WRITING ADVICE: Creating Alien Aliens, Part 8: Aliens Only Have To Be Different In ONE Way To Make Them Alien!

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, 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!

Part 1: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/01/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 2: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 3: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 4: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/04/slice-of-pie-creating-alien-aliens-part.html
Part 5: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/09/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 6: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/02/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 7: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/04/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

When I create aliens, I have to make sure that they ACT differently.

STAR TREK is guilty of ignoring this to extreme degrees. For example, the ALIEN Sarek, father of Spock, talks to his son about his emotions and gives fatherly advice, even though his dad is fully alien Vulcan and bleeds green blood, he acts like my dad...hardly weird alien behavior.

In the Marvel Universe “Guardians of the Galaxy” we see a Nova Prime where rainbow-colored alien bipedal parents walking around on two legs, hold the hands of their children, exactly like Humans in funny suits.

STAR TREK, in a rare display of originality shows a silicon mother whose entire civilization has died out and she is the last one alive. When the zillions of eggs she has been guarding hatch, she becomes the mother of a new civilization…My question has always been when she passes on the wisdom of the old civilization, can she change it? Can Mother Horta alter the way things have been done?

In Marc Steigler’s award-winning short story, “Petals of Rose”, a Human works with the incredibly short-lived Rosans, whose entire life is lived in hours; and the Lazarines, whose lifetimes span millennia. Rosans, Lazarine, and Humans are working together to create a way of communicating faster than the laws of physics would allow; creating a sort of LeGuin’s “ansible”. He accidentally becomes the founder of a new religion – based on an idea he had about how memories are passed from Rosan generation to Rosan generation -- which is weird and involves a baby alien eating the brain of not it's BIRTH parent, but a BRAIN parent...

While aliens need to behave differently, the fathers of Humans behave in vastly different ways, varying from brutal to indifferent, to entirely absent. Animal “father” behaviors vary just as much. Some males help keep the nest warm while the female hunts. Some males and females mate for life. Some animals perform gang rape…

How different would an alien have to behave in order to be truly alien?

Not that much.

It turns out that I’ve traveled a lot. I figured it out once that I’ve actually travelled half way around the Earth – not just stopping in airports, but spending more than three weeks at the two end points – from Fambé, Central African Republic to Incheon, South Korea.

I have experienced strange behavior in both places; behaviors that seem inexplicable, yet entirely Human. Just a single thing though, set the culture I grew up in apart from the culture I was traveling in...What if I'd been among ALIENS?

Two examples. In West Africa, we shared a meal with a group of doctors and nurses. They prepared a regular lunch for us of pounded yam fufu in soup. Fufu has the consistency of uncooked Bisquick (pancake and baking mix). The soup was the thickness of chicken gravy. It was standard fare, but it was eaten one-handed. We had learned to pinch a small ball of fufu from the larger one it’s served as, roll it into a small ball (with one hand), swipe it through the soup, then pop it in your mouth, SWALLOWING IT WHOLE. As I said, strange, but we’d learned how to do it.

Our hosts had set the table with Western-style silverware and when we sat down together and said our prayers, they also started to eat – cutting small pieces, dipping it in the soup – and CHEWING the fufu!

It took only a moment for us to realize that both groups has set out to make the other comfortable by adhering to the SUPPOSED customs of the other group…

In South Korea, it's customary that when adults meet for a meal and the children were not at table, that Soju would be the traditional drink. Soju is a distilled spirit from Korea that’s traditionally made from rice, though it can also be made from sweet potato, barley, tapioca, wheat or any combination of those ingredients. Sometimes called Korean vodka because of its neutral flavor, Soju and Japanese sake are similar, though Sake is fermented and brewed like beer and soju is distilled like vodka.

Now, I’ve been a teetotaler since before most of my peers started drinking, mostly because of familial pressure – they did, I refused. But it was customary and when I was with my son and his best Korean friend, I shocked my son by drinking Soju. It was so far outside of my normal behavior that for a moment, I appeared to be ALIEN...

Creating truly alien behavior is impossible – because we’re Humans and it's hugely difficult to imagine doing things another way. But authors like CJ Cherryh have given us a clue about how that might be done both in our writing and in our interactions with others. In her world of Atevi and Humans, she has altered one behavior: her Atevi had no concept of love. Love in Atevi is replaced by "association". Even in an Atevi family unit, there are associations. Love between a couple is an alien concept to the Atevi. They have STUDIED love, of course, because of a large refugee Human population living on their world, but they don’t understand it. It’s this foundational change that has given rise to Cherryh’s exploration of Human-Atevi interaction for the past 27 years…

One change and figuring out how a civilization would develop based on that SINGLE CHANGE…

Now, that’s some accomplishment and one I’ve been working on developing for years. OTOH, I didn’t realize until recently that to create a truly alien alien, all you need to do is change one thing about Humans. That seems to make the weirdest aliens of all. (I just realized that in the WALKING DEAD series, the only difference between Humans and zombies is that the zombies are dead…)

Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TZVOLo9tL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 598

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: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AceCustom (An ace custom is a piece of technology that differs from the normal model due to being tweaked in order to better fit its user...typically Ace Pilots...)

Current Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn, http://usvsth3m.com/post/78650868521/a-13-year-old-boy-in-preston-just-successfully-built-a

Zsigmond Alajos Becskei pursed his lips to stare at the old man in the wheelchair in the distance and said, “How old did you say he was?”

Sissinnguaq Âviâja, standing beside him, tapped her tablet computer. The answer popped up in front of them and she said, “Sixty-one.”

Zsigmond shook his head, “Looks like he’s a hundred.”

“Radiation exposure can do that to a person,” she paused, “I think he looks sad.”

Zsigmond snorted, “You’d look old, too if you were playing with radioactive materials in your backyard when you were sixteen, too.”

Sissinnguaq shook her head, “We didn’t have back yards in Iceland. They kept getting covered in volcanic ash.”

“At least you had something interesting going on in your country. My parents moved here because they were bored.”

“That’s stupid.”

“You’re stupid.”

“Right,” said Sissinnguaq, “Maybe we should talk to him before he dies. Like in a couple of minutes.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Zsigmond swallowed nervously even though he walked along the sidewalk and up to the nursing home’s security station.

The guard behind the window looked up and slid the palm scanned under the slot and said, “Name and purpose.”

Zsigmond hesitated – this would be the true test of his forgery – and covered it by saying, “I’ve never seen my grandfather before. What if I want to leave before I have to talk to him.”

The guard, who’d been looking bored up to now, shook his head. “Old age ain’t a disease kid. He’s not contagious. He’s your ma or your pa’s dad. You ain’t gonna catch nothing.”

Sissinnguaq leaned and said, “My boyfriend’s not afraid of his grandfather in that way. He’s just never seen anyone…”

“Save it, girl. Are you guys going in or are you gonna run away scared like most of the other snot-noses?”

“You are an incredibly rude man,” she said, slapping her hand down on the scanner.

“I didn’t get to be eighty-three by being a sweetheart.” He looked at Zsigmond, “Either slap the ID pad or get out of here, kid. I ain’t gettin’ younger.”

Zsigmond sighed and laid his hand on the scanner. A moment later the guard pulled it back under, looked at the ID and raised his eyebrows, saying, “Good thing you’re here. I don’t think Dave has many more days left in him.” He typed at his solid keyboard and the first entry door swung open. Zsigmond and Sissinnguaq waited for the second door while the entryway disinfected them. A moment later, the guard said, “Computer says he’s out in the courtyard.”

“Thanks,” said Zsigmond. The headed into the nursing home as the door swung slowly inward. He whispered, “Now if he’ll only be able to remember the last step he screwed up, we can get the reactor started tonight and blow up the city in the morning...”

Names: ♀ Native, Iceland ; ♂ Hungary
Image: https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/49956692363_f73a7a6a69_k.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #9: John Griffith Chaney “& Me”

In this feature, I’ll be looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”

I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. While most of them are speculative fiction writers, I’ll also be looking at plain, old, effective short story writers. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most of the professional writers...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!

Without further ado, short story observations John Griffith Chaney – with a few from myself…

John Griffith Chaney was one of the most prolific and most-read authors of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was given his well-known name after his mother re-married John London and then renamed her son…(“Jack is a common diminutive of John “Jack is a derivative of John that originated in medieval England. The name went from John to Johnkin to Jankin to Jackin to Jack. The name was so common in the Middle Ages that Jack became a generic term for a man.”)

Jack London wrote 205 stories and 15 novels about life – life in the late years of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th Century. The life he lived was “primitive” by 21st Century standards and at the time, there were still frontiers then. Certainly, few people were familiar with the Amazon; the North Pole; or Arabia. Japan was a “recent discovery” (“In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the ‘Black Ships’ of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar treaties with other Western countries brought economic and political crises. The resignation of the shōgun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified the Meiji Restoration”). China and Africa were wholly mysterious.)

In particular, Alaska (not the ice cream bar....); Indigenous peoples were the original settlers of what the Russians used to refer to the Alaska Peninsula. “Derived from an Aleut-language idiom, which figuratively refers to the mainland. Literally, it means object to which the action of the sea is directed.” The Russians, Spanish, Polish, and Finnish eventually entered into an agreement with the American government and sold it to them in 1867.

From that place, London produced some of his most popular works. He only wrote for twenty-two years, dying at the age of 40 in 1916. He never wrote extensively about writing, he did leave nuggets of advice that I’m going to craft into a few pieces of writing advice he DID give and then see if I follow them. The original quotes are listed below.

1) “London's books had been lived. They were not autobiographical, yet based upon his close observations and notes.”

Hopefully, ALL of my writing comes from my life – not that I’ve ever met a sapient plantimal. Not that I’ve ever crash-landed on the Moon. Not that I’ve ever become friends with a genetically engineered woman. Not that I’ve ever lived on Mars…but I’ve been able to IMAGINE it; and even when I’ve got aliens in my stories, I have to make them understandable. I have to give them some recognizable Human emotion or response. I think I’ve done that part well, because a part of ME is in every character I build – even a veterinarian who was born piebald.

2) “You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

I’ve NEVER waited for inspiration; like “writer’s block”, I think it was invented by writers who wanted to BE writers rather than become writers by writing something – anything – and polishing it and sending it out. London never waited – he just wrote what he’d experienced and despite the implication, there were times that Jack London used the bathroom, slept, ate meals, got sick, and did any of the mundane things we all do. Even the TV series 24 doesn’t include people using the bathroom. So, in all of our writing, even the most realistic – like London’s – we leave out stuff. We get inspired by the “exciting parts.

3) “Avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible -- if you care to see in print things you write.”

I hate unhappy endings myself. Of course, London didn’t follow his own rule, but that’s all right because in general, the endings of his stories are UNDERSTANDABLE. I’m OK if the main characters dies because they made dumb choices. I’m NOT OK when a character steps out to cross the street and gets hit by a car. Of course, I wasn’t particularly OK with it when that happened to an old friend of mine.

4) “Don't write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen.”

I think he might have meant, “…at a time.” I can’t write “too much”; I write what I want and that never seems like “too much”.

5) “And who knows what Romance, what Adventure, what Love, is lurking around the next turn of the road?”

For me, it’s something I just learned recently: every story, whether SF, F, Mystery, Horror, or contemporary YA…needs to have a mystery at its core. Not that the character has to SOLVE a mystery, but that there is something they don’t know; something that has to reach some kind of resolution so that the main character(s) can move on in life.

6) “Read voraciously.”

This one doesn’t need explanation. ON my “to read” list, I currently have FREAKONOMICS (Dubner/Levitt), RESURGENCE (Cherryh)…I could go on, but I read widely. THE THORN BIRDS and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and BLINK and VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER and DON’T CALL THE WOLF…It comes from a master storyteller. It MUST be right!

7) “It’s sometimes a dreary thing to sit and watch the game played in the small and petty way.”

I get tired of the small game. I live it now; worked in it as a high school teacher and counselor (“He said…” vs “She said…”); the small issues of life that we live every day. And yet…there are BIGGER games to play. Some people are caught up in MASSIVELY HUGE GAMES, like finding a solution to anthropogenic global warming or the conflict between Israel and the rest of the Middle East (do they realize that it’s a conflict that has been ongoing for some THOUSANDS of years?).

There is a middle ground: walking to cure cancer or Alzheimer’s; teaching; maybe even being a writer. Which is what London was, bringing the issues of the time to his short stories and novels, which tens of thousands of people read. He worked to create influence. (I guess they actually call them “influencers” today…)

8) “WORK. WORK all the time.”

Like most serious writers, I do this already. Not as much as I’d like; but more than I should.

9) “Success is just this — retaining the substance and transmuting the potential into the kinetic.”

WOW! A science metaphor! What it means to me is that everyone has the potential to be (in this case) a writer. We all have story. It lives in every Human. That’s the potential. There is no one on Earth who has led a solely boring life. Things have happened to all of us. The challenge to the writer, which London managed to do to spectacular effect, is to take the potential and change it into a story people can read; with the right balance of action and talk, talk, talk – that creates in them a desire to move out and do something similar. That’s kinetic energy.

10) “Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain.”

I did this when I was in Africa and when I went to South Korea to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and my two grandchildren. I’ve started to turn the experience in South Korea into story, but my African life hasn’t made it there yet. OTOH, I just realized that my time in Africa (including being in a country in which the military overthrew the civilian government and formed a junta which still rules today…) was incredibly intense and not only have the feelings faded some, they are hard to write about. I need to look at that again and see if I can bring the emotions out and set them down in story.
_____________________________________________________________

“As Conrad observed, London's books had been lived. They were not autobiographical, yet based upon his close observations and notes. Whether nonfiction reportage or fiction, the sense of realism is present. For this reason it helps to understand how his other activities in life influenced his writing: his socialism, his farming, his travels, his family. One weaves into the other.”

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

“Avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible -- if you care to see in print things you write. (In this connection don't do as I do, but do as I say).”

“Don't write too much. Concentrate your sweat on one story, rather than dissipate it over a dozen.”

“And who knows what Romance, what Adventure, what Love, is lurking around the next turn of the road, ready to leap out on us if we’ll only travel that far?”

“London also read voraciously, immersed himself in a thorough autodidactic education, taught himself how to write, and became a bestselling author — writing classics like Call of the Wild and White Fang, alongside 20 other books, 200 short stories, and 400 non-fiction pieces.”

“It’s sometimes a dreary thing to sit and watch the game played in the small and petty way. One who not only takes a hand in the game, but calmly sits outside as well and watches, usually sees the small and petty way, and is content to face immediate losses, knowing that the ultimate gain is his. It is so small, so pitifully small, that at worst it can produce only a passing glow of anger, and after that, pity only remains, and remains, and tolerance without confidence. — Oh, why can’t the men and women of this world learn that playing the game in the small way is the losing way? They are always doomed to failure when they play against the one who plays in the large way.”

“Spell it in capital letters, WORK. WORK all the time.” (“Getting Into Print,” The Editor, March 1903)

“Success is just this — retaining the substance and transmuting the potential into the kinetic.” –“The Question of a Name,” The Writer, December 1900

“Find out about this earth, this universe; this force and matter, and the spirit that glimmers up through force and matter from the magnet to Godhead. And by all this I mean WORK for a philosophy of life.” –“Getting Into Print,” The Editor, March 1903

“Most people don’t realize it, but Jack London pioneered science fiction. He wrote about germ warfare in one story, about an energy weapon in another, and about men encountering a prehistoric Mammoth in another. His story, “The Shadow and the Flash” was about achieving invisibility. [His scifi stories] were written in the early 1900s. The lesson for writers today is that they should not be stuck in one genre. There is no question that London fictionalized his experiences for the most successful portion of his career, but he later branched out.”

“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain.”

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London, https://london.sonoma.edu/writings, https://nameberry.com/babyname/Jack,
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/jack-london-quotes/, (A complete list of London’s works: https://www.prosperosisle.org/spip.php?article229#Stories “205 stories, 15 novels…”), https://velocitywriting.com/jack-london/#:~:text=of%20his%20life.-,%E2%80%9CDon't%20write%20too%20much.,wrote%20in%20his%20short%20career. (DL Hughes says differently: “23 novels, three autobiographical memoirs, 125 short stories, 22 nonfiction pieces and essays, about 40 published poems, and three plays”)
Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JNnybcihL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 597

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: Attack of the Killer Whatever
Current Event: “In various Stephen King short stories, he has had people attacked by novelty chattering teeth, paintings, a toy monkey, evil toads... If it can be seen as even vaguely creepy by anybody in the Western world, chances are it's killed somebody in a Stephen King story.”

Liam Johnson held his Kindle, staring down at it.

Sophia Smith, sitting next to him, said, “What are you waiting for?”

The roar of voices in the lunch room was almost deafening. He didn’t hear her – or didn’t respond – until she nudged him.

When he looked over at her, there wasn’t any color in even HIS usually pasty face. His freckles, even now that he was fifteen, still stood out on his face like spaghetti sauce blotches. At least he’d got his hair cut super short over winter break, Sophia thought with approval. The red stuff at shoulder length had been almost too much to stand! He said, “The last time I read a new Stephen King book, I almost died.”

Sophia shook her head and took a bite of her taco salad then made a face. “The food didn’t get any better over break, I’ll tell you that much. Why can’t they just order out from Taco Bell?”

“You’re not listening to me!” Liam said.

“Sure I am – the last time you read this guy’s book, you almost pissed yourself.”

“I didn’t say that. I said I almost DIED.”

Shaking her head, she toasted him with another forkful of salad and said, “Whatever.”

He stood up abruptly, looking down at her with the strangest look then said, “I gotta go.”

“Go where? It’s the first day of a new semester. You don’t have any homework.” She sighed, he could be almost as dramatic as her friends. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him down on his chair again. “OK – let’s start at the beginning.”

The cafeteria was jammed and someone had been moving in on Liam’s seat when she pulled him back. If it had been another freshman, she wouldn’t have bothered, but the look the guy was shooting at her was deadly. She grabbed her lunch tray without letting go of Liam and said, “This was making me sick, anyway.” She tossed it into the nearby garbage can and towing him after her, made her way to the stairwell.

The supervisor knew them both and waved them through. When the door shut behind them, muted to a dull roar, she said, “The last story this guy wrote almost killed you…” she paused.

He wouldn’t meet her eye, looking down at his ereader. Finally he lifted his chin and said, “Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but his stories...they’re somehow linked to me.”

“You mean like ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ linked to you?”

He make as if he were thinking, then shook his head, “Not that closely linked.” He pursed his lips, sucked the top one between his teeth then said, “I love reading…”

“Duh!” she said, slugging him softly on the shoulder. “I do, too.”

“Nah, you like your Ebony and Essence,” he held up one hand defensively, “Not that that’s bad! You’re like my only friend that reads as much as me, but,” he looked down again, “When I read a Stephen King book or story, I get sucked into it. I can’t explain it, exactly. It’s like the book is about me, but not about me. That’s why I don’t dare read his newest one...which I got for Christmas...which I can’t NOT read...which, if I do is gonna kill me. Like, for real...”

She grabbed his Kindle, cussing, and thumbed it on. The cover of the book showed a guy who looked like he was delivering mail in a tornado. In bold, red letters across the bottom – smaller than Stephen King’s name in bolder, redder letters across the top, was the word, MAIL…”

Names: ♀ ; ♂ Most common US names 2014

Image: https://cdn.britannica.com/40/11740-004-50816EB1/Boris-Karloff-Frankenstein-monster.jpg

Slice of PIE: Does What We Read Say Anything About Who We Are?

NOT using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention; to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education – which I now have!)), 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…

I started to think about this when I texted a friend of mine, “Do you think your love of horror/apocalypse suggests a hesitation in yourself that drastic change leads to the loss of everything you love?”

Turns out what we love and why we love it WAY deeper than that! Neil Gaiman wrote: “Fairy tales are more than true: Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

If you think about it, ALL fiction is fairy tale. By definition, a fairy tale is “…any far-fetched story or tall tale; it is used especially of any story that not only is not true, but could not possibly be true. Legends are perceived as real; fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, fairy tales usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and to actual places, people, and events; they take place ‘once upon a time’ rather than in actual times.”

The links below will take you to articles from WILDLY varying sources (WIRED, Mike Duran (a Christian writer and commentator), the BBC, NPR, Bookriot, All Women’s Talk, and Unflitered) – yet after reading them, I find they have some surprising things in common.

In general it seems, we read fiction to escape/for fun; to stretch our imagination; explore scary concepts and issues from a distance; see that when the lives and hearts of characters are broken they can be put back together; how to arm ourselves against a horrible world; to be empowered; be transported; and anchor us with its strong sense of place.

Let me look at each one briefly and a bit closer.

Escape and for fun: OK, this will be really brief because it’s self-explanatory!

To stretch our imagination: The book I’m reading now is a horror/apocalypse and it HAS stretched my imagination. People who read as well as watching TV/movies, are more interesting to talk to than people who don’t. As well, they MAY be more interested in thinking outside the box.

We can explore scary concepts and issues: We can think of the most horrific situation BEFORE we have to face it. There are times I wished that I’d read more novels where breast cancer and Alzheimer’s were an integral PART of the story. I don’t mean novels written to “deal with” those things, but novels in which dealing with debilitating or uncontrollable disease or conditions was part of the plot and showed possible ways to deal with it…

When people’s hearts are broken they CAN be healed: that is something that the novels in Lois McMaster Bujold’s VORKOSIGAN series has illustrated. He is physically handicapped, and he DWELLS on it much of the time. But, he does manage to break free with lots of effort.

The next two do well together: Fiction can help us arm ourselves against a horrible world and to be empowered when we face that real, horrible world. Lisa Cron, who has worked in publishing, as an agent, a producer on TV shows, a story consultant, a university instructor, and an author of several best-selling books, has said what I quote above: “We’re wired to turn to story to teach us the way of the world.”

Reading in your chosen genre also gives you an anchor with its strong sense of place. I started reading science fiction when I was in sixth grade. I will tell you honestly here, that my 6^th through 9^th grade years were truly miserable. I hated myself, hated how I looked, hated what I felt,  hated how I was treated (even in my family at times, but absolutely by almost every kid around me). There was nowhere to turn but to story. Once I had an anchor, I was finally able to sail safely out of the harbor that it created. I went from LOATHING school, to becoming a teacher myself – and eventually becoming a counselor. I got the following comment from a former student of mine on the anniversary of my birth day: “Happy birthday!!! Stew stew!!! You are the reason I am such a powerful being today. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Cooper and AEF…” It would have been impossible for me to imagine that back then. But today, it made me feel warm all over – but NOT think it was only a dream. Reading changed me.

Reading – and it doesn’t matter much WHICH genre we choose – allows us to be transported beyond the “regular” world in a way that movies and TV can’t match. Watching TV, by definition is passive. Watching doesn’t require you to DO anything. You don’t even need to think – witness those people who leave their television on all day long without looking at it. It’s noise and very ignorable. When you read something you CHOOSE to read, you can’t read and cook supper. You can’t read and mow the lawn. You can’t even read and sleep at the same time. READING is an action verb. At its very best, watching is a weak action verb and doesn’t require us to do anything – at the very most – but react to what we see. Engagement is minor; and the importance of imagination is best left suppressed because the people who create TV and movies DEMAND that you have no input into what they are presenting. In fact, if you ADD something to what you’re watching…well it’s not even possible. When you watch, someone pours story, plot, image, set, character identity and appearance; into you.

When you read, you pour yourself into the fiction. At its very best, your favorite piece of fiction can anchor us with its strong sense of place. The writer spends thousands of hours creating a world, then inviting you into – at the same time knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that the world you create in your head will be DIFFERENT than the one they created in their writing. An example, when I do presentations to young people on writing, I ask them, “Where is Harry Potter’s scar?”

Every one of them can tell me exactly where it is.

Then I say, “Can you tell me exactly where JK Rowling tells you where the scar is?”

They can’t, because she DOESN’T! (As some of you won’t believe me, when you think you’ve found the passage where she tells EXACTLY where Voldemort’s scar on Harry is. Please email me the book, chapter, and paragraph of the description.)

*tapping foot patiently*

I’m waiting…

At any rate, I’ll leave you with this: “How can you dream big if you have no imagination? How can you strive beyond the everyday if you have no idea what the fantastical might look like? If you’ve never seen a hero embark on a quest for the impossible—and achieve it, where will you find the courage to try? If no one has ever told you stories of someone reaching for the unreachable, how will you ever know to reach for the stars? Or the moon? Or even past your current socio-economic circumstance?...How can you empathize with someone, if you can’t imagine what they must be feeling?”

How indeed – except by reading your choice of genre – science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, mystery, in fact ANY piece of fiction, you find that, “Put simply…[fiction] allows us to believe that we could all be [the one] who outsmarts the arrogant…though we have less formal experience and neither look nor dress the part… a silly notion, until you consider that a teenager in a hoodie created the largest social network in the world, and a research chemist and mother of two became an ‘Iron Lady’ and the most powerful woman in the world…”

References: https://www.mikeduran.com/2012/02/27/what-genres-do-you-refuse-to-read-and-why-you-shouldnt-refuse-to-read-them/
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200506-the-books-that-might-flourish-in-this-time-of-crisis
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/05/635052036/reading-horror-can-arm-us-against-a-horrifying-world
https://bookriot.com/why-women-read-romance-novels/#:~:text=Women%20read%20romance%20novels%20because%20they're%20in%20a%20relationship,through%20the%20pangs%20of%20love.&text=And%20occasionally%20keep%20a%20running%20commentary%20on%20their%20relationship.
https://www.wired.com/2010/09/why-fantasy-matters/
https://books.allwomenstalk.com/important-reasons-to-read-science-fiction-novels/
http://unfiltered.groupsjr.com/mysteries-trash-many-people-love/
Image: https://bookviralreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Literary-Fiction.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 596

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.

F Trope: dark lord
Current Event: “In November 2012, satellite photos revealed a half kilometer long propaganda message carved into a hillside in Ryanggang Province, reading, ‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’. The message, located next to an artificial lake built in 2007 to serve a hydroelectric station, is made of Korean letters measuring 15 by 20 meters, and is located approximately 9 kilometers south of Hyesan near the border with the People's Republic of China.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/23/north-korea-hillside-homage-kim-jong-un)

Ardian Goodpaster tapped on his tablet-computer – t-comp – and said, “Look, you have to read this!” He held it out to her.

Noemi Zweifelhofer grunted, hunched over her own t-comp. She said, “Doar stai un minut!”

Ardian’s eyes grew wide and he whispered in German, “Ich denke nicht, dass Sie Rumänisch in diesem Augenblick sprechen sollten! Wir sind in genug Schwierigkeiten, wie es ist!”

Noemi finally looked up, her dark eyes flashing and said, “Do you think speaking in English would be all right?”

Ardian snorted, “Better than speaking Romanian. We can get in trouble for that…”

“You don’t think believing that Kim Jong-un is an incarnation of The Dark Lord will keep us out of trouble?”

“I didn’t say I believed it – just that it seems…logical given what Mom and Dad say about how he acted when he went to school here.”

“Your mom and dad were his friends! He hated my dad!”

Ardian shook his head, “I’d probably dislike your dad, too if he stuck my head in a toilet and flushed it…”

“That was a kid’s prank!”

“…fourteen, fifteen and sixteen times on ten different occasions in honor of the illustrious North Korean leader’s birthdays?”

Noemi glared at her best friend, then burst out laughing. Finally she said, “All right, it wasn’t a kid’s prank. But all of our parents agree he was creepy and mean.”

Ardian tapped the t-comp and said, “You really believe that the inscription means what they say it means?”

“‘Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun!’?” He stared at it then slowly shook his head. Noemi continued, “I know my Korean is adequate…” Ardian snorted, but she overrode him, “But I’ve cross-referenced this in half a dozen dictionaries.”

“So what do you think?”

She zoomed in on the image of the inscription then swung to the right, saying, “When it’s written like this, left-to-right and with the order of the characters – and given that the archaic form was used intentionally, it reads, ‘Long dominate Kim Jong-un, Darkest of the Dark Lords’.”

“And no one else in the world reads it that way?”

She held out her t-comp, “I wouldn’t say that.” Their eyes met and for a moment locked. Ardian felt the blood drain out of his face. She handed him her own t-comp. “Read it.”

He kept his eyes on hers then finally looked down. The headline was in German, from a recent edition of Die Welt. “Different Interpretation of North Korea’s Paean of Praise?” He read, looked at her.

“Scroll to the next document. Two weeks later.”

He did and read, “Interpreter Found Murdered”…

Names: ♀; ♂ Today, both are entirely Swiss names
Image:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: WHO is Human? Are you? Am I? Was Jesus? Is a Mobile Plantimal? Who decides?

Using the Programme Guide of the 2020 World Science Fiction Convention, ConZEALAND (The First Virtual World Science Fiction Convention), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. I will be using the events to drive me to distraction or revelation – as the case may be. The link is provided below where this appeared on Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 1300 hours (aka 1:00 pm).

What is Human?

It’s Alive!’: The Long Posthuman Shadow of Frankenstein in Rajaniemi, Chiang, Newitz and Winterson.

Mary Shelley’s seminal Frankenstein continues to provoke recent authors’ questions on what it is to be “human” and the role of possible posthuman future sub-creations to redefine this category: from “uplifted” animals and virtual “toy” children, to enslaved and sexed robots and transhuman subjects. How do we build a real/conscious/sentient AI? What discussions do we need to think of conditions and thresholds separating AI from sentience?

Sunny Teich: Moderator
David Powers/Marti Ward: Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science (SF author under several different names…)

Writing as Marti Ward, Powers says on Amazon: “What's critical about the stories of Clark, Asimov and McCaffrey, about Real Hard SF, is that they seek to explore the scientific and sociological implications of new, interesting, or plausible elements and the measures that are put in place to control them…I don't much like the authors whose eyes, like their characters', glaze over at the first mention of some overly simplistic pseudoscientific explanation. I don't think they are being faithful to the genre. Hard SF, Real SF, is about exploring the implications of what we currently know and hypothesize in science, projecting where that will take our technology and our society, and what problems will emerge...and figuring out how we will deal with them.

“If you're interested in what it's like to be a scientist, engineer, astronaut or whatever, then we are doing you no favours if we gloss over that process as 'boring' or 'complicated'. And as a scientist and author, I don't get to achieve my goal of understanding more about the actual science and technology, and its ramifications.”

WHEW!

Lately, I’ve noticed that that seems to be what I’m about – though at this point, I’m not doing a good enough job of it to SELL the stories.

My MARTIAN HOLIDAY novel looks at the idea of narrowly confining Human to being born naturally, a “uterine birth”…

In my RIVER series of stories, genetic engineering (gengineering) has created two entirely different societies – one in which you are Human ONLY if your DNA in 65% unaltered (as compared to the Original Human Genome Project – 2003) – and if you’re not, you are not Human, but a sort of smart animal.) The other society is one of “designer Humans” in which genetic engineers whose definition of Human is so broad as to be effectively useless, gengineer Humans for EVERY environment, but without regard to how many there are for each use. Who is Human in this society, and what happens when the line begins to blur? If you are a singleton, a unique Human, what kind of voice do you have at the highest level (NOTE: there could be a fascinating legal story here…)? It might be pertinent to note that the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated in 1866; the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children wasn’t incorporated until 1875. Put more plainly, it took eleven years for a child to be treated THE SAME AS a horse, pig, cow, or chicken…

Sixty years later, child labor laws went into effect, banning children under 16 from working for “gainful employment” – in other words, to make a living. What hope do artificial Humans and Artificial Intelligences have in the face of that kind of history?

In a short story I’ve been unsuccessfully submitting, “The Murder of AutoTech #47369”, AIs are common and employed as police investigators. They DO have rights, but they are less than the rights of a full Human, because, after all, Humans created them. (an aside: animals had more rights than Human children When a biological, natural Human is murdered (even though he’s a piece of crap of a Human), and the evidence points to an artificial intelligence…then that AI is wiped…is it one murder or two, and “whodunit”?

As a teacher and counselor for 30 and 10 years respectively, I have seen parents treat their children with physical and emotional cruelty, neglect, and outright abuse. I have known children to survive that who became mirror images of their parents; I have seen children survive that who became wise, wonderful parents.

So, the question I’ve pondered for some time is “What makes us Human?”

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m a Christian – but as an atheist friend of mine told me once, “You’re not LIKE those other ones…”. OK, then. Human was once easy to define – or was it? For instance, what was Jesus? He was absolutely a Human, uterine-born. But he was also God. How about the others in Biblical history – the Nephilim, or angels, or even Balaam’s donkey. How would they be classified? The child of a highly circumscribed people, he was without doubt, a Hebrew of the lineage of David, an ancient king. But according to the Bible, he was both man and God…Was he Human? (BTW – dealing with a half-Human, half-God Savior, why do outsiders believe that Christians will curl up and die when we someday contact an alien civilization? NOT a clearly thought-out position…

At any rate, another universe I’ve been playing in for some time is the one where it’s Humans and WheetAh – animal and plantimal…are the WheetAh considered “Human”…nope, insulting to BOTH sides, where the ethnic slurs, Weed and Weasel are common and the tension between the two civilizations is highly charged at the best of times. What does it mean to be Human? How wide is the category?

Captain Kirk, of Star Trek “fame” expressed a bit of what I believe when delivering the eulogy at Spock One’s funeral in the movie, “STAR TREK: The Wrath of Khan”: “We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human.”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B7iu39c0-U)

Program Book: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/conzealand/en/conzealand/schedule
Image: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BossyAmazingAmericanshorthair-size_restricted.gif

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 595

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.

H Trope: good vs evil, Goddess of Chaos Will Reign!
“Current” Event: THE DARK IS RISING series by Susan Cooper + https://www.rt.com/usa/348303-brexit-texit-texas-secession/, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-24/first-uk-then-scotland-then-texas

But this is just an idea day, so read the article above about the possibility of Scotland seceding from the United Kingdom (discussed this with my wife or daughter…there have been “disunity” tremblors in all sorts of countries at all sorts of times. From 1836-1846, Texas was an independent republic. Quebec continues a long history of attempting to break free of Canada. The USSR shattered (or reassembled itself) into its original annexed nations.

So – let’s take North America: the Republic of Vermont, the Republic of California, the Free State of Jones, the Republic of Texas, MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), Deseret, and an Independent Quebec are all movements that are taking place or happened in the past and were efforts of smaller groups to separate themselves from the federal governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada respectively. Now, what if these separatists were being driven by a dark goddess of chaos and a group of teens from each place met at a camp to discover they were avatars of this goddess…and didn’t particularly WANT to stay that way?

Thomas Evans shook his head and said, “You don’t think we’ll go to Hell for doin’ this?”

Nancy Seddon shot him a disgusted look and said, “I thought you didn’t believe in God or Hell or anything like that?”

“Well, I don’t really, but just in case, isn’t summoning Kauket like a sin or something?”

Nancy laughed, “She’s already lose in this world, Tom. Look around you.”

They were in an abandoned barn in southern Missouri. “It’s no different than usual.”

“Yeah, but things have to change. We can’t go on like this!”

Tom looked down at her, where she was drawing marks in the packed earth. She’d made a big deal of sweeping away all the old, brittle, dry hay and clearing a circle. She’d also set out crude tallow candles which she’d lit with a laboriously struck flint. He glanced at his bloody knuckles. “It’s worth bloody knuckles for?”

Nancy glanced up at him as she finished the last line and stood up, rocking to the balls of her feet. She wore an expensive pair of shoes they’d pulled from the body of a white woman who’d been strangled to death and left by the roadside to rot. “It’s worth summoning the goddess Kauket for.”

“Why do you need to call some foreign ‘gyptian thing for? Don’t we have any chaos goddesses in the Confederacy?”

“We’re in the Union now, Tom. ‘member? We’re the Free State of Jones.”

He grunted. He hadn’t forgotten. He’d even shot a couple of Rebs for the good Mr. Knight. He just hadn’t the stomach for much more’n two. Nancy had dragged him away and said she had an easier way to knock down the Confederacy. “I forgot. No Choctaw goddesses…”

She surged to her feet and shoved him, “Nanishta is a powerful goddess! In fact, she will reign over the end of the world!”

“Why don’t you call her, then?” Tom said, fighting the urge to shove her back.

Nancy looked back at the ring she’d made, shrugged, and said, “All right, fine. I’m sure she’ll listen to me even though…”

Tom backed from the circle as a dark, thunderhead had appeared, roiling in the center of the circle. At first it looked as if it would begin to rain in the dilapidated barn, but before he could laugh, the walls all around them began to bleed…

Names: ♀,♂ Common Southern names during the American Civil War

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-arXKTiwzTybeiZ-IjR8P9j_aP2vqKXJulRCqqk_e42EoyXriDrQffp-dV_b96wQqLf5Y-M9XYpYkS4Lpz0PJvQcjGfHXS3M8QSPWCq9l9UURqlah0AR2TAlNeS4yX_NR2arOLIZVuY/s1600/2212_1025142570.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: A Glimpse Into How I Wrote (and am still writing) My Christian, Hard Science Fiction Novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, 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, Julie Czerneda, and Lisa Cron. 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 professional writers...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!

On February 1 in 2009, I started what for several years was an entry on my blog: I wrote a novel in very small parts. It’s May 1, 2021…twelve years later.

What began as a vague idea, MARTIAN HOLIDAY 1: Paolo -- Robinson City
Roman holiday: entertainment acquired at the expense of others' suffering, or a spectacle

yielding such entertainment (Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary @2009) and a paragraph 2200 words long, grew into a massive novel...

The current word count is roughly 170,000 words. There are a few bits and pieces left to write before I type out the Final Chapter. What started out with a single character in a single domed city on Mars now involves seven main characters (one set of four “modified” clones), plus at least one close friend. Also making an unexpected appearance are Artificial Intelligences (six of them, one for each Dome on Mars plus an extra who coordinates the Federation of Ice Miners, Mechanics, and Technicians…)

The novel is so far beyond what I expected, I am in fact, in awe of what I created. There are four million Humans and Artificial Humans on Mars; there’s an anti-religion called the United Faith in Humanity – an idea out of which grew a Manifesto: “UFiH (spoken, ‘You-fee’ banned Christians, molesters , Jews, rapists, Buddhists, murderers, Muslims, thieves, Hindus, and embezzlers. While it doesn’t say so specifically, an ardent UFiH-er implies that it is ‘of course’ against racists, sexists, or any other kind of ‘-ists. They’ll swear that the intent is to prevent fanaticism and taxing a young civilization – but the honest ones will admit that part of the injunction is against mind or heart, and the other part is against biology.”

Over the past twelve years, the civilization has expanded, technology arose that I’d never considered: sybils, mindbombs, gMod disks and transports, airships, and in addition to the Domes, there suddenly appeared Stations (which became Quianshao, as well as Outposts…

And people! Lately I’ve wondered if my intent was to write an antiracist novel. My Artificial Humans (the slang word is inti) are considered second class citizens and are made to be blue-skinned so they can’t hide from the natural-born Humans (aka utes)…the parallels are obvious and I hope I’ve written them with sensitivity and diversity. I’ve written elsewhere on the blog about my quest to become both a better writer and to not shy away from issues of race and racism: “POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: “It’s a Mistake To Write About People of Different Ethnicities…” (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/07/possibly-irritating-essay-its-mistake.html). Not only did I teach at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school, we (my wife and I, and at one time two kids and a foster daughter…and various long-term guests…) live in a city that was recently the headline new for both US news programs and on the BBC News headlines: Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, as of 2021, the MOST racially diverse city in the state (https://www.homesnacks.com/most-diverse-cities-in-minnesota/). Thinking of race is something that is, here, natural.

At any rate, my Mars, the Mars of the United Faith in Humanity is in crisis. As a result of a concatenation of events – intentional, as I threw together the Book of Esther, the Book of Daniel, the martyrdom of Stephen (as told in Acts chapters 6 and 7 (as well as Acts 8:2, 11:19, and 22:20), and various parts of the life of the Apostle Paul as told in the Pauline Epistles (and yes, I DID go to Bible College (at the time it was known as Golden Valley Lutheran College, which grew out of the old Lutheran Bible Institute).

I’ve been working on it for the past twelve years, but because I was stressing out, I stopped doing the story as blog entries and set it aside, combining all of the entries into one document. Then I stopped because I had NO idea what to do next. The file sat idle for another two or three years until, about a year ago, I set out to finish it.

Taking the raw story, I colorized everything I’d written about each of the characters. Daniel and his partners, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego became Artificial Humans – DaneelAH (in honor of Asimov’s R. Daneel Olivaw), HanAH, AzAH, and MishAH because the TRUE names of the four characters in the Book of Daniel were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshak, and Abednego – and Ashpenaz, the Chief Official in charge of the captured Hebrews, gave them the Babylonian names Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – hence the names you see above. Oh, I also changed the gender of Azariah and Mishael to women; and Queen Esther became Consort Aster. Then Stephan became Stepan Izmaylova and Paul became Paolo Marcillon.

Paolo’s sections were all red, Aster’s all purple, Stepan’s green, and DaneelAH, HanAH, MishAH, and AzAH all became blue. After identifying all of the sections of each character (or set of characters), I grouped them all together. That was done about a year ago, at the beginning of the summer of 2020.

It was daunting because my plan was to rotate the story through the four storylines, occasionally crossing them, but with the intent of everyone being in the same place at the same time for one final event. But what event would that be? What could possibly bring such disparate characters to the same place at the same time? As the story had evolved, they were scattered across the surface of Mars – Aster was in Opportunity Dome; Paolo in Robinson Dome then Burroughs Dome, and finally Bradbury…then up to Ísgrunnur on the North Dune Sea…Stepan was in Burroughs, and DaneelAH, et al started in Malacandra and ended up everywhere else…I’d never thought far enough ahead.

So, I created a Revolution that Paolo first, then the others were working to turn into a Re-Formation of Martian society into one that would include Humans, Artificial Humans, and Artificial Intelligences as equal partners in the colonization and eventual terraforming of Mars. Of course, I had to include the Face on Mars – but not as something woo-woo. It’s really there, though not actually a “face”. It’s something more.

You’ll have to read MARTIAN HOLIDAY to find out – if I can sell it!

If you have specific questions, post them in the Comments below. I’ll answer them – directly if they don’t concern the plot; and in a roundabout way if they do!

Image: https://mechanteanemone.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/martian-chronicles500lgjpg.jpg