Once you've imagined a world that vividly, you can't quite let it go
In the same week that NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made history above the Martian surface, a North Bay resident named Bruce Totman quietly achieved his own kind of liftoff — releasing his debut science-fiction novel, RIFTED, after twelve years of interrupted effort. The coincidence of these two events, one planetary and one deeply personal, speaks to the enduring conversation between human imagination and human achievement. It is a reminder that the dreams which sustain great exploration are often first rehearsed in the quiet rooms of ordinary lives.
- After twelve years of starts, stops, and life getting in the way, Bruce Totman finally brought his debut novel RIFTED into the world on April 16 through iUniverse Publishers.
- The release landed just three days before NASA's Ingenuity helicopter completed the first-ever powered flight on another planet — a real-world milestone that science fiction has long imagined.
- Totman's journey through procrastination, work demands, and family obligations mirrors the struggle of countless writers working outside the traditional publishing world.
- By choosing a self-publishing platform, Totman bypassed the gatekeepers of major houses and found a path to readers that simply didn't exist when he first put words to page in 2009.
- RIFTED now exists — a completed thing, available to be read — and that quiet fact is its own form of triumph in a world that rarely pauses to notice such milestones.
On April 19, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter lifted off the Martian surface for thirty-nine seconds — the first aircraft ever to fly on another planet. When the signal finally crossed 178 million miles of space, the control room erupted. It was the kind of moment that makes belief in the possible feel reasonable.
Three days earlier, North Bay resident Bruce Totman had his own quieter launch. His debut science-fiction novel, RIFTED, went on sale through iUniverse Publishers on April 16 — the culmination of twelve years of work that was never quite continuous. He began writing in 2009, but procrastination, work, and family obligations kept pulling him away. The manuscript waited, unfinished, through long stretches of ordinary life.
For writers who live inside science fiction, real space exploration and imagined worlds have always existed in dialogue. NASA's helicopter is a genuine marvel, but the genre has been dreaming far beyond it for centuries — alien civilizations, parallel time streams, architectures of worlds never seen. Totman's novel arrives into a moment when that conversation feels unusually alive.
The road from first draft to published book is rarely clean, especially outside traditional publishing. iUniverse gave Totman a path to readers without the gatekeeping of major houses — a different landscape than the one he started in, more open but more crowded. Still, for someone who carried this story for over a decade, the mechanism matters far less than the outcome. The book exists. It can be read. And that, in its own modest way, is everything.
On April 19, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter lifted off the Martian surface and hung in the thin red sky for thirty-nine seconds—the first aircraft ever to fly on another planet. The data took three hours to travel the 178 million miles back to Earth, but when it arrived, the control room erupted. It was the kind of moment that makes you believe in the possible, the kind of moment that reminds you why people dream about other worlds.
Bruce Totman, a North Bay resident, has spent the better part of a decade dreaming exactly that way. On April 16—just three days before NASA's Mars triumph—his debut science-fiction novel, RIFTED, went on sale through iUniverse Publishers. The book represents twelve years of work, though not twelve years of continuous effort. Totman began writing in 2009, but life intervened the way it does: procrastination, work demands, family obligations, the simple weight of existing in the world. The manuscript sat unfinished for stretches, gathering dust while he attended to other things.
For people like Totman who live inside science fiction, the real world's space achievements and the imagined worlds of fiction exist in conversation with each other. NASA's helicopter on Mars is remarkable engineering, yes—but it's also tame compared to what the genre has been exploring for centuries. Distant planets teeming with extraterrestrial life, ancient civilizations existing in parallel time streams, the architecture of worlds we've never seen—these are the territories that have captivated science-fiction readers and writers since long before we had the technology to actually reach another planet.
Totman's RIFTED emerges into a moment when that conversation between real and imagined space exploration feels particularly alive. The timing is almost too perfect: a local author finally releasing a work that has lived in his mind and on his hard drive for over a decade, arriving just as humanity achieves something that would have seemed purely fictional not so long ago. It's the kind of coincidence that feels like it means something, even if it doesn't.
The path from first draft to published book is rarely straightforward, especially for writers working outside the traditional publishing apparatus. Totman chose iUniverse, a self-publishing platform that has made it possible for writers to reach readers without the gatekeeping of major houses. It's a different world than it was in 2009 when he started—more accessible in some ways, more crowded in others. But for someone who has carried a story in his head for this long, the mechanism of publication matters less than the fact of it. The book exists now. It can be read.
What RIFTED contains—what worlds it builds, what questions it asks—remains to be discovered by readers. But the fact of its existence speaks to something worth noting: that ordinary people in ordinary places keep working on extraordinary things, even when life makes it hard, even when years pass between writing sessions. Totman's twelve-year journey from blank page to published novel is its own kind of small triumph, the kind that doesn't make headlines but happens quietly in homes across the country every day.
Citações Notáveis
Totman set the manuscript aside for years due to procrastination, work, family, and life in general— Bruce Totman
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What drew you to science fiction in the first place, back when you started writing RIFTED in 2009?
I think it's the freedom of it—the chance to ask 'what if' without being bound by what we know to be true right now. Real space exploration is incredible, but fiction lets you go further, faster, into stranger territory.
Twelve years is a long time to carry a story. What kept you coming back to it?
Honestly, there were stretches where I didn't come back. Life gets in the way. But the story was always there, waiting. Once you've imagined a world that vividly, you can't quite let it go.
The timing of your publication—three days before NASA flew a helicopter on Mars—feels almost orchestrated. Did that feel significant to you?
It felt like the universe had a sense of humor. Here I am finally releasing a science-fiction novel, and real-world space exploration is doing something that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. It's a reminder that imagination and reality are closer than we think.
Self-publishing through iUniverse is very different from traditional publishing. How did you land on that choice?
It was practical. I'd spent twelve years on this book. I wasn't going to spend another five trying to convince an agent it was worth their time. iUniverse let me move forward.
What do you hope readers take from RIFTED?
That's the question every writer asks themselves. I hope they find the same thing I found in writing it—a world worth spending time in, questions worth thinking about, the sense that there's more out there than what we can see.