Thanks, Gabino!

The last book in my Generation Mars series came out December 1st.

When a misaligned AI makes Earth unreachable, families on the Moon must make a hard choice. Parents in two competing bases try to save their children by sending them to Mars on an aging spaceship.

a.co/d/2FAGIZd

Excerpt:
“We don’t need someone to save us. What does that even mean?” She paused “Look,” she said, “we’re complicated. Kind of a mess, actually. We rarely live up to our ideals. But we try.” She paused again. “We save ourselves,” she said.
-- from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four

end 🧵

But, as I’ve written these books about humankind’s first generation off Earth, I have occasionally struggled to maintain that positive attitude. At these times, that sentence from Sagan’s speech has returned to mind and centered me. It’s a rallying call.

My primary goal with this series has been to provide young readers a vision of hopepunk optimism for our future: that they can build the society they want to live in.

One cannot write without being influenced by the times in which one lives. And we are living through some shit.

I mentioned Sagan in my post on Kyle Tran Myhre, and I want to return to the quote I included there, because it is key to what I’ve tried to communicate in this series.

“In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”

...The music oozed comfort and good vibes. The sisters looked at each other as they floated and bobbed in their straps.”
-- from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXvi...

open.spotify.com/track/5YLnfy...

end 🧵

Excerpt:
“Several minutes later, as the main engines shut off and the girls realized they were weightless, a soft funky bass line and a gospel female voice invited them to a place where nobody was crying, and nobody was worried...

It’s such an easy and hopeful groove, but as with so much good music, it emerges from a cultural context that is in no way easy or hopeful. That juxtaposition seemed a good fit for this book.

...Cas thought the music might be too loud for Ori, but then she heard her sister yelling Higher! Higher! in the comms.”
-- from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyP...

open.spotify.com/track/4qpIk2...

...A voice sang that it wanted to take them higher while a trumpet played syncopated notes between the words. Their weight suddenly increased, and they knew the Peregrine was rising from its pad as the voice continued to beckon them higher and higher...

...The guitar was joined by an organ, both playing a funk counterpoint to the bass as it settled into a churning distorted riff that seemed to shake their seats, though Cas knew that wasn’t the music doing that...

Whatever. I loved the idea of that churning bass line merging with the vibration of the engines and had to use it. Chills!

Excerpt:
“There was a pause, then the voice said ‘T-minus 10… 9…’
A guitar and bass played a syncopated descending line. A voice yelled Hey! four times on the down beat...

...for his daughters to listen to as they embark on a great and dangerous adventure. I also like the idea of sitting in a rocket waiting for launch, listening to an old-timey song about sitting in a station waiting for a train.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWF...
open.spotify.com/track/0eRHaq...

end 🧵

Choo, Choo, Ch’boogie, by Louis Jordan, was a favorite of one of my daughters when she was little. We put it on her child’s MP3 player, and she would play it over and over, singing along.

I like the idea of a dad remembering this as he puts together a playlist...

“Next came a shuffle beat, brass and woodwinds playing a woo-woo sound, and a smooth voice singing a song about a train and a boogie. This one had been a favorite of Ori’s when she was little. The girls bounced in their seats to the walking bass line.”
-- from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four

...The singer drew the word "you" out long and smoothly, voice shifting across several notes. Cas felt as if she were floating on that voice.”
-- from Food: Generation Mars, Book Four

youtu.be/aZzFQqNtmPQ?...

open.spotify.com/track/39FFlq...

end 🧵

Excerpt:
“At T-minus six minutes, their helmets were filled with softly strummed electric guitar chords. A chorus of voices sang "you and me" in harmony, while a plaintive female voice riffed wordlessly over them…