The more I learn about this Anthropocene we’re living through and how we’re changing our world—how our soils are depleting, how our oceans are overfished and filling with plastic, how the “forever chemicals” are truly forever, in both the body of our planet, and our own bodies—the more I see in granular detail the reality that we’re intimately connected to everything. But we keep telling a story, a fiction, that we’re separate, that we can actually achieve separation in any meaningful way. There are microplastics in the Arctic. You can fantasize about running away, going off grid, somehow disconnecting from all of humanity and becoming “independent”… but it’s just that, a fantasy. One only availble to the most privileged among us. (And even the rich can only buy a certain degree of separation.)
Reality: we need to fix this place, and we can only do that together.
Good News: we’re actually pretty good at teamwork, if we’ll just stop lying to ourselves about the virtue of “rugged independence.”
From October 12, 2020:
Hopequesting. I can’t think of a better term to describe the act of writing hopepunk in 2020.
(I get that the meme author was talking about social media, but the best terms tap into ideas that are larger than their context. They light up our brains as we recognize some truth about our lives, and the origin of it doesn’t matter so much.)
We’re all connected.
One of the best parts of being self-published is that I get to pick my co-workers. My assistant lives in France, halfway around the world, yet we work so well together, she’s an integral part of keeping my business afloat. I love how much we trust each other and how much I can count on her. I’ve been working with my German translator since he first translated Mindjack years ago—now he’s got a full-fledged business supporting other translators as he publishes my romance penname’s works (and others) in German. We’ve both gone through hard times along the way (like when I lost my mom last year) and supported each other through them. I treasure that space we keep for each other in our otherwise perfectly businesslike relationship.
I’ve had similar close relationships with several cover designers and other people in the business—because that’s how I like to run my life. I want to work with professionals who do top quality work but who also are understanding humans who care about the people they’re working with. That’s the kind of professional I want to be.
So when my cover designer said the covers for the Nothing is Promised series would be delayed because she had to do some work that might potentially expose her to COVID, in one of the hot spots of the country, my concern wasn’t about the covers… it was that this damn pandemic might affect another of my friends.
That’s what being connected means—your life affects mine, mine affects yours, and we’re all on this lifeboat in the middle of space together.
2050: The year my story, When You Had Power, takes place.
As I’ve mentioned before, this story I’m hopequesting my way through writing (now editing), has a lot of green tech in it. That’s because global warming is wreaking even more havoc on our planet by that time, notably melting the permafrost and releasing unending waves of ancient viruses and bacteria, “like old gods summoned to punish humans for their poor choices and petroleum usage.”
I have more than a passing familiarity with environmental issues, global warming in particular. One doesn’t get a PhD in the subject without having done a bit of a deep dive. But that was a while ago, and although I keep up with the utter destruction we’re visiting upon the planet, there’s always more to know. This documentary by life-long famous naturalist David Attenborough does an exceptional job of laying out just what we’re facing (I highly recommend it). In fact, it had me checking my notes, to make sure I’d factored in a few points in a particular scene in the book.
There’s a line at the end of this gorgeously filmed documentary that captured my imagination: “We need to rediscover how to be a part of nature again” rather than apart from it.
Connection. I believe the best of human living is found in understanding our connection to other humans. And that connection—that working together in ways that benefit everyone—is key to finding a sustainable future.
When we do that, if we can manage it, we won’t be saving the planet… we’ll be saving ourselves.
So, there will be a bit of a delay in getting covers made and preorders up for this story. My hope is that my cover designer will stay safe and we can continue to make beautiful covers together. And that when this book lands in people’s hands—indeed, the entire series—I hope it will build some of those connections I’ve been talking about.
Peace and Love and Please Stay Safe, None of You are Expendable,
Sue
