Greetings!
I hope this finds you all well.
I mentioned in a recent newsletter that I had published a draft of a short story, Tomato A, 2035, on Medium. It’s a story that takes place in 2035 when Bethany Edwards stops by her favourite market stall to buy tomatoes. But they’re not just any tomatoes – they’re the ones that changed the world.
The idea of publishing the story in draft form was to get feedback from a range of people and it’s been a really interesting process! And because it’s a draft I’ve been able to update it, including adding in some artwork I created to bring the piece to life a little more (the banner image of this newsletter is a drawing I made for the story).
I chose Medium because it’s free and it’s easy to leave comments either throughout and/or at the end of a piece. You do need to sign in to comment or to “clap” (Medium’s version of “liking” a piece), but you don’t need to sign in if you just want to read it.
Anyway I thought I would share a bit of the feedback in case it inspires you to have a look and maybe even to share some feedback of your own.
What people are saying about Tomato A, 2035
“Brilliant speculative/strategic fiction (in which, among other things, the stock market is composted in 2029). Read how a tomato changed the world!”
– tweet from Judith Schwartz,
author of The Reindeer Chronicles and more
“What a delicious piece of co-creation. Keep at it!!!”
– email from Rev Dele,
Designing resilience for soil and souls
“ Tomato A, 2035. An excellent first crack at climate fiction – and a truly inspiring and plausible vision – from the one and only @BLorraineSmith. I particularly like the idea of ‘composting capital markets’. Well worth a read or listen! ”
– tweet from Dr. Geoff Kendall,
Co-founder and CEO of the Future-Fit Foundation
“[…] the word that really came to mind after reading this amazing piece (which I’ll need to re-read many times!) is ‘genius’ but then I thought - then she’ll feel she’s arrived and will have nothing else to do! More seriously - wow, this is an amazing piece of writing Lorraine!”
– LinkedIn comment from Jean-Louis Robadey,
Principle at Impact Consulting Group
“I’ve finished reviewing you story. Some small grammar/typos but not much else from my perspective. I liked it even better the second time around.”
– Denise Smith, hawk-eyed proofreader;
also, my mom
I’m hopeful folks will feel inclined to mark it up publicly for anyone to see their input, to generate more ideas. Maybe some of you will even take pieces from the story and run with them wherever you think the story should go, versus where I took it. The possibilities are infinite.
More importantly, I’m hopeful this story sparks ideas in other ways that contribute to a better future. All of the plot elements – from urban compost networks to algorithmic democracy – are based on the seeds of real actions happening today. What would it look like for these seeds to take hold and grow into the norm? I don’t know, but I sure do like to think about it.
Yours in connectedness,
Lorraine
