But here’s the thing: dystopias are lazy.
Border-line boring, even, comparatively. Especially when they are not only the "norm", but ubiquitous, copious, proliferative.
They’re the narrative equivalent of reheating last night’s existential dread in the microwave.
My short story collections here offer a sample platter of *what if we don’t screw it up?*
And isn’t that the point of SF, to experiment, to ask “What if…?”
If you suffer dystopia-fatigue, maybe you'd enjoy reading my positive near-future short stories as antidote? Our Capitalist overlords want us demoralized, distracted, depressed, distressed. They flood news and social media with negativity, to destabilize and desensitize you.
So you think everything is negative, and you become defeatist.
So you don't notice whatever good IS happening.
We could change our story, couldn't we, like switching channels?
What if, instead of wallowing in inevitability of collapse, we build something better?
Not through naivety, but through earnest, imaginative effort?
Consider me a meta-modern meliorist of "whatever-this-is". These stories I craft aren’t *stories*, so much as hope-punk ambience. My stories are built around my particular ability to not be anyone else. I'm a glitch in the system. A minimalist writing approach might seem like incompetence... when actually, it is a rejective-response. Instead of trying to adapt my writing to conform with conventional ways, I found the creative space where my specific strange energy makes sense, properly contextualized.
The beauty of my writing approach comes from the fact that I'm inventing a new language of storytelling in real time. Nothing is standardized — not pacing, not framing, not structure — which means all aspects become a playground for experimentation.
If we want to expand our choices & perspectives, then we need new stories— new tastes & new ways of telling stories— to entice us from the old & familiar. Coming up with these stories is not always easy. But I try.
And— hypothetically— if you *were* the kind of person who enjoys hopefulness (gross), or positive imagination (cringe), or stories where humanity doesn’t eat itself alive (embarrassing), then *maybe* you’d wanna skim through my silly little books?
Look, *obviously* you don’t want to read "Apotheosis Gnosis".
Who needs a book of optimistic near-future stories in 2026? Right?
You’d much rather mindlessly (or ardently?) doom-scroll while the 47th dystopian reboot plays in the background. Obviously.
But what if—stay with me—what if stories *didn’t* have to be emotional self-flagellation?
Enter "Apotheosis Gnosis", my new collection of near-future speculative fiction, which is *definitely not* a radical act of hope disguised as a book. (Spoiler: It is.)
Do you have dystopia fatigue? In real life and/or in fiction you consume?
Then remedy this problem by exposing yourself to & immersing yourself in utopian-mystique... with positive near-future short stories.
What does a better future look like? How could it be? Can you even imagine what a better world IS? Looking for new-to-you speculative fiction short story books to read?
Let me help... through stories I write:
