For the uninitiated: there are two routes for publishing a book, known as “traditional publishing” and “self-publishing”. You can find a zillion pieces of info on the differences of these things, but I’ll give the short version.

(Excuse this AI image, it’s for the boys!)

Your instinct to differentiate your experience (and often your self) by creating preferences based on bad-to-best is not conducive to happiness. Comparison is the thief of joy because rather than enjoying a thing, you are cerebrally judging it to decide whether or not it’s better than another. You are spending time in your head, ranking, rather than experiencing the thing, and (even possibly) enjoying it. Only one thing can be the best, so the light of that thing can cast a shadow on the wonderful thing you’re doing.

I’m writing (at least) three stories in this setting. One set in the present (2025), one far in the past, and one in the future. They will all be different genres, and readable in any order.

“Most people are idiots,” my father says.

His implication is not meant to disparage the majority of the population, but rather to empower his children to believe that the people who are creating, learning, and executing things are not usually special or gifted, they are simply the ones taking the actions that lead to accomplishment. What one person can do, you could also do.

I think there’ll be a perspective shift, soon, where things made by human hands are valued for the effort, the life, that was spent creating them. Machines are efficient. Humans—artistic. In the same way we appreciate beautiful calligraphy, or paintings, or anything handmade, we will always value effort.