A Postcard From Brian Reindel and Devon Field
Part 3 | Getting to know the authors featured in "Take Me There"
Take Me There: A Speculative Anthology of Travel is a collection of short stories featuring characters on the move. Whether transcending to a higher plane of existence, exploring dangerous forests, or terraforming hostile planets, this collection has it all.
Learn more from the authors in our anthology in this week’s interview series!
Distant Shores by Brian Reindel
A Sci-Fi story set on a distant, harsh planet. Thomas Cordoza has been reconstituted in a new, specialized body and toils away under corporate management. He dreams of a past life, yet he’s not allowed to dream. If corporate finds out, his contract will be terminated, he will be terminated. Brian Reindel takes us on an unforgettable, emotionally-charged journey about the power of dreaming of a better future and how our memories help form who we are in the present.
The Lonely Passage by Devon Field
A Sci-Fi story taking place on a mysterious ship traveling to an undisclosed location. Our protagonist glimpses pieces of a past life that drive him on, while something else in his mind forces him to travel about the ship day in and day out. He doesn’t know what compels him onward, but it may have something to do with the other passengers, something on the cusp of awareness he can’t quite explain. Devon Field has us explore a thought-provoking sci-fi mystery, with a surprising conclusion that will leave a long-lasting impression.
What is your favorite aspect of your story? What inspired you to write it?
Brian Reindel: Conflict in modern science fiction is often missing the hopeful counterbalance we need as a society. I want to change that. Even stories I’m reading now from Ray Bradbury, written forty years ago, rarely end with the reader feeling good or riding a high. While a few scenes from my story are tragic and sad, what I wrote will leave the reader satisfied, rooting for the protagonist, with an eye on a more positive future. I can’t remember what ultimately inspired this story. There’s some nugget of truth inside my cranium that needed examination under a fictional lens.
Devon Field: I can’t remember what first inspired the larger idea, but my favourite aspects of the story are the details, the little phrases, or images. I was really pleased with how they turned out.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Devon Field: Torn between a few possibilities here—there’s a particular spot for sunsets on Gabriola Island, for example, or a particular bakery in Copenhagen—but I’ll say Tokyo. Spent some time there a number of years ago and would love to get to know it better.
Brian Reindel: Japan. A coworker recently returned from a trip and shared his photos, and our Substack friend in fiction, Bill Adler, will occasionally post photos from his travels. I think Bill does it just to make me jealous. The ancient Japanese aesthetic is peaceful, and modern visuals in city signs, package design, manga, anime, toys and games are so blissful.
Would you travel to the setting of your story? Why or why not?
Brian Reindel: What do you mean, I already traveled there!?! Okay, seriously, if it existed in reality, would I travel there? That would be a solid “no.” I don’t want to give too much away, but the planet on which my protagonist works is not a friendly environment. It’s in the early stages of terraforming, for reasons I’ll leave unknown, but that means it’s a dangerous place to live. Paradise is elsewhere. I want to share more… I guess everyone will have to wait until it’s released.
Devon Field: Only if I could leave when I wanted to. It's not necessarily somewhere I’d want to be stuck.
You get 24 hours to live in any fictional world/universe. Which one is it?
Devon Field: Think it has to be Hayao Miyazaki’s: beauty, magic, wonder, incredibly appealing food… living in animation!
Brian Reindel: Wow, that’s a tough and fun question. It would be a tossup between Star Wars and Bladerunner, but ultimately, I think Bladerunner would win because Star Wars has too many choices of where to travel. Although, zipping through Endor on my speeder, and sitting down for a meal with Ewoks sounds amazing. The book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and the subsequent movie paints a picture that borders on dystopian, but there is also a sense of vast opportunity in Bladerunner. I enjoy when there is a mixture of architecture that merges Art Deco and techno futurism, an attempt to pacify a populace with visions of simpler times. For that matter, I could also live in Rapture from the BioShock franchise.
If you only had eight words to describe your story, what would they be?
Devon Field: Desolate, beauty, memory, loss, longing, meaning, distance, space.
Brian Reindel: Planet, Android, Dream, Paradise, Love, Loss, Catastrophe, Hope.
Describe your writing style and what readers can expect from you in the future.
Brian Reindel: It is character-driven, plain, and simple. I dig deep into people’s emotions, logic, and purpose. I want to know what they’ll do when thrown into a difficult situation, a nearly inescapable struggle. There’s science in my science fiction short story, and it’s a deep space narrative, but it’s not a space opera. You’re going to get to know the protagonist intimately. It’s also written in first-person present tense. That provides the reader with a sense of immediacy that I love. I’m continuing to write fantasy and science fiction short stories in the future. I’ll publish my second short story collection this year, attempting to get it into libraries and bookstores as opposed to an Amazon exclusive.
Devon Field: I always struggle to describe my own writing, but as for the second part, I’m currently working on a near-future novel that is very loosely inspired by medieval travel narratives and the letter of Prester John, so hopefully you’ll be able to read that at some point!
How has travel informed or influenced your writing?
Brian Reindel: Travel has not, but environments -- the final destination -- are my most significant inspiration. I’m alive when I’m transported to fictional places, and I can drink them in and bask in the ambience. Most of that has come from movies, but books are capable of the same. If you’re able to describe an inviting place for me to exist in or even one that I can realize instantly inside my head, then that’s very powerful. Universal Studios and Disney are built off the whole premise of escapism, and a major component is dropping visitors inside worlds with contrasting aesthetics, avoiding modern appearances. That gets my imagination running wild.
Devon Field: I’ve been researching medieval travel for my podcast for a number of years now, and even though I mostly write fiction that has absolutely nothing to with medieval history, I find that the framework of travel—of wandering, exploring, or the quest into the unknown—often slips in there!
Describe your all-time favorite vacation or holiday trip. Tell us what made it so special.
Brian Reindel: That would be my honeymoon and five-year anniversary trips to Universal Studios and Hollywood Studios with my wife. Our favorite ride was definitely The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Being there with my new bride obviously added to the excitement, but it was a carefree time in our life, the world an open book of possibilities. Vacations now with the kids are still fun, but they’re also a reminder we’re not so young anymore.
What would you tell your readers before being launched in an exploratory spacecraft?
Brian Reindel: Hold on to your butts.
Devon Field: I don’t mean to be mean about this, but it’s an incredible mess down there.
About the Authors
Brian Reindel - MI, USA
Brian Reindel graduated with a journalism degree more years ago than he cares to admit. He taught himself to code during the dot-com boom and abandoned dreams of reporting on crime in the seedy underbelly of Detroit. Brian is back to the writing life, crafting fantasy and science fiction short stories through his newsletter “Future Thief.” He self-published his first book through Amazon in 2023, a collection of short stories titled “The Stars Will Fall,” which is available on Kindle and in paperback. Brian is married to his wife of 20 years and has two teenage children.
Devon Field - BC, CAN
Devon Field lives in Vancouver, BC, where he writes and podcasts. His fiction has appeared in Write Ahead/The Future Looms, The Sprawl Mag, and Twilight Histories, and his non-fiction in Medieval Magazine and The Public Domain Review, with an article forthcoming in Atlas Obscura. He hosts the history podcast Human Circus: Journeys in the Medieval World and writes about Philip K Dick, and sci-fi more generally, at Other Android Dreams.
Thanks for going on this journey with us. We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into a couple of the stories in our upcoming anthology. Feel free to participate by answering some of the questions in the comments below!
Take Me There: A Speculative Anthology of Travel
Embark on a journey across the realms of genre with "Take Me There: A Speculative Anthology of Travel," a specially curated anthology of 24 stories from emerging, visionary indie authors from around the world. Each tale is a gateway into the human experience, a portal leading readers into new and undiscovered territory. From interplanetary space travel to the deep recesses of the mind, this collection takes readers on adventures spanning time and space and everything in between.
Featuring stories by
Brian Reindel, Brylle Gaviola, Christopher Deliso, Clarice Sanchez Meneses, C.R. Langille, Daniel W. Davison, Devon Field, Galia Ignatius, H. A. Titus, Iris Shaw, J.M. Elliott, Jack Massa, James Castor, Joe Gold, LB Waltz, M.S. Arthadian, Melissa Rose Rogers, Olivia St. Lewis, Pamela Urfer, Randall Hayes, Shaina Read, Shannon Aaron Stephens, Victor D. Sandiego, Winston Malone
I'm appreciating the scope of Take Me There more and more! So excited for this sci-fi in space :D I love the hopefulness that "Distant Shores" already promises--I super agree with Brian Reindel that modern science fiction is missing hopefulness, and I'm so excited to see what he'll do with his concept of 'illegal dreaming'. And from the looks of it, Devon Field is approaching the them of hope as well from another angle--what keeps you going after you've forgotten what drove you (even on a mysterious ship going to who-knows-where). Super looking forward to reading!