Writing

The following are projects that I've been working on, and I hope that they see print at some point.

Terrans' End - Excerpt
This is a brief excerpt from my science fiction novel "Terrans' End". You might find the characters a bit odd. The theme of the novel explores the ethics of extreme bioengineering and political extremism. It takes place on a terraformed Mars, a couple of centuries in the future. This was the first novel I began in earnest, in the wayback of 1999. I didn't have the skill then to handle the sweeping scope of the story, so it's been a long slog getting it structured sanely (still working on that).

The story was inspired by my experiences at the Founding Convention of the Mars Society where I created a bit of a political brouhaha at an open mic - it's a long story, but I'm forever grateful for the support of founder Robert Zubrin after my comments. In short, there is already such a thing as Martian politics, and I got labeled a Red, which means I support a slow, measured approached to exploration and colonization. The other option at the moment is Green - rapid colonization. These camps are based on Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.

My other inspiration was an epic message board argument I had with a creationist (I devoted many hours to that flamefest). It was during that argument that I realized that most people put humans on a bit of a pedestal. It was quite an epiphany to me because even though I was steeped in a culture that believes this, it just never occured to me to think that all other lifeforms were significantly lesser beings. I had always viewed life as an ecology, not a heirarchy. Bioengineering challenges our presumptions about that heirarchy (even making evolution itself moot). The convention and the argument swirled together into an epic story of prejudice, war, survival, and emancipation.

Rio Sinter
Rio Sinter is a novel about the colonization of an Earth-like planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani, about 11 light-years from out present location. This was inspired by the work of scientist Lynne Margulis, who came up with the groundbreaking but commonsense idea of symbiogenesis (single cells ate other single cells and instead of being digested, the food became part of the predator cell, and voila: nucleated cells). It was also inspired by the PBS reality program "Colonial House" about the European colonization of America. This is hard science fiction with a lot of life and death survivalist drama.

My goal in writing this is to inject a level of realism into a well-trodden science fiction premise. Most aliens in the cannon of scifi are depicted as humanoid, but this is unlikely. Epsilon Eridani is a younger star than our Sol, but is quite similar. So any terrestial planets formed around it might have life, but at an earlier stage of evolution than on Earth. On my Epsilon Eridani (name Rio by the colonizers) native life flourishes, but the structure of lifeforms and the ecosystem is based on an understanding of symbiogenesis - so it is bottom up, not top down. Nothing is remotely humanoid!

Rio means "river", taken from the meaning of the name of the constellation "Eridanus". Sinter is a English word of germanic origin that means to form through melting but not burning. This refers to the intensity of the passionate, conflicting views of the colonists.

Manifest
Manifest is the newest novel that I've started but have yet to finish (started October 2006). Unlike the other two novels, this one is dark fantasy. Essentially, normal reality breaks down, and four principle characters (the Leader, the Seer, the Magician, and the Sleeper) who start out as strangers on a city bus must navigate a landscape of nightmares and dreams, some of their own making, but mostly of the other people in the world. They survive by learning how to manipulate their changing environments.

Magnus
This is a feature length screenplay about a woman and her android... actually, I wanted to write an android story that didn't tread the familiar sterotypes of Pinnocchio or Frankenstein. I wanted to explore more of the ethical ambiguity of having a class of people who aren't human, and poke and prod our culture's closely held prejudices about consciousness, spirituality, and life and death. When I was a kid I had a screaming match with a nun over whether or not dogs had thoughts (to me it was obvious that they could think). I'm pouring out some of my leftover angst into this script.

The other themes of the story are the open source movement, Japanese culture, immortality, religion (to explore the question of the existence of the soul), and clinical depression.

Magnus fits in loosely with a future history that I'm developing over several projects - this story predates Terrans' End in that timeline.

The Typist (title tenative)
This is a story for a very short film that I'm planning to direct and film using stop motion with a live actress (and an old school typewriter). I'll be using my Canon DSLR, and possibly some digital video footage.

The Autopsy
Inspired by the fifth anniversary of September 11th, this story is about alien invasion and goopy alien anatomy. Metaphorically, the autopsy is about the invasion survivors dealing with the emotional aftermath of the attack.

Non-ficiton

Imagine What a World It Could Be - Complete Essay
This is a heart-felt essay that was published in a company newsletter where I worked shortly after September 11th.