Today I’m doing some rewriting, so I have to bend my head down and concentrate.

But wanted to think aloud for a minute.

I’m passionate about speculative fiction. I want to know about things I could not have imagined on my own, ways of living that are beyond what it is we do now and what we can accomplish. It drives me to comb through the outer reaches of scientific discovery, to see if there is something that is about to change my life, like paralysis cured, or what inventors plan to do with graphene, or majorana fermion.

Combining my love for stories that are distinctly African, distinctly speculative and scientific, is a tough thing, especially when you keep reading falsehoods about Africans not consuming science fiction. Pish tosh. They’ve watched Avatar, Superhero movies, Star Trek. But will they love my story?

In the face of breathtaking science, leaping and bounding through time, what significance, what magic can my story create? Where is the sweet spot between fiction and science where readers can gasp with pleasure and ache with longing for a time when all I’ve written about is possible?

And yet, creating a space my characters can live in, where their lives are equalized is challenging. What does that mean? Where does conflict come from if everybody has everything they ever wanted? Do I have to create an external force to upset the status quo, or will human beings always create conflict even though they are set in the most idyllic circumstances.

I’m not sure what answers I will find as I write.

May the journey be long and uncomfortable.