Climate fiction. A few other things.
From when I first sat down to begin drafting Aerovoyant to the day twenty-six months later that the final version went to the copy editor, the story had been rewritten a total of forty-two times. It had been revised and expanded, cut and tweaked, edited and massaged. It didn't get there overnight, of course. On the… Continue reading The best-laid plans.
It’s been a very fun and exciting weekend here, and a busy few weeks leading up to it. You know, with all of the copy edit work and formatting and cover details and general fretting over every last thing—all the little bits to sift through in order to finalize Aerovoyant. But! Everything came together, and I… Continue reading My first novel is out.
Around sunset not long ago, a hummingbird flew into our house.
As a bit of backstory, I’ve always wanted to live in a cabin with nothing but wilderness for miles. That never happened and instead, our house is in the middle of American Suburbia. It’s comfortable, but the closest we get to 'wilderness' is to throw open the patio doors now and then. In all the years we’ve lived here we’ve never had a bird fly in. Bugs, yes; a mouse or two. An alligator lizard. Never a bird.
When I left research in 2018 to try my hand at fiction, it felt like I was making a huge course change in life.
The decision itself, the one to leave research, was simple. After all, the science of climate change—which I’d been working on—was settled, and more research would bring ever-diminishing returns on that. On the other hand, putting energy into fiction as a means of making climate science more enjoyable to talk about was a way to keep working toward greater sustainability. Still, I had no idea what challenges I’d face, and that uncertainty made the switch itself feel very dicey.
Last year was the fourth warmest year on record. 2016 was the warmest and 2017 the second warmest. Four of the five hottest years on record have happened since 2014.
The science on climate change is settled, has been for a long time. Articles in the 1800s describe the effect of civilization on the environment--how the emission of carbon dioxide into the air creates a greenhouse effect. Articles from almost 200 years ago!
P. L. TAVORMINA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.