The Phobias series started with Martha.
Not with a plot, not with a theme, not with a message I wanted to deliver. With a character: a teacher who is afraid of people. Not shy. Not introverted. Genuinely, clinically afraid — and yet drawn to teaching anyway, because she believes in it, because she thinks the fear is something to be overcome rather than accommodated.
The Question Behind the Book
I spent years watching technology change the way people relate to each other. Not in the dramatic, science-fiction way — not robots replacing humans, not AI taking over. In the quieter, more insidious way: the way a screen mediates every interaction, the way we've built systems that reward performance over presence, the way we've made it easier to connect with strangers than with the people in the same room.
Martha is a character who sees that clearly — and is still afraid. Her fear isn't irrational. It's a reasonable response to a world that has made human contact both more available and more fraught than it's ever been.
The Phobias series isn't about phobias as clinical conditions. It's about the fears that make sense — the ones that are trying to tell you something true.
Plastivore / Plastiphobia
The second book in the series came from a different fear: the fear of what we've done to the physical world. The microbe that eats plastic started as a thought experiment — what would it actually take to solve the plastic crisis? — and became something darker when I started following the logic of it.
What happens to a world where synthetic materials stop being reliable? What happens to the people who built their lives around those materials?
What's Next for the Series
I'm not ready to announce the next Phobias book yet. But the series isn't finished. The fears aren't finished.