IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 515

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: Aura Vision – The ability to perceive normally invisible Life Energy of others, often colour-coded for good/evil, emotions, amount of life, Power Level, etc. This can be presented as Functional Magic, Psychic Powers, related to spirituality, a biological gift, or even technological.
Current Event: (From my writer-niece’s blog: “This is because red was suddenly born in little jagged bursts along the horizon. Perhaps this is only something you can understand after months of upper Midwestern winter. The desaturated palettes of chickadee and snow shadow have a way of changing the mode of sight. Color might exist, but it is lost to us for a time. In March, first thaw we begin to retrain the eye. Light comes in bursts, gives way to miles of camel colored grass, bursts of red– barn, flag, brick. The braided intestines of road kill bloom in an eagle’s beak. There is still no green save for pine boughs dulled to rosemary gray.” https://lettersfromchurchofthetoastedcoconutdoughnut.wordpress.com/ )

Eyvindur Mjöll pursed his lips and looked down at the handheld scanner in his hand. “I can’t make this do what I want...”

Pich Dara Sophana, leaned over the scanner and shook her head. He couldn’t see it as both of them wore surface suits. “It’s impossible because it’s so cold out.”

“I calibrated it for that,” he said. “Besides, it’s supposed to be warm enough now.”

“Original Humans were homeotherms – they’re going to still be.”

“We’re broad-spectrum eurytherms. But if I point the scanner at you,” he did. “Your aura is peculiar.”

Pich Dara sniffed. “Your aura is always peculiar. But I don’t blame your temperature regulation on that. You’re just weird.”

“Takes one to know one,” Eyvindur said. She started to speak, but he cut her off, “This isn’t about auras, anyway. I’m trying to find a way we can screen the people that are evolving on the surface to see if they can be reintroduced to the gene pool.”

“We don’t want to pollute the pool, either! It’s small enough as it is.”

Eyvindur headed up a trail that had been worn into the dusty surface. Since Earth had frozen nearly solid after the climate had gone into wild gyrations under pressure of Humans, the Sun, and geologic cycles. The evacuation to Mars – even using the massive instantaneous matter transmission gates that gave anyone a chance to move to the tiny, rusty, cold world of HG Wells’ imagination –was traumatic and over two billion stayed behind to take their chances on an planet attempting to find a balance again.

But Humanity changed. Something happened to both populations. There was talk that Humans had split into two new species...

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

WRITING ADVICE – Creating Alien Aliens, Part 10: Microscopic Aliens In Space…and Maybe On Earth!

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
Part 8: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/05/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html
Part 9: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/08/writing-advice-creating-alien-aliens.html

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN had a profound effect on my young life as a reader!

I’d read the book about two thirds of the way through, when my dad came into my room and said he was going to take me to the theater “now”. It was the summer of 1971 and I I’d recently turned 14 and I’d be starting ninth grade in the Fall. No one else in my family was interested in it, so I was going alone.

I was going to go to the Park Theater in St. Louis Park, MN. The movie I was going to see had the same title of the book I was reading. I WAS SO EXCITED!!!

I knew the plot from having read the book, but I didn’t know the end yet. I’d never read anything my Michael Crichton, so this was a first for me, but the idea of an alien microorganism infecting Earth was fascinating…

I’ve read a few of the books listed below; but my point this time isn’t to look at PLAGUES, but to look at alien life forms that AREN’T world-shattering plagues.

One exception that springs to mind is David Gerrold’s WAR AGAINST THE CTHORR, in which an alien civilization releases microorganisms whose purpose is to change Earth so that it’s habitable for THEM. “With the human population ravaged by a series of devastating plagues, the alien Chtorr arrive to begin the final phase of their invasion. Even as many on Earth deny their existence, the giant wormlike carnivores prepare the world for the ultimate violation--the enslavement of humanity for food!” The current cover is actually pretty boring. The OLD cover? You’ll see it above!

Another instance of microorganism-intelligence invading Earth is the short story “Blood Music” by Greg Bear in which a scientist invents intelligent blood – not just “smart blood”, rather, his blood actually becomes an intelligent being. It also escapes into the sewers where it will presumably become an “alien” monster.

There’s even a scientist who is seriously pursuing the search for alien microbes: https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_rugheimer_the_search_for_microscopic_aliens/transcript?language=en#t-54853

Her inspiration for the search for extraterrestrial life started: “"I had never heard anything more exciting. Finally science is beginning to being able to start answering humanity’s most fundamental questions of how we got here, and is there life elsewhere in the Universe? Are we alone? These are basic fundamental questions we have been thinking about for thousands of years.”

There has been some poking around at the idea of ET being microscopic, but perhaps we need to consider it more seriously?

Maybe combining the idea of microscopic alien life with the serious exploration of the OTHER two thirds of the Earth’s surface might yield more alien life than we expected.

For example, what about the life around “black smokers”? A black smoker, technically a “‘hydrothermal vent’, is a fissure on the seafloor from which geothermally heated water discharges. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at spreading centers, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal deposits are rocks and mineral ore deposits formed by the action of hydrothermal vents.”

What’s pertinent here is the life that has evolved around these vents. WHOLELY different from life anywhere else on Earth. These black (and white) smokers are where “complex communities fueled by the chemicals dissolved in the vent fluids [exist]. Chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea form the base of the food chain, supporting diverse organisms, including giant tube worms, clams, limpets and shrimp. Active hydrothermal vents are thought to exist on Jupiter's moon Europa, and Saturn's moon Enceladus, and it is speculated that ancient hydrothermal vents once existed on Mars.”

I refer you to another Creating Alien Aliens post I made: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2018/03/slice-of-pie-exploring-solar-system.html. I find it crazy that Humans are talking about exploring other worlds when there is a virtually unexplored word along the planet’s tectonic plate boundaries. The idea was proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1915 and was completely REJECTED by all Earth scientists until 1965!!!! (Ah yes, the open-mindedness and willingness of the entire scientific community to accept new ideas! So heartwarming to know that scientists are fair and thoughtful!) “All this evidence, both from the ocean floor and from the continental margins, made it clear around 1965 that continental drift was feasible and the theory of plate tectonics, which was defined in a series of papers between 1965 and 1967, was born, with all its extraordinary explanatory and predictive power.”

It also seems that there are vast, unexploited fields of minerals around the smokers…when we figure out how to work that deep – in order to make money, of course! – and start mining the ocean floor, maybe we’ll finally begin to be able to prepare for the exploration of water environments in a meaningful way.

In the meantime, I hope that intelligence hasn’t evolved around the smokers, because…well, go to this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent and scroll down to EXPLOITATION and tell there isn’t a story there waiting to be writte

References: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/coronavirus-feels-like-something-out-of-a-sci-fi-novel-heres-how-writers-have-imagined-similar-scenarios/2020/02/27/7dc59386-57f5-11ea-9000-f3cffee23036_story.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Rugheimer,
Image: https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780671464936-us.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 514

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: Blue Collar Warlock ("I have an idea that most of the mystics in comics are generally older people, very austere, very proper, very middle class in a lot of ways. They are not at all functional on the street. It struck me that it might be interesting for once to do an almost blue collar warlock. Somebody who was streetwise, working class, and from a different background than the standard run of comic book mystics. Constantine started to grow out of that.")

Current Event: “Forgive me for getting a bit carried away. I find it an entertaining exercise to look for those parallels. I simply wonder if the manner in which we tackle the challenges we face in real life is reflected in the way we tackle our virtual battles. As a side-note, I'd also be interested to see what kind of people the Destiny sub consists of.” (http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2n3xfc/whats_your_primary_class_and_what_do_you_do_in/)

Rafael Pai-Teles sighed. “Eu vou estar o trabalhar para a Metrô del Belo Horizonte para o resto de minha vida!”

Eduarda Cisota shook her head and said, “Speak English. Your Portuguese is crappy.”

“I can’t work for the Belo Horizonto Metro for the rest of my life!”

Eduarda said, “What else are you going to do?”

Rafael said, “I can do something else.”

“You can’t do anything,” she said. “Now get back to work.”

Rafael scowled. “I’m worth a lot more than you think I am!” he snapped.

“You’re a kid. Just like me. You’re gonna run the train and I’m gonna take tickets from now until forever. It’s what happened. At least we didn’t get turned into stalagmites. We were lucky to be here when the Donkey Wizard took over Up North.”

“It was the Elephant Sorceress and she turned everyone into obsidian shards,” Eduarda said.

He threw his arms into the air and shouted, “Whatever! I can do something about it!”

“About every living thing being turned into some kind of inorganic obelisk – what can you possibly do?” Rafael crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. Eduarda rolled her eyes and said, “That didn’t come out how I meant it to come out.”

“How did you mean it, as a compliment?”

“No, but I didn’t mean to sound so...” as she spoke, a train roared into Carlos Prates Estação.

“I have to go now! I’ll tell you what I can do later!” he shouted.

She watched him run after the train where he was a porter. His father had been a physicist in the Aryabhata tradition, dealing with solar energy and, accordingly, solar weapons. He’d died when the Wizard or Sorceress or whoever turned life to stone. There was some Christian writer who’d written of a fictional sorceress who had done then, but she didn’t know who. The train started to pull out and she cursed. Now she’d have to...As she watched, the concrete platform under Rafael’s feet shimmered, then appeared to be a mound of living tissue – like a wart or pimple or something equally disgusting. As it rose though, it allowed Rafael to step easily on to the train. She rubbed her eyes and when she opened them, her long-time friend was waving back at her, grinning ear to ear as he pulled from the station.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belo_Horizonte_Metro
Names: ♀ Brazil; ♂ Brazil

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

Slice of PIE: Story Ideas From the Black Hills and the Badlands of South Dakota

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…

We just got back from a vacation to the Black Hills (where we stayed) and the Badlands, where I  drove and friend of mine and I hiked and visited.

In the space of six days, I returned with four new story ideas!

I’ll tender an explanation after I shared the ideas with you.

1) “Idiot Teenager Rock” On the outskirts of Keystone, SD, there rests a rock, obviously broken off from the towering cliffs that surround it. Of COURSE, teenagers dare each other to climb it! Of course they do! But there have been accidents. More than one broken bone. More than one serious injury. Maybe even one or two deaths…On the day someone is going to climb it, a crowd gathers. Not ONLY to watch, but to chant a litany. A litany of FAILURES. A boy likes a girl. He wants to impress her. But he’s terrified of heights. He sets out to climb…but the story won’t end the way you THINK it might…

2) Far future of the Vertical Village stories: An extended family of Lakota has gathered to take a biannual pilgrimage through the Sacred Badlands. It’s not a SAFE journey, so they are prepared. The pilgrimage is conducted in the old ways – non-motorized, though advisedly along the highway constructed long ago. They are attacked by a band of bofwhig and repel them using tranks and stunners, treating them as bofwhigs treated their ancestors. (All I have here is an image so far…) [Terrorists blew up Rushmore, leaving only Abraham Lincoln. Counter terrorists blew up Crazy Horse, leaving only the face.”]

3) “Harrison’s Hideout” – Physics doctoral candidate went to space to gather evidence for his theory: that alien civilizations use GRAVITY WAVES to communicate, but facing mounting doubt, he returned to his SD home and opened a “real” restaurant across from the local, cowboy watering hole – run by former best friend, long-time antagonist Milton “Custer” Pribyll. After some time, Harrison is visited by a giant, alien kangaroo (Shabe)…

4) Near where we stayed was an abandoned mine. Gold? Iron? Lead? Nope, rocks…there are PILES of quartz with mica intrusions, slate, granite, muscovite shist, rose quartz, feldspar, and endless rocks of white and transparent quartz. After we discovered huge piles of what appeared to be white sand, some research (on my phone!) and at home led me to this: https://www.dakotamatrix.com/content/pegmatites-of-the-black-hills Several photos down show the Etta Mine – with the giant stone I wrote about in #1!!!! The mine I got samples from is probably the Rose Mine. A guy in a pickup truck (yeah, I know exactly how lame that sounds…) said that the mine also dug up, crushed and shipped this ultra-fine white sand to a supplier for NASA, who used it to create pure quartz glass for…the exterior windows of the Space Shuttles!!!! (Which are no longer built…so the mine is abandoned. I found this as well: “Shuttle windows are made from a high-temperature quartz glass that can withstand heating and cooling without cracking. The same explanation applies to the Russian Soyuz and to NASA's new spacecraft called Orion that is under development.” https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/2007/faq-shuttleglass.html). A map I found MIGHT be the Rose Mine the cabin was near: https://westernmininghistory.com/mine_detail/10055784/ It’s NOT this mine, but it looks a lot like the mine we were near – see the link below. Apparently it’s owned by a company called Mintec (https://www.miningfoundationsw.org/Mintec)

Sorry about the "Squirrel!" moment up there. The upshot of this article is this: I said, “Abandoned mines make no sense to me.”

My wife responded, “Abandoned mines?”

I said, smiling, “Yep, not ‘Abandoned Minds’…”

And then: “What if AI are used to mine? Then a mine plays out or is abandoned. While poking around, I stumble across one. What next? Ground quartz is used to make Space Shuttle glass…”

The moral of this rather meandering story, is that you have NO IDEA WHERE YOUR NEXT IDEA WILL COME FROM, so be ready to greet it AND WRITE IT DOWN!

Links: https://www.cmog.org/article/glass-and-space-orbiter, https://www.google.com/maps/place/403+Pankratz+Rd,+Keystone,+SD+57751/@43.887619,-103.420581,134m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x877d2d1984c98da9:0x5581705fe0269db7!2sRose+Quartz+Mine!3b1!8m2!3d43.7158186!4d-103.5154715!3m4!1s0x877d36476d51c453:0x5c2a23156076003e!8m2!3d43.8878439!4d-103.4201578?hl=en

Image: 

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #11: Mary Robinette Kowal “& 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! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Mary Robinette Kowal – with a few from myself…

“Your Setting is a Telegraph” – WRITING EXCUSES, hosted by (in this, episode 14.16) by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Margaret Dunlap, and Howard Tayler).

I’ve seen notices and quotes from this podcast; and I’m familiar with podcasts (my son-in-law and daughter used to do them (North Saint Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgJGJUBYeCI9oOrNMUDj2g where: “…we play video games. I don't know what you expect me to say. Did you see the happy robot in the banner? He's pretty sweet isn't he? His name is Beep Boop. He hates video games. Anyway. Come join us as we play games and discuss many scholarly pursuits. ...you) know what? That scholarly pursuits thing was probably a lie. Don't hold me to that.” (I think my daughter wrote that…)

At any rate, I’m just not a podcast person. I’m not even a TV person (or a ipod or shuffle or any kind of music person even though I sing, play guitar and have been in two bands that traveled primarily MN, ND, SD, IA, and WI (as well as WY, CO, NE, NY, RI, and other states), and then spent 10 months visiting churches in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Liberia)…anyway, I digress.

So, in order to get some insight on the kind of advice Mary Robinette Kowal offers for free (she also teaches online classes). She’s well published in both fantasy and Alternate History SF (https://maryrobinettekowal.com/fiction-collectio/bibliography/) The difference between Mary Robinette Kowal and everyone else I’ve taken short story advice from, is that I’ve met her. I have a book signed by her, and she and my daughter had a nodding introduction at the recently burned down UNCLE HUGO’S SCIENCE FICTION BOOKSTORE and UNCLE EDGAR’S MYSTERY BOOKSTORE in Minneapolis.

Below, you’ll find the link to her homepage where she not only teaches her writing skills, she also hosts various podcasts and programs solo and with other writers.

I’m just going delve into one of the pieces and how that applies to me. But her site is FULL of advice! (She must have been a teacher in a former life…or she IS a teacher in her present life!)

This time, I’m looking at the episode of WRITING EXCUSES called “Your Setting is a Telegraph”.

What’s THAT mean? “Comes from the phrase ‘telegraphing a punch’. It means here that in choosing a setting, the writer is telling the reader exactly what to expect in a story.” In particular setting “mood”.

Word choice, what a character is doing; BUT you want to communicate the mood of a story instantly. How can we do this for our readers.

Mary: “If you are specific and concrete with your choices at the beginning, …if there’s a hand cannon, then there must be shooting thing it must be military SF; From the Three Stooges…if there’s a coconut crème pie on the mantle, then by the third act, someone is going to get hit in the face with it.”

She also points out something that may seem obvious to you all, but was something I DIDN’T discover until much later in my writing life: “One of the things about that is that you've got the specific concrete detail, but you also have the character's relationship to that detail.”

Duh. I realized again, in a story I just finished writing, I HAD to use all the things I carefully laid out at the beginning. For me, that meant I had to go back and carefully place the things I DID use, and remove things that I DIDN’T use.

For example, here’s the opening three sentences of the story: “Abercrombie Dylan Kristin Carol Went probably had no excuse to look miserable, certainly not based on what was in the abstract that popped up on my security monitor. I scrolled a bit. Maybe a small excuse. I had cranked the volume of my favorite band, Marrowbone & Cleaver. Their music was created with the instruments of their name, replicas of which sat in an admittedly dusty window at the front of Mantilla’s.” The marrowbone and cleavers in the front window of Mantilla’s DO play a vital role in the story and are actually there for the climax and denouement. I think THAT was a successful telegram.

But, they weren’t there when I started writing.

Mary Robinette Kowal says that the beginning of her LADY ASTRONAUT (Alternate History series) “…tells you about the setting that we're in… And, granted, I'm doing this in narration. It is a first-person character. But I'm using the setting there to tell you what this is going to be about. That you can expect a story in which we're dealing with relationships, we're dealing with disaster, and that there's going to be some comedy. It's not going to be disaster all the way down.”

Honestly? I think I communicated the opposite in a story I THINK has a great idea, but it’s a real downer from the first sentence:

“‘I should have died here with the rest of my family,’ said Timviifei Jones. Stepping down from the hovering gravity modified flyer disk, he collapsed, unconscious and barely breathing.
“By the time paramedics got there from a nearby Human town, he was awake. He pushed them away. One smiled, nodded, and said, ‘You seem fine to me, sir. Have a good day.’”
“‘I’m not fine,’ he muttered, lifting his hand to flip off the paramedics.”

So, according to the Writing Excuses folks, I let the reader know almost immediately that the story was going to be. In this case, it was a failure to communicate something that someone wants to read. Mary Robinette Kowal then gives this assignment to their listeners: “…I want you to write an opening…But I want you to write the first half page. In that first half page, I want you to hit three specific concrete details [because]…I want you to actually really dig into this. But I want you to pick three specific concrete details that telegraph setting… That telegraph the tone. That telegraph what the mood is. These details are obviously your setting. So I want you to do that. Then I want you to write it again and telegraph a different mood.”

I haven’t done that part yet, but when I do, I’ll post it here. I think the story I’m writing is important; but I screwed up the beginning so badly that no one wanted to read anything past the first paragraph.

Brandon Sanderson (a WORLD FAMOUS writer both because he finished Robert Jordan’s WHEEL OF TIME series after the author died unexpectedly – and has his own series going) adds at the end, “[Brandon]…use the setting to indicate a different tone. All right. This has been Writing Excuses, you're out of excuses, now go write.”

I’ll get back to you!

References: https://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-writing-process-let-me-show-it-to-you/
Define: “Telegraphing a punch”: “boxers moving their shoulders in a specific manner before throwing a punch. This can also refer to boxers whose overall movement is so slow that it can be anticipated by an opponent…In martial arts often involves hip movements used to shift bodyweight.”
Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JNnybcihL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 513

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.

Noah Rhydderch shook his head angrily, “No, I know what I heard!”

Machig Labdrön pursed her lips, then took her lower lip between her thumb and finger. Finally she said, “Ravens can’t really speak, you know.”

Noah rolled his eyes. “I know that they aren’t supposed to speak English. I know they’re mimics – but the bird wasn’t just mimicking me. It was trying to tell me something!”

Machig sighed. “Look, Noah. I know we want our research to show that they’re smarter than we’ve given them credit for...”

“Machig! Don’t patronize me!” He shook his head and dropped down onto the lab stool. The raven loft was attached to the lab building of the International Wolf Institute. They were working under a grant from the National Science Foundation – but that did little to make Noah forget his ancestral involvement with the birds. Machig had the same connections – ancient Hebrews, the Welsh and Bhutanese cultures all revered the raven. It was what had drawn them together in the first place (though in a distressingly asexual way). He continued, “Don’t you think I’m weirded out by what I think I heard?”

She dropped down on the stool next to him and put her hand on his knee, though she didn’t look at him. She said, “So tell me again – what did Katoohk say to you?” They’d named raven #13 of their survey flock an Anglicized version of an Far Eastern Russian creator god.

“See that was what was weird, he didn’t actually say anything to me. I...” he paused, shot her a look and said, “I dreamed it.”

She took her hand away, rolling her eyes as she stood up. “Oh, great! I can just see the section in our paper on ‘Dream Interpretation and Communication Skills of Corvus corax’!”

“I didn’t ask for the dream! I’m just telling you about it!”

“You’re acting like it’s significant to our studies!”

“I’m not the one who said it was – Kahoohk said what he had to tell me was significant!”

Machig took a deep breath, sat back down and faced Noah. She said, “All right. I’ll listen to your dream – but don’t interpret for me. Just tell me what happened to the best of your memory.” She set her ipik down and turned it on. “If what you say is relevant in any way, I’ll think about it and let you know if I think it has any significance.”

“You mean you get last say? That’s not fair! This is my research, too!”

She snorted, “That’s exactly what’s fair! It’s yours ‘too’! My name will be attached to it and I don’t know if I want it attached to some fairy tale!”

He opened his mouth. Shut it. Dropped back down on the stool and said, “All right. This is what Kahoohk said: “A hero of Ireland, Cú Chulainn had a son whose name was Connla, by Aífe. Connla has been long separated from his father and seeking him to sit with him and do the things fathers and sons enjoy, comes to Ireland in search of him. Cú Chulainn takes the son he does not recognize as an intruder and kills him when he refuses to identify himself. Connla's last words to his father as he dies are that they would have ‘carried the flag of Ulster to the gates of Rome and beyond’, leaving Cú Chulainn both without an heir and grief-stricken and with no understanding of what he did.”

Machig made a face and sagged in the chair. “I thought you were going to say something significant.” She laughed. “You don’t even have a kid!” When she looked at him again, his face was white. “What?”

“I suppose before we move any farther ahead or back in our relationship – or non-relationship as the case may be, I have something I should tell you…”

Names: ♀ Bhutan; ♂ Hebrew, Welsh
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Reaching Micro People Groups

We love to talk about missions. We love to “go” on mission trips. I went to Haiti over twenty years ago on a two-week mission trip. I’ve been to Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia for an eight-month mission trip. I’ve even been to Hawaii as a youth chaperone to do miming on Ala Moana Beach as well as doing a year-long stint working with Mary’s Place in Minneapolis and Place of Hope in St. Cloud (not at the same time!)

Many of us find ourselves as I did, on missions to “people groups”. A people group, for the purpose of sharing the love of Christ and the hope of salvation, has been clearly defined. It is “‘…the largest group within which the gospel can flow along natural lines without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.’ This simply means that unless the gospel comes from someone within one’s own people group, it is foreign.”¹

Lately China has been on my heart. Virtually everyone would agree that the cultures, languages and socioeconomic clusters within the nation of China could be called “people groups”. But I don’t speak any of the seven to fourteen dialects of Chinese. If I ever went, I’d expect to hear languages I didn’t understand. If I were in Beijing, I’d most likely have a Chinese pocket dictionary application on my cell phone. I might be able to find out where to catch a bus that will take me to a statue of Mao Zedong or find a “house church”. While officially “atheistic”, China is operationally polytheistic and while there are accommodations permitting minor religions, official stance is against any sort of organized religion. But current estimates put anywhere between 40 to 130 million Christians in China and Wikipedia reports that “Although China bans foreign missionaries and sometimes harasses and imprisons Christians, especially in rural areas, Christianity is booming in China.”² With a population of 1.3 billion, it’s clear that reaching Outsiders in China is carrying out the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

Are there people groups in the US?

Clearly, the answer is “yes!” I’ve sponsored youth on mission trips to the Appalachians and to the Navajo reservations of southwest Arizona. I traveled with an organization whose sole mission was to reach youth with music. I’ve gone on mission trips to the poor of downtown Minneapolis. All of these groups are small and have their own “language” or way of speaking that’s different from how I talk. China is a gigantic people group. Haiti was smaller, the Navajo of Arizona smaller still. But these aren’t the smallest groups of people who need to be reached with the Good News of Jesus and discipled for Christ.

There are, in fact, really SMALL people groups. A micro people group is a “sparsely populated indigenous tribe consisting of 5,000 to 25,000 people”.³ These “micro people groups” can be even smaller than that and it can be argued that they share a language only they understand. These micro people groups don’t have to be in another country, either. Stand outside of a group of politicians, fantasy sports players, quilters, manga readers, sheet rockers or Star Wars fans and it can be as strange as standing on a street corner in downtown Beijing. These other groups are speaking English but the words you hear can have totally different meanings than what you’ve come to expect.

For example, a “lemon” can mean a bad car, a mature manga or a yellow fruit. It depends on what group you’re listening to. A “cave” can be a place you find bats, a student-run pub, an Italian commune or a political term for a group of people who oppose development. Among fantasy sports players a “bust” isn’t a piece of art, it has nothing to do with drugs, and it doesn’t mean “to break” – it’s a player who’s expected to have a poor season despite predictions. These small groups of people don’t make formal dictionaries – insiders are expected to know the jargon or it’s painfully obvious you aren’t part of the group.

Science fiction with its alien races, faster-than-light starships and interstellar empires might be considered a micro people group. Fantasy with its elves, massive wars and wizards might also be considered a micro people group. Mysteries, with their murders, suspects and deduction might be considered a micro people group, as well. If you doubt this then see if you can answer the following questions:

1) What is a con?

2) What is a Gandalf?

3) What does “specfic” mean?

4) What is an Edgar?

5) What are the Hugo and the Nebula?

6) What is a cozy?

7) What was Excalibur and why was it important?

8) Who was Hercule Poirot and where did “Murder on the Orient Express” take place?

9) What is Dune’s other name?⁴

If you can’t answer ANY of those, then specfic fans and writers can be defined as a micro people group and they might be considered a legitimate mission field for those who “speak the language”.

These people can also be isolated from the Church by choice, distance or simple apathy and no one should argue that they need to hear the Good News in a language that makes sense to them. In their book UNCHRISTIAN, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons point out that, “While we are trying to convey the most important message in human history – that Jesus offers a new life through faith in Him – something gets lost in the translation.”⁵

People who can speak the language of a micro people group can communicate the Gospel more easily than an outsider could. They can determine the best way possible to clearly and unequivocally show the love of Christ and point the way to salvation and discipleship.

Most of us belong to micro people groups. Are you a speculative fiction fan? How about a politician, fantasy sports player, quilter, Minnesota Wild fan, public school teacher, manga reader, sheet rocker or Star Wars fan? What micro people group are you part of?

Once you’ve identified your micro people group, pray for them and ask the Lord how to convey the most important message in human history to them. How can you present the gospel so that it can flow along natural lines without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance? What message will you send so that the gospel comes from someone within your own people group and make sure that the message of Christ isn’t foreign to them? Can you enlist others to help? When will you begin? My micro people avidly read, write and are fans of speculative fiction. I’ve identified the group, considered the message and spent time in prayer and fasting. I have my target events – though I have no one to join me and I’m wondering if I should wait or go ahead with it.

But that’s between God and me.

Missions to large people groups are good efforts to get involved with. But finding your micro people group and reaching them with the Good News of Jesus Christ can be exciting and can help you be a bigger part of God’s call to all of us to “go and make disciples of all nations”!

Bibliography

1) “The Challenge of the Unreached Peoples” by John Robb, Tuesday, November 24th, 2009, quoted in http://www.etnopedia.info/?p=254

2) Church growth in China.(Century marks)(Brief article) Industry & Business Article - Research, News, Information, Contacts, Divisions, Subsidiaries, Business Associations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_China

3) http://www.imb.org/main/news/details.asp?LanguageID=1709&StoryID=585

4) Answers: 1) Short for a speculative fiction CONvention; 2) A major award for fantasy 1974-1980; 3) SPECulative FICtion; 4) A major award for American mystery; 5) The “people’s choice” award for spec fic; a “peer reviewed” choice for spec fic 6) A “quiet” mystery that usually doesn’t involve gruesome murder, sex or profanity; 7) The sword Wart pulled from the stone; it made him King Arthur of Camelot; 8) Agatha Christie’s main brain detective, a train that ran from Calais, France to Istanbul, Turkey. It ceased operation completely in 2009; 9) Arrakis

5) http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm

image: https://stock.adobe.com/images/tambov-russian-federation-december-19-2020-lego-businesspeople-minifigures-standing-and-looking-into-their-successful-future/400794024