The Tab You Left Open

You're here, which means one of two things: you've read Surfaced and something in it stuck, or someone told you about it and you're deciding whether to trust them. Either way, welcome.

I write science fiction. Not the kind with spaceships and laser battles — the kind where everything works exactly as designed and that's the problem. Systems that optimise. Algorithms that curate. Small conveniences that compound into something nobody chose but everyone accepted.

My debut collection, Surfaced: Warm But Not Soft and Other Stories, came out last year. Seven interconnected stories about people living inside systems built to help them — and the cost of never quite noticing. You can find it on Amazon.

I'm currently working on several new projects. One is about a primary school teacher who accidentally starts a war between AI systems by opening a browser tab. Another follows time travel operatives who discover the programme they serve has darker intentions than they were told. A third tracks the mathematical patterns in how civilisations collapse.

This newsletter will be where I share new work, excerpts from things in progress, and occasional thoughts on the territory between technology and what it costs us. I'll publish when I have something worth reading, which won't be on a schedule, because schedules are what algorithms want and I'm trying to be better than that.

If any of this sounds like your kind of unease, stick around.

— Alan