Stories, schemes & occasional good sense

I write about people, problems, and the machinery between them.

I’m John D Hatch—novelist, recovering businessman, and cheerful investigator of what humans do when reality stops cooperating.

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Artificial intelligence Imperfect humans Money without nonsense Reality behaving badly

On the shelf

Choose your particular trouble.

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Cover of The Gary Problem
01

Speculative fiction

The Gary Problem

Gary has a problem. Unfortunately, the problem may be Gary—and reality is getting tired of the argument.

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Cover of The Kessler Instance
02

A novel

The Kessler Instance

A disembodied mind, an imperfect life, and a question technology can’t answer: what makes a person worth saving?

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Cover of How to Get Rich by Not Being Stupid
03

Practical nonfiction

How to Get Rich by Not Being Stupid

A short, plainspoken guide to money, patience, and avoiding the expensive mistakes everyone insists on making.

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JH

From the desk

Writing is mostly fixing things you were quite proud of yesterday.

Notes on stories, publishing experiments, useful discoveries, and the occasional elegant disaster.

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“There were no wasted words. There was love. There was humor. Mystery, action, heroes and villains—and plenty of shades of gray.”

— A very kind early reader, who is nevertheless related to me