Kurt Vonnegut said, “we’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive.” I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling VERY alive.

I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few years about the future. Sometimes I worry. I’ve got two kids, a quarter century apart. Hedging my bets for the future? Maybe. I vacillate between cautious optimism and reckless freakouts. So at least I know I’m alive. But I think about the future, for my wife and myself, for our oldish daughter and our youngish son, and try to check the balances.

So why this book series, and why now?

70 years ago, a villain exterminated millions of people, and the heroes who stopped him dropped atomic bombs on millions of other people. Well, we don’t kill each other in the millions any more, so I can say things have gotten better — a little better, anyway. Enough that I can hope that in the next 70 years, my children will live in a world where people can learn how to live together and do what’s right. Perhaps that’s why I wrote these books.

That and the fact that I have one hell of a commute.

bus