My first professionally published short story , “Gardens of Titan” appears in the January/February 2023 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact! The issue will be available on newsstands, and bookstores on December 14, 2022. (Do they still have newsstands?)
It’s been almost exactly a year since I sold the story. A year of being a professional author with nothing published. A year of waiting. Now the time is nearly at hand.
Gardens of Titan takes place in the outer reaches of the solar system in a plausible near future. However it explores timeless and human themes and emotions. Looking at writing from the last few hundred years, it’s apparent that as much as technology, society, and political boundaries change, the human mind has changed very little. People lived lives that seem strangely contemporary in application. They fell in love, got married, dealt with separation, and experienced the same feelings we experienced today. At our core, we are still the same.
It’s quite likely, that this will not change into the future. Our technology, our working environments, even our bodies will change, but human beings will still struggle with the results of decisions, the pull of desires, and the pain of loss.
I hope you’ll take an opportunity to pick up the issue, and read the story. If you do, please tell me what you think!
–Erik