What initially inspired this story?

This story came out of one of the writing game sessions that I run with my online community every week, where the prompt was to pick a verb and explore it. Resistance is much on my mind lately, with the world in its current state, and I wanted to talk about how communication might shape itself in a conversation about the act of resistance.

I enjoy this idea of resistance that you present in this story: resistance of things that are “like us.” Of familiarity or maybe comfort, of which there often doesn’t allow room for growth or change. Do you think this society in your story holds growth/change in a high regard? Maybe they just don’t like the idea of seeing themselves—and possibly all their flaws—presented in another?

One of the things I love about flash fiction is that you can create ambiguity that lets a reader pick from a variety of interpretations. For me, the story is about manners and that initial act of communication—what forms are appropriate and what forms put the other off so much that communication becomes impossible.

What, if you had to guess, were the gifts that the second alien culture shared? My mind either goes to something practical and life-changing (something to combat climate change, perhaps?) or to something wildly cartoonish, like a Looney Toons-style ray gun.

What a great question! I always think energy and ways to de-salinize ocean water are two of the big necessities, but what if they brought something wonderful and unnecessary and horribly addictive, like the network formerly known as Twitter.

What’s next for you? Do you have any new projects or stories you’re publishing that you’d like to mention?

Yes! I have the third book in my space opera series, Rumor Has It, coming out this September. It’s already available for preorder and I urge people to order it from their favorite indie bookstore, like our fabulous Brain Lair Books, here in South Bend. I’ve also got a new collection in the early stages, which is what I’ve been wrestling with, along with finishing up a fantasy novel.

Writing fantasy and science fiction and want to move from promising rejections to actual acceptances? The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers offers live and on-demand classes as well as a virtual campus featuring daily co-working sessions, weekly story discussion, and other Zoom-based social events as well as a lively Discord server for chatting with other writers and exchanging story critiques.