Bruce Ballister

I have always loved science fiction. Clark, Asimov, Pournelle, Niven, and Dick have all been influences. My career in the sciences encourages my desire to keep up with what we are and are becoming capable of doing. From astronomy to nanoengineering, and physical chemistry we humans are blowing the lid off what was thought to be possible only fifty years ago. How different would PK Dick's writings be if he had envisioned our current tech? Probably not all that different, it isn't the science in science fiction that makes it wonderful, but how we humans adapt to the situations and technologies imagined. Could we ever achieve galactic-scaled transportation systems that would make Asimov's Foundation possible? Possibly not, but should we heed his three primary rules for robotics? Absolutely. 

In my own creations, I take real people with complicated lives and provide the simple twist. All sci-fi asks is that the reader adopts usually one critical premise that allows the story to proceed along otherwise human pathways. In Dreamland Diaries, I ask that you consider that centuries ago, a lost traveler found a final resting place in North Florida's forested woodlands. In its sequel, Orion's Light, I ask you to visit his world and its entirely different social structures that still have enough similarities that philosophy, conflict, and resolutions proceed along recognizable pathways. In the next novel, Room for Tomorrow, I take you through a time portal to a future that is repairing itself after a cataclysmic war some three generations prior. Simple steps, plenty of commentary on our own situation with humans drawn from reality.

If you should read one of my works, please feel free to contact me with any comments you might have.