This was originally posted on my Goodreads blog

I excerpted the text below from what I had written earlier elsewhere. To confirm and emphasize, it’s great to be engaged in creative writing efforts – whether early or later in life:

For me, it was very much a pleasure to create and write. My working career has dealt with trying to measure – foolish at times to try – and assess conditions for risk (global, country, credit and market). Part of that job also involved appreciating history, politics and how societies work and function and trying to garner insights from that study to manage, in a word, risk more effectively. I have been a fan of what science fiction can show us for my entire life, a devotee of the original Star Trek and its message, and a would be writer until I decided finally to write a (science fiction) novel somewhat later in my life. I hope you enjoy this one; I look forward to discussion and questions I hope it stimulates. My aim is to make “The Callers” the first in a “triptych” of stories, each showing a perspective on what it might mean for humanity to encounter an alien intelligence that has developed at a distance so unimaginably far away from our own home. That’s the goal at least. Thanks for listening…and reading…;)

Mike