I wrote this!

After finishing the Digitesque hexalogy in 2019, I took stock of my work so far and thought about what I wanted to improve on as a writer, and how to plan my next project to target those improvements. I decided I wanted to write something focused squarely on the interpersonal dynamics of a group of several people, without even an overarching plot. Something purely about people living a life in a community, getting along and getting on each other's nerves.

And I also wanted to write about the future in a way that, while not utopian, was cautiously optimistic. I wanted to see what it might be like to live in a society where society was making a collective effort to build a better world; and a society far enough removed in time from ours that its norms, concerns, models, and worldview don't mesh very well with ours.

And as I was planning this book out, the Covid pandemic hit, and I started cooking a whole lot. So of course it became about food, too.

After finishing the first draft in late 2020, I took a detour into some different writing projects in 2021, then returned in 2022 to re-write this and edit it up, and here we are now. I'm quite happy with where this landed, overall. It's felt like a great way of challenging myself to learn new skills as a writer, and it was also just plain fun. I hope you enjoy it too!