Background:

I took a hiatus from writing sci-fi during my MFA program. As much as I love the genre, it just didn't mesh with the personal and artistic lessons I was trying to learn through the MFA grind. Over the past few years, I've been ruminating on a series of sci-fi novels, the first of which is forthcoming (The Lifeboat, 2023). More so than my Last Horizon series, this series takes itself a little more seriously and attempts to stay more in the realm of hard sci-fi than my earlier stories. And being a writer, not a physicist (or scientist of any kind for that matter), I needed a lot of help with many of the concepts portrayed in the story. I was lucky to find Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur, which would easily be one of my favorite YouTube channels even if I didn't write sci-fi. Isaac's ability to grasp, explain, and -- even more impressively -- frame very difficult concepts in science in ways that are entertaining and easy-to-follow helped to make research for my latest space adventure much more approachable than it would otherwise have been. So this project -- writing a fictional story of the week writing toward Isaac's inspiring topics -- I'm hoping will be a way to keep the fictional juices flowing while offering up an homage to one of my favorite creators at the same time.

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I'm fully prepared to get a lot of things wrong in the process, especially the science. You're going to faceplant quite a bit along the way as a writer. Anyone who's ever been in a workshop will understand the reality of the scrutiny that comes with a discerning readership. And the timeline and public nature of this project makes it seem a bit like running across a tightrope with no net. On such a tight deadline, there's just no way to research all the little ins and outs I would normally do with a story or novel. And if the writing weren't difficult enough on that timeline, there's the recording and editing and "artwork." If I do some good things in the storytelling and writing department and entertain a few readers/listeners along the way, I'll be happy. I've already misinterpreted a theme or two and gotten a lot of physics wrong, and I'm expecting that trend to continue. The way I see it, if I keep writing, eventually this squirrel might discover something worth digging around for and hopefully learn a lot in the along the way. Thanks for joining me in the process!