The Future is Not New Meet the Author: Grant Bailie by Leana Donofrio-Milovan

When Grant Bailie was a kid he had a set of science encyclopedias that predicted the future. It was a future full of magical new inventions and far away worlds. Everything was going to be shiny, different and new. The problem is they were wrong.

“I remember according to those encyclopedias I was supposed to be driving a flying car and living in a colony on the moon by now,” Bailie said.

Out of those wayward predictions, however, a small seed of inspiration grew and his new book was born. Meet Bailie when he presents this new novel “Tomorrowland” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Lakewood Public Library in the Main Library Auditorium.

A book about the future and new worlds would seem, to most, to be Science Fiction. Not necessarily so, says Bailie. “I like to consider my books less Science Fiction and more Abstract Fiction. I like the elements in Sci-Fi mostly for their unreal or magical or dream-like qualities. But maybe I am just kidding myself. Maybe all Science Fiction writers tell themselves these things so people don’t think, oh, one of those writers, and picture broad-chested men brandishing ray guns. The important thing to remember is that in reading my books you will walk away with absolutely no new or useful scientific knowledge.”

All sarcasm aside, “TomorrowLand” is proving to be more than just another Sci-Fi novel. Bailie posted a truly intriguing and poignant portrait of his book online. At first glance it seems awfully long, but Lakewood Public Library was so impressed by his description nestled appropriately in the virtual world that they ran it word for word in the Library program guide.

“Hello. This is the future. See our spaceships. See our moving sidewalks and silent cars. See our tallest, shiniest building and the bright blue sky that teeters upon its point. Walk in our quiet parks and observe the pretty, handsome people, the brightly colored birds living happily in cages built or evolved right into the trees. So much seems to have changed over the years, and yet at certain angles, under certain lights, this world might look the same as it did a decade or a century ago. We seldom tear down and build up from scratch completely. There is always the refurbished, the recreated, the renewed. And away from the city, in other neighborhoods, on other planets, it will forever be the style to live in old-fashioned homes, with wrought iron fences, lampposts and all the trappings of what we imagine to be a more innocent time. Our vehicles (Metal or plastic? Three wheels or four?) might give us away, but we tuck them neatly behind the antiqued wooden doors of garages made to look like carriage houses. And really, our cars and clothes are not so different as you might imagine. Styles change and change back again. Technology advances but then hides itself. People themselves do not evolve (no larger foreheads or telepathic powers, I am sorry to tell you) and if it were to all fall apart tomorrow it would not be long before witches would be burned at the stake again and some randomly selected race or class run out of town on a rail. But it will not all fall apart tomorrow. We will go bravely forward, making new discoveries, inventing new things, then hiding them all behind the wood paneling, the fake bookcase, a plastic shrub.”

Bailie wants readers to come away with the same things he wants when reading a book: “…to share some new and entertaining and possibly even enlightening dream with the author. John Cheever described literature as the highest form of communication between intelligent adults and I like that idea. That sounds like the sort of conversation I want to be a part of.”

Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

This free event will be held in the Lakewood Public Library Main Auditorium at 15425 Detroit Avenue. Visit lakewoodpubliclibrary.com/literary for more events. No registration is needed.  Call (216) 226-8275 ext. 127 for more information.