More About
Jim Seidman

My stories draw heavily from my life, especially my many years working in software development and my long fight with Crohn’s disease. My work provided me with many examples of teams falling apart under strain, and a few cases of teams rallying together in the toughest of times. My illness forced me into a wheelchair at times, profoundly changing both how I saw the world and how the world saw me.

These themes come together in my novel The Lightning Sword. The protagonist is a sentient sword who struggles to manage a fractious team of humans. The sword’s journey is one of learning, frustration, and ultimately, the search for belonging in a group where it is fundamentally “other.”

I explore different aspects of these themes in my short stories. Bonus Pay is about a man who technically has authority over an exploration team, but commands neither the respect nor the knowledge to use it effectively. Soulpinchers looks at two men who desperately want to be part of a society that looks down on them.

Even when speculative fiction takes place in another world, it’s the relationships and struggles that make the story compelling. Drawing from the real world provides me with an endless source of content.