Stressed days?

Restless nights?

Worried kids?

Escape into a fantasy is nice, but when the story ends, what do you have to look forward to? Realistic, optimistic, science fiction is different. It's about how we get from now (or our recent past) into a better future. So, when the story ends, we can see forward, to good things yet to come, for us, for our kids, and their kids.

"In the village where I grew up
nothing seems the same.
Still, you never see the changes
from day to day."
Al Stewart, "On the Border," 1976.

I grew up in a village.

It had two stoplights, but didn't need one of them. Computers were room sized things only NASA had, but became the first desktop computers by the time I graduated high school. Phones were still party lines (several houses sharing one landline). Navigation required printed maps and magnetic compass skills. Cameras and typewriters didn't need batteries, because they were hand cranked. Battery powered watches were new tech.

How did we get from there to here?

Now it’s weird to see someone without a computer in hand. The computer ‘phones’ are also cellular telephones, digital movie cameras, fitness watches, book and music libraries, global navigation systems, and more. How did we get here? One step at a time. Maybe we didn't see the changes day to day, but they happened. They will happen. Because we make them happen.
Optimistic, realistic, science fiction looks forward. It imagines how even our villages, farms, and cities might not be the same in the future. Such stories can focus us on hopeful futures instead of stressful nows, dystopian dooms, and fantasies that can never happen.

Join me on the adventure.

For grownup and children.

I’m revising ‘Obtuse Angles.’ Get the first edition while you can. Learn more.

July market was not as hot as June’s (temperature wise). We had a cloudy day with wind, but then too much wind. I had record sales. (It’s true and sounds better when I say it that way.) More importantly, I gave away $20 worth of children’s safety and activity booklets.