Next steps?

[Sarah Francis]

Hi! I’m a 28 year old writer (though not published yet) and have been interested in slime mould ever since my mum took me to her biology class when I was four years old and we learned about it. I wrote an essay about what slime mould represents in a more conceptual and artistic sense towards the end of my degree in Nonfiction - and someone from this forum was kind enough to send me a sample while I was working on that project. Heather Barnett is such an inspiration to me and I want to return to my roots and continue writing about what slime mould represents in science, arts, and ethics. With discussions of consciousness and biological computers resurfacing with the current prolificacy of AI, it feels increasingly relevant. I touched on something similar in my essay back in the day, which I want to elaborate on because I think there’s something important to learn here. I was hoping to touch base with people who have studied slime mould in a more concrete way. I don’t think I can reasonably write the longform piece that I want to write by myself since (despite this decades-long hyperfixation) my background is in writing and editing, not science or mycology. If anyone has any resources, I would love to read them. If anyone has any opinions, I would love to chat. I don’t know if anything will come of what I’m writing because, as much as it was my degree, I work in a different field now and have never tried to be published. I just think there’s something important to be said here that nobody is saying and I would like to give it my best shot.