Novels of institutions, belief, and collapse
My primary focus is the evolution of modern society, and in particular the emergence of the “science fiction world” in which we suddenly find ourselves. I write about systems under strain — schools, technologies, institutions, communities — and the people living in them. My work includes near-future science fiction and historical fiction, and considers the eternal conflict between rulers and ruled, changing morality and the unknown impacts of technology.
My novels are set in those uneasy days when people wait to see if society will adapt to new circumstances or collapse into anarchy. They are, in a sense, tales about dark times, but tales at least told (or so I hope) with a certain humor. “We laugh that we may not cry.”
My most recent novel, Waiting for the Summer Rain narrates events in a small academic community in the tumultuous months bounded by Woodstock (August 1969) and Kent State (May, 1970).