Writing feels like floating in the ocean a few feet beneath the surface. A cluster of bubbles escapes your mouth and you watch as they drift upward to fuse with the glowing plane that distorts reality above you. You hold your breath and drift, keeping your depth with idle kicks of your feet and you have to decide whether to allow your screaming lungs to carry you upward or to dive deeper into the cool, welcoming world below. Do you want the sound and the reality, or the silence of the story as the muse whispers in your ear?

I assume every writer has a different metaphor, but this works for me.

In a time when the world seems to be exploding around us, I just want peace. For the violence and adventure in my stories, they afford me peace and stability, they afford an escape to a place of wonder.

As I read Hartwell’s Age of Wonder I have come to the realization that wonder is what separates science-fiction from the other genres. It always has some element of the unknown, of the exotic, of wonder. Be it a distant planet, the possibility of an AI cooking you breakfast, or a dystopian future where a young girl holds the key to humanity’s survival, sci-fi focuses on the what-may-be.

The focus of the stories may have drifted through the decades, but at their core they hold onto that wonder.

No other genre holds the pearl of unbridled imagination that sci-fi brings.

I guess that’s why the majority of my writing falls under that umbrella. I don’t like boundaries. I don’t like restraints. I don’t like confinement. And so my thoughts always seem to drift into the unknown, into the Black, into the unfettered realm of all-possibility… the realm of silent floating where nothing else matters, but the story and the muse.

Oh well, I suppose I should let you know that I just finished my rough draft of Trinity and am about to jump into the rewrite. It’s scheduled for publication next April, so I best be moving.

Genesis is only three weeks from hitting the shelves. It is currently available for pre-order and will be sold through all the major book outlets. Just a disclaimer, it is the second edition of my self-published book that came out in 2018.

Remember, through all the crazy chaos that is life, keep on striving to be your best person, keep on reading, and keep on flying the Black.