Becoming a Writer

Extinction Square I wanted to say hello to everyone at Goodreads. This online forum is a great place for authors and readers to interact, to give recommendations and advice, to exchange ideas. What a great site for loves-of-the-written-word to hang out!

In my first post written exclusively for Goodreads I’d like to answer that age old question: Why did I become an author? I’d be lying if I said I had not thought about it over the years.I love literature, I really do. Not in an academic way, but as a window to new places, or a journey that helps me draw closer to the person I’d always hoped I’d be. Novels are a way out: out of the mundane, out of the restrictions of everyday life, out of the limits we impose upon ourselves. However, writing a novel is time intensive with no guarantee of any discernible economic reward. So, by necessity, sustenance took center stage over literary ambitions for a large block of my adult life. Interestingly, I found that the longer I put financial considerations above everything else the easier it got. The further I got from paycheck-to-paycheck living the more life opened up and the harder it was for me to get off the treadmill.

And then it was over. The treadmill broke. My stable work situation was suddenly not so stable. Work that had become so demanding no longer seemed worth the effort. Life was finite and it was passing me by. A summer opened up and my excuses ran out. I knew if I was ever going to write it was now or never.

Starting the long road to authorship was a particularly daunting challenge. I was well aware it would take incredible discipline, sacrifice, and focus. Long hours would be spent toiling in obscurity often wondering if I had what it takes, or if what I did would ever really matter. Yet, I knew in my heart, I would regret it if I let this opportunity pass me by. So it began.

Yes, I thought about quitting a number of times; like when I was stuck not being able to envision a satisfying way to move the story along, or when I would wake up and see that what appeared to be so brilliant the night before had dissolved into mediocrity in the morning light. But I have always been stubborn and persistent. So, I’d dust myself off, pick myself up and head back to the laptop.

My ace in the hole was my rock-hard faith that I had a great premise for the science/fiction adventure I wanted to create. I have always been a science buff finding nanotechnology particularly fascinating. If physicists are ever able to actually create self-replicating nanobots, that build matter up from the molecular level, they will surely open up a Pandora’s Box. Nanobots have the potential to eventually provide for nearly all of mankind’s material needs, or they could just as easily wipe out all life on earth if they were specifically designed to do that.

Now suppose that tomorrow some obscure physicist announces that he has made the breakthrough. What would happen to this world we’re all so familiar with after the first viable nanobot is created? Would these tiny machines be used for good or evil? Would the foundation of a utopia start to take shape or would a power-hungry oligarchy design nanobots with nefarious intent? What about ordinary individuals just going about their daily lives who get caught in the crossfire? Would they look the other way as evil became the norm, or would they risk everything to oppose it?

I can’t tell you the exact moment when I knew I would see this project through to completion. As the plot unfolded and the characters took shape the story took on a life of its own. I would follow inspiration where ever it led as it branched out to new and necessary scenes ushering in unexpected characters along the way. At other times, I’d hit a dead end and be forced to circle back to pick up the story-line again. Yet, through it all, the anguish and the elation, the world that I was creating was coming into focus.

Five years later the "Square_World Trilogy" was complete. I’d love to invite you into to this adventure. A new and exciting world awaits and all it takes on your part is the same thing I needed to begin the journey: A leap of faith.