Growing up in Westport, Max Rudin was fortunate to have excellent teachers. Some sparked his interest in science. Others taught him to write.
Their work paid off. Max recently published his first book. “A Truly Dead Rock (The Solar System Century)” imagines life 82 years from now, when the moon has been colonized — and residents want to become independent.
Writing a book is a fantastic achievement. That’s especially true for Max.
He’s only a sophomore in high school.
Max Rudin
He credits Coleytown Elementary School teacher Edward Wolf and Coleytown Middle School’s Keenen Grace for encouraging his passion. At CMS, Max was part of the Science Olympiad team.
Last year, as a Staples High School freshman, English instructor Heather Colletti-Houde taught him how to delve into texts. “So I didn’t just write a story,” he explains. “I really delved into the theme.”
Max began writing around Christmastime 2018. It took him nearly a year — and 7 drafts — before he finished. He published via Amazon on Thanksgiving.
His research included arcane topics like lunar geography. “I had to plan a realistic route they would take, from the moon’s north pole to south pole,” Max explains. He also had to study nuclear fusion.
As for the writing process, Max says he learned about “putting myself in the minds of my characters. I had to see myself on the moon, and how I’d venture across it.”
He’s marketed his book via his YouTube channel — another outlet for Max’s science interests. “Gravity Max” began when he was 10. Every week, he and his friend Sebastian Malino share their love of astronomy, astrophysics, math and sci-fi.
Feedback to “A Truly Dead Rock” has been good, Max says. Readers appreciate both the hard science, and the plot that is “grounded in reality.”
Max — who is now a sophomore at Pineview in Sarasota, Florida, where his parents moved — is already working on a sequel.
Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke: Move over!
(To order “A Truly Dead Rock,” click here.)
