“Artist in Residence” is out

“Artist in Residence” is out in Luna Station Quarterly, issue 53 (March 2023).

A quiet outsider-artist with a dark past is chosen for the prestigious “Artist in Residence” position on a station guarding a mysterious void in space. The artist falls in love with the void, but powers on Earth are stirring to exploit it.

I wrote this story quite some time ago. The impulse behind it was to muse for a moment on the possibility of great power aligning itself not with those who shout the loudest but with those who have almost given up.

I live in the Silicon Valley. You can’t walk down the street without overhearing some kid pitching some other kid the next big “disruption”. Constant hustle. Constant messaging about how competitive and fast-moving everything is, how you must have your elevator pitch ready at all times, market yourself, be “on”, network, be extroverted, be the first and the loudest to shout the hottest catch-phrase clichés into the right faces.

I can’t do that.

When I do that, it makes me feel hollow and depressed. In “Artist in Residence”, I wrote a short indulgence in which power aligns itself with quietness, not with noise.