NOT using the
panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose,
CA in August 2018 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)),
I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF
DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This
explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing
movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a
blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
While
I’m filing this under my “Slice of Possibly Irritating Essays”, it’s more
frustrating to me than it will be for anyone reading this…
So,
I live in the middle of the North American continent. We have no earthquakes
here, no hurricanes, no oceans, no mountains, no palm trees, (where I live, on
the top of Tornado Alley, tornados – while we absolutely have them – are not all
that common), and really nothing to recommend us to the world except snow and
cold.
So
I create worlds in my computer files.
Some
of them have seen print, most have not. The reason I’m going to iterate them is
because while I HAVE all these worlds, I should have an abundance of stories about
the people who live on them.
Just
by typing “fiction” it automatically shows 90,000 books. (I used to know how to
find out exactly – by typing a series of numbers or words or whatever in the Search
bar…but I’ve forgotten how!) Historical fiction gives me the same number, as
does Romance.
So
I know there are millions of stories that take place on Earth, in the present,
and that sells tons of copies. I know there is a series of books that takes
place in a version of Earth where magic works; it’s sold millions of copies and
there are several stories of individuals within that series that captivate us.
I
know there are millions of copies of a story that takes place on a very alien
world that is unnamed and home of the atevi.
CJ Cherryh’s world has held me enthralled for decades. It has also prodded me
to ask myself: “With the worlds you’ve invented, why are so few published? They
are complex, they have PEOPLE in them and should be inherently interesting…why can’t
you present them in their world in a captivating way?”
As
the temperature here drops to a possible record of -28 F (equals -33 C or 240K)
actual AIR temperature (with -52 windchills threatened), I was reminded of an
world I created called Sirmiq. In West
Icelandic Inuit, the word means “glacier (also ice forming on objects)”. It’s a
world gripped by an ice age. It’s volcanic and currently habitable only
underground, so it’s not a nice place to live. The colonists are hard but
long-visioned. They KNOW that Sirmiq
will one day be a garden world, Earthlike with slightly less water surface. Two
stories there, “The Stars Like Nails” and “Grom Ripper”, one written for BOYS
LIFE, the other a dark story of accidental death and a funeral watch.
Other
worlds? I have River, a “puffy
Jupiter” in another star system between two Human empires. In this universe,
there are no real aliens (a la Asimov’s
stories), but in the Empire of Man, profound genetic engineering is prohibited
and a person’s Humanity is determined by the percentage of “pure” DNA. Anyone
whose DNA is less than 65% unmodified is not Human. In the Confluence of
Humanity, genetic engineering is de rigueur
and they have created Humans so bizarre and environmentally adapted as to
be de facto aliens. I’ve written
eight stories in that world, three of which have been published. This is the
universe I’ve had lots of fun in, but I haven’t been able to create enough
memorable characters to stick in my own head – except an environmentally
adapted creature name Irog, who is SO manipulated that he is a gigantic manta
ray with body cavities adapted as living quarters and emergency medical facilities
– he’s a living ambulance whose DNA is Human…a hūmbūlance so-to-speak. His
original DNA Human is Gordon Oyeyemi (from whose name his own is derived).
Then
there’s the Human-WheetAh universe
in which animal Humans and plant-descended WheetAh are all there is. A novel
and two stories take place there, one published. This one bears WAY more exploring,
but I can’t seem to create someone interesting who lives there.
The Unity is by far my favorite place. I’ve written
thirteen stories and a novel there, nine stories have been published with a
positive reaction to the novel – but no purchase.
My
Shattered Spheres universe takes
place in the Unity, but at a substantially earlier time, in which Humans are
still alone – though there’s a theory that Others once lived on Venus and
started a war with the wider universe and were beaten back. When a starship
from the invading force is destroyed, its black hole drive is set free,
wreaking havoc in our star system. It destroys the Others and the dinosaurs on
Earth. This one was once published as an ebook, then I withdrew it, and now there’s
a publisher interested by not yet committed to it…
I
once made a commitment to myself that I would make every effort to use worlds I
have created for more than one story. I’ve not held rigidly to that, but I have
in general. I write mostly in the universes above.
My
problem is NOT in creating places, it’s in populating them with memorable
characters.
I
have yet to create a Miles Vorkosigan (Lois McMaster Bujold), a Mackenzie
Connor (Julie Czerneda), a Paul Atreides (Frank Herbert), or a Bren Cameron (CJ
Cherryh) – but WHY? What made these characters stick in my mind and in the
minds of tens of thousands of loyal fans? What made Harry Potter a sensation? “Boy
wizard” stories are by no means new, yet this one took the world by storm. How
did it happen and why?
This
is a secret I long to plumb and while I know I am not alone, I still want to
know!
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