After years of telling stories through the medium of role-playing games, I am now putting virtual pen to virtual paper in more traditional ways. Why? I woke up one day and realized that I ended up in the future. I wish it had been more like the future of Weir's The Martian than Gibson’s Neuromancer, but here we are. There are stories to tell for pure enjoyment, there are stories to tell about the society we live in, and I want to get them out of my brain before it explodes! First, a little point of view because I feel like being a pretentious snob.
Speculative fiction allows us to explore real world questions while reducing the risk of exploiting a real person’s pain with a callous “what-if?” The Time Machine by HG Wells does just this. Were the Eloi really the victims of the Morlocks? Or were they both victims? Isaac Asimov’s novella “The Profession” explores the relationship of skill and creativity in ways that, while reeking of intellectual arrogance, still sparked my own teenage world view.
Other speculative fiction creates an avenue of escape that lets our mind relax and unwind. When many of us can’t find a peaceful corner of a park, a babbling brook, or even a worn sofa moldering away in the basement to get “me” time, fiction and noise cancelling headphones can do that. Do you read The Hobbit for the grand adventure, or the dream of a simpler time when good was good, bad was bad, and trolls turned to stone instead of wrecking Internet discourse?
Expect to see science fiction, cyberpunk, and fantasy here. There will be lighthearted fare alongside darker stories that may edge into suspense and horror. Where I do go down the road of suspense and horror, except to see concepts that may disturb you. I avoid graphic horror though. The brain does the job filling in the blanks. Lovecraft (sans racism) is more my style than Saw.
By day I am a software creator who lives in Chicago with my wife. By night and by early morning light, I write.
Yes, you can expect some really bad poetry.