Robert Turtle

I turned to writing ecological science fiction after helping design and build remote sensing instruments used to monitor environmental changes on earth from space. Thinking about the way the lives of animals are constrained by their environment fired my imagination. The characters in my novels were chosen partly in reaction to William Blake's aphorism "The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction," and I wondered what it would be like if animals felt remorse. Nama and Westwind's reflections are akin to those described by Mary Austin in her short story "The Walking Woman."