New story in "Chasing Shadows"
Look for "Eminence" in David Brin's new anthology of stories and essays about the Transparent Society
A new year, a new publication. I've been flying under the radar lately, with nothing of note published in 2016; in part this was due to the passing of my editor, David Hartwell, and some ensuing career chaos. Partly, though, it's just been luck: I've been writing and selling stories--even finished a new novella recently--but events have conspired to push back publication dates for multiple projects. Some of those projects are on hold, others--tied up in sinister government appropriations mazes--are in doubt entirely.
After Lockstep I started a blitz of stories about next-generation government and economics. I followed through on that promise, writing and selling multiple pieces over the past year or so. None of them have appeared--until this week.
David Brin has been bravely fighting a battle for greater governmental and societal transparency for many years now. He's now assembled a roster of heavy-hitters in the fabulous new anthology Chasing Shadows. My story, "Eminence," is about First Nations seccessionists, potlatch cryptocurrencies, fully homomorphic encryption, and other parts of the computational plumbing that will either set us all free over the next few decades, or consign us to a hell of state surveillance far worse than Orwell's darkest nightmares. I choose to be optimistic, but I suspect the battle will be a close one. The more we all know about what's at stake and the strange adventures we may all undergo on the way to one of those fates, the better. Hence this story.
I hope you enjoy "Eminence," and I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.