First Update of 2026

I realize I was going to try to put something in here weekly, or at least somewhat regularly, but I realized blog posting with no real updates is like being one of those people that schedules meetings for the sake of scheduling meetings. Nobody likes a meeting that could've been an email.

So I figured I'd wait until we had something to report here. The second draft of Sunny Lake is done and awaiting some feedback from some test readers. It's definitely better than the first draft and also almost certainly still not very good, but we're moving in the right direction. Thanks to all the folks that volunteered to read it and give me feedback.

While I'm waiting on that, I've started working on something new. Basic premise is as follows:

• In 1859, there was a geomagnetic storm called the Carrington Event (after a British scientist) that was the strongest ever recorded, caused by a massive coronal mass ejection from the Sun.

• Back then, electronics were basically non-existent, but even then there were reports of telegraph machines exploding or catching on fire along with lights in the sky. The auroras (Borealis and Australis) were visible across almost the entire world for an extended period of time.

• The story tries to imagine what the world would look like after another Carrington-level event. While it's highly unlikely another CME of this magnitude would happen anytime soon, the combination of dwindling funds for space monitoring and the ever-increasing electrification of the entire country would make it catastrophic in current times.

• We're going to try to answer questions like:

  • What would happen if we continued on an isolationist geopolitical path and no foreign countries would help us when this happened?

  • Would population controls have to be implemented to ensure the stability of the few segments of grid that did survive?

  • Ultimately, would people choose security and comfort over the freedom to do what they wanted?

That's all for now. Hope 2026 is off to a great start for everybody!