About Me

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Sunday March 1, 2020:

I suppose i must set this Website in some context and explain why I have dared to waste your time with my aberrant thoughts.

I write hard science fiction stories from an adult point of view. I don't say that they are any better than the usual stories that posit much younger protagonists. Since I am no longer young, and my memory of that time is getting imperfect, I write from my current experience rather than from memory.  I can conceive such characters more easily. I hope my stories come off as more authentic. 

There is another reason my characters are older. The world I imagine is in different circumstances than favor our world. We are lucky to be living on a comparatively beneficent world. In the world I am imagine, the Earth has been subjected to a great and overarching tragedy - the Impact. This terrible event has darkened the prospects of every person on Earth, and traumatized most of them in the way that universal catastrophe does. Think of the Black Death on steroids. That has scarred my characters and given them a radically different view of the universe. The optimism that such an event takes from people has lessened the desire for children, and the population in my imagined world has aged even more than the one we see about us.

When I say hard science fiction,I mean diamond hard. I try my best to take no liberties with the science as I understand it. The means, for example, that the places my characters live are subject to the natural laws, and so they must live in shielded underground habitations rather than on the surface. They can't spend time outside because there is no practical way to shield them effectively. In general I use no plot devices that take liberties with the scientific facts. The characters are drawn from people i have known and observed, and their motivations are a realistic as I  can invent.

The purpose of this website is to publicize the books, but primarily it is  to solicit criticism and suggestions to make the books better. i am neither a scientific expert nor an authority on human relationships Although I have taken care to write the books as well as I can, I do realize that I must inadvertently have  made many mistakes.  The science used tries to encompass the current consumer-level of knowledge along with what is reasonably predictable.  For example, the Rockships I project use fusion reactors that appear to be likely within the next fifty years. Fusion power may never come, but it seems a very likely development right now. A large number of additional speculations are embodied in the novels, but iI have used none that seems close to the almost magical devices I see utilized in some science fiction. Those are employed to avoid the unfortunate rigor of well-known observation, but, they come off as fudging to me. For example, there is a lot of radiation in space and any travelers in that environment are going to need to protect themselves. Just ignoring the problem, or positing some impractical electronic shield, or miracle material, is not going to solve that problem. Using a passive shield and its known physical properties would, but, that shield must be hauled everywhere. That is a problem that I believe will be solved by better engines. it doesn't really change the stories much.

It seems a bit much to call the casual readers of these pages my community, but I suppose i am as much in their community as they are in mine if they have the interest to read it.

 I hope to attract people who like what i consider to be the real thing in science fiction. The kind of stories I put into the classic tradition. One of speculation about the future fleshed out by believable personalities who live in that future.

That's the kind of stuff I grew up with. I have enjoyed it's excitement and optimism all my life, and i still enjoy it. I even allow myself the luxury of imagining my inclusion in that future sometimes. If you read my stuff, i don't think that will remain a mystery. Like many other writers, i insert an alter ego in the story. A bit pathetic, maybe, but not unusual.

So, welcome to the community, and share in whatever pleasure there may be in developing the future history of the post-Impact world.

You can use the contact to email me. i will read it. That's all I can promise.