The Asteroid That’s Making Us Look Up
When fiction meets reality…
Rajiv Montgomery Noah, the visionary (or madman, depending on who you ask) from my upcoming novel When The Trees All Burned, predicted earth’s undoing through what he called a “trinity of destruction: sky, earth, and man.” Well, reality just got unnervingly close to fiction.
NASA recently announced that an asteroid dubbed 2024 YR4 has a 1-in-43 chance of hitting Earth in 2032. While not quite the civilization-ender that Rajiv warns about in my book, this “city-killer” could release energy equivalent to 500 Hiroshima bombs.
It’s enough to make you wonder — what if Rajiv isn’t as crazy as his critics claim? What if, like the scientists in Adam McKay’s Don't Look Up (minus the Leonardo DiCaprio charm, of course), he sees something the rest of us are choosing to ignore?
The timing is uncanny. Just as my novel heads to print, featuring a character who believes in impending astronomical doom, NASA upgrades a very real asteroid’s threat level. 2024 YR4 now sits at Level 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale — high enough that “attention by public and public officials is merited.”
Of course, this isn’t a marketing stunt. I wish I had that kind of pull with NASA! But it does highlight why stories like Rajiv’s matter. Sometimes fiction helps us process reality’s scarier possibilities.
When The Trees All Burned isn't about fearmongering — it’s about how humans face existential threats. Do we look up or look away? Do we come together or fall apart?
While NASA assures us that most Level 3 asteroids get downgraded to Level 0, it’s worth considering what Rajiv would say: “Hope is not about believing disaster won’t come; it’s about believing we’re worth saving when it does.”
Want to explore more? Pre-order When The Trees All Burned now. After all, if Rajiv is right, you might want to read it before 2032.
When The Trees All Burned releases April 2025.
BOOK TRIVIA: Within When The Trees All Burned…
NASA is mentioned three times
The International Space Station shows up four times
And we spend a tense and heartbreaking moment at the Kennedy Space Station
