About Hopepunks and Tricksters Media Publishing

Hello,

I'm Tom Wood, and I'm the author of the Hopepunks set of novels - coming soon! I'm also an architect, designer, maker, and futurist enthusiast. I know my way through a set of plans and onto a construction site, particularly the areas that create and serve the high-tech environment. It's not a 'cloud' because it really is concrete!

The Hopepunks novels are near-future science fiction stories with flying jetbikes, virtual reality, and perilous games with young teams and crazed villains who get thrown together in thrilling adventures with a crafty AI, cool tech, and lots of fun for the young adult in everyone!

If you enjoy stories with virtual worlds like Ready Player One (Ernest Cline), Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson), and Warcross (Marie Lu), then the Hopepunks novels may be for you!

There are several novels planned, but it may be a while to publication.

When I set out to write these stories, I had a goal to make them not-grimdark because I think there's too much of that in the world already. My stories contain many of the cyberpunk tropes, but are not as pessimistic as that overall genre. I recently became aware of hopepunk, so I'm trying it on for size.

What is hopepunk? The term was originally coined by Alexandra Rowland in her Tumblr blog here: The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on. For a roundup, this is a good place to review: festiveninja - Hopepunk: Articles, Resources and Recordings

I read a lot of different genres, mostly science fiction and related pop-technology material.

The discussion about the benefits and threats of artificial intelligence is an area of particular interest to me. As an architect, the idea of the 'smart city' is both intriguing and terrifying.

I follow the progress of the virtual/augmented/mixed reality industry and look forward to new modes of storytelling. I recently upgraded to an Oculus Quest, so that's an ongoing adventure. I use LightWave 3D to make animations for social media.

Tron, Blade Runner, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and the original Star Wars are early inspirations. I admire Pixar and Disney's strength in animated storytelling.

I lived in Austin, Texas for most of my life, but I currently live in Washington, DC. I am writing the Hopepunks novels because I like to read/watch fun fast-moving stories that are hopeful about the future. I hope you do too.

Tricksters Media Publishing is the name of my independent publishing company.

There is a link to the 'Contact us' form in the site footer.

Thank you for visiting!

Tom