Every journey begins with a question.

Mine began many years ago, not as a writer, but as an engineer.

Over a career spanning more than four decades, I have worked as a mechanic, engineering consultant, General Manager, and entrepreneur across the automotive, mining, aviation, and heavy engineering industries. Engineering taught me something that has shaped every part of my life:

The more complex the system became, the more important it was to understand how all the parts worked together rather than simply accepting the obvious answer.

Over time, that same curiosity expanded beyond engineering into history, philosophy, comparative religion, symbolism, consciousness, and the nature of reality itself. Rather than seeing science and spirituality as opposing ideas, I became fascinated by the possibility that they describe different aspects of the same underlying architecture.

That lifelong journey eventually became Flat Earth Machine.

Despite its provocative title, the novel is not about convincing readers what to believe. It is an invitation to step into the shoes of the Witness and explore familiar ideas from a different perspective through the lens of speculative fiction.

Whether you finish the story convinced, unconvinced, or somewhere in between is entirely your decision.

If the novel encourages you to ask one better question than you did before you opened the first page, then it has achieved its purpose.