What was the genesis of this story?

If it’s not obvious, I wrote this story during the period last year when DOGE was tearing apart long-standing US government agencies and firing skilled workers by the tens of thousands for a supposed cost reduction, but really to remove federal oversight from private enterprise. I read that the average DOGE employee was in their early twenties. These were smart young kids who were now destroying long-standing democratic institutions with glee. I remembered who I was in my early 20s, how I thought I knew everything, and now looking back I see how stupid and selfish and naive I was. I was smart on paper, but I had little real-world experience. I lacked wisdom. These kids are smart and talented, and they could have been using their skills to better the world. Instead, they chose or were led to tear things apart, and their actions were (and still are) killing people. Not with weapons, but from the dire consequences of their decisions. It absolutely infuriated me, and I felt powerless to stop it. This story was me exploding my anger onto the page. I also happened to be working in a musty old basement at the time, which inspired the setting.

The primary feeling I had while reading “Espie Droger Dreams of War” was righteous anger, a potent distillation of what so many of us are experiencing right now. Can you talk about your approach to channeling outrage into your fiction?

Some stories I struggle with. They’re like pulling teeth, and I have to drag each sentence out one by one. With “Espie” it was the exact opposite. I think I wrote it in two sittings. I was just so full of rage and frustration that the words spilled out in a kind of raging fugue. I’m not sure I can describe my “approach,” because for this at least it was mostly a subconscious process. Though I did very consciously think about all the things I’d like to do to these people, for all the harm they caused. It was cathartic, for sure. If there is anything I can describe about it, I would say it’s a striving for authenticity of feeling. Everything in this story, at least to me, feels real. Lt. Major Ghauri is a stand-in for my rage and the rage of anyone with a soul who’s paying attention.

From the long bio on your website, you write: “Sometimes I tend my fiction to inspire. Sometimes I write cautionary tales. Sometimes I just follow my dream-id where it leads.” What was your intention here? Do you find one easier to do than the others?

Maybe all three? As I write this (Jan ’26), you see more people standing up to you-know-who and his corrupt regime. But when DOGE was burning down institutions in early ’25 there was this sense of capitulation and fatalism and helpless despair. So, yeah, maybe I was trying to say (without spoilers), “You are not powerless. Even and especially if you are part of the machine.” And perhaps it’s a cautionary tale too, because Espie is severely punished, maybe justifiably, and also because his actions lead to a nuclear exchange and millions of deaths. But when I was writing this, there was just rage, as you said my righteous anger spilling out, and I had to follow that wherever it led. I approach each story differently. Some are very consciously crafted. Others are driven by my subconscious. I don’t think any one is easier, just more appropriate for the story I’m trying to tell.

You keep yourself quite busy in the community with a podcast, the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series, conventions, and a lot more. How do you balance and organize your writing with all of these “extracurricular” projects and all the other priorities in your life?

It’s not always easy. Last year I had some major life changes including an apartment move and some health issues that forced me to pull back from a lot of writing. But mostly I just make sure to schedule time for things. I write in the mornings, before work. I’m self-employed, so I have the luxury of setting my own schedule. I’m also never one to sit idle. I get antsy if I’m not working on something, whatever it is. So the podcasts, Fantastic Fiction, all that stuff is just me keeping myself busy. Balance is always hard, but I think the secret is repetition. If you do it often, it becomes routine. You also have to be accountable to yourself.

Where can readers look to find you and your work next?

My novella The Rainseekers (bit.ly/4amd6BY) is just out this February from Tordotcom. It’s about a burned-out influencer, who is hired by a magazine to document the adventure of a group of pilgrims hoping to be the first to experience rain on Mars. I also have a collection Histories Within Us (bit.ly/3MaWuUF, Senses Five Press) out last year, and a novel Space Trucker Jess (bit.ly/4a5WDk6, Fairwood Press) also out last year. I have a few stories in the works, and I’m also working on a follow up to The Rainseekers. The best place to find more of my work is at my website: matthewkressel.net, or you can follow me on social media, @mattkressel.