In Forever is Too Long, a 110-year-old man faces the crossover to a perpetual existence in a technologically advanced digital world. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I am getting older, as are some of my friends. They wish they could have additional healthy years (me too). I’ve always been fascinated with science and its many advances. The idea of life extension is nothing new—think explorer Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth. But as I thought about an extended life, I started to think about it within the framework of future technology.

Right now, scientists are in the midst of trying to put together a human digital mind, though certainly less sophisticated than posited in the book—which is the actual copying of human minds, digitized and living immortally into the future. It seemed logical to assume that world-spanning AI systems and frighteningly enhanced genetics would also be common technologies.

Did you plan the tone and direction of the novel before writing, or did it come out organically as you were writing?

After ruminating about the idea of life extension, I one day just saw the overall arc of the human mind being perfectly copied and living on. After that, it was all organic. I became as much of a reader as an author, asking myself fundamental and thematic questions about what these technologies would mean for society and individuals. I see the book as a thematic journey.

Perhaps an interesting piece of backstory: I originally wrote the story in first person from Jake’s perspective. Through twists and turns, it landed in the hands of a wonderful editor who suggested I redo it third-person omniscient. OMG! Really? Re-write like that?! It was like dumping out a completed puzzle and re-arranging the pieces, throwing some out, and adding new ones. (I learned a lot.)

Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?

Yes, but…. I have thought about a sequel. There are a lot of different threads that could be extended. I like the idea of a coming-of-age story for Noah, et al.

I guess I might warn the reader about Noah, a child whose life was turned upside down by enhanced genetics. It adds a fantasy piece to the book that supersedes the sci-fi aspect of copying human minds and adds a human family element. What happens to him will challenge the reader.

As Jake and Shannon observed: “Maybe Noah’s fighting the same battle, but just differently.”
[Shannon]

“One of us is fighting for the soul of humanity and the other is fighting for the heart of humanity, eh?” [Jake]

What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?

Next book: He Died Two Days Ago. It just came out July 2024. Very different…think pulp fiction, film noir. Alien possession. Again, I am drawn to thematic elements—manifest destiny, zealotry, vengeance, power, egomania.

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