Starbase 118 Welcomes Peter Watts

As a part of our ongoing Writing Improvement Month project, the staff of Starbase 118 are proud to welcome award-winning author Peter Watts. Mr. Watts is the author of the Hugo Award-nominated novel Blindsight, which explores the question: what should be done when we hear talk from aliens who don’t know we’re listening to them?
Two months ago, without warning, several objects crashed to earth from orbit. An investigation revealed that those objects provided an answer to something humans had wondered since the dawn of astronomy. Are we alone? The answer is no.
So if these really are alien artifacts, how did they end up here? Unfortunately, there’s very little in the way of answers. That is, until an old space probe picks up what appears to be communications coming from a passing comet. There’s no doubt that someone out there is talking. The catch is that they aren’t talking to us, and they don’t know we’re listening in. That leaves us with one question: Who do you send to meet with a group of aliens who may not want to be met? Blindsight tells the sotry of that decision, and what happens when they do.
Watts, a native of Canada, Published his first short story A Niche in 1990, and has since published 16 short stories, five novels and garnered numerous awards and nominations. His 2009 story, The Island, won the 2010 Hugo Award for best novelette. His novel, Blindsight was nominated for Best Novel at the 2007 Hugo Awards, as well as several nominations for several other awards.
Watts recently made a number of his works available for free on his own website through Creative Commons license. He credits this decision for rescuing many of his works, including Blindsight from relative obscurity and exposing it to a wider audience that may not have been exposed to it otherwise. One of Watts’ upcoming works, Echopraxia, is a para-quel, telling the story of what is happening back on Earth during the events of Blindsight.
The staff of Starbase 118 would like to welcome and thank Mr. Watts for taking the time to share his experience with us. You can thank him by checking out Blindsight, or any of his other works, available on amazon.com
Be sure to check out what Mr. Watts has to offer in the way of plot development, via video chat, on Tuesday February 26th (1pm PST/4pm EST/9pm GMT/Wednesday AM for Australia)!