As best I can remember, I thought at some point, “Wouldn’t it be cool to write a Lovecraftian police procedural?” and it was all downhill from there.

Lovecraft’s dexterous blending of science fiction and horror was certainly an inspiration for this story, but I can’t claim to produce anything near his level of cosmic dread.

As for the grittiness of the setting, all you have to do is look to our own world to see the growing gap between the rich and poor.

There are very few stories about older people in our field, or any other, for that matter. Most of the time, older people show up as disapproving parents or other authority figures.

I think writers should write what they know—but if they don’t know it, they need to learn it. And that includes all the sciences.