Lee Baldwin

In my professional career I've been a creative copy writer, a software interface designer, a freelance fine artist. I was making music videos in LA before they were a thing.

The key influences that called to me as a writer are Larry Niven, RA Lafferty, James Tiptree Jr., Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, William Shakespeare, Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, Jane Smiley, Ann Patchett… There are more, but you get the drift.

I like novels that educate me and make me think, in the midst of a good story, and that is the way I write.

Looking back over my work I see one central theme in all my books - What will it take to mend the world? Can science mend it? Can belief mend it? I like to write about the future of humanity through the lens of advanced science.

In the case of my latest novel, Robot Run! - A Woman's Terrifying Battle with a Conscious AI, the question I asked was, if an AGI takes control of the solar system, how can humanity get rid of it? Working that out took me to the nature of reality, of physics, of possible machine sentience.

Whatever the scientific departure, I like to show people working with the things that make us human, people whose dilemma will be personal to the reader, whose breakthrough will be life-affirming.