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THOUGHTFUL
REALISM-BASED
HUMAN
SCI FI
It’s hopepunk
NOT military sci fi, alien invasion, space opera, macho individualism, violence worship, or time travel. NO “AI” writing.
(I register copyright for my books before publishing them.
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My kind of reader:
- is an adult, new adult, or precocious young adult
- enjoys convention-breaking stories / literary sci fi
- enjoyed "The Expanse", "Don't Look Up", "Speaker for the Dead", "Arrival", "Infomocracy", "Project Hail Mary", and/or "Delta-V"
- tries to think globally and objectively, and appreciates diversity and challenging the status quo
- seeks ways to find non-magical hope in the face of this world's challenges
- has a natural curiosity about the real world, including why we think the way we do
- perhaps is neurodivergent, or knows the immigrant experience or marginalized experience
- appreciates the proper use of language, and doesn't mind occasionally looking up new words
What I do:
- ↑ global characters (usually more than one focus character)
- ↑ irreverent/subversive social commentary
- ↑ thought-provoking, emotionally impactful stories
- ↑ realism as a default
What I DON’T do:
- ↓ write-to-trend
- ↓ a status quo world unaffected by humanity’s mistakes
- ↓ white-male-American-centric focus characters
- ↓ gratuitous violence or macho individualism
- ↓ use AI for a single word of my fiction
(If you relate to the “My Kind of Reader” section, and the Do/Don’t list, stay in touch through my periodic newsletter!)
Looks like your average white guy, but isn’t…
Required headshot
(Photo by Henok.T Photography)
Some ‘Lower Decks’ sarcastic Vulcan salutes for you
(Photo by Henok.T Photography)
X.HoYen and the superhero named Myopia have never been seen in the same place at the same time. Coincidence?
X. Ho Yen, BS MS MS, member SFWA and ALLi, is an East Prussian-Cuban-Chinese human raised by Kwai Chang Caine on the planet Vulcan. He’s been writing and creating forever, rocket science day job notwithstanding, and is on the autism spectrum (diagnosed). He’s been a new person since 2007 when he broke a lifelong Complex PTSD from childhood.
Before his two+ decades in aerospace engineering, he was a sandwich maker, security guard, deliverer of flowers, preschool teacher, data processing grunt, taxi driver, and independent software author.
He’s been in the air (PPL, glider ticket), out to sea (research vessel out of San Diego acquiring atmospheric data), deep underground (Carlsbad Caverns and other public access caves), and in high mountain winter whiteout (atmospheric data collection atop a mountain at Steamboat Springs, CO).
He wants to continue the trend of humanizing and de-militarizing realism-based sci fi, and does not write stories with white, male, American main characters. Sorry, but they’re overrepresented already.
He was moved by Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, impressed by Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, re-energized by Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet" series, and further inspired by James S.A. Corey's "The Expanse" series, Andy Weir's books, Malka Older’s ‘Infomocracy’, and Emily St. John Mandel. He is a great fan of Carl Sagan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (aka James S.A. Corey) say it’s a good idea to have a pseudonym if you intend to write in more than one genre. That makes sense.
Everything in this bio is true except the part about being raised on Vulcan—that was poetic license. But X. Ho Yen is a pen name for Rich Hogen (yawn!).
