So, today The Sky Woman is officially released. Hooray! It’s been a long wait. Many thanks are due to everyone who helped make this book happen: my wife Kia, my daughter, my parents (especially my mom who did a careful read of an early draft), my other friends who read various versions (Jason W. and Jason K. — looking at you guys), my friends who have encouraged me unconditionally along the way (especially my music brothers Spesh and Mark), and many readers of this blog who have cheered me on. And also editor Don D’Auria, and all the folks at Flame Tree Press who worked hard to get the book out today (in multiple formats, all beautifully done). I deeply appreciate all of you.
Category: Writing Page 9 of 19
One reason I wrote The Sky Woman (Flame Tree Press — September 6th) was to explore a scenario that I think is fairly likely: human population goes way down (mostly by choice — people choosing to have fewer children) and at the same time human beings do not manage to exert meaningful control or intentional influence on climate change.
The Sky Woman takes place in the 28th century, on an Earth where sharply reduced carbon emissions (due to massive depopulation and the collapse of global industry) have triggered a premature end to the Holocene interglacial. Ice sheets have advanced, taking out Northern Europe and other far-north and far-south latitudes.
About five years ago I started work on a novel based on ideas that had been germinating for at least a few years. People close to me knew I was working on a new book, but I didn’t tell anyone what it was about. I’d learned (the hard way) that when I spoke about my fiction ideas, I somehow lost the drive to develop those ideas in writing. So I had fun working on my secret project.

Last year when visiting our journalist friend Eve Conant in D.C., I asked Eve for advice in getting my own writing career started. She passed on some advice that had been given to her at one point by a mentor, and that advice stuck with me. While I don’t remember her exact words, the gist of it was to think about building my writing career on three pillars:



