Until recently, I’ve enjoyed reading science fiction, fantasy, and utopian/dystopian stories, but they weren’t my “go to” genres. I perfer a good thriller, mystery or PI story. Recent events have nudged me to try my hand writing a SiFi story. So far, it’s been great fun.

These types of stores fall under an umbrella genre encompassing narrative fiction with supernatural or futuristic elements called speculative fiction. SF also can include superhero fiction, science fantasy, and supernatural fiction as well but I’m not much of a fan. Don’t get me wrong. Many of my friends read these other genres and some write in them too but to me the ones I have read stretch my suspension of belief beyond the breaking point. I leave them to those who enjoy them.

So what would prod a dyed-in-the-wool mystery/thriller reader and author to try science fiction? A handful of news stories crossed my computer monitor spurred me to ask the infamous “What if?” questions authors use to develop a story. First, there was news that China had placed a spacecraft in orbit around the moon. Another story that the Chinese had landed an experimental craft on the dark side of the moon and successfully grown plants and fruit flies in a tiny sealed biome quickly.

Well, that was something! Mankind can produce things necessary for life away from the surface of the earth! That’s big news. That leads to all sorts of speculation (read that as speculative fiction). Sprouting seeds and growing fruit flies isn’t exactly Andy Weir’s The Martian, but it’s a step in that direction.

Cue the music from Jaws. Another event that spurred my “What if?” scenario was an October 2017 NASA report about a previously unknown asteroid or comet that had flown through our solar system. The object, which seemed to come from somewhere else in the galaxy, was one of the first interstellar object cataloged. Scientists named object “Oumuamua” which means “messenger from long ago” in Hawaiian. The name was in celebration of astronomers from Hawaii who first reported the object. Because of Oumuamua’s unexpected appearance and behavior speculation (there’s that word again) ran wild with one online article running the title, “Alien Wreckage Could Have Just Crossed our Solar System”.

So what do you get when you cross growing seeds and basic organisms on the moon, with a large curious near earth object? Well, when you are an author with the will to spin a good yarn you get the beginnings of a story.

My first foray outside of the mystery/thriller genre is not unlike Oumuamua, mysterious, and largely unknown. Two chapters into this new story, I’ve created a new solar system with twin suns. The story is set in a society that is a cross between Star Trek’s Borg, assimilating each planet it encounters, and our own society consuming natural resources like there is no tomorrow and suffering the consequences. My stories are character driven stories so this one has a female star ship commander with a checkered past, a crusty Space Marine with an attitude, and an android with a secret.

Where is this going to go? That remains to be seen. So far, it has been great fun to stretch my writing in this new way. I’m excited to see what’s next for this motley cast of characters.