Being human is given; but keeping our humanity is a choice.
– Moumita Das
The duality of the current state of humanity.
But Is It Home is a story that I wanted to serve as a reminder of the current state of humanity. Of course, I didn’t want to be too cliche about the topic. In the end, though, I wanted to focus on my hometown of Philadelphia as it’s one of the oldest municipalities in the United States. Hindsight being what it is, I did what I normally do and put a little bit of me in my short without me realizing it.
Anyway, I took the first day writing out the pros and cons of the topic towards the state of humanity. I mainly focused on the things that I really care about and constantly exposed to. For example, the ongoing problem with employment and homelessness is a big problem in Philadelphia as it seeps through all of its citizens in some way, shape, or form. I normally have to deal with homeless beggars who try to gaslight you into giving them money. My reaction is a quite “No” or a punch to their jaw.
So, this story is basically a callback to my beloved city while also putting it under a magnifying glass. But, I wanted to make the story more interesting. That’s why I put aliens in there. Not just any aliens – my own creation. The type that I know I’m going to reuse in a later publication. Furthermore, I wanted there to be a pressing need to gently push the story along.
Speaking of aliens, don’t be surprised if you see – or father read about – them later on down the line. They are all my creation, of course, and I’m testing them before my friend and I put them in their rightful story and universe. But they also serve as outsiders looking in on the humans. I don’t know I came across this idea but I do know that it worked quite well and made it very easy to write. Also, make the primary character LGBTQ+ was a last-minute choice but worked out, nonetheless. Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.
You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.
You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.
