First a little about his book, Amorphous: Breaking the Mold!
Amorphous: Breaking the Mold is a science fiction novel of the near future that follows an eclectic group of characters as they are confronted with the threat of invading interstellar slime molds. The story takes place around the year 2065 and follows a handful of characters who meet in a sandwich shop, little knowing they may be called on to become humanity’s saviors.
A approaching interstellar object crashes into a California coast golf course restaurant, where the main characters are attending a soft-open event. A journalist trying to get a scoop gets horrifically subsumed by the life form, which is on a feeding path across the golf course. The group enrolls a quirky AI to help them communicate with the organism — which appears to be unkillable as it spreads all over the Earth — to release the journalist without killing him. Meanwhile, he is undergoing numerous ego-blowing and hallucinogenic experiences.
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221131399-amorphous-breaking-the-mold
Here’s a link to the paperback version:
And here’s a link to the Kindle version:
Now into the interview where I ask Steve an assortment of questions on writing, inspiration and scifi!
You chose an interstellar slime mold—‘the LSA’—as your alien life-form. What inspired this unconventional choice, and what does it allow you to explore differently in the ‘first contact’ genre?
I have loved slime molds, the “altruistc amoeba” since freshman biology at UCSB in the 70’s. One of the things I love about them is that they learn, and are able to form least-distance-traveled maps without a brain or even a nervous system.
One of the other things that fascinates me is how language maps over experience, and how consciousness has been described as a collapsing quantum state that generates reality. Well then, I can think of brainless, nonconscious critters as beings of pure experience. And if consciousness creates reality, then could such critters be “aware” of the state of other parts of it/themselves instantaneously, over centimeters, miles, or light years. I wanted to explore that.
Amorphous is almost entirely dialogue‑driven, like an audio drama. How did you develop this style, and how does it shape the pacing and immersion of the story?
I think it comes both from the way the characters came to me and also my love of improv. Once I got going with the first-person narratives of main characters, and as they revealed themselves to me, I liked it so much, I kept it going. There were parts I originally wrote as a script – especially the Bob & Beth parts – but then found I liked it better as dialogue. It surely makes the story more deliberate and slower in the first half, before everyone comes together and when the slime hits the fan.
Your reviewers said the book made them laugh out loud even while the world is literally being engulfed by alien slime. How did you strike that balance between humor and existential threat?
I’m not quite like “the kind of guy that laughs at a funeral,” like the Barenaked Ladies sing, but life is darn humorous. I think that, like cleanliness, laughing is next to godliness. I really have to hold myself back from quipping some dumb little joke at every third sentence. So, it’s kind of my natural way of being. There’s a context for everything and one of them’s humor, imho.
You introduce a quirky AI as part of the team—what role does this AI play in human‑alien communication, and what inspired their personality?
The AI is essential in helping to build communication between a nonconscious organism and humans. It’s also off-the-shelf parts. I think his personality is the part of me I don’t let out for fear of being punched in the nose.
Your cast includes a biologist, journalist, folklorist and more. How did you weave those distinct voices into a cohesive narrative about humanity’s survival?
A big part of my inspiration for writing this was to bridge the gap between the science-ey, and the spiritual-ey. I think it ended up being more of a kind of demonstration of “it takes all kinds.” I strongly do believe that it taking all kinds is what has made this country (and others) great. I wanted people from disparate walks of life, study, and belief to have to come together to solve an existential threat.
Part of your novel follows a journalist who undergoes ego‑blowing and hallucinogenic experiences inside the mold. How real are those scenes—and did you enjoy writing that surreal part?
Weeeeell, I didn’t actually undergo such sudden changes in my own life – maybe more gradual, though. But part of Bob’s experience comes from others’ – people I know and people I don’t – descriptions of their own ego-blowing experiences under the influence of substances or practices. I particularly looked to Jeremy Narby’s “The Cosmic Serpent,” and during part of writing that part, I listened to the chants of Ayahuasceros while meditating and then while writing.
Why did you set the inciting incident—a meteor/slime mold crash—on a California golf‑course restaurant? What does that juxtaposition say about the world we live in?
I was in high school, living nearby when that golf course was being built. Adjacent to and in front of it is the not-quite-ruin of the Barnsdale Rio Grande filling station from the 30’s in Goleta. I’d long had the fantasy of turning that into some kind of pub. So, I got to do so, in words, anyhow. Complete with a restaurant and “cannabar.” Too bad it gets wrecked in the story! And that really beautiful golf course seemed ripe for some meteor strike, because why not? But I wanted the story to take place somewhere I knew intimately, and this is the area.
What it says about the world we live in? Hmmm, no matter how manicured a manmade thing is, forces of Nature can just snap their natural little fingers ‘n’ stuff and all our important big plans can change, just like that.
LibraryThing reviews mention you blend cutting-edge science with ancient myth and folklore. Can you share an example of how you wove folklore into this near‑future sci‑fi?
There’s a fair bit of Irish folklore with constellations that are tied to where Oumuamua seemed to have come from and where this slime mold-laden asteroid seemed to have come from. Also, Jeremy Narby’s The Cosmic Serpent speaks of “discovering” the sentience of DNA, and so that plays into Peruvian mythology, a dream sequence of one of the characters, and the oldest settlement in the Americas, Norte Chico in Peru. I make up a bit of mythology here, I must say.
Do you view the slime mold as ‘sentient’? How did you approach the challenge of writing something so radically alien yet relatable?
The slime mold is not sentient and has no means of communication, at least at first. A goodly chunk of the book deals with trying to find a way to cope with that and incorporating brain organoid science, the subsumed journalist, and using the snarky AI as a medium to make it all happen. As for how I coped with it – I pretty much just dived in to see where it went.
Readers have compared your work to Blindsight, Children of Time, and Earth. Which sci‑fi influences shaped Amorphous, and how did you make it your own?
Goodness. As for Earth – David Brin is a big influence on me. I’ve had several conversations and a meal or two with him wherein he did a lot of coaching for style – and to convince me to leave Keith Richards as a character in the book (I did actually change Keef’s name in the end, though). Blindsight contains comets with evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. It explores the nature of intelligence & consciousness, which Amorphous necessarily also does. Children of Time (and it’s sorta sequel, Children of Ruin) deal with uplifting other species (as does Brin’s Uplift series) and the nature of consciousness as well. To communicate with a brainless creature like a slime mold necessitated a certain amount of uplifting.
Humor is subjective—how do you know when a joke lands, or when the absurd is overshadowing the drama?
Here, by the way, are other influences – the Bobiverse books, for instance, and Spider Robinson – tickle my funny bone and I think I can see those influences here. But I have done a fair bit of stand-up and lots of improv. A loooong time ago, I worked in a sandwich shop in a college town for years and in all these cases, you can kind of see and get a feel for how a joke is landing. Having said that, not everyone likes Amorphous’s nerdy humor. But I do, so what the hey?
Your narrative leans heavily on character dialogue rather than description. Was this a deliberate stylistic choice, and how do you think it affects reader engagement?
When I started writing the book, I wanted to explore each of the characters deeply, so those parts were mostly in first person. Now, having established them, I wanted to let them speak for themselves. Some people like this and some don’t. One of the criticisms I’ve heard is that there wasn’t enough third-person description and that it reads more like a screenplay or the like. I hope the book finds the people who like dialogue.
An alien life form made of slime mold is pretty outside the box. Do you feel like this opens space for more unconventional sci‑fi creatures in the genre?
Let us hope. But there are currently lots and lots of critters outside the box in sci-fi. While a slime mold might not have been a main character before, I’m not entirely positive it’s actually breaking new ground.
What common assumptions about alien intelligence or communication did you hope to challenge with this story?
That tech requires a brain. That intelligence is better than experience. That direct experience happens by itself and is much different than description or memory.
Without spoilers, can you share if there’s more to come after Amorphous? A sequel? A different perspective? Or an entirely new universe?
I’m several thousand words into the as yet unnamed sequel. Unlike Amorphous, it starts with a bang. Some of the characters in Amorphous are here, too but some – especially minor characters – are not. I really want Surfer Eric and his weird intuition to have more time.
Your day job is in digital forensics. How does that background inform your sci‑fi writing, particularly in this story’s scientific and investigative elements?
I’m around tech all day every day in digital forensics and the tech is ever-advancing. Also, as the most recent former president of The Foresight Institute, I’m get kind of steeped in what’s coming next in tech, humanism, futurism, and lots of wild ideas. It’s a rich broth.
What’s the most surprising or vivid reaction you’ve received from readers so far?
That my writing is full of optimism, and that certain introverted folks laughed out loud. I love that!
For writers wanting to break the mold—pun intended—what advice do you have about using unconventional story structures or non‑humanoid aliens?
Oh gosh, go crazy! Start putting them out there and see where they go. See if you can hear the character or the critters as we write and if it doesn’t work out, start again. Start again anyways.
What do you hope readers walk away with after finishing Amorphous? What questions do you hope linger with them?
I love that question. I’d like them to walk away with thinking that maybe it really does take all kinds of people. I’d like them to have to look some things up and come away with a broader understanding of some things. I’d like them to find folklore that is so different from our own. I’d like them to think about or feel about or inquire into the nature of consciousness and how different feeling is from thought.
More about the author!
Burgess pioneered the data recovery industry in 1985 when Bobby Brown’s manager came begging to this former floppy drive repair company (yes, floppy drives!) to recover data from his crashed 10MB (yes, 10 MB) DOS hard disk. Developing methodologies for recovery, an industry was born.
Burgess has performed data recovery, electronic data discovery and forensic analysis on more than 15,000 hard disks and other digital media for firms and individuals in 49 states & provinces and several countries. Deposed and qualified as expert witness many State, municipal and military courts, and labor boards.
He’s run his own labs for 38 years in San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Marin and Santa Barbara Counties.
Along the way he started several companies, including computer consulting & repair, online data backup services, training services, data recovery and computer forensic firms. He mentors at MIYB Workspaces in Santa Maria, and has provided mentoring services to CalPoly students, CIE/Hothouse, and participates in Startup Weekends in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo as mentor, coach, and pitcher.
Mr. Burgess has written and spoken widely and contributed the comprehensive Computer Forensics section to the text, “Scientific Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases (5th edition),” by Moenssens, et al. Many of his articles can be found on the BurgessForensics website at http://burgessforensics.com/blog/ video articles on the site and on YouTube.
He also completed his first science fiction novel, “Amorphous: Breaking the Mold.”
In his “spare time,” he is a Life Coach and also helps to run a 32-year old nonprofit, The Foresight Institute, based in San Francisco, that researchs technologies of fundamental importance to the human future, focusing on molecular machine nanotechnology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
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It’s time for my July TBR! I am sharing all the books I will be adding to my summer reading plans, including one carryover from June. Let me know in the comments what books you’re adding to your TBR this month!
Check out the video below:
