A New Journey

I've often hear people say engineers are a boring lot that lacks creativity and imagination. Truth is, I've been doing engineering all my life in the electronics industry, working as a technician in the military, then as a test and repair engineer in the private sector.

I wouldn't consider myself a boring person. But I'll have to admit that most people would become lost whenever I tell them about the nature of my work, including newbies who are starting out. For some, it may be the way their brains are wired such that they find it hard to comprehend or even appreciate anything outside of their experience or knowledge domain. For others, it could be the way information is conveyed that stifled their interest and inadvertently turned them off.

When I started out to be an author to write my first engineering book, leaving the comfort of my thirty plus years in full-time employment, I had no idea how well it would be received. I worked on the book for almost a year and then published it through Amazon Createspace, now Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Within two weeks there were some sales and soon several reviews from readers who purchased the book. Thankfully most were positive and encouraging, some even expressing their appreciation for my engaging style of writing. It was then that I realized my ability to transform boring engineering facts into enjoyable narratives.

But I did not entertain the possibility of writing a novel, until I completed my sixth and last engineering book. The proliferation of news on artificial intelligence, smart robots, and quantum computing in recent months had sparked interest in me. It set me thinking if I could produce a sci-fi story based on these and related subjects that are garnering widespread attention across the world.

I told my wife about my intention. As usual, she's very affirmative and supportive. Having walked through the writing wilderness with me for the past seven years, she thought it's a good idea to try a different genre in book authoring. "You never know what you're capable of until you give it a go," she told me.

And that's when a new writing journey and a new adventure begins. To quote Mandy Hale:

Change can be scary, but you know what's scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving, and progressing.