Year In Review
Novel News, Lunar Law, and Additional Alliteration from 2023.
I spent a ton of time this year working on my novel, which is now officially scheduled to be published in Fall 2024. Here’s a quick description.
Anonymity is Fundamental. We Need Better Sources. Keep Developing. Aim for Neutrality.
These are the core principles of Infopendium. Millions trust the online encyclopedia. But who are the people behind the facts?
Morgan Wentworth is an unemployed journalist skirting the edge of eviction in New York City and considering leaving the profession. While researching a freelance article about Infopendium, she meets Alex, a teenage super user hoping to become one of the encyclopedia's powerful administrators.
Across the world in Beijing, Nevin is a Chinese-American editor-for-hire who offers “consulting services” to change the content of certain articles at the request of wealthy clients—including the Chinese Communist Party. But Nevin’s rule breaking has raised the ire of Ed, an old-timer in Kansas who is determined to protect his beloved website at whatever cost.
When Infopendium is attacked and a pandemic disrupts the world, governments, companies, and isolated individuals will struggle for the soul, and the very existence, of humanity's most valuable and vulnerable information source.
As many of you know, I’ve been working on this story since February 2020, and I’m so excited to see it come to fruition. Thanks to everyone for the patience while I’ve been trying to make the story the best that it can be! More info about the book plus an opportunity to preorder it over at Inkshares.
Reading
Although I didn’t read as many books this year as I would have liked (who does?), I wanted to share two of my favorites.
Lincoln in the Bardo. Abraham Lincoln’s eleven-year-old son, Willie, dies and encounters the ghosts who haunt the graveyard near his tomb. Will he move on to the great beyond or get stuck in this transitional state? George Saunders is an author who is mostly known for his short stories, including my personal favorite “The Falls.” Bardo is his first novel. Recommended for any fans of President Lincoln, ghost stories, or Ken Burns documentaries.
Post-Truth. This nonfiction book by philosophy professor Lee McIntyre is part of MIT’s essential knowledge series. McIntyre pushes back on the idea that there is no such thing as objective truth, and provides helpful examples to illustrate the problem.
Writing
Here are some fun things I wrote this year in case you missed them:
“Little Assistance” (September 2023)
The other homesteaders, mostly engineers and technicians, seemed to enjoy outings in the lunar rover. “Joyrides,” they called them. But for Eugene, this was a grinding chore that frayed his nerves. As he trundled across the powdery surface, he recounted a litany of risks: razor-sharp regolith puncturing the tires, a power failure in his EVA suit, a freak meteor hurtling through the chassis . . .
My first published short story was about a future judge on the Moon, who is considering a case that highlights how public-private collaboration and commercialization are testing existing national and international space laws.
“Why Wikipedia’s Highway Editors Took the Exit Ramp” (December 2023)
Wikipedia, road infrastructure, and drama—one of these things doesn’t sound like the other. But when Ben, also known as bmacs001, posted a TikTok video promising to “spill the tea” on how the site treats road and highway articles, the Wikipedia contributor suspected that people would find the topic intriguing: “Forty of Wikipedia’s most prolific editors have seceded and made their own wiki, and I’m among them.”
“Why Wikipedia is So Tough on Bigfoot” (February 2023)
Sometimes Bigfoot believers go “squatching” in the forest to hunt for tracks left behind from the purported apelike creature. Other times, they seem to take a more sedentary approach, sitting behind their computers, complaining about what they see as disrespect for their beliefs on Wikipedia.
Bonus: Here is the full list of the 56 articles I’ve written so far for Slate magazine.
That’s all from me for now. Hope you’ve enjoyed celebrating the holidays, and can’t wait to keep in touch with you throughout 2024.
Best,
Stephen