I may just do that, I have read a million books, my earliest was John D McDonald, Alistar Mclaine, all the great sci fi classics and on through the years Clive Cussler,John Ringo, James Rollins and of course our local author Matt Bracken.
Alternate history is my favorite, like what would have happened if Obama took the place of Lincoln after he had him assisnated and then the USA became the most powerful socialist Empire on Earth, and the Russians wer the ones who fought so bravely to to defeat America for Life, Liberty and Freedom....
sorry, its my imagination.
Brainstorming is good. The recorder catches things you are not even fully aware of. Then you have something to work off of. It sounds like your areas of interest might lend themselves to short stories. “Ender’s Game” is a classic short story that was later built up into several books (although I prefer the original short). The point is, you actually get your teeth into it while you are doing something else.
Doubling up on productive time is good. I wish you well with it!