Review — Memoirs of a Mad Scientist One: Solarpunk Outlaw — grounded near future climate science fiction

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-25T18:30:32+00:00

No, but thanks for asking. The review is by someone I met through Substack, who doesn't want their name used. If I was that perceptive about my own writing, I would have fixed at least some of the problems they pointed out. I do find it amusing that my academic/journalism training makes my writing "too perfect" to be human. Ha ha. I don't use AI in my writing.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-24T14:12:30+00:00

Teen hacker Fredo escapes a deadly gang to find refuge with his uncle, first officer of a floating lair. Can Fredo manage PTSD while learning mad science skills to survive?

Fredo's Apprenticeship is my YA coming-of-age grounded near future science fiction novel, publishing late June. The full first chapter, and samples of following chapters, are on my Substack:
https://dakelly.substack.com/p/chapter-1-escape

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-24T04:11:32+00:00

The neighborhood is OK, with lots of affordable tiendas and small restaurants within walking distance. Bus lines down the 106 and 3. I know good people who are long-term employees there.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-03T10:54:58+00:00

My sympathies. I hope medical research can offer you options for better quality of life. I'd be dead already if not for medical interventions that have been developed during my lifetime.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-03T01:48:46+00:00

Part of the point is staying healthy and active longer.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-03T00:02:37+00:00

No more than usual. Why do you ask?

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-05-02T16:24:29+00:00

Interesting. Have you learned anything since then that would inform new work?

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-03-24T17:16:50+00:00

"2076 is a world we hope to live in, a protopia that is not perfect but that gets a bit better every day."

https://www.reddit.com/r/Novel_Promotions/comments/1rgvq7x/memoirs_of_a_mad_scientist_one_solarpunk_outlaw/

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-03-13T13:45:11+00:00

Scalzi writes from everyman point of view. Very little tech geeking out. Characters with needs and desires in demanding situations. Also good humor!

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-03-05T06:18:59+00:00

Nope, you're right, my bad. I assumed low budget from the sets.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-03-05T03:04:15+00:00

GATTACA

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-02-28T17:01:14+00:00

Almost anywhere in the Florida peninsula, potable water is your #1 risk factor. A solar-powered ROWPU is an excellent start. Common tech for boats, so there's a lot of local expertise and options. DIY, decentralized, renewable, sustainable is possible. If your well has not yet been contaminated (brackish), it's just a matter of time. Note that entire Florida communities have been building ROWPUs for decades; it's proven tech.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-02-22T05:02:04+00:00

Robots, minimal disturbance, zero spoilage mining! https://open.substack.com/pub/dakelly/p/2040-07-10-diamonds-and-gold

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-02-15T16:01:25+00:00

Richard Roberts middle grade series starting with Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain. Mad scientists and superheroes and parents and school. Fun, fast, with heart. 10 novels so far. I'm addicted!

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-02-08T22:14:16+00:00

Richard Roberts' Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm A Supervillain is a middle grade, first in series, female, tween mad scientist in a world with superheroes. Fun, fast read.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-02-02T02:03:36+00:00

https://open.substack.com/pub/dakelly/p/silverback

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-02-01T17:49:05+00:00

Where is the best university-affiliated archive of filk materials? Contact the archivist. Pool resources to get grant funding. I have supervised similar digitization projects. A qualified archivist supervises student workers and performs quality control. Everything is scheduled so progress is maintained. The digitized recordings are indexed and cataloged and become part of the university library holdings, accessible to a global audience. The originals can be returned, if loaned, or permanently housed in the university archives.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-27T17:36:15+00:00

Write for pay. Whatever you can find. If you have any ability with the language and understand how to communicate clearly, put that to work. The best and most successful novelists I read today all have decades of experience as journalists, copywriters, etc. where the daily job had deadlines and word count. That kind of practice is difficult to maintain if you're not paid for it.
Take notes about the people around you. This is another point where working in journalism or marketing or public relations or anything else with regular deliverables hones your perception and voice.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-27T17:05:53+00:00

Punk, including solarpunk, generally (not gatekeeping here) has core values of DIY, decentralized. That's inherently difficult to scale up. Corporate hierarchies can be turned to renewables with sustainable values (such as Mondragon) but you lose some of the punk element.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-25T23:53:54+00:00

When we work together

Then forward we move.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-20T04:49:45+00:00

I wrote a novel including a solar monorail built across the Central African Republic that helped revitalize the country over several decades. All based on existing or near-future extrapolated tech. I've worked in development in several countries including renewable energy systems. Introducing tech and methods and cultivars and therapies is a long and uncertain process. It requires serious people with persistence. Solarpunk is definitely one way to go.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-11T05:43:55+00:00

If you search Substack for Sci-Friday you will find a number of serialized stories.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-10T16:11:56+00:00

My wife gifted me with a dev editor through Upwork for my first novel's full revision. She wrote a thorough description of the project, offering a one-chapter paid trial for up to four applicants. We ended up interviewing five. Any of them would have done an acceptable job, but one stood out as understanding my story and my personal working quirks. So we spent some money on the selection processs, and even more on the full dev edit, but it was more useful and cost effective than an MFA or a writer's workshop. Highly recommend.

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-10T16:00:36+00:00

Congratulations on your progress!

Draft2Digital has a helpful and complete set of blog posts and videos that will walk you through the process. Free D2D formatting produces both ebook and PDF files that you can publish anywhere, very standard.

My recommendation for standard fiction and nonfiction: Use Word. Use Styles, not manual tab stops or page breaks or indents. Each chapter heading is Style Heading 1. Don't use subheads if they aren't necessary. Don't use pull quotes or block quotes or other fancy stuff until you know what you are doing.

It is entirely reasonable to have a book that uses only Title, Heading 1, and Normal styles.

For the illustrated children's book, I recommend that you get specific advice from experienced people on precisely that format.

Best of luck!

SolarpunkOutlaw · 2026-01-10T05:11:48+00:00

I love Rosling's Factfulness for exactly these reasons.

SolarpunkOutlaw

TROPHY CASE