Rebecca Among the Stars

There’s something I keep coming back to when I write: no matter how far into the future we imagine ourselves, we still carry the old wisdom with us. That’s the heart of Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume IV . This collection brings together science fiction stories inspired by whakataukī — proverbs that hold history, warning, humour, patience, and truth. I wanted to write stories that reached into the future without losing touch with the things that matter most now: kindness, accountability, community, memory, and the choices we make when life gets difficult. These stories wander through strange worlds, failing systems, quiet acts of courage, and moments of unexpected connection. Some are tender. Some are sharp around the edges. Some have a bit of mischief in them, because honestly, even in the middle of danger or grief, people still find ways to be gloriously human.   What I love most about this collection is the way the whakataukī sit beneath the stories like roots und...

Juggling is a wonderful pastime. At least, I assume it is wonderful for people who can actually do it. There must be something deeply satisfying about keeping several balls moving smoothly through the air, each one rising, falling, and returning to the hand at exactly the right moment. Done well, it looks almost effortless. Life, unfortunately, is very fond of adding extra balls when you are already concentrating. Writing can feel like that too. There are the stories themselves, which are demanding enough on their own. Characters require attention. Plots need untangling. Worlds have to be built, broken, repaired, and occasionally told to stop misbehaving in public. Then there is everything that comes with putting the writing out into the world. My Blogger page needs care. My Facebook pages need posts. X needs something short, sharp, and preferably not written while I am halfway through making dinner. The videos need creating. The images need choosing. The words that go with...

 Let's take a Look at My Short Stories and Wonders Where They All Came From Short stories are sneaky little things. They do not arrive with trumpets. They do not knock politely at the door and say, “Excuse me, Rebecca, I am about to become part of a much larger problem.” No. They creep in sideways. They appear in notebooks, in computer folders, in half-named documents, on scraps of paper, and sometimes in the middle of making a cup of tea when I had absolutely no intention of writing anything at all. Mine did not just multiply. They formed a colony. At this point, I have written fifteen books of short stories, each one holding sixteen stories. That is 240 stories gathered into books, which sounds wonderfully organised until you remember there are still others wandering about the place like sheep that have found a gap in the fence. Some stories became books. Some became blog posts in their own right. Some were too short to fit comfortably into a collection, but too alive...

Across the Black, Old Wisdom Still Burns There is a particular sort of madness in writing one book. Writing five is either ambition, stubbornness, or an overdeveloped relationship with cups of tea. In my case, probably all three. I am delighted to share the release of the full five-book series, Whakataukī Beyond the Black — a collection of short science fiction stories guided by Māori proverbs and sent drifting, arguing, glowing, and occasionally muttering through the stars. This series began with one question that would not leave me alone: What happens when old wisdom travels into the future? Not as decoration. Not as something politely placed at the front of a story and forgotten. But as a living thing. A warning. A lamp. A challenge. A hand on the shoulder. A sharp little voice in the dark asking whether humanity has actually learned anything yet. Across the five books, Māori proverbs are carried into strange futures filled with colony worlds, red moons, buried machin...