Hallo, Space Mission recruit!¹ I hope you’re enjoying a most happy post-Thanksgiving and a merry Christmas season!

Got time for a quick story?

Once upon a time, a tall and very homeschooled teenage lad saw a space hero printed on a pizza box.

And he took certain notions.

Update: I found the box artwork! Thank you, The Star Wars Collector Archive!

He was participating in a family vacation, possibly in Tennessee or Florida. Someone had delivered pizza to the family RV. And on this pizza box was printed a certain prequel franchise space hero, looking rather like some classic illustrations of Jesus, all robed and bearded and such (but with a lightsaber).

That’s when this teenage homeschooled student came up with a brilliant and original thought:

Say, he wondered. What if there was an adventure story set in space—but, you know, about Christians?

Plot Twist 1: That teenage lad of whom I speak? Well, that was me.

Months later, my first handwritten manuscript was a jolly hot mess.

Plot Twist 2: To create sci-fi, you must read and watch other people’s sci-fi, with or without Christian heroes.

I needed to spend the next 25-some-odd years actually learning to love the genre, with all its classic humanism, strange new views of religion, and genuine celebrations of Christian-like heroes—all rolled into the messy mix of popular culture.

Meanwhile, I learned to type those manuscripts, starting on my eighteenth birthday when my parents gave me my first laptop computer. That primitive doorstopper barely lasted a year, but helped initiate that second rough draft. And a third draft was likeunto the second. And a fourth draft was likeunto …

Over the next few decades, off and on, I had to learn Plot Twist 3, more challenging than the first two:

Stories are like spaceships. They need many failed launches, tests, and rebuilds before they soar.

And in the good Author’s providential plotting, stories may only launch when the window is just right.

Some years later, after a big move and job changes, this novel entered its final stages of reformation.

Now, in just three months, you will get to hold the Above the Circle of Earth hardcover in your hands.

Or listen to the unabridged, pro-narrated audiobook on your mobile device.

Or download the digital copy to your e-reader apps.

• ACE on Amazon
• ACE at Barnes and Noble
• ACE for 20 percent off from Enclave!
• ACE on Goodreads

In this season after Thanksgiving and during Advent, I’m beyond grateful you’ve chosen to sign up for The Space Mission. Now that we’ve entered this quarter before March 2025, you will start seeing more messages from me here! Watch this space (as well as my social media @EStephenBurnett) for special giveaways plus news as well as sci-fi trivia and beyond.

I may even finally write up that “here’s how even younger Stephen decided he was going to be an entertainment mogul by licensing his stuffed-animal universe” backstory!

Or I might risk pondering the intricacies of potential Martian calendars (yes, plural).

Or else I shall publicly hope that SpaceX doesn’t send me a great big old invoice for the incredible job they’ve done marketing rocket ships and future Martian settlements especially during these past months.

Meanwhile, if perchance your church, school, or reading/writing group would like to host a burgeoning author of close-to-home sci-fi featuring Christian missionary heroes in spaceships … just let me know!

I’ll bring the pizza.

Godspeed and #GoTherefore!

Stephen