The 3000 character limit here gives me a little more breathing room for posts, and I assume I can raise it, if I really want to.

So here's a little brief #introduction and #history for #LunaticsTV

The #story idea goes back to some discussions between 1999 and 2002, between my wife and I, based largely on International Space Development Conferences (ISDC -- an event, paradoxically sponsored by the National Space Society in the USA).

The notion was essentially: how would an extraterrestrial settlement actually look, given that the make-up would probably be mostly space enthusiasts and advocates, like the people who make up the attendance at #ISDC and similar events? "Moon-crazy moon people", you might say (and yes, we are among those people, ourselves).

My wife has been an aspiring fiction writer since I've known her and a prolific fan-fiction writer for a long time now. I've also been a writer, but mostly of non-fiction. I've also studied science, engineering, astronautics, and so on over the years, so while I'm not exactly competent to do any of those jobs, and I am more than competent to write about them and invent reasonably plausible fictional solutions, based on the real-world ones I read about (most of the tech in "Lunatics!" is real, ranging from real (fictionalized, sometimes) hardware, to stuff that people are just playing with in the laboratory at this point, but which looks promising to me).

Much of the "conflict" in the story stems from the collision of physical and social/psychological realism, and that's about as #ScienceFiction as you can get!

We floated character ideas, starting with pretty broad parody, which eventually toned down to more plausible and realistic characters. The characters gradually acquired names and we pinned down some of the facts of the story, but for a long time, we had no idea what we might do with this idea: would it become a book? A comic? An animated show (Ha! Now THAT seemed like shooting for the Moon)?

So the idea was mostly just a personal thing between us for at least a decade. Almost a joke. But it simmered in the backs of our imaginations.

That's one thread of its origins...