Author's Statement

Second Pass , first in a 9-book series, introduces characters and families who are the foundation for a society that grows out of a NASA project. I have tried to create a world small enough to show that personal actions on a very small level have a direct affect on society at large, no matter how big or small that society is. I particularly want to speak to young people who stand in line to inherit the world, to encourage them that they are a driving force for change and creation, not just helplessly hanging on to a world-gone-mad, doomed to suffer insignificance and impotence in view of the care of mother Earth and we, her children, the human race.

Action and plot in Second Pass are designed to feel real, as if one could live on SIL. The website ( http://www.2ndpass.com ) gives details on the original crew, research materials and background to enhance the reality. Ben Love designed the visual aspects of SIL, which will eventually be on the website. As the series continues, the website will grow.

It is important we think that what we do, matters. The state of an art is the sum of presentations in the world at a given moment. So it is with the art of living. Every day we learn something, create something, or wonder about something, we elevate the state of the art of living.

Spirituality is a major player on SIL. Quantum mechanics has proved some mystical concepts, and is finding that there is a web of life. We are not separate, abandoned, cut off. With Second Pass and the SIL novel series, I bring those ideas to the front of the mind.

As for the science in SIL, I did six years of research, troubleshooting each aspect of this off-planet world. I have tried to create a plausibility that withstands deep scrutiny, though there are artistic inventions that propel the story. In the end, SIL is a possible world, one in which the individual can see and feel the results of actions and inactions on the rest. Let us be reminded that our lives have a value, a divinity, beyond our normal view of ourselves. Welcome to the world of SIL, where you matter very much.