Why I Wanted to Be an Entomologist When I Was Five

The Inspiration Behind Burning Salt​

People occasionally ask where the idea for Burning Salt came from. Like most stories, there isn’t a single answer. There were dozens of influences over the years, but one of the biggest started long before I ever thought about becoming a writer. When I was very young, well before I even started school, I had already decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be an entomologist. My mother has always enjoyed telling the story because she made a point of using proper vocabulary with me instead of talking down to me. So while most children answered “firefighter” or “astronaut” when adults asked what they wanted to be, I confidently answered, “An entomologist.” More often than not, the adult would look at my parents and ask, “Is that a real job?” My parents would smile and explain that I wanted to study insects.

That fascination stayed with me for years. There was certainly part of me that was just another little boy who loved bugs, but it went beyond that. I was fascinated by how different insects could be from us while still solving many of the same problems. They built societies, communicated, specialized, defended themselves, and adapted to environments that would kill us. The more I learned, the more I realized that intelligence and complexity didn’t have to look anything like humanity. As I got older, practicality began to creep in. I had a difficult time imagining what a career studying insects might actually look like, while computers were becoming an increasingly obvious path. My interests gradually shifted toward programming and information technology, eventually leading to the career I’ve spent most of my adult life building. That didn’t mean biology disappeared.

When I attended Western Kentucky University, I actually began as a computer science major before switching into biology after taking a class I thoroughly enjoyed. My degree ultimately emphasized molecular genetics, and I spent much of my time studying genes, proteins, bacteria, and cellular biology. One of the last courses I took before graduating was entomology. Ironically, it wasn’t one of my better classes. I still remember another student joking, “D stands for diploma.” I found myself repeating that line more than once.

After graduation, I returned to IT. In hindsight, it was probably the right decision. My undergraduate years were respectable, but hardly exceptional, and the opportunities in technology were both more immediate and more practical. Years later, I found my way back to graduate school through information technology instead. This time I performed considerably better, earning my master’s degree and eventually continuing into my doctorate. Looking back, I realize I never really abandoned my interest in biology. I simply found a different career while carrying that curiosity with me. That curiosity eventually found its way into Burning Salt.

One of the questions I kept coming back to while developing the novel was how an intelligent civilization might perceive the universe differently than we do. Not simply because it looked different, but because it evolved under different pressures, developed different instincts, and asked different questions. Many of those thought experiments began with ideas that had fascinated me since childhood while watching insects go about their lives. The novel doesn’t attempt to recreate insect behavior, but my years of wondering how another form of life might experience the world undoubtedly shaped many of the ideas that eventually found their way into its pages.

That lifelong interest even influenced the design of the printed editions. I’ve always preferred that a new chapter begin on the right-hand page, but I never liked leaving the preceding page completely blank. Instead, I filled many of those spaces with Victorian-inspired scientific plates created from insect photographs I’ve taken over the years. A few began as public domain images that I reworked to match the style, but most are my own photography. If you happen to pick up a print copy, you’ll know those illustrations aren’t random decorations. They’re a small tribute to the curiosity that first inspired the story.

Looking back, I don’t think Burning Salt really began when I opened a blank document and started writing. It probably began decades earlier with a little kid who thought insects were the most fascinating things on Earth.

Matthew West-James​

Author & Founder

West-James Press

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