• Znine
• Campus Calendar
• My Mav
• UTA Radio
• UTA Home
• Student Email
• Libraries
• Wikipedia

• Local Forecast
• Movie Listings
• Traffic Info
• TV Listings

April 26, 2007

Future Tense

Alumna discovers a proficiency for sci-fi

Story by: Anthony Williams

The Shorthorn Scene editor

Click to enlarge

The Shorthorn: Amy Riley:

Tamara Wilhite was not a goth child, or any sort of out-there student — she was just a quiet girl reading in the back of class.

That quiet girl later earned an engineering degree from the university, but just as no one would expect her to go on and become a fiction writer, it also piqued people’s interest when her 4-year-old daughter began drawing spaceships.

“Her teachers were surprised,” Wilhite said. “It’s just our Friday night sci-fi lineup. We do watch Elmo, but we’re definitely sci-fi fans.”

Wilhite is just one of the many Mavericks who actually fit the definition, striking out on her own path.

A 1998 industrial engineering alumna Wilhite never tried quieting the voice of the writer inside her. She has had several science-fiction, humor and horror pieces published, including her latest book, Humanity’s Edge.

“I started writing science fiction in general back in high school,” she said. “But I knew too many starving writers to get an English degree.”

After graduating, Wilhite went to work for a plastics company, but she now works for defense contractors. She says writing is and always has been a hobby, it just now happens to help pay the bills.

While she wrote some technical articles early on — mainly reports and analyses — Wilhite uses her fiction to showcase the world of the future and how technology will play a part.

“I joke that I want my kids to inherit a better world than I imagine,” she said. “It’s not anything fantastic, though.

“I know the industry as a whole had shifted towards fantasy. I don’t know if that’s because ‘The Jetsons’ heightened our expectations of the future and we’re disappointed, or because the pace is so fast now that we wonder what could come next.”

— Courtesy Art

Alumna Tamara Britain Wilhite will sign books at the Borders in South Arlington in May.

Having such a broad viewpoint thanks to her schooling, Wilhite says she writes to argue that technology is not evil, it’s only a tool.

“What we do with it is our choice, although we may not like the results,” she said.

Wilhite also hopes students grasp that their job and career options aren’t based on a degree but rather their interests and that imagination and willingness go farther than you may think.

“Taking something from concept to reality is always the hardest part,” she said. “Anyone who can do that is infinitely worth more than any job.”

Wilhite met her husband, David, an alumus and current student, in the Engineering Department. In addition to their jobs and children, including an 18-month-old son, Wilhite now has book signings to attend.

“A lot of people picked [my books] up by accident,” she said. “I often go, ‘You bought a copy? Great. You liked it? Even better.’ ”

With a house full of remote controls often taken apart and reassembled by her kids, any money that comes from her writings can only help in the scheme of things. Wilhite said her husband thinks it’s great as long as it brings in more than she spends, while her family thinks it’s cheaper than therapy.

In the end, Wilhite can be proud that she now finds herself providing stories for other quiet kids sitting in the back of the class.