I sat down with Sarah Marshall, author of Playa Dust in My Soul, former Silicon Valley operative, and longtime Burning Man attendee, to talk about turning an uncategorisable real-world experience into a novel that feels like a fully realised world.

We unpack what Burning Man actually is (Black Rock Desert, Nevada, dust storms and all), why Sarah says ten people will give ten different versions of the same event, and how the festival’s principles function like world rules. Two big ones: gifting and participation.

We also dig into Sarah’s craft choices, including a smart structural move: seven perspectives, each arriving at different stages as the city builds from empty desert to a thriving temporary metropolis. The result is worldbuilding-by-experience, not encyclopaedia-by-info-dump.

Under the spectacle, the real theme is human: belonging, identity, and what happens when a place forces you to confront the stories you tell about yourself.

Discussion here: https://richardsonsrubicon.com/community/season-5-speculative-fiction-where-worlds-meet/writing-a-real-place-like-a-speculative-world-rules-constraints-and-point-of-view/

Episode page: https://richardsonsrubicon.com/sarah-marshall-playa-dust-in-my-soul-worldbuilding-burning-man/

Sarah's site: https://www.playadustinmysoul.com/