My short story, ‘Dear Lord, Protect This Rocket House’ has been on display at Mounted Gallery in the Blue Mountains this past month, paired with (and inspired by) this fascinating painting from Australian artist @paulrmallam. The exhibition paired writers and visual artists, and was a real delight to take part in.
Along with taking its inspiration from Paul Mallam’s original work, this flash fiction draws on the true story of self-taught rocket scientist Mike Hughes. A sixty-year-old limo driver from California, Hughes believes the Earth is ‘shaped like a frisbee’. In 2018, he launched himself into the sky above the Mojave Desert, reaching 560 km/hour before crashing back down a mere half-kilometre from his launch ramp. Describing his rocket, he said: ‘This thing wants to kill you ten different ways.’ Thirteenth-century Christian lore describes angels relocating the House of Our Lady of Nazareth first to Croatia, then Italy, and perhaps those same angels kept Hughes alive on that day. His constructed reality, a mishmash of religion and science, and his niche celebrity, epitomise our current zeitgeist.
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