Why I Write Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction has always felt like home.

Not because it’s full of impossible technologies or strange futures—though I love those things—but because it lets us ask the big, uncomfortable questions without flinching. What if you could rewrite your past? What if a machine knew you better than you know yourself? What if the people we love were the ones keeping us from the truth?

These aren’t just plot hooks for me. They’re reflections of how I see the world.

Growing up with physical limitations taught me to question everything—assumptions, rules, systems. And it made me resilient. That stubborn streak now fuels my characters, who often face moral dilemmas wrapped in high-concept problems. Memory manipulation, neural implants, consciousness transfer… These are the what-ifs. But the real tension is in the fallout: the fractured relationships, the ethical gray zones, the parts of ourselves we lose trying to save what matters.

In Iteration, Malcolm MacKenzie’s journey is built on those questions. His genius gave the world something revolutionary—and in doing so, tore it apart. What happens when our greatest achievements become the very thing that haunts us?

That’s the heart of my writing.

Speculative fiction isn’t about escaping reality. It’s about reframing it—so we can see it clearer. It’s a genre that dares us to imagine better, even when the road there is brutal.

So if you love fiction that pushes boundaries but stays rooted in deeply human stakes, you’re in the right place. Stick around. There’s more coming.

-Mike