In March 2022 I have started the work on the first story of the Before series. In the beginning of June, the last story of the first part, Politics, was finished. The short story format has enabled us to see the future from the point of view of absolutely different people, completely unrelated to each other—starting from a little girl in a suburb of Tokyo, Japan, getting ready to learn what a machine (a computer) considers to be the optimal life scenario for her; and all the way to an elderly New York couple travelling from a New Mexico, U.S. space port to a Moon base, on the southern border of the Mare Nubium. All these different people, as well as their stories, are united by the time they live in, and by the future scientific and technological advances that humanity will possess 150 years later.
Before has been my first conscious literary experience. I am very interested in this short story format, and also in the possibility to have a glance at what awaits us in a very near future. I expect to have the next ten short stories of the Before series ready over the course of the second half of the year, and it will be my utmost pleasure to offer them for the reader’s judgement.
The second line of work is a big new undertaking, The Beginning. It is a story of what preceded human life on Earth—how it all started millions of years ago. As of now I can’t really guess when the novel is going to be finished—but I hope that the end of this year will see some draft of it ready.
Finally, the third story that I would also like to tell is about Rabbit and two of his faithful servants: Lionet and Fuji. It is going to take the form of a collection of short children’s stories. As of now, writing in general is a big challenge and experiment for me, to say nothing of children’s stories—but I hope that I will manage to get it all done.
So the year 2022 is filled to the brim with plans—let’s work!