We’re honoured to share your story “What Do You Mean the Nanobots Formed a Union??” with our readers. Can you talk a bit about how this story took shape and what inspirations fed into it?

In terms of the idea for this story, the premise just kind of came to me all at once one morning over a coffee. I think it stems from an interest in what potential medical miracles nano-technology may unlock for humanity. And, of course, the inevitable question of who will have the cash flow to partake in said miracles.

It’s not often I get a story this short to spotlight. Were you intentionally keeping the word count down to keep it in tune with the nano-theme, or was that a happy accident?

I find shorter is usually better with comedic premises.

Beyond reading to me as a darkly comedic look at body horror, this opened up thoughts to me about the nature of being. How much were you thinking about that beyond the Ship of Theseus question?

The nature of consciousness comes up a lot in my writing, nature vs. nurture, that whole debate. As the trivia goes, our body replaces its cells every seven years. So I got to thinking, what if that replacement happened on a much more accelerated timeline?

When I think about the theme of the story, I keep landing on “infuriating jerk bro who wants a shortcut to everything gets his comeuppance.” What themes did you have in mind when you were laying this out?

I think you nailed it. There’s something really funny to me about super advanced technology bumping up against clueless people. It’s something I had fun writing about in another story published in this fine publication called “Operation: Grapevine.”

Is there anything you’re working on that you’d like to talk about? What can our readers look forward to seeing from you in the future?

I’m always cooking up ideas for short stories, and just finished a couple of directing projects. For anyone interested in nature vs. nurture themes, I invite you to check out a short SF film I wrote and co-directed called “Let Me In.” It’s available to watch for free on the streaming network Bloodstream at this link: bit.ly/4wmj6TC.