Small Gods of Time Travel

Small Gods of Time Travel is the title of my latest novel and the Tezos NFT collection associated with it. This is a science fiction story told in 40 chapters. The artwork associated with each chapter was produced from the chapter's title text by NightCafe's artificial intelligence tool at a resolution of 800px x 800px. The above image was produced by plugging the book's title into the AI. The book is every bit as psychedelic as this picture. Below is a preview of the 40 chapter images.

This isn't the first NFT book I've made. But the particulars of its creation were a first for me. Along with the unique art, each NFT includes a link to an html page on IPFS where the book is presented. Doing it this way makes it technically possible for people to read a chapter without buying an NFT, but the book's story has already been posted in draft form here on my Hive blog, so I'm not too worried about that.

In the story, a man travels back in time to the day before 9/11. Once there, he meets up with his younger self. Together, using information and technology from the future, they try to improve society. Their most ambitious goal is changing the outcome of the US 2016 Democratic Primary. Along the way, powerful future technology falls into the wrong hands, with unexpected results.

All of the other NFT books I've seen so far link to pdf files. I chose to present the book as an html document instead, because this is a friendlier format across devices. Doing it this way made it possible to reliably include links in the text. Each chapter contains 2-5 links to media reports from relevant eras, except for the last chapter, which includes no links.

Underneath the book's main plot, these links tell their own story. Most point to news reports about corruption and conspiracies. Many can be found in the news archive of WantToKnow.info, a site I've been contributing to since 2014. I went through thousands of stories in the archive to find the best stuff to include in the novel. Several of the links lead directly to WantToKnow.info pages.

While 9/11 is a major theme in Small Gods of Time Travel, the work explores other subjects as well. Emerging technology. Issues of power and class. The nature of consciousness. Subjects like these are considered largely through dialog that you don't have to think too hard about. The writing is breezy and sparse, in keeping with the tone of my other novels.

It will take me an unknown length of time to actually mint all of the NFTs in this collection. Having never minted anything on Tezos before, my understanding of the process is still theoretical. Yesterday, I bought a couple hundred dollars worth of Tezos for the minting. Hopefully that will be enough.

My books are in print. They're on Amazon and the Google Play store. Of course they should be on the blockchain, too. I love the look and feel of Objkt, the main Tezos NFT marketplace. And Tezos uses almost no energy compared with proof-of-work blockchains like Ethereum.

My plan is to mint 60 of each NFT. Are there collectors ambitious enough to collect a complete set? There might be. Initial pricing of the assets will be affordable, though Tezos might still be too obscure a blockchain for some tastes.

Overall, I'm thrilled with the way that this project is coming together. The book is great, the art is interesting, and figuring out how to present the work effectively has created a million fun little puzzles for me to solve.

UPDATE: Minting went smoothly and the total cost ended up being just a few dollars.

Read my novels:

• The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.