What I've LEARNED WRITING, My PUBLISHED Stories, and LINKS To Online FICTION

 

PUBLISHED STORIES

• EMERALD OF EARTH March 2024
• STUPEFYING STORIES: March 24, 2024 "Feedback"
• Stupefying Stories: September 19, 2023 "Worlds At War"
• ANALOG SF Nov/Dec 2022 "Dinosaur Veterinarian"
• STUPEFYING STORIES, August 2021 "Doctor to the Undead"
• STUPEFYING STORIES Various Blog entries 2020-2024
• ANALOG SF Nov/Dec 2019 "Kamsahamnida, America"
• ANALOG SF Sept/Oct 2019 "Road Veterinarian"
• Nebula Tales Magazine -- Sept 2019 "Cockroach, Gecko..."
• ANALOG SF May/June 2019 "Robotic Space Killer..."
• Reprint of "Pigeon", SHORELINE OF INFINITY story April 2018
• STUPEFYING STORIES December "Bogfather"2017
• NANOISM February 2017
• ANALOG SF January/February 2017 "The Last Mayan Aristocrat"
• AURORA WOLF October 2016 "Carpe Hnub"
• DEVOLUTION Z January 2017 "Rolling Zombie Bones"
• THE MARTIAN WAVE September 2016 "Biking Mars"
• SciFutures Treatment March 2016
• CAST OF WONDERS November 2015 "Fairy Bones"
• SHORELINE OF INFINITY March 2016 "Pigeon"
• PERIHELION SF September 2015 "Prince of Blood and Spit"
• WORKING WRITER NEWSLETTER May/June 2015 "Learning Through Slushing"
• ANALOG SF, April 2015 "Whey Station"
• FIVE STARS -- Stupefying Stories "Best" of the Early Years August 2014
• SPACEPORTS AND SPIDERSILK January 2015 "I Need More Space!"
• PERIHELION SF July 2014 "612 See, 612 Do"
• PERIHELION SF November 2013 "A Woman's Place"
• STUPEFYING STORIES August 2013 "Oath"
• PERIHELION Science Fiction June 2013 "Invoking Fire"
• AURORA WOLF May 2013 "TechnoPred"
• CRICKET MAGAZINE FOR CHILDREN January 2013 "The Penguin Whisperer"
• SFWA Blog July 2012 "The Futures of YA SF"
• CAST OF WONDERS December 2011 "Peanutbutter & Jellyfish"
• HOPSCOTCH FOR GIRLS Aug/Sept 2011 "UBA Scientist!"
• TURTLE MAGAZINE Jan/Feb 2011 "Simple Science"
• AETHER AGE ANTHOLOGY November 2010 "Looking Down on Athena"
• STUPEFYING STORIES ANTHOLOGY September 2010 "Oath"
• STUPEFYING STORIES "Teaching Women To Fly" January 2010
• STORIES FOR CHILDREN (paper anthology), February 2009 Marcus and Eggplant Save Patokay""
• DRAGONS, KNIGHTS, AND ANGELS "The Baptism of Johnny Ferocious" April 2006
• THE WRITER (yeah, that one), March 2006 "A Matter of Time"
• ANALOG SF, October 2004 "Warning! Warning!"
• CICADA, January/February 2000, "Dear Hunter"
• CRICKET MAGAZINE FOR CHILDREN, July 2001 "Firestorm!"
• ANALOG SF, June 2000, "A Pig Tale"
• SIMPLE SCIENCE SERMONS FOR BIG AND LITTLE KIDS, CSS Publishing 1998
• CRICKET MAGAZINE November 1997 "Mystery on Space Station Courage" -- Nominated for Paul A Witty SS Award
• ANALOG SF, August 1996 "Absolute Limits"

LINKS TO ONLINE STORIES

• STUPEFYING STORIES "Feedback" March 30, 2024
• STUPEFYING STORIES "Worlds At War"
• "Doctor to the Undead" STUPEFYING STORIES, August 2021
• "Writing As a 9th Gendered Polyoriented Alien Wizard"
• "Prince of Blood and Spit" PEREHELION 2015
• "To Boldly Go..."
• "Oath" (reprise)
• "Writer's Constipation..."
• "The Penguin Whisperer" (page 7!)
• "Bogfather"
• "Nanoism" February 2017
• "Carpe Hnub", October 2016
• A REVIEW of "Fairy Bones" December 2015
• Technopred, May 2013
• Cast of Wonders -- Best of 2015
• "Fairy Bones" Nov 2015 CAST OF WONDERS
• AURORA WOLF May 2013 "TechnoPred"
• "Peanut Butter and Jellyfish" pt 1 at CAST OF WONDERS
• "Peanut Butter and Jellyfish" pt2 at CAST OF WONDERS
• My Rant Against YA Dystopian "Literature"
• "Oath" STUPEFYING STORIES
• "A Pig Tale" ANALOG, June 2000

WRITING ADVICE: Can I Use “Old” Ideas To Create New Stories? Aladdin, From A THOUSAND AND ONE ARABIAN NIGHTS (sort of...)

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year after THAT, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.

While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Today, I thought I’d say something all on my own, unsupported by my published or unpublishable works

My wife and I watched the live-action version of Disney’s “Aladdin”. The tale itself is old, NOT part of the original Arabic “One Thousand and One Nights” which was recorded in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age, and NOT “not being part of the original Arabic text. It was added to the collection in the 18th century by the Frenchman Antoine Galland, who acquired the tale from storyteller Hanna Diyab. Historians consider Diyab the original author of ‘Aladdin’, with the tale partly having been inspired by Diyab's own life.” The story has been done dozens of times in venues ranging from the original story written some time before 1688 and told by its author, Syrian Diyab; to a British pantomime in 1788; to a Canadian video game in 2016.

Aside from the fact that Will Smith is a hero of mine – for all his body of work, not just his speculative fiction parts (“Independence Day”, “Men In Black”, “Hancock”, “I Am Legend”, the pre-production “Gemini Man”, and “I, Robot”, even “The Legend of Bagger Vance” – “Ali” was great and I love “In Pursuit of Happyness”. At any rate, I remember hearing speculation about whether or not he could pull off a part automatically associated with the late Robin Williams – Genie.

I think he did, but that’s not where I’m really headed today.

After watching the movie, I commented to my wife that while Disney had managed to retain the magic of the cartoon version, they’d made a subtle change that I applauded even more: Jasmine went from a strong-will Daughter Of The Sultan to a savvy – even brilliant – politician who had her eye on the throne of the mythical Arabian Sultanate (as opposed to a caliphate and an emirate (as in United Arab Emirates) because she both loved the land and people – in fact, she meets Aladdin because she’s going about among them in disguise. The story, which I’m sure originated as one of the :

“A caliphate is an Islamic state under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph, a person considered a political-religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire ummah (Muslim community).”

“An emirate is a political territory that is ruled by a dynastic Arabic or Islamic monarch-styled emir. The term may also refer to a kingdom…Etymologically emirate is the quality, dignity, office, or territorial competence of any emir (prince, commander, governor, etc.)…The United Arab Emirates is a federal state that comprises seven federal emirates, each administered by a hereditary emir, these seven forming the electoral college for the federation's President and Prime Minister…Furthermore, in Arabic the term can be generalized to mean any province of a country that is administered by a member of the ruling class, especially of a member (usually styled emir) of the royal family, as in Saudi Arabian governorates.”

“Sultan is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning ‘strength’, ‘authority’, ‘rulership’…it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e., the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), albeit without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjective form of the word…[is] the dynasty and lands ruled by a sultan are referred to as a sultanate…The term is distinct from king, despite both referring to a sovereign ruler. The use of ‘sultan’ is restricted to Muslim countries, where the title carries religious significance…”

(all above are taken from the entry in Wikipedia)

At any rate, the idea of a prince, princess, king, queen, etc. going out to hobnob with commoners isn’t new or singular to any culture (https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/87ve5x/did_kingsqueens_ever_dress_up_as_commoners_and/) and has become a trope (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething) actually it’s a SUB-trope of this one: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KingIncognito), though apparently now the live-action Jasmine has her own category (along with Princess Leia Organa): https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PoliticallyActivePrincess. (Which actually doesn’t surprise me at all as Disney owns both of them.

The fact that Jasmine changed from a passive character (while falling in love with Aladdin, of course) to a politically active one is a definite improvement to the cartoon version. I enjoyed the secondary love interest between genie and Jasmine’s maid servant as well, mostly because I like that “old romantic” aspect of him (he’s over a thousand years old!!!!!)

I have no doubt that while the heart of the story has remained the same for over three centuries and survived the telling through countless translations – minimally from Arabic to French to English – it has also changed through the telling. I found a hint that someone, somewhere is going to take Aladdin, Jasmine, and the genie to the 35th Century in “Aladdin 3477 – 1: The Jinn of Wisdom”. Could be interesting, certainly…

But what if I used the HEART of the story to write a completely different story. The 1995 movie “Clueless” was loosely based on Jane Austen’s masterpiece, EMMA though the resemblance is only noticeable to people who have read Jane Austen. Even though it was barely recognizable, it made bank. I think I could use “Aladdin” to write a science fiction story that might not be recognizable, either, yet owe its life to the tale.

I’ll need to alter quite a few aspects and I'm hip-deep into writing a SCIENCE FICTION PARABLE...so I'll keep you posted.

Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 657

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: "It occurs to me that robot stories about naturally-occurring robots present an untapped sci-fi resource in terms of commenting on what constitutes life, or a meditation on the machine like nature of biological man, etc."

Current Event: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/scientists-create-life-like-cells-out-of-metal/

Ebony Jones pursed her lips, tweaking the landing jets of the surface ship. “I don’t like how it looks down there.”

Marquis Deonte ran another scan, tapping one of the readouts as he said, “It’s mechanical life, sure. Maybe the first time we’ve ever run across it naturally...”

“There’s nothing ‘natural’ about ‘mechanical life’. It’s an oxymoron,” she almost added “Like you...”, but decided against it. They’d butted heads enough times on the trip out from Earth – mostly because you could only live out virtual adventures so many times before you got bored. You could also only prep for landing on an alien world so many times before you were twitching in your sleep with the movements you’d repeated a million times.

You could only tell someone you just wanted to be friends so many times before you both started to... Marquis cut into her litany, saying, “Didn’t you come out here to find life as we DON’T know it?"

“Of course it’s what I want! Just because I question the possibility of some sort of metallic, mechanical...”

“Look! Down there!” he said, aiming the external sensors at the roiling surface.

Ebony said, “Besides, water mixed with just about any kind of salt would be corrosive to metal...”

“Our bones are metallic,” he said, his voice taking on the deadpan, lecture mode they’d fallen into after they’d first become fast friends. Since about ten months into the flight to HD 196944, a star rich in heavy metals when they’d stopped being best friends and become the banes of their separate existences.

“True, that. But...”

“There’s something moving under the surface,” said Marquis.

“I don’t see anything...”

“It’s not visible in our part of the spectrum. Change the frequency reception of your scanner. I’m getting lots of movement in the UV band. Also IR.”

She tapped the screen, slid a spectrum bar and watched as the imaged jumped into view. There were larger shapes deeper down. Smaller ones close to the surface. They were angular rather than rounded; mechanical rather than biological. “What kind of ecology would they have?” she muttered. After a moment, she said more loudly, “There’s something – cloudy – under the surface. Seems to be...” she paused, defaulted to a space-view of the lander, zoomed in then added, “The cloud is matching the shape of our shadow.”

“Huh?” Marquis said.

“Our shadow! A cloud is forming underneath us in the water.” Below them, something burbled, as if the water were boiling. A larger bubble burst beneath the surface, splashing the lander. Ebony swung the imager to the belly of the lander and cried, “The ship’s skin is boiling! I’m taking us up!” Without waiting for his confirmation, Ebony pushed the throttle to full...

Names: ♀, ♂ Top 20 Whitest and Blackest Names (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2470131) Resource: http://io9.com/5628989/ten-tropes-youll-find-in-science-fiction---over-and-over-
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

Comments on OTHER Stuff: My “Evolution By Star Trek” (Sort of Like Trial By Fire…)

I was only 9 years old when STAR TREK premiered. But my Dad watched it and being a fan of THE SPACESHIP UNDER THE APPLE TREE and WONDERRFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET...I was allowed to stay up the fall of Season 3. I turned 12 in the spring of 1969 and watched the third season of STAR TREK (at that time, there was no coda: THE NEXT GENERATION or THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY...it was, like it's later cousin, just plain old STAR TREK...)

From the moment I first watched it, I fell in love with Star Trek and it's been over half a CENTURY since then. I became a SCIENCE TEACHER because of Star Trek...and just retired after 40 years in the classroom. This (at the time) single show shaped my life.

How? I played Star Trek and Aliens instead of “Cowboys and Indians”…of course, I didn’t have the special effects crew to create beams of lambent light or make totally cool sound effects. (Wanna hear one? Click on this, but keep your volume low! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMFeEcSuX5Y (OOPS! Sorry…*wink*) actually THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbFmzZPyKlk) So I ran around shooting aliens with a hand-carved phaser painted green with a yellow stripe down the side. I’d cut a bit of wood at an angle in order to make a handle, then nailed five finishing nails into the “barrel”. To simulate the phaser sound effect, I let forth with a squeal while vibrating my lips like a trumpet player.

Star Trek ignited in me a deep desire to leave Earth and go to the stars. In those days, you had to be an astronaut and take your life into your own hands every day. Apparently you also had to be an elite soldier in the military. I couldn’t even do a PULL UP to pass the Presidential Physical Fitness Test…how would I possibly pull myself up by my bootstraps when I couldn’t even pull my pudgy body up high enough for my chin to reach the bar. And in the midst of the Vietnam War, I wasn’t real keen on enlisting before I got drafted, so that route was closed by a decision on my part. Star Trek came along just as I was finishing up THE WONDERFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET and SPACESHIP UNDER THE APPLE TREE, and so I never completed the two series. But it was Star Trek (and growing up!) that launched me into the junior high library.

I started reading more science fiction. I blew through the juvenile works of Robert A Heinlein, Donald A Wollheim (who founded DAW Books), Andre Norton, A.M. Lightner (who I just now discovered was a woman!!!), Alan E. Nourse, and (of course), Madeleine L’Engle.

But, I’ll never forget perhaps the most influential of the YA science fiction novels I ever read: British author, John Christopher’s WHITE MOUTAINS Trilogy (eventually a quartet). I was in 7th grade when I first checked out the first book, THE WHITE MOUNTAINS – I give all kinds of details in SIX essays I wrote on my blog over the past nine years about the books. Needless to say, those books compelled me to keep the story going. They lit a deep desire in me to create my OWN worlds…( https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2013/05/slice-of-pie-no-new-writing.html, https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/06/slice-of-pie-in-terms-of-my-writing.html, https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2015/09/slice-of-pie-who-are-we-imitating-these.html; https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/11/slice-of-pie-teen-humor-combatting-grim.html; https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2012/09/possibly-irritating-essays-how-teenya.html, https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2012/07/possibly-irritating-essay-on-this-tour.html)

Reading THOSE books compelled me to pick up my pencil and write a truly horrible piece called “The White Vines” it was also written in painstakingly neat cursive. I’m sure I reread the WHITE MOUNTAIN books several times (I have two sets in my own library today!), until I finally moved on when I discovered the adult SF section of the Public Library and a magazine that took my fledgling writing and set a fire under me to one day get a story published in a floppy, pulp magazine called ANALOG Science Fiction & Fact.

But when push comes to shove, it really comes down to the single most influential television show I was ever (allowed by my dad!) to watch. It introduced me to strange, new worlds that even the stories I was reading couldn’t quite match. I started writing science fiction because of ST. I teach a class called ALIEN WORLDS to gifted and talented kids during the summer and at other conferences and venues because of Star Trek. I teach a different summer school class called WRITING TO GET PUBLISHED…because of Star Trek, and it’s wonderful!

Admittedly, it's also sort of creepy – but in a cool way.

Program Guide: https://guide.chicon.org/; https://locusmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/chicon-8-twitter.png
Image: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cc3d1b051f4d40415789cc2/eef621ab-a509-4949-8717-d98cece8fa9e/james-bama-novelization-cover.png

IDEA ON TUESDAY 656

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Regarding horror, I found this insight in line with WIRED FOR STORY: “ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…Stories that frighten us or unsettle us - not just horror stories, but ones that make us uncomfortable or that strike a chord somewhere deep inside - give us the means to explore the things that scare us…” – Lou Morgan (The Guardian)
H Trope: the attack of the killer ALGAE

Current Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT4LY2KcOrs

Jefferson Benson looked up from the microscope and said, “What do you mean, ‘it looks like it’s spreading’?”

Terace Miller shook her head, “I didn’t say that. It IS spreading.” She held out her hand. A thin patina of greenish-brown made the skin on her forearm look wet.

Jefferson leaned back. “What happened?”

“I was working late – I’ve got to have the slides examined and summary prepped for Dr. Hester by tomorrow at the latest. She said she wanted it today.”

“So?”

“So, I worked until about four this morning then fell asleep at the computer.”

“How’d you get algae skin from that?”

She slugged him in the shoulder with her uninfected arm. “I dozed off – slept sideways. My back was to the microscope and my arm was against a dish with a sample of the algae in it.”

“It crawled out of the dish?” he looked at her, scowling.

“Algae can’t crawl, idiot!”

“Hey! Just because my master’s thesis is in the histology tapeworms doesn’t mean I’m ignorant about plants!”

“It just means you’re plain ignorant,” Terace said. “Listen, for whatever reason, the algae got on my arm. I washed it off, but it grew back.”

“What?”

“It grew back in about an hour. Even after I swabbed it with alcohol and betadine.”

“You try salt water?”

“What?”

“Isn’t your algae a freshwater variety?” She blinked at him in surprise.

 “Hey!” he exclaimed. “I listen to what you talk about!”

“You just never…” she looked down at her arm, brushing over the slick spot. “I don’t know. I used the other things so I’m sort of afraid of trying saltwater. Besides, the same species has been found in freshwater aquariums and off the coast of California.”

“Really?”

She nodded slowly, stared at the slimy patch for a moment, then said, “What if the algae has taken up a commensal relationship with epithelial cells?”

“You mean like lichen?”

She pursed her lips, looked him in the eye and nodded slowly.

Names: ♀ French, Anglo-Scottish; ♂ Old German, Anglo-Saxon
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: An Alien Invasion May Already Be UNDERWAY!!!!

Several summers ago, I spent sporadic weeks chopping down the invasive tree/bush known as the common buckthorn…For my money, it is not only annoying, it is an horrendous MONSTER! (https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/106777038_10156827573131324_1338251936212348319_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=9q9yeayXZNAAX8wacF5&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=0578f6e378467324c0b4b97446be1500&oe=5F25001B

Oddly, this got me to thinking about a set of novels I read during my young adulthood. I was a pretty freshly minted science teacher. I could teach lots of the sciences, but my interest had always been in biology.

David Gerrold, of STAR TREK fame (“The Trouble with Tribbles” in particular), wrote a unique alien invasion novel (actually a series), that detailed how the Chtorr had begun their invasion by wiping out a substantial portion of Humanity through a viral attack.

The survivors began to find weird plants, animals, and “stuff” all over. The “worms” are only the most voracious members of the “invasion suite” – but they are terrifying: “…they range in size from as small as a dog to as large as a bus…They have two double-jointed ‘arms’…with incredibly sharp claws. Their bodies are covered with symbiotic ‘fur’, each strand of which is a distinct lifeform and acts as a sensory input.”

This is a sort of invasive species on steroids.

After spending weeks attacking an invasion of a European plant called “common buckthorn”, whose scientific name is Rhamnus cathartica. It was brought here as an “ornamental shrub” from “from the central British Isles south to Morocco, and east to Kyrgyzstan.”

It blends in and is seemingly innocuous, though its scientific name hints at one of its uses in herbal medicine: “The seeds and leaves are mildly poisonous for humans and most other animals… [causing] stomach cramps and laxative effects…[suggesting a] common name purging buckthorn…”

It’s a nasty thing that grows leaves before most of the rest of the northern species of trees and grows fast. Local animals don’t graze it; though birds eat the seeds. As well, the plant contains a chemical called an “emodin”. It made me think of Imodium when I first saw it and while this over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medication STOPS diarrhea, emodin causes it. Animals that try and eat the little hard, black berries drop them all over the place – effectively seeding the bush and helping it spread.

This is just one example of a particularly obnoxious plant that is insidiously taking over vast swaths of North America. The species is naturalized and invasive in parts of North America. Rhamnus cathartica has a competitive advantage over native trees and shrubs in North America because it leafs out before native species. Of the annual carbon gain in R. cathartica, 27–35% comes from photosynthesis occurring before the leaves of other plants emerge. Soil in woodlands dominated by R. cathartica was higher in nitrogen, pH and water content than soil in woodlands relatively free of R. cathartica,[15][18] probably because R. cathartica has high levels of nitrogen in its leaves and these leaves decompose rapidly.

"Rhamnus cathartica is also associated with invasive European earthworms (Lumbricus spp.) in the northern Midwest of North America. Removing R. cathartica led to a decrease of around 50% in the biomass of invasive earthworms.

"Soils enriched by extra nitrogen from decayed buckthorn leaves and…Invasive earthworms (which in MN means ALL earthworms…)…need rich litter, break [buckthorn leaves] down rapidly, destroying beneficial fungi and exposing bare soils in the process. These soils provide ideal conditions for buckthorn germination and seedling growth but many native trees and shrubs need the beneficial fungi and will not reproduce without it…it is particularly prevalent in the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.”

Why can’t we fight it with 21st Century science? “Numerous potential biocontrol insects for common and glossy buckthorn were screened for host-specificity and impacts. Early on, glossy buckthorn biocontrol was eliminated from consideration due to lack of promising agents. Research continued on common buckthorn. After 11 years of searching for a biocontrol insect that is both host-specific and damaging to common buckthorn, we concluded that we do not have any promising agents at this time so we ended the project.”

So, while I’ve always laughed at the labels that say “Non-GMO” (because Humans have been genetically modifying organisms since the first Mayan crossbred the first corn plant to get bigger seeds – by hand and by century: (https://i.redd.it/mbe42vdt49841.jpg), I’m surprised that we haven’t tried to modify some kind of bug to take care of it. It does have an economic impact here; it certainly has an impact on the timber industry in other states – but none of the states affected by buckthorn are LUMBER-producing states, so…we don’t do it.

It's kind of creepy to realize that some sort of alien Chtorr could set up an alien ecosystem and we might not even notice it. What if biological invasion is a LONG-TERM proposition? What if some sort of AI ship or landcraft landed and proceeded to introduce various species across their normal boundaries, weakening the entire ecosystem. Then instead of the dramatic “red” invasion of the War Against the Chtorr, you’d have something virtually unstoppable.

How would we even know?

How about the first starship to reach an Earth-like world finds that the lifeforms are incredibly…familiar; and that the survey shows that a number of the species they find on the planet are what we would call “invasives” or even “introduced” – and as far as that goes, pheasants are “introduced” in Minnesota rather than invasive, because “some people” released them for hunting purposes…

So, I have a scenario where one of the new colonists is from around here – or find out where the most invasive species reside – is on the bio-survey team. They can’t find anything of Human-level intelligence. Then another, farther-reaching mission finds and makes a First Contact, and their “home world” has species very familiar on Earth…in fact, their biology is suspiciously Earth-like…

To finish up, I checked up on methodologies under investigation to destroy our accidental destroyer: Fungus Among Us: MTU Student Using Native Fungi to Weaken Invasive Trees. Seems this youngster has discovered a FUNGUS that seems to enjoy feasting on buckthorn! Cultivating SuperPurp as Stone does makes it easier to process into a sprayable liquid. Stone uses an immersion blender to whir the solution to the proper viscosity, then pours the broth into a garden-variety sprayer used for application in outdoor test areas.

“It’s literally mushroom soup,” he says.

Stone, an undergraduate majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology is living proof that you don’t have to wait until you graduate to tackle the complex problems facing the world.

"SuperPurp is Stone’s not-so-secret weapon to beat back the widespread Midwest invasion of two species of invasive buckthorn trees: Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus. The trees are gaining a foothold across the upper Midwest and altering the character of forests. Stone inoculates them with the fungus, weakening the aggressive invaders to give native species a chance to rebound.
Abe Stone, an undergraduate majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology at Michigan Technological University, a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, is living proof that you don’t have to wait until you graduate to tackle the complex problems facing the world."

Foundation: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/index.html#:~:text=Minnesota's%20natural%20resources%20are%20threatened,land%20or%20in%20the%20water., https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/natural_resources/invasives/terrestrialplants/is-bmp.pdf
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr#A_Matter_for_Men_(1983), https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_cathartica, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emodin, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html
NEWS!: https://www.mtu.edu/unscripted/2024/03/fungus-among-us-mtu-student-using-native-fungi-to-weaken-invasive-trees.html
Image: https://www.honey-plants.com/img/picforcontent/rhamnus-cathartica_3_large.jpg

Science Fiction MYSTERY: I NEVER REALLY KNEW THERE WAS SUCH A THING, Until I Saw "I, Robot"...

The murder mystery is a classic plot structure, and has been written into SF settings many times, from classics such as Alfred Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit” and Pat Cadigan’s “Tea From An Empty Cup”, to Tade Thompson’s FAR FROM THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN. What are some of our favorite books in this genre? What books put a uniquely SFF twist on the locked room mystery or the unbreakable alibi, and use their setting to write mysteries that couldn’t be written outside the genre? I was the last person to expect that I would love to read mysteries.

As a kid, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and books like that bored me.

I loved Asimov and the other panoply of writers from the end of the 60s through the 1970s. But if you’d asked me if Asimov wrote mysteries, I’d have said, “No. He’s a science fiction writer!”

About six or seven years ago, I stumbled across Craig Johnson, who wrote the novels about sheriff Walt Longmire. I can’t tell you even how that happened, but I fell in love with Longmire – and I’m currently rationing the last few of his novels that I haven’t read!

What caught me? How come I never noticed that Asimov’s novels were mysteries – and I read Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and even have a copy of The Robots of Dawn from the Science Fiction Book Club. But I didn’t READ them as mysteries. I read them as “robot novels”.

I’m going to look at this today!

First, what caught me with Longmire? Why’d I even BOTHER TO READ THE FIRST BOOK? I am no fan of Westerns (REALLY NOT!), and I never really thought of myself as a “mystery reader”. However, an old friend of mine LOVED the books and because I respect him, I tried the first one – COLD DISH. I was hooked because first off, Longmire’s not a supremely confident, “just put a gun in my hand and I’ll bring justice to the Old West ‘cause I’m the baddest-assed Lawman in the West!” kind of guy.

He's Human – I mean, he’s Human in the best possible way. Somehow, Craig Johnson managed to write Longmire as a quirky, smart – I mean, the man quotes Shakespeare! – and not entirely sure of himself. He also trusts the dangdest people. Sometimes, when he does, my first impression is that the person isn’t WORTHY of trust.

But, Larson gets that, too. Sometimes Longmire makes mistakes in who he trusts and then there are dire results. Also, Longmire DOESN’T ESCAPE HIS MISTAKES OR COME OUT UNHARMED! Even in movies, characters often make mistakes and other people suffer. Most of the time, it’s Longmire who suffers – though, just like in real life, others pay the price for his mistakes. They also pay the price for his well-night-to-unstoppable sense of justice – his daughter Cady ends up paying one of those times.

In essence though, what is it that attracts me to that kind of story? First off is the mystery – don’t get me wrong, I LOATHE mysteries in real life! I need to know what’s happening and to whom. I don’t mean just like, MURDER mysteries, though I’ve tried my hand at one or two – my first sale to CRICKET Magazine was “Mystery on Space Station Courage” (November 1997). No murder, just some strange sounds that turned out to be from someone who was trapped and might die if Candace can’t figure out and convince others that there WAS a mystery!

Another story where I use elements of mystery and science fiction is “Dinosaur Veterinarian” (ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact, November/December 2022). There you have a series of deaths seemingly caused by birds – which hinges on the fact that birds are relatives of the dinosaurs (doubters among you? Just go to the grocery store, and in the ethnic foods section, find a bag of frozen chicken feet! Don’t tell me that those feet DON’T have scales on them!) Anyway, my veterinarian character Javier Quinn Xiong Zaman DVM [aka Doctor Scrabble© (Because in the game, J, Qu, X, and Z are the highest scoring tiles)] has to find out what’s hunting and killing soldiers from both North and South Korea, as well as an entire international group of birdwatchers…

Of course he solves the mysteries.

Recently, I discovered that Isaac Asimov loved writing SF mysteries as well. Despite reading his work for most of my adult life, I didn’t notice that he wrote mysteries until the movie, “I, Robot” hit the silver screen with one of my favorite actors Will Smith, playing detective Spooner. What MOST people don’t know, is that the actual story that the movie is based on was in ASIMOV’S Science Fiction. “Robot Dreams”, while it isn’t ANYTHING LIKE THE MOVIE, had the seed in it. The movie-makers just added a Human cop with a grudge against robots to make the MOVIE…seems more Human, cause, really, would YOU go see a movie about, say, a Wyoming sheriff…who was a ROBOT? I mean, really?

Anyway, I’ve discovered I enjoy mysteries – also like WATCHING them, too, in particular the Hercule Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie.

But I think I like not only the logical order of mysteries, I like that the logic comes wrapped in fallible Humans…or even fallible robots. STAR TREK: The Next Generation’s Commander Data’s holodeck adventures as Sherlock Holmes are intriguing and I enjoy those as well.

While reading a bit for this article, I stumbled across this: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/its-simply-too-dangerous-to-arm-robots in which it explains how “San Francisco was embroiled in controversy earlier in December of 2022, over a proposal to allow police to deploy robots armed with deadly weapons. After initially greenlighting the technology, the Board of Supervisors reversed course due to widespread public outcry. For the time being, killer robots are banned in San Francisco, but the controversy there has put the issue in the national spotlight. People are increasingly aware that this technology exists and that some police departments want to deploy it.”

In a nutshell, people hated the idea and voted it down. Interesting, eh? Robots that can kill are NOT all right, but Humans who can kill are a-OK and we should be happy to sell them guns…maybe this world ISN’T ready for a robot detective yet. Then again, mostly when we think of a “robot detective”, we’re thinking of an ANDROID detective, a law enforcement officer who is built as an “humaniform” robot. But what about MACHINE detectives that don’t look anything like Humans, but are sapient and trained as police officers…what about them?

I'll be exploring this subject through stories more in the future! I'll let you know if I succeed...

Another Article I wrote on SF Mysteries:

https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/07/possibly-irritating-essays-four-tips-to.html

My New “To Read” List: https://theportalist.com/sci-fi-mystery-books

An INTERESTING Read: https://creation.com/i-robot
Image: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/uploads/original/8/85165/1966575-sonny.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 655

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them? Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.

Fantasy Trope: The Quest
Current Event: http://contemplativequest.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland

Světlana Angelika pursed her lips, looking out over the hectares of forest. In the MSP Vertical Village, it was mostly deciduous trees – oak, maple, patches of white-barked birch, poplar – with a sprinkling of pine trees. The concourse she and Uthman Aali were on was packed with people. Not a hundred thousand, for sure, but too many to think. “We need to go somewhere,” she said abruptly, speaking in the too loud manner of all the inhabitants of Vertical Villages everywhere.

Uthman gave her a look that said, “You’re crazy.”

She slugged him in the shoulder. It was a little kid move – but then, they’d been friends since they were three years old. “No, I’m serious. We need to go somewhere real.”

Without changing his stare, Uthman said, “We can go up to the six hundredth floor...”

“No! I don’t mean here. This is all so...boring. We need to go,” she pause, “through a looking glass.”

“A what?”

“A looking glass! Haven’t you ever read Alice in Wonderland?”

“I might have seen a threevee of it once. Wasn’t it a cartoon?”

“Yes – and no, you haven’t seen this. Lewis Carroll wrote a novel, it’s true. But he was a mathematician. His logic is all over the book. Math. Everything.”

Uthman snorted, “It sounds like science fiction.”

“It’s fantasy – she steps through a mirror.”

“If it’s math and logic, it’s science fiction.”

“There are talking rabbits,” said Světlana. “And a talking, disappearing cat. As well as a talking, smoking caterpillar, talking mice, and soldiers made of playing cards.”

“OK. You win. It’s a fantasy. But what does it have to do with us? What kind of mirror can we jump through? I’m sure there are some here – but...”

“The windows. We can jump through one of those.”

“A window?”

“Come on, let’s go to the outer walls. We’ll leap through one of those!” She turned and ran, Uthman running after her.

Names: ♀ Czech, Roman; ♂ Arabic, Hindu
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

Slice of PIE: I WISH I Could Be A Hopepunk Writer, but I Don’t Qualify…

This entry was inspired by a session I read about during the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019. The link is provided below where this appeared on page 25…

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE HAS POLITICAL AND DEEPER-THAN-USUAL CHRISTIAN OVERTONES. DON'T READ IT IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SUCH.

Introduction to hopepunk: Alexandra Rowland coined the term ‘hopepunk’ in a Tumblr post in 2017, saying that: ‘…the opposite of Grimdark is Hopepunk’. Our panel will discuss what the term means and how hopepunk intersects with other speculative subgenres such as grimdark, noblebright, and solarpunk, as well as offering reading recommendations.

Sam Hawke: Lawyer, writer.
Jo Walton: Hugo and Nebula award winning novelist, blogger at Tor.com, poet.
Alexandra Rowland: Game monitor at an escape room company, seamstress, and writer.
Lettie Prell: Science fiction writer.

I had never heard of this, but it’s probably what I’d write if I could get it published.

Of course, it EMPHATICALLY does not include me: in the article resourced below: “Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.”

This definition seems to exclude Christianity as an ultimate hope because (it seems), God isn't a necessary component for goodness.

Rowland, the article points out, “…was responding to the idea of 'grimdark' — a literary descriptor for genre texts and media which evoke a pervasively gritty, bleak, pessimistic, or nihilistic view of the world…in which cruelty is a given and social systems are destined to betray or disappoint." 

It’s also, apparently political as the article subtitle made clear, “In the era of Trump and apocalyptic change, Hopepunk is a storytelling template for #resistance — and hanging onto your humanity at all costs.” And of course, the prime advocate of this #resistance had no political connection or motivation and was merely a humble representative for a political party that had the good of all people everywhere in mind: Andrew Slack noted that JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien ‘readied us for a message of hope, change, and global citizenry [that was advocated by] Barack Obama,’ he wrote, noting that Obama’s presidency was also ‘met by a giant swell of popularity around fantasies that dwelled in the darkness: vampires, dystopias, and Heath Ledger’s nihilist Joker.’ In essence, grimdark.”

Of course, the movement apparently feels Jesus was “a good man” as Rowland was quoted in an article that followed up on her Twitter invention of the new literary category: “…she crucially offered examples of both mythical and real-world political figures: ‘Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Robin Hood and John Lennon’ — heroes who chose to perform radical resistance in unjust political climates, and to imagine better worlds.” (She might want to read CS Lewis’ response to her inclusion on her list: https://caldronpool.com/c-s-lewis-destroys-unbelievers-who-think-jesus-was-a-good-man/)

Wow! Jesus (who was, apparently, mythical) resisted…Rome? The Jewish establishment? living in an “unjust political climate”, and accordingly, imagined a better world. Through sacrificing His life?

According to the author of this piece, hopepunk is “…a perfect aesthetic accompaniment to the…philosophy that aggressively choosing kindness, optimism, and softness over hardness, cynicism, and violence can be a powerful political choice….[it] says that ‘kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness,’ Rowland wrote in her expanded definition, ‘and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act,’ [combining] the aesthetics of choosing gentleness with the messy politics of revolution…”

The end of the article elucidates the books, stories, authors, and trumpets the advent of a spectacular new concept apparently invented by Millenials: “Rowland’s original hopepunk definition has now been widely shared and discussed throughout the sci-fi and fantasy community, in online forums and in panel discussions at a number of conventions, and writers have frequently started to describe their own works as hopepunk…panel[s] on hopepunk and optimistic sci-fi/fantasy…N.K. Jemisin, whose works carry themes of resistance in a time of apocalypse and bear sharp signifiers of hopepunk…As the first black woman to nab the top prize in 2016, and then the first writer to win it three years in a row thanks to her 2017 and 2018 repeat wins, Jemisin’s 2018 win became a moment of convergence in which literary hopepunk evolved into real-world activism — a show of defiance in an ongoing battle against radical right-wing extremism within the sci-fi/fantasy community. [Which, oddly, appears to have been unnoticed since the inception of SFWA in 1966.] In recognizing her work, with its themes of finding humanity and love amid apocalyptic change, Hugo voters sent a message that they would not allow blights like racism to undermine the sci-fi community’s humanism and idealism [which they HAD been for nearly a century...which see, one example: the identities of James Tiptree, Jr. and CJ Cherryh and the consistent snubbing of any number of women SF/F writers]…Ever since, Hopepunk has seemed to be suddenly everywhere, becoming a true force in the literary landscape in the last couple months of 2018: At IO9, Eleanor Tremeer argued that we need utopian fiction now more than ever; the piece didn’t explicitly identify hopepunk, but many of its readers did…The Verge announced its upcoming Better Worlds science fiction series, intended to promote sci-fi…Tor wrote about “high epic fantasy hopepunk…As the idea of hopepunk has caught on, many people have expressed gratefulness to Rowland for coining the term. When I first introduced and explained the term to Slack, for example, he wrote me an ebullient 15-paragraph email, exclaiming, “This is some seriously important and sacred [crap]!”…Part of the reason that hopepunk feels so important in the current moment is that two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, it’s arguably difficult for many people to stay motivated and alert to the many political crises happening at once. Hopepunk, then, is a way of drawing energy and strength from fictional inspirations in order to keep fighting the good fight in the real world…This is not an easy task,” Slack wrote. “It shakes us to our core. But hopepunk reminds us to thank…goodness that we have such a beautiful core.” (Apparently hopepunk includes the vigorous use of vulgarity to emphasize how devoted you are to its ideals…)

This shining movement, a testament to all things Humanly Wonderful, has totally ignored at least one author who wrote peaceful, tranquil science fiction decades ago and whom few people read now because he DIDN’T write about empires, kingdoms, and Obama. He wrote hope in an era spanning the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, post-Vietnam, through the Iranian hostage crisis (overseen by then president and a proponent of not only hopepunk, but of old-fashioned HOPE, Jimmy Carter) and almost to the Fall of Communism:

Clifford D. Simak, I daresay, was one of the original hopepunk writers…oops…sorry, I guess he can’t be. He believed in God, which (while it isn't essential to being a hopepunk writer), might make it a bit easier to write a story that is inherently positive and hopeful.

Program Book: https://dublin2019.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ProgrammeScheduleWeb.pdf, https://dublin2019.com/whats-on/programming/programme-schedule/
Resource: https://www.vox.com/2018/12/27/18137571/what-is-hopepunk-noblebright-grimdark, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_D._SimakImage: https://fq8ku9wqwk7gai1z3frl16nd-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/HOPEPUNK-100-996x515.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 654

Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them. Octavia Butler said, “SF doesn’t really mean anything at all, except that if you use science, you should use it correctly, and if you use your imagination to extend it beyond what we already know, you should do that intelligently.”

SF Trope: Evil de-evolution
Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devolution_(biology) (Fascinating article in which an evolutionists tap-dances around the idea that the dissemination of correct information is NOT the responsibility of scientists but of...um...Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, but ultimately Nobody and CERTAINLY not them…(http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/hlife.html))

Ugnė Mertens flipped her pigtail back again as she stared at the image on her laptop. Muttering, she stepped sideways to the microscope and moved the slide using the X-Y translational control knobs fine adjustment. The image of the chromosome she was studying moved fractionally.

Naranbaatar Todorov picked at his thin, first beard and said, “Staring at it isn’t going to make the genes magically appear, Ug.”

“That’s what you think,” she straightened up, she smiled and added, “Baaaaa,” drawing out the stereotypical sheep sound. “Watch.” She touched a pressure toggle on an odd, goose-necked device standing beside the microscope. The computer’s screen fuzzed suddenly, then the single chromosome lit up as if it was a candy cane.

Baa started, looked at the lamp and exclaimed, “What is that thing?

“Something I invented and you didn’t,” Ug said, sitting on the lab stool, leaning forward.

Baa swallowed hard, pursed his lips then said, “Listen, I know you don’t much like me...”

Ug reached out and typed an entry into the text box then said, “If I had a choice between dissecting three-day-old roadkill and having lunch with you...” she paused, made a face, then said, “I’m not sure which one I’d pick.”

Baa glanced at the clock on the wall. He still had four hours left of his shift. He couldn’t skip it or Dr. Harber would find out and dock him points. But he wasn’t sure he could keep his feet still and not kick Ugnė in the butt. He took a deep breath and said, “Must be an infrared to ultraviolet, rotating frequency projector.”

She shot him a look then went back to making notes on her computer. Occasionally she tapped her smartphone as well, which lay next to the laptop. “Lucky guess.”

“So that means, ‘yes’. Then you must have bathed the chromosomes in a solution that would...” Naranbaatar hooked another stool with his foot to drag it closer. Shrieking as it vibrated along the floor tiles, he winced and said, “Sorry.”

Ugnė sniffed but didn’t reply. Finally she said, “I used a mix that the older the gene, the less fluorescing compound it would pick up.

Baa frowned then asked, “What are the chromosomes from?”

“A narn.”

“You’re kidding!” he exclaimed. Reports had been circulating for years about animals whose genes had suddenly started evolving – a quantum evolution event – from static forms to much, much more intelligent forms.

“These are chromosomes from raccoons killed in southern Minnesota.”

“We have narns here?” Baa exclaimed, backing away from the microscope.

Ug turned to look at him. “The genes aren’t contagious, idiot! This isn’t a disease – it’s animal chromosomes. Dyed and fixed at that! What are you afraid of?”

“Nothing. Nothing!” He spun around and took long strides out of the lab. He didn’t care if he lost hours – all he could see in his mind’s eye was the raccoon he’d nearly run over when he was biking on rural trails near his family’s home in an outer ring suburb of what was slowly becoming the three, four-kilometer-tall towers of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Vertical Village.

He would never forget the look on its face as it held out a mangled aw to him and said, “Help...”

Names: ♀ Lithuanian, Belgian; ♂ Mongolian, Bulgarian
Sidebar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibriuM
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg