Finishing The Moonshot Saga: Earthbound

Hello! My name is Austin Moon. I am a teen author currently residing in Potomac, Maryland. My most meaningful activity to me has been writing and self-publishing a novel called “The Moonshot Saga: Earthbound”. I began this passion project in November of 2022. At the time, I was interested in space exploration and after writing the first 20 pages for the competition, I wanted to continue writing because I loved the story and added topics I was interested in like hypothetical Dyson Swarm megastructures, superionic ice, nanoparticles, and Von Neumann Universal Constructors. As a first-time novelist, I faced countless challenges. I also came to understand how difficult revising and editing was.

With time, writing the novel became an activity to relax and pour my heart into. I was also able to combine another newfound passion of mine: AI Art. After a trip to the Arte Museum, an immersive media art exhibition in South Korea over the summer, I was inspired to create and incorporate AI-generated images to enhance the novel. Editing the novel after I finished my first draft was the most difficult task. Reading each sentence out loud was exhausting. It means so much to me that people get to read what I have been working on for so long.

Having completed my novel, I've gained a deeper appreciation for the books I've read. I now see their captivating and unique plots in a different sense, trying to understand how those authors meticulously planned their novels and foreshadowed plot points from the very beginning chapters of each novel.