In this episode of Connection Happens, I sit down with author and former tech industry analyst Rachel Dines, who writes as R. A. Dines, for a wide-ranging conversation about reinvention, writing for kids, publishing, space exploration, and what happens when science fiction starts feeling a little too much like real life.

Rachel spent two decades working across big tech and startups before leaving that world to write full time. We talk about what that transition did to her creatively and personally, the difference between building things for clients and creating work that feels truly your own, and why books offer a kind of permanence that product launches never could.

We also dig into her debut middle-grade novel, How I Hacked the Moon, including the decision to build the book and its launch with the polish of a traditional Big Five release. Rachel shares how her background in product marketing shaped her approach to branding, audience, rejection, and the surprisingly useful thick skin required to put creative work into the world.

From there, the conversation gets bigger. We talk about the emotional pull of space exploration, the future of technology, corporate influence over human experience, and why Rachel finds some current developments in AI less exciting than unsettling.

A recurring theme throughout the episode is what we choose to preserve as the world changes: creativity, curiosity, independence, the ability to take risks, and the parts of ourselves that shouldn’t be optimized away.

It’s a conversation that moves from the moon to the very real questions hiding inside the futures we imagine.