their name before gifting the book. It is, definitively, not a capitalist model. 

To know more, go visit my direct sales website at echofictions.com

Nina: Do you feel that authors can play a role in encouraging a sustainable lifestyle? Do any

particular writing genres play a more substantial role in establishing a narrative of

sustainability?

Michèle: Yes, of course, our science fictional stories can at least build a compass pointing at a

better way of life, one that promotes the wellbeing of the many over the luxury of a handful.

And, not to be forgotten, there is our capacity of finding new words for new concepts. For

instance, Rob J Sawyer in a novel has his characters ask: “What is your contribution?” Instead

of: “what is your job?” Contribution can be anything, paid or not, that we do for others. And: I

am using it, now. Cory Doctorow coined “enshittification”, and everyone uses it now.

My Gardeners characters use a lot of garden-related similes for everyday situations like “he

didn’t have a solid tutor to guide his growth.”

I invented my space-faring Gardener’s universe to test the range of ecological techs applied.

The first series in French earned one Aurora award and a General Governor nomination (in

2009). I also drew two graphic novels in that universe, and two novelettes have been published

in Asimov’s, in that same universe. In the Gardener’s Service has made it as an Aurora Award

contender this year.

In my “aeropunk” novella, Maragi’s Secret, humanity must live at an altitude over the surface of

the Earth. It is a harsh but interesting fictional future, because I had to research all the health

problems observed in actual mountainous villages.

My most prescient near-future SF novel has not been translated into English yet.

Nina: How was sustainability achieved (or not achieved) in a world that you (or another

author) created? Was it inspired from a real example?

Michèle: I like writing about my fictional Gardener’s civilisation. They have achieved a

sustainable lifestyle and it was fun to write the ways they grow their food, and grow their

biofuel, too, for sustainable energy sources; even their spacelift is ecological!

Here is a description from the first book (pikrel is a time unit):

A plain stretched along the horizon, spiked with solar panels and surrounded by blue light

standards. He recognized the field of the Stem.

The screen in the armchair’s armrest confirmed that an elevator would be departing tonight.

Chaaas waited anxiously. The screen counted the pikrels. He wasn’t the only one watching, as

attested by the many figures standing on the patio-roofs.

At the designated time, the blue lighting standards went out. A myriad of gold flowers lit up,

one per group of panels. Force-fed with light for the past eight days, the accumulators under the

panels released their energy in the form of a powerful sodium laser ray.

Groups of sixteen yellow lines appeared, made visible by the seaside humidity. They converged

toward the elevator pierced end to end by the Stem.

The Stem itself, made of nanocarbon cables meshed together like a fishing net, was invisible to

the naked eye.

A dazzling point of impact of the lasers, the elevator started rising as if on a fiery cloud. Its two

large receptors absorbed the formidable luminous pressure that they converted to an electric

current. Transmitted to the Stem at the top of the cabin, the current excited its shape memory

particles which dilated into a bulb. This gradual swelling pushed the airtight cabin upward.

The pyramid of golden rays lengthened, pushing its brilliant nub into the dark sky.

Although the climb was clean, it remained very slow. The sixteen passengers would patiently

spend nineteen long krels sitting in a circle, before getting to a transfer station located in

geostationary orbit.

(with the gracious assistance of Estelle Brunet for the translation)

BIO: Michèle Laframboise feeds coffee grounds to her garden plants, runs long distances and

writes full-time. So far, her 90+ short stories have sprouted in several magazines, among

those: Asimov’s, Analog, Future SF, Abyss & Apex, Solaris, Galaxies, Fiction River. Fascinated by

nature since she could walk, she draws from her scientific background to create worlds filled

with humor, invention and wonder. She has also written many novels and graphic novels.

Discover her works at echofictions.com. 

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Nina Munteanu is an Canadian ecologist, author, editor and writing coach, notably but not exclusively in the realm of Speculative Fiction (SF/F). In addition to nine published novels, Munteanu has written short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which have been translated into several languages throughout the world. Munteanu is a member of SF Canada.

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