Stephen C. Curro hails from Windsor, Colorado.  His short fiction and poetry has appeared in Swords and Sorcery Magazine, Scifaikuest, and Daily Science Fiction, among other venues. He is also the author of the sci-fi novelette, The Spark, which is available through Hiraeth Publishing. In addition to speculative fiction and poetry, Stephen writes educational materials for the nonprofit Taproot Guru in the hopes that people will be inspired to protect nature. When he isn't writing, he works as a high school paraprofessional. When he isn't working, he enjoys scuba diving and plotting to trick his dad into watching The Lord of the Rings. You can keep up with his shenanigans at stephenccurro.com.

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Science fiction often imagines what the future will be like. Common sci-fi tropes illustrate a generation's hopes and fears, but I think that the reverse is also true in that people begin to assume the future will turn out a certain way if they repeatedly see it in their books and movies. Over the last few years, there has been a significant uptick in stories that present a future in which the planet was devastated by human activity. Many of those stories are well-written and enjoyable, but it's concerning to see this at a time when the world is at a crossroads where we'll get our act together and fight environmental degradation, or risk ruining it all.

I started “The Faceless Enemy” as a fun sci-fi romp exploring space travel and ransomware, but it was heavily influenced by my frustration with 'doomsday talk'. I wanted to show a future where even though things aren't perfect, we managed to solve many of our problems on Earth and beyond. We need to start thinking with the attitude that we can and will make things better, because it's the first step to actually save the world. I have hope that we'll overcome the challenges ahead; indeed our collective heritage is filled with triumph over adversity.