Adventures in Droneland is a short-story collection that explores not only themes of privacy and security, but also the often invisible process of losing. Books such as Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, each delve into the implications of loss in a dystopian future. With Adventures in Droneland, I elucidate the process of this loss—that of our rights, our privacy, our humanity. As with most losses, we rarely realize that we are losing these aspects of our lives as the loss occurs; we turn around and only then wonder, “What happened?” The process is imperceptible to most, and those who do draw attention to this slow disappearance are often branded “kooks.”

Many of the stories in the beginning of the collection deal with the denial of the implications of drone program. These initial stories have the drone surveillance program as only a background, as characters deal with losing other things, such as family. “The First Day” takes place on the first day of the drone program but tells the story of Angelina, a woman who is dealing with losing her young son on his first day of school. As the collection progresses, characters must deal with loss as it relates to the drone program more directly, such as in “Black Bags and Other Gadgets,” which tells the story of a drone operator discovering the personal cost of putting blinders on during changing times.

In writing these stories, and focusing on governmental surveillance in the context of the drone program, I was also struck by how much we continuously watch each other, and how that affects our privacy. Near the beginning of the collection, “People Watching, Manhattan-Bound R Train, September 24, 2028” is a series of vignettes of people watching one another on the subway. Later in the collection, “Grief, In Tandem” develops the theme by telling, from the perspective of neighbors and friends, of a mother’s entering the funeral parlor where her son is laid out.

Sometimes the conclusion of a story is a fait accompli; the important aspect is not the ending but the journey to that ending. And it is on that journey when we learn about ourselves. Whether surveillance drones or domestic spying through data surveillance, we must consider what it is we are losing in our efforts to ensure our safety. Through the stories in Adventures in Droneland, I hope readers will begin to look around and see the beginning of a dangerous journey that is still avoidable. Please help me bring these stories to others by supporting this crowdfunding campaign.

(I’m blogging at DronelandNow.com and sharing some of the research and news I’ve collected while writing the book. I called the blog "Droneland Now" because much of what’s happening now are the first steps toward creating the reality I’m cautioning against in the book.)

Background photo credit, and a great degree of gratitude, to the very talented Sarah Nibley.