Jacob Baugher — an interview with the author of New Beginnings
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So I’m of two minds for how this story resolves… on the one hand there’s the “this home, this timeline is where the heart is” on the other, our protagonist feeling incomplete almost feels like a subconscious regret of jumping. Where do you stand on this?
For me, this ending became a parallel to both mental illness and the constant wear of working for a job that doesn’t care about you. We sort of lie to ourselves constantly in regards to our work. “If I just get the promotion, I’ll be happy.” “If I just land the agent, I’ll feel complete.” “If I just get on the NYT bestseller list, It’ll all be worth it.” “If I just accomplish [the goal], I will be [who I’m supposed to be].” It’s a false choice, but I have no sage wisdom about overcoming the cultural lie.
Over the pandemic I opened up to my PCP about some struggles I was having. I told him “Sometimes I wish I would get COVID so I could spend two weeks in the hospital and no one would bother me.”
He pretty much threw anti-deppressants down my throat before I was finished speaking, but he said something at the end of the appointment that really stuck with me. I asked him if he’s seen an uptick of depression in patients since the pandemic and he chuckled and said something along the lines of “It was before the pandemic. Look at how we’re expected to live…”
There’s a whole book in there about how labor exploitation feeds mental illness, but I’m not exactly qualified to write it.
If you were given the seed in that situation, would you have jumped?
If I signed a predatory work contract that took me away from my wife and kids for years on end, then lost them anyway in a divorce and I was offered a chance to go back and make a different choice by an interdimensional being? Yeah, I’d probably jump and take my chances.
One thing I’m curious about is this idea of the “last galaxy seed” – does that mean we are in the final timeline?
No, just that corporate development has exploited nearly everything. The in-world explanation is that this SF Universe operates under the assumption of Black Hole Cosmology – that our entire universe and everything in it exists inside a supermassive black hole – and that inside every black hole’s singularity there is another entire universe and timeline. So the galaxy seed is more like the stuff to populate the void inside Herald’s new singularity universe that he created when he pressed the silver button in the story.
Are we to assume all of the jumpers were given a similar seed or were they really just trying to end it?
When I conceived of the story, it was a mix of the two. I left the predatory contract they all signed a bit too subtle in the final draft of the story.
What is it that you think would drive someone to give up 20 years with their significant other and kid in exchange for a cushy retirement?
I mean, I think people give up a lot just for a cushy retirement anyway. The nice thing about Sci-Fi is that people are willing to suspend disbelief even when pushed to extremes. But look at how our current world operates. We’re expected to work 8-12hrs a day, sometimes more than that. We’re expected to sacrifice our health, marriages, hopes, and dreams, just to scratch out a living on this Earth. At the end of it, most of us will probably die in debt with many regrets and leave nothing for our children.
On a personal note, my father used to work for a corporate office realtor. He was once pulled into the CEO’s office and told that he needed to work harder. The CEO told him that he’d sacrificed two marriages to his business and that he would expect my father to do the same.
Greed is a powerful motivator. I think many people forget that billionaires and major shareholders are not on our side. If they could get rid of us, they would, which is what they’re attempting to do with A.I…
America especially is due for a labor rights revival, and it needs to come soon.
Do you ever feel like our protagonist? Incomplete, like maybe you were up in the stars in another timeline?
I think we all do at times.
How many times has this story been rejected by other markets?
At least 30 times. I originally wrote this piece for Apex Flash Fiction Contest’s Vacuum Cleaner theme. I switched submission managers last year and not everything carried over. This story racked up a staggering number of personal rejections. I’m glad it finally found a home here.
What’s a great short story you’ve read recently?
I just finished up editing Flash Fiction Online’s Paranormal Noir anthology. All of the stories there are great reads (though I chose them so I’m biased). Otherwise, I want to highlight Parker O’Neill’s work. I don’t think I’ve read a story of his that I haven’t absolutely loved.
What book are you reading right now?
Right now I’m in the throes of an R&R for (hopefully) my future literary agent. Between that, life, and two kids, and reading for FFO’s slush, my leisure reading has ground to a halt. Earlier this year I loved Joe Abercrombie’s new book “The Devils” and I currently have every intention to read “Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism” by Peter Marshall, which is currently on my desk.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
There’s a thousand things I’d like to share: Free Palestine; fuck A.I.; deFlock America; please for the love of God give me more political parties and also pay me more; your local librarians aren’t trying to turn your kids gay, they’re just trying to make everyone feel included. LGBT books are free speech, not an attack on your religion; remove pineapple from pizza; there is a difference between analytical and generative A.I. – one finds cancer, the other is the evil one – please stop conflating the two; our entire healthcare system is exploitative and needs to be reformed; infinite scroll is poop from a butt; If you use A.I. to write for you and then you lie about it you are also poop from a butt; please stop screaming in children’s faces during youth soccer practices you are not a professional soccer coach you are an embarrassment to men and having a mantrum. Go to therapy so you can address your big feelings I can’t believe we need to “Ms. Rachel” men in 2026.
There’s more but that about sums it up at this exact moment.