I’m excited to announce the launch of one of my projects, a weekly newsletter called Speculations. Each issue of Speculations will feature ten real news items that could easily inspire a tale of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror).  Scientific discoveries, new art forms, mysterious murders, that sort of thing.

If you’re a writer looking for an idea, this is the newsletter for you.  If you’re a fan of the genre and love hearing about how weird the real world is, this newsletter is for you, too. Below is a sample of the sorts of things I’ll be listing in the newsletter:

An Interesting SETI Candidate in Hercules: Back in May of 2015, a signal was picked up by a radio telescope in Russia that has been marked as a SETI candidate signal.  Researchers think the strength of the signal is around the level of a Kardashev Type II civilization. For those not familiar with the Kardashev Scale, it is a method of measuring a civilization’s technological advancement.  A Type II would be expected to have completely harnessed the energy of its star.  The signal came from the direction of HD164595, a star with similar properties to the Sun and at least one exoplanet, thought be a ‘warm Neptune.”

Mature heart muscle cells created in the laboratory from stem cells: Scientists have managed for the first time to grow mature heart cells from stem cells taken from adults.  This is something that scientists have been trying to accomplish for YEARS, and it’s a pretty big deal that this has finally been achieved.  This means that they’ll be able to more effectively study all kinds of heart disease, and might even lead someday to growing organs from scratch.

Far beyond crime-ridden depravity, darknets are key strongholds of freedom of expression online: An interesting explanation of what exactly the ‘darknet’ is, how it works, and who hangs out there.  Turns out it isn’t just a bunch of black markets and child porn; there’s actual content out there by people, mostly hackers, looking to reclaim privacy and freedom of speech on the internet.  This could be a great starting point for modern dystopia or cyberpunk.

Sign up for Speculations to get real world inspiration for weird and fantastic fiction in your inbox every Friday.