YA Sci-Fi Needs to Raise More Awareness for Human Endeavor -- And Here's Why

*originally published January 2015*

Aside from Contemporary Young Adult Fiction, YA Sci-Fi is arguably one of the most popular genres of books out there. It comes in all shapes and sizes: Beth Revis' Across the Universe, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, Veroncia Roth's Divergent, Marie Lu's Legend, Allie Condie's Matched... The list goes on and on and on AND ON.

What do all of these books/series have in common?

Humanity (or some part of it) has endured some apocalyptic event.

All those stories are about fighting against impossible odds in a world ravaged by the dark side of nature, or wartorn cities/landscapes, or corrupt governments that have all the citizens in their pockets.

Basically, humanity screwed up and now they're facing the consequences.

But while all of that makes for an action-packed thriller, giving the people in the book the hope that they will live another day...what does it actually do for us, the readers? How are we able to relate to this world, a world so destroyed that recovering it seems inconceivable -- and it is a preposterous notion. Should I mention that although these series end right at the point of the main conflicts, it's ridiculous to think that humanity as a species will survive very long after the story. They don't have the same resource-rich environments to pull from that their ancestors did, so to think that any manageable, enduring, industrious civilization could be constructed is, in essence, a lost cause.

Of course, looking at it like that is probably in the overkill range.

But despite the "rising from the ashes" trope, where humanity has endured this apocalyptic event and managed to get through the worst of it, what do we the readers get out of it? When we read those books, we're stuck rooting for those characters. "Woohoo! They made it out alive! I'm so proud of them!"

Do you see the problem with this in the long run?

Because YA genre fiction is so big in today's society, and most of it consists of these post-apocalyptic, rising from the ashes scenarios, that we collectively associate hope and pride and better futures with these scenarios. We sit back, enjoy the show, and go on with our own lives while imagining how cool it would be to experience those societies.

People, no. It would not be fun to watch your friends die, be controlled by the government, live in a police state, have only one personality, have arranged marriages and punished for breaking them, etc etc etc. Think about those realities, and what they say about humanity, and how humanity got into those scenarios. Humanity had to fall. Humanity had to destroy itself. Citizen slavery had to take hold. The "brighter futures"  of those stories are the "normal lives" of reality.

These stories inspire us, yes, but to do what? Hopefully to avoid these situations. But where do we go from there? What are we as a society supposed to aspire to after reading these books? Sure, we look around and see similar instances around the world that mimic these books, so we point our fingers and shout, "AHA! The Hunger Games is practically real! We need a symbol!"

To be clear, I have nothing against these stories. I enjoyed reading dystopians...when only a few books were dystopians. Now it's so diluted that a lot of people can't imagine our society doing anything but spiraling out of control. Yes, there's a problem with the real world. Yes, we need to be aware of this problem and stand up against our governments when they slap us in the face...but again I ask, where do we go from there?

SO WHAT CAN YOUNG ADULT SCI-FI DO TO CHANGE THIS?

50 years ago, the science-fiction genre showed us incredible technologies like space ships, devices through which you could communicate wirelessly, an invisible network that anyone anywhere in the world could access, robots, AI, heck, even self-tying shoelaces.

And what happened? We got cell phones, the internet, robots, AI, space ships, and, right on time in 2015, self-tying shoelaces....all because of science-fiction!!! Science-fiction inspired the creation of these technologies, filled us with wonder and awe and made us dream of futuristic cities and holograms! Hell, even the space program flourished in the time when dreams of science-fiction dominated culture (we'll skip over War of the Worlds...hopefully that doesn't happen).

But do you see what happened? Science-fiction inspired people to look forward to the future! We didn't hope to break free of a corrupt government. We were united, and sought to advance the entire species! More than half of all modern technology was inspired by science-fiction and space exploration (seriously, no computers, no toasters, no cell phones, no fluorescent light bulbs, no fiber optics...etc etc etc).

Now we have cat videos, memes, and visions of war-torn, post-apocalyptic, bombed-out cities where humanity is struggling to survive.

And why? Because those scenarios DOMINATE the YA genre.

Is this reversible? My answer: an adamant YES. How, you ask?

Add to the YA genre. Dilute the visions of the dystopias.

Let's have more stories celebrating human endeavor. Show our ingenuity, our desire to explore, our passion for knowledge, our yearning to survive where no one has ever survived before. Take us on a journey across the stars, show how rewarding space exploration can be. Give humanity the reputation of uniting, overcoming nature, and surviving on that planet where the air is toxic, there's no natural food, not a tree in sight....

And yet we live there anyway.

We build a home. We claim it as ours. We don't survive -- we thrive. We use technology to our species' advantage. We mine asteroids, walk on comets, discover organic life elsewhere in the universe (and NOT a far-superior alien race that seeks to destroy us). Maybe the life doesn't depend on water to survive, but methane, or hydrochloric acid, or something weird that isn't life as we know it.

We want to see glass raining from the sky, purple and blue trees in the forest, ugly alien animals that are so spectacular we study their habitats and biologies and how they live... We travel to the centers of stars, measure dark matter, even figure out how gravity works (because as of yet, we have NO IDEA HOW GRAVITY WORKS. We know it's related to mass and distance, but after that...nobody knows).

See, now more than ever we need stories that showcase the spirit of human endeavor. We need the unity, the awareness, the sense of wonder and awe that the world shared 50 years ago. If science-fiction from 50 years ago inspired our modern generation of technology and space programs, just imagine what we could achieve today and in the next 10-20 years. We're talking exponential technological growth. Settlements on the moon, colonies on Mars (I say colonies, because colonization describes the claiming of land that is already inhabited, and technically speaking, only robots live on Mars....)

So let's inspire the next generation to lead humanity to a new frontier. Books and movies have the power to change the future, so which would you rather keep seeing? A world where war has claimed the lives of millions and you could die any second under the ruling dictatorship? Or a world -- no, many worlds where humanity has broken free of its roots?

I, for one, choose the latter.

Society tends to achieve the future it expects. Let's face it. We are a pessimistic society because constantly reading about doomsday inevitably makes us lose faith in humanity. We blame the governments, and say that we need to be prepared for when the governments begin acting like the actual societies in the books...but if we can alter our literature and tell stories about humanity's triumphs, society can become optimistic.

Let's fix the problem before it can ignite into a real-world crisis. Begin the change now, and the future won't have to worry. We won't have to fight the government if we can inspire a government filled with people who seek to help humanity -- our species -- take the next great leap. And it's why I write the books I do: I want to help inspire a love for space exploration.

Because we are the human race.

And we are amazing.

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Check out my futuristic YA novel, EMBASSY.

The sequel, RESONANCE, will be available

January 1, 2016.

BOOK REVIEW: Elon Musk - Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Summary from Inside Flap: There are few industrialists in history who could match Elon Musk's relentless drive and ingenious vision. A modern alloy of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs, Musk is the man behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity, each of which has sent shock waves throughout American business and industry. More than any other executive today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as a science fiction fantasy.

In this lively, investigative account, veteran technology journalist Ashlee Vance offers an unprecedented look into the remarkable life and times of Silicon Valley's most audacious businessman. Written with exclusive access to Musk, his family, and his friends, the book traces his journey from his difficult upbringing in South Africa to his ascent to the pinnacle of the global business world. Vance spent more than fifty hours in conversation with Musk and inter- viewed close to three hundred people to tell the tumultuous stories of Musk's world-changing companies and to paint a portrait of a complex man who has renewed American industry and sparked new levels of innovation--all while making plenty of enemies along the way.

In 1992, Elon Musk arrived in the United States as a ferociously driven immigrant bent on realizing his wildest dreams. Since then, Musk's roller-coaster life has brought him grave disappointments alongside massive successes. After being forced out of PayPal, fending off a life-threatening case of malaria, and dealing with the death of his infant son, Musk abandoned Silicon Valley for Los Angeles. He spent the next few years baffling his friends by blowing his entire fortune on rocket ships and electric cars. Cut to 2012, however, and Musk had mounted one of the greatest resurrections in business history: Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity had enjoyed unparalleled success, and Musk's net worth soared to more than $5 billion.

At a time when many American companies are more interested in chasing easy money than in taking bold risks on radical new technology, Musk stands out as the only businessman with enough dynamism and vision to tackle--and even revolutionize--three industries at once. Vance makes the case that Musk's success heralds a return to the original ambition and invention that made America an economic and intellectual powerhouse. Elon Musk is a brilliant, penetrating examination of what Musk's career means for a technology industry undergoing dramatic change and offers a taste of what could be an incredible century ahead.

RATING

When I walked into Barnes & Noble two weeks ago, I wasn't actually looking to purchase a book. Usually, I go in, browse for 30 minutes, and get out. But when I walked around to the Physics and Science section, the first thing I saw was Elon Musk's face.

Inevitably, I picked it up and began reading.

2 pages in, I decided I was in this for the long haul and sat on the floor, right there in the middle of the store. 15 pages in, my friends finally found me and forced me to leave. But I couldn't part with this. I needed this book. Those first 15 pages captured me like so few books do (in fact, only one book in the past year has totally stolen my attention like this).

So I bought Elon Musk feeling on top of the world and excited to keep reading.

I travel a lot between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PA, so, since I'm in the middle of taking classes in Pittsburgh, I swore to only read this book on the bus, because I knew once I picked it up again, I wouldn't put down.

I was right.

The next day, I got on the bus, got to reading, and tuned out the world. Three hours later, I was nearly halfway through -- and WOW. Vance's writing style flowed right through my mind. No clunky sentences, no jarring phrases. It's such an easy book to read, despite the complex nature of the contents.

Elon Musk, if you don't know, is a biography. Yes, a biography. You'd expect the case-study of someone's life to be boring and uneventful, dragging until the very end.

This wasn't the case at all.

Vance opens the book at an interview with Elon Musk himself. The first line, a quote from Musk, "Do you think I'm insane?", perfectly captures the whole context of the biography. Because as you experience the story, as you see the challenges Musk went through to reach the pinnacle he's at today, the question nags at you. Musk isn't soft-spoken, or easy on his employees, or a man who kicks his legs up on his desk and snoozes while his companies mill around him. Vance shows how Musk is both the CEO and an employee of his companies, simultaneously the teacher and student. He gets in the work, asks all the right questions, gives all the right orders. His vision is THE vision, and if you get in the way, Musk has been known to fire you on the spot.

Musk breaks every convention, every tradition, every standard. Vance takes you deep into the details, from Musk's childhood and lineage in South Africa, all the way to Canada and the United States, where the bulk of the story unfolds.

When Musk looks at big businesses, he sees unmovable behemoths that refuse to change their methodologies. American innovation became a thing of the past. Technology and industry was growing - but nowhere near as fast as it should. So we follow Musk's journey from his small start-ups, Zip2 and X.com, and move into his larger, more permanent ventures, namely SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity.

I myself am a huge fan of Elon Musk. Still, until the past year or two, I only thought of him as "that guy who made SpaceX" and "that guy who runs Tesla." Until reading this book, I never knew the struggle -- no, the hell he went through to make and keep these companies. You think, oh, he just has a lot of money.

Yeah, now he does. But did you know SpaceX and Tesla were hours away from going bankrupt? Did you know that the Falcon 1 rocket kept failing, and one more failed launch literally meant the end of SpaceX? Did you know SpaceX tested these rockets on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and would fix problems they encountered in a matter of days, as compared to months by standard companies?

This book is the first time Musk has explicitly let anyone interview him for a biography. Aside from a few questionable quotes that have been publicly denounced by Musk after the publication of this book, we're still given a tremendous amount of insight into his head and how he runs the companies. Vance interviewed more than 300 people and spent over two years compiling this account. And I have to give credit to how up-to-date the information is. There are several events Vance mentions that occurred into 2015, such as the first landing attempt of Falcon 9 on the sea barge, which took place in January, and he refers to the second attempt as being in a couple weeks, which means that Vance included this information on a very tight deadline, probably mid-March (the second landing attempt happened on April 14, 2015).

I want to congratulate you, Mr. Vance. Well done. Very well done. I'm going to reread this book in a few weeks (probably after the scheduled June 19th third Falcon 9 landing attempt, this time on solid ground, as opposed to a barge). Anyone who wants a ridiculously thorough insight into Elon Musk's life and companies should read this book. It had me from Page 1 all the way to Page 363, and even the appendices that come after.

This is an incredibly inspiring book, a important look into a game-changing business strategy, and a valuable lesson to the world. As Musk says, "If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it."

Purchase

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

We Cannot Be Content

So I've begun a side project, which will become my main focus once I finished editing Resonance. The new book is called We Cannot Be Content and stems from some of the history in Embassy and Resonance (in fact, they mention it a lot in Resonance).

I wrote the first chapter a couple weeks ago, and have been adding to and tweaking it since, so here's the final version I've come up with for now.

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ONE

BENEDICT – 2305, Earth

He didn’t like giving interviews. He preferred to write his own questions and answer them without the pressure of a live interviewer and audience. Posting an insightful video on Wander Enterprises’ site would do, or even a FAQ section. Both alternatives were more appealing than his current situation, staring at himself on the small monitor hanging below the camera that was focused on him and Johna Radizzo for their one-on-one interview.

The man working the camera raised his hand and counted down from five—

“And we’re live.”

“Welcome back to Today in the Plaza,” Johna immediately said, turning her hips more toward the camera to open her stance. Then her voice relaxed. “Twenty years ago, we received a positive signal from the crews of the Almanac and the Endurance that they had landed safely on two exoplanets, each between six and eight light years from Earth. Scientists across the solar system lauded the mission as the greatest of humanity’s achievements since the Mars and Europa missions. Humankind had not only inhabited the solar system—it had inhabited the stars.

“Now I’m here with Dr. Benedict Drake, the current CEO of Wander Enterprises, the company responsible for those missions. We’re so glad you could join us, Dr. Drake.”

Benedict cleared his throat. “Thank you.”

“Dr. Drake,” Johna went on, shifting her posture toward him, “you are about to embark on your own tour of the exoplanets I just mentioned. You leave in two days. The question everyone wants to know is: are you scared?”

He averted his eyes and attempted to laugh. “I think everyone gets scared in some way, you know, before they go on a trip of any kind. There’s always something…nagging in the back of your head.”

“Like whether or not you remembered to turn off the oven,” Johna joked.

That got a real laugh out of him. He loosened up a bit, felt some of his nerves diffuse.

“Of which I’m guilty,” he responded, even though it was a lie. He wasn’t forgetful, especially not in clumsy ways. Besides, he didn’t have an oven. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d made his own supper, because he hadn’t in years. Either way, Benedict figured that was a good time to drop a joke. Rose told him to appear more likeable, more relatable than he tended to act. Today more than ever, Benedict needed to be liked. It was a crucial part of the plan.

“Dr. Drake, you’re thirty-three years old. You’re one of the richest people alive, you own the company some of the world’s top minds say have brought about the greatest age in space exploration humankind has ever seen—and now you decide to leave Earth for seventy-five years. You say you aren’t afraid of this intergalactic trip—”

Interstellar, Benedict thought, though he didn’t correct her.

“—but what does the future hold for Wander Enterprises while you’re gone?”

Benedict bit his lip and tried to force another grin, as if the answer was a simple one. The truth was, the future of Wander wasn’t what Benedict considered secure. Honestly, it hung in the balance, and was dependent on two factors: the trip he was about to embark on, and the hope that Rose could carry out Phase 3 in his absence. They needed public support. His fortune meant nothing if the world didn’t see the value of keeping Wander Enterprises around for at least the next five generations, and Benedict knew it would be difficult to inspire the world as it was today.

“I have my assets in place,” he said. “If… If I die during this trip… I’m confident Wander Enterprises will continue to thrive.”

But not the program he was trying to implement. Benedict knew if he met some ill fate, all his work would be for naught. Less than fifty people knew about the Gateway Program, and in two days’ time, all but a few of them were boarding the same space cruiser—the Meridian—and embarking on a trip through the stars.

“Out of curiosity: do you think you will make it back?”

He tried to be funny again. “I guess that depends on if I like these exoplanets.”

Johna laughed as if there was nothing to worry about. Of course, she’d never been to space, never flown out to Mars, or Venus, or Europa, or Titan, or any of the other settlements the Global Space Initiative had erected. In fact, the GSI was the only reason humans went beyond Mars. History proved how fickle the inspiration that drove human endeavor truly was. One great leap would be made, and people would rally around the world’s space programs proclaiming the next space age had arrived. But before long, the excitement would die, the people would forget their fragile love of the cosmos, and the world would go on, content to remain as it was.

More than anything, Benedict sought to end that contentment once and for all, but it would take more than a leap—it would take a blind lunge into the unknown.

“Yours would be the first crew to make it there and back again.”

“This is true.”

“Do you think there will be a day when we won’t need to come back to Earth? We’ve heard of plans from both Wander Enterprises and the GSI to relocate several of Earth’s species to these exoplanets. Do you think we’ll ever need to relocate humans in the same way?”

“If we have a cruiser big enough.”

They laughed together, except only Johna’s was real. Benedict faked it again, and his ended several seconds before hers, at which point he leaned forward and put his palms together.

“No, no. In all seriousness, I think that one day, yes, we’ll have to give Earth up. Some people speculate we should’ve left when we colonized Mars—however impractical the idea—and let nature reclaim Earth. We’re only borrowing it, after all.”

“Borrowing it?”

In the corner of his eye, Benedict saw the screen zoom in on his face, saw the caption scrolling under his chin: ‘Richest Man Alive is Leaving Earth.’ He ignored the tagline. They made him out to be some sort of celebrity, as if all his work was an overnight success, as if managing Wander Enterprises was something any kid who loved the stars could do. They overlooked the years of solitude, the painstaking work of developing faster hyper drives and crafting new cruiser designs—and it still wasn’t enough for him. Benedict was never satisfied with his work, no matter how revolutionary it was.

And that’s what drove him to organize the Gateway Program.

“There’s, what…somewhere around nine billion people alive today? Only a few thousand live elsewhere in our solar system, all of them scientists.”

Johna deliberately shrugged and faced the camera to show off her white teeth. “You’re the man with the degree, Dr. Drake,” she said with a laugh.

This time, he couldn’t even work up a smile. Anger was creeping up inside of him, boiling in his chest. He both loved humanity for its achievement, and hated it for its contentment, the plateau it reached, with only a few more small steps ever few decades. He wanted to shout at the camera. Yell at the millions of people watching his interview before their daily commutes. Stop what you’re doing and listen to me! he screamed inside his head. Have you lost your sense of wonder? Look up! We need to be out there! That’s where the challenge lies.

But he didn’t say it. His lips never moved. His eyes never so much as flickered at the camera.

“Dr. Drake, you were saying?”

“Yes.” He shook his head and looked up at Johna. “I don’t think we can call ourselves a spacefaring civilization when one hundred percent of the general population still lives on Earth. That’s like…claiming I traveled the world, when in reality I just drove down to my local Thai restaurant. Only a few humans have had a taste of the spacefaring life—why aren’t we all trying to set foot on other worlds?”

Johna looked back at the camera and raised her eyebrows in an expression of confusion mixed with curiosity.

“I’m sure there are many people wondering the same thing, Dr. Drake. We all share your dreams.”

If everyone shared my dreams, we wouldn’t be having this interview.

“Finally, we’ve all heard about MACE’s most recent rallies.”

Benedict’s muscles went rigid with hatred the moment she said the name, but Johna either didn’t notice or didn’t care. She was too busy looking down at her cue and waving her hands in the air.

“The organization has made a name for itself these last few decades, with open protests against the GSI and Wander Enterprises, causing public support of space programs to drastically decline to a historical low of thirty-eight percent—according to the latest polls. Can you tell us how you’ve gone about handling that situation?”

He began to speak, but stuttered. He hated MACE and all it stood for. The Movement Against Cosmic Exploration spanned centuries, but didn’t gain any traction until scientific settlements began popping up around the solar system. MACE sought to sway public interest away from space exploration, publishing magazines and books and airing television shows devoted to mocking astronomical discoveries and condemning space programs as worthless, flashy demonstrations to keep the people distracted from the goings-on down on Earth.

Yes, on Earth. Where half the major cities on the American seaboards were partially flooded and desert regions had expanded to the temperate zones and droughts had ruined the dryer regions. Where living in areas prone to hurricanes and tornados and wildfires was a death sentence, and natural fresh water was a memory no living person had. Where more than three hundred species of animals and plants and insects went extinct every single day.

Earth.

“We’re aware of the…opposition MACE presents,” Benedict finally answered, doing his best to keep his voice steady. He couldn’t let them hear the truth in it. “The reality of the situation is that we’re moving forward with our projects. My supervisors and I agree that MACE hasn’t…how can I put this?…fully come to terms with Earth’s current state.”

“How do you mean?”

Benedict wanted to gawk at her. Was this an interview question, or was she really asking him why he thought Earth wasn’t suitable for sustaining human life much longer?

“Political and foreign affairs aside… Consider our resources. More than half of all our mining is done on asteroids we’ve slung into orbit. Rocket fuels, construction material for cities, computer chips, cars, the hyperloops—most of these materials aren’t accessible here on Earth in quantities that were available in the past.”

“So you think MACE disagrees?”

He took a deep breath, hoping to calm his nerves.

It didn’t work.

“They don’t disagree. Not…not necessarily. They just don’t think we have any right to move beyond Earth. That the human race—the only intelligent civilization we’ve ever known—deserves to die when Earth dies.” He paused and looked at the feet of the cameraman. “That notion is… That…”

He shook his head. He knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn’t say it on a live stream. Not yet. It was too early. Too risky. Rose had warned him not to let his anger show if Johna brought up MACE. Now he saw why. Because MACE could use it. Would use it. Even now, they were watching, and they would know they had dug into him. If Benedict slipped too far, they could use his own words against the campaign Wander Enterprises would launch in the coming months, the campaign that would stretch three-quarters of a century until Benedict and the crew of the Meridian returned from their tour of the two exoplanets.

Johna shot him a glance. He barely caught it before she looked back to the camera, but it looked skeptical, unimpressed, as if she found his answer underwhelming, even crazy.

“It was certainly a pleasure speaking with you, Dr. Drake,” she went on, hardly missing a beat. “We all wish you the best of luck on your trip. We’ll see you when you get back in…well, seventy-five years.”

Benedict took a deep breath and grinned for the camera. One last joke to fix the mood.

“I’m sure you won’t have aged a day.”

Johna laughed, then introduced the next segment of the newscast before Benedict was allowed to leave. The cast director thanked him for giving the interview and ushered him to the exit so the crew could prepare. Benedict knew the way out from there, and soon found himself in NBC Studios’ lobby.

Outside was the rally.

People leered at him. They shouted, spat insults, cursed at him. They hoisted signs—DOWN WITH SPACE!—DRAKE THE MISTAKE—BECAUSE KILLING EARTH WASN’T ENOUGH! Someone had started a chant, and it was spreading. Part of the crowd shouted, “Earth to Drake!” and another part shouted, “Come in, Drake!” And then they’d all laugh.

Though the sentries were holding back the crowd, Benedict refused to look up. In the corners of his eyes, he saw they all had the small, symbolic canister of mace dangling from their belt loops, their wrists, their backpacks. Seeing those fueled his anger even more. He wanted to shut his ears, close his eyes. Then they could laugh, but he wouldn’t hear, and their efforts to enrage him would be childish at best. When they’d had their fun, they’d stop.

But he could hear them, and they knew it, so they were relentless.

The rally filled all of Rockefeller Plaza, even spilled into the Avenue of the Americas, though the ranks grew thin there. The throng of the crowd was the worst, but out here, Benedict saw signs supporting him and Wander Enterprises—though they were few.

“Dr. Drake.”

He looked up at the voice: a man and son stood at the corner of the block. The boy, who might’ve been nine or ten years old, gave Benedict a young, giddy smile and two thumbs up.

After he had passed, Benedict regretted not having smiled back at him.

The Andromeda Galaxy and the Pillars of Creation

This post is a long time coming, because NASA released this picture almost three weeks ago. The video I'm posting below really throws the sheer size of the universe in your face...particularly the sheer size of the Andromeda Galaxy (galaxy M31 for anyone who wants to be technical about it).

Take a look. This picture contains more than 200 billion stars (that's 200,000,000,000 stars). Every single point of light is a star, and the average distance between stars is roughly 4.5 light years, so you can imagine the density and scale of this.

Enjoy! It's always awesome to see new perspectives.

Another amazing picture Hubble recently took revisited one of the most famous (if not the most famous) picture in astronomy: the Pillars of Creation. The original picture is put side-by-side with the newest picture so that you can see just how much detail Hubble is able to capture now as compared to 20 years ago.

Beautiful, huh? The universe is amazing. (And both Andromeda and the Eagle Nebula are referred to in passing in Embassy and Resonance).

Astronomy Image of the Day

Since I'm a science-fiction writer, I figured what better thing to do than start posting astronomy and space exploration pictures alongside my writing updates and tips?

So here's to inspiration.

This picture is of a rocket launching from Earth, as seen from Earth's orbit. Incredible, huh?

Keep posted! I have more news coming soon!

Wanderers

This is a short science film that became an internet sensation about a week ago. I've watched at least a dozen times, because it's such an inspiring, visually awesome film about humanity's journey. It's such an inspiring vision of the future.

One of my goals in writing Embassy and Resonance and the rest of the Recovery Series is to inspire a love for space exploration, and this film truly captures the spirit of that endeavor.

To Inspire a Love for Space Exploration

Many people have asked me why I write science-fiction. It's a bit of a tricky question, because part of me doesn't actually think of myself as a science-fiction writer. Futuristic contemporary fiction might be a better way to describe Embassy, but even that is up for debate.

See, Embassy isn't filled with strange aliens, explosions, shoot-'em-up scenes, or weird jelly creatures that absorb your soul and take over your brain. When I began writing books at the age of 11, back in June 2004, I wrote a book called The Narlan Wars. That and its sequels were filled with aliens, explosions, battles, telekinesis, sci-fi guns, and a number of other factors that made that series truly science-fiction.

These awful books...gotta start somewhere, though.

Then, in January 2013, I wrote Embassy. Once I figured out what the story was about, I formed a greater understanding of what I want the series as a whole to achieve. Embassy is more of an introduction to a greater universe stored up in my head. I'd be lying if I said I knew exactly how the series will play out, and I'd definitely be lying if I said I knew the last chapter of Book 4. I have basic ideas, but I like to let the story write itself, just as Embassy wrote itself (95% of the 14th draft is different from the 1st draft, and the story is completely different).

The book in question.

Embassy is about the characters. I think that's what separates this story from the countless other YA sci-fi and NA (new adult) novels on the market. (And trust me when I say a vast majority of NA is straight up romance. Hardly any variety in that range of books...hence another reason I'm writing this series). I want readers to connect with the characters on emotional levels. Experience the world I've created. Come out of this book thinking, "Wow, I want to see this age of humanity."

Based on the reviews Embassy has already received, I'm achieving my goal.

Real reviews on Amazon

So let's get to the point: what is the #1 thing I hope Embassy and its sequels will achieve?

Inspire a love for space exploration.

When you read Embassy, I want you to be filled with awe. If you finish this book in the middle of the night, I want you to go outside and look up at the stars. Just like Glacia makes Arman do, I want you to stare at those dots in the sky and feel how small you are. Fill yourself with an appreciation for life, an appreciation for this world you are so lucky to live on, and imagine getting the chance to fly out there and explore worlds humankind has never set foot on.

We are a part of the universe, and, as a species, it is our responsibility to save ourselves. Some people will say humanity needs to die out because it's destroying Earth and other life forms. I disagree. We are the most intelligent life forms in existence, but many people don't appreciate that. Those are the people destroying the world. The people committing murder and genocide, the people who hate other people for their color or ethnicity. The people who dump trash in the oceans, who value money more than human life, who think we are invincible.

The truth is, we are but a small fraction of an already small fraction, that is nothing more than a fraction. The universe does not care about us. The universe will do whatever it takes to destroy us. But even though the universe is a deadly, unforgiving force, it lacks the one trait that makes us, us: INTELLIGENCE. Therefore, we have the power to overcome the universe.

This is a real picture of Saturn. The dot is Earth from almost 1 billion miles away.
We are small. Very, very small.

To do that, however, we need to appreciate how small we are. If life on Earth ended tomorrow, nothing would change. This little ball of liquid and rock would still fling itself around the sun, the waves would still crash to the shores, the wind would still blow.

So why should we live on? Because we deserve it -- some of us, at least. We deserve to colonize Mars. We deserve to explore Europa. We deserve to walk on Pluto. We deserve to break free of the solar system, shoot ourselves into the interstellar void, and feel the warmth of another sun.

Being an atheist, I often say life has no inherent purpose, that by a string of statistically random events, we are here simply just because. What I do believe is that it's our responsibility to MAKE a purpose, to SHOW the strength of humanity, to make a stand against the improbability of our long-term survival.

Embassy shows that. The future I've created shows how humanity has matured. In Embassy, we've settled a dozen or so planets in a tiny bubble of the Milky Way, and every planet relies on the others to survive. If one planet collapses, the others can save it, or at least harbor the people who lived there.

Every society seen in Embassy is unique. Undil has the youngest settlements. It's technology isn't up-to-par with many other planets'. Undil is still growing, and is largely a society driven by the success of its trade and politics.

My vision of Undil (in the central eastern hemisphere)

Belvun is the most similar to Earth. The people who live there, despite the looming collapse of the planet's ecosystems, enjoy a life of leisure.

My vision of Belvun.

Narviid is a very rugged, technology-oriented society that is mostly involved in the goings-on of other planets. They aid Belvun, hold Undil's hand, and are one of the most confident societies in the series. They have things figured out.

My vision of Narviid

Daliona is one of the most technologically-developed planets. They've surpassed a life of leisure, to a life of "What if?" Daliona researches, creates, and achieves, and is by far the most livable planet in the Embassy Program.

My vision of Daliona

Societies vary from planet to planet, but as I mentioned above, this is all background information because the main focus of the story is on the characters and how they live in this future. They have normal problems, normal jobs, and normal interests. They have futuristic sports. And one thing they all agree on is that humanity needs to keep exploring, needs to keep seeking out and settling new planets, and they know if they fail, there are consequences.

That's what I want you, the reader, to discover. I want you to love astronomy and the thrill of exploration. I want you to be excited when humans land on Mars. I want you to visit space one day and know, deep down, that humanity deserves to leave this planet and walk on other worlds.

A Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX

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International Space Station Flyover TONIGHT

I'm a huge astronomy buff (hence the ultra-realistic sci-fi setting of my book Embassy), so astronomy and space-related posts will pop up on this blog every now and then along with my writing advice and book posts.

Tonight at 9:10 p.m. EST (approximately 20 from now), the International space station will be flying over North America. It will be visible for 6 minutes, approaching from the Southwest and heading toward East-Northeast.

If you live in North America, keep an eye out for it! It'll be the brightest thing in the sky and moving VERY fast.

Here's a fast fact for ya: there are currently only 6 people in space right now.

Seems surprisingly low, huh?