An INTERVIEW With Bruce Bethke, MARCH 12, 2024

I've been spending time trying to figure out WHAT I'm writing about -- early in August, I posted this: 

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Where Writing, Christianity, and Speculative Fiction Interact : WRITING ADVICE: How Do I Know What I'm Saying? (faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com)

While searching for advice on the subject, I stumbled across an interview with my very old friend (met him before I met my wife), that shed quite a bit of light on my current question: "What AM I writing about -- and what SHOULD I be writing about?" Angelique Fawns published it on March 12, 2024. Fawns is one of the staff writers at THE HORROR TREE online magazine. 

What's best is that the light it shed wasn't in the spectrum I was expecting. I was actually hoping for something in the "brilliant yellow", sunshiny, and happy part of the spectrum...

What I GOT, was something in the UV or IR part -- maybe even the gamma radiation or microwave, far-ends part of the spectrum. You know, the parts that are DAMAGING...causing burns, and genetic mutations.

I don't mean that in a negative way, either. Sure, the middle part of the electromagnetic spectrum is "useful". Our own eyes aren't adapted to be able to sense ANYTHING outside of the very narrow band called Visible Light. Other animals can see in other odds-and-ends part of the spectrum. Bees see into the ultraviolet. "Infrared sensing snakes use pit organs extensively to detect and target warm-blooded prey such as rodents and birds."

Bruce's insights in were...tough for me to read. He's the editor/owner of Rampant Loon Press and published my YA/MG novel, EMERALD OF EARTH: HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES in March this year.

But to get down to the nitty-gritty, I picked up a few unexpected insights to myself:

1) "I compose and perform a story and capture the performance in the medium of words on paper...my musical background strongly affects how I put issues together. When I assemble a table of contents, it isn’t just a list of stories. It’s more like a set list or a concert program [with] a sense of pacing, tone, and dramatic structure in the order..."

I compose my stories like LESSONS -- I was, after all, a classroom teach for 41 years! Maybe that is a piece of why my sales have pretty much been steady at about 10% of what I write.

2) "...the head of...a major record company...After listening to my demo reel...told me that the objective isn’t to be really different. It’s to be just a little different, so that your work stands out, but at the same time to sound enough like someone else who is already a major hit-maker that the first time listeners hear it, it sounds like something they’ve already heard six times, and they love it and can’t wait to hear it again [and] to hear that little bit of difference you bring to the formula."

It's funny -- because I CAN do that and never have. I suppose a fear of being accused of "copying". I CAN write the spirit of the stories I love.

And the rest? There's more advice here:

1) Write to market…pick a category you like to read and think will be fun to work in, and figure out what you can do with it that is slightly different from what everyone else and their cat is already doing.

2) Learn the Lester Dent formula: crank out hundreds of novels using a universal plot formula. was designed for 6,000-word short stories, but works just as well for short novels, with some adjustments.

3) Pick a pseudonym. Your name is a brand…you want to have an entire stable full of names, so that you can switch back and forth between identities...You are in the entertainment business now…[and] pseudonym is a character…a role you perform for public consumption…

4) Before you start writing, figure out how your story ends.

5) Write short novels. The day of the BFFB (Big Fat Fantasy Brick) is over. The optimum length in today’s market is 40K to 50K words.

6) Forget traditional publishing. Start with self-publishing directly to Kindle.

7) Consider whether serialization is right for you…on Kindle Vella or Royal Road first…It’s a great way to build your fan base.

8) Start an email list…Your pseudonym can get a website. Build a mailing list. Start a blog. Interact with your fans, and make them feel that they are sharing in your success.

9) Keep writing those books…Write a never-ending series…[and]…don’t stop writing it until people stop buying it…[and] if you’ve gone three books without having a bestseller, kick that pseudonym to the curb, revise your formula, and start over as someone else.

Success in this business requires talent, ambition, good craft skills and work habits, and a certain measure of luck…there is no luck…I have seen that a modest amount of talent and good craft skills and work habits beats enormous amounts of talent and lousy work habits seven days a week and twice on Sunday.

For the COMPLETE interview, go here: https://horrortree.com/bruce-bethke-stupefying-stories/

Image: https://handmadewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/picture1.png

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 642

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.”

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.

SF Trope: Isaac Asimov’s Three Kinds Of Science Fiction: “Gadget sci-fi: Man invents car, holds lecture on how it works.”
Current Event: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131210071936.htm

Khünbish Qureshi said, “Once we drill through the ice, we can begin extract the uranium. But we have to do it fast.” He tapped the wide pipe with his heavily armored hand. While there was no true atmosphere and the surface of the moon was exposed to the radiation sleet from Jupiter, they both wore flexible suits and had ridden to the surface on little more than a hovering plate.

“You think extracting a few metric tonnes of uranium from this moon would have any kind of effect at all?” asked Yelizavta Zaya. She bounced a few meters back after stomping her foot.

“I can’t say for sure.”

“Why not?”

“I’m a geologist...”

“You mean a Eurologist?”

“That makes me sound like a bladder specialist!”

“Well, it’s not Earth, so you can’t be a ‘geologist’.”

“There’s not a bladder in sight, either!”

Beneath their feet, the ice sang. On any other world, it would have been a quake, but here the ice vibrated, shifting, sliding along cracked edges. Immense crevasses sang bass that shook the world like a drum head; smaller ones sang faint hymns of joy; the smallest sang beyond the hearing of Humans.

Khünbish slapped the pipe again and said, “If there were living things under the surface, maybe my sucking the lifeblood from the water will make them sit up and take notice.”

“I doubt there’re sitting beings under our feet, Khun.”

He grimaced at the diminutive – Americans and Loonies made a habit of lopping parts of people’s names off willy-nilly – and said, “Whatever they’re doing, I’m hoping they notice.”

“And if there’s nothing under our feet but ice, water, uranium?”

“Then we stand to make a fortune and retire wherever we want to.” He bounced back as the ice began to sing again. As he fell to the surface, he grimaced and said, “Can you hear that?”

Names: ♀ Russia, Mongolian; ♂ Mongolian, Pakistan
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg/220px-Falcon_9_Demo-2_Launching_6_%283%29.jpg

THIS HAPPENED HERE -- AND WAS REPORTED ON THE BBC WEBSITE! (I was right there FOUR DAYS AGO!)

Minnesota: Lightning strikes and a rainbow forms during storm (bbc.com)

THIS report was on BBC today! I DO love to read the BBC articles -- such a DIFFERENT point of view of the world!

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 24: REDUCING THE BURDEN OF LAND MINES…

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention, DisCON which I WOULD have been attending in person if I felt safe enough to do so in person AND it hadn’t been changed to the week before the Christmas Holidays…HOWEVER, as time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…

I know EXACTLY what my title SOUNDS like; and while the “hope of all Humanity” is to remove the burden on the planet that mining the surface eight billion of us share, whilst conveniently ignoring the Ocean Floor, the FACT is that Humanity will mine the asteroids for one purpose, and ONE purpose only:

“Then both the partners laughed together—pleasantly and cheerfully, as men who are going to receive money, often do.”

Chapter XXV of THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB
Volume 2 of 2 by Charles Dickens

Actually the MAIN title of the article in the May 8, 2024 issue of the online magazine, UNDARK, is “In the Race for Space Metals, Companies Hope to Cash In”.

There’s been a lot of groundwork been laid by several countries regarding mining in outer space, most of it seems to depend from this statement:

“If fishing in international waters is legal, what about mining asteroids and the moon for water ice and precious metals? Turns out in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is lawful, as governed by the Outer Space Treaty and Artemis Accords, and embraced as advancing the cause of space exploration. Of interest to NASA and other civil space agencies around the globe, as well as a number of companies and academic organizations, ISRU actually offers lucrative opportunities for the rise of the world’s first trillionaire. So, what laws govern the pursuit of commercial space exploration, and what legal prohibitions or safeguards exist against disputes over resources?”

China, Russia, the US, Japan, Luxemburg, and India have made serious strides in creating a framework for endeavors on the Moon – Outer Space Treaty (see Wikipedia article below).

That’s all fine and good; and like the UN before it, the foundation of and intent of the laws and treaties framed, hammered out and signed are all fine and good. BUT, as of January 4, 2021 (https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/un-peacekeeping-70-years-of-service-sacrifice#:~:text=The%20first%20UN%20peacekeeping%20mission,Israel%20and%20its%20Arab%20neighbours.), the UN’s efforts at keeping the peace have been spotty at the VERY best.

When trillions of dollars/yuan/pounds/yen/euros/francs are at stake, then the politeness of the countries whose currency the world trades on (the notable lack is the Russian rouble. It’s current worth is extremely problematic: 1 rouble = .o1 US dollar…you can do the other computations), then space mining will eventually be worth quintillions of currency units.

The UN has no authority, budget, or strength to control the immense piles – or “rocks” of currency (which equals power). According to Space Law, the asteroids are as “free” as the Old West was for invading Europeans – English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and lets not forget Russia!

WHO will NOT be able to control this one (they’ve done SUCH a good job with controlling disease, conflict that enables disease, and providing protection to its own people…).

So who will do the job? It had BETTER be an agency all of the nations respect. It had better be an agency that has a budget to draw on to create methods and policy to not ONLY threaten possible belligerents with, but actually CONTROL belligerents. There is NO ONE AROUND TO CONTROL THE EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH…nor is there anyone around to make sure one of the companies doesn’t ram or drop a used up asteroid on their base of operations.

There’s also no one to make sure mining companies clean up their orbiting mess of debris…or even to adjudicate differences. In fact, what’s to stop the new asteroid mining turning into an Old West of asteroid lawlessness?

Hmmm…Space Jesse James, here we come!

And WHERE'S the future Sheriff Pat Garrett? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Garrett)

Today’s Source: In the Race for Space Metals, Companies Hope to Cash In (undark.org) https://undark.org/2024/05/08/asteroid-mining-space-metals/, the current state of Space Law is covered extensively here: https://www.law.uw.edu/news-events/discovery/season-6/the-laws-of-space-mining , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law#:~:text=Several%20nations%20have%20enacted%20or,Bill%20was%20introduced%20in%202017.
Foundational Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

STUPEFYING STORIES! MY FAVORITE ONLINE MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION

The Never-ending FAQ • 21 August 2024 ~ Stupefying Stories Magazine

JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 7: (s)Turdland Vilbix Meets Their Match

On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Know was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways the rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered.

When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?”

I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?”

We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!”

Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musing continues below.

Sturdlan Vilbix appeared just as they’d predicted and started spreading their drones. Little Rayna ran in, cute as a bug, and hugged my leg.

“Grandpa, Grandpa, do the turkey neck! Please! Please! Please!” Natalie, Ronan, and Rayna cried, jumping up and down.

Noah, oldest and sometime wisest, watched me carefully and said under his breath, “Granddumpsterfire? Neck or no-neck?”

That was the code phrase my grandchildren, aka The Council of Four decided on for me to let them know if it was a Go-No-Go situation. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head several times, shaking my wattles of fat and making cheek noises. Rayna hugged me again and ran out of the room.”

Sturdlan, who had instantly become Turdland to the Four said, “I’m sorry Mr. Whatever-You-Are, are the little adults removed now until her majesty, Queen of 4D rLife and the most influential singer the entire Planet of Earth has ever or EVER will know – and me myself and I, her Essential Handler…”

“I’m the Owner and Proprietor of JAX LUNAR LUMBER, Mr. Turdland.” I grinned a toothy grin at them. They couldn’t see what I saw over their shoulder.

Roza Rymbayeva Golovkin, Six-Times-Great-Granddaughter Of The Last Walker on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, had been contract to perform a concert on the Moon, ticking off a number of Firsts: First Spacesuit Concert; First Megahit Song Composed on the Moon, First Concert Arranged By the Multiple-Award-Winning Artist, Sturdlan Vilbix…”

I cut them off, “I’m certain all that is very interesting, but…”

They were not going to give up their constant live-streamed limelight easily, and cut me off, “Now, I’d like you to scurry on and make sure your ‘grandchildren’,” I’d been feeling sorry for him until that moment. He talked about them like they were an infection that needed a dose of anti-Life to get ride of. He spoke without regard for my grandkids, who were Citizens of the Moon. I sighed. I’d hoped we’d be able to be civil, but it appeared they weren’t interested.

I hadn’t wanted to give the grandkids full reign, but they’d planned, plotted, constructed, and prepared to separate Turdland from their meal ticket…I mean their employer, the last living relative of the last Man to Walk On The Moon, the magnificent

The Grands, or the Council of Four had hacked Roza Rymbayeva Golovkin, Six-Times-Great-Granddaughter Of The Last Walker – who, Natalie discovered preferred the lest-grand ‘Roza’, just wanted to pay her respects at the Cernan Lunar Memorial and spend some time at the foot of the Lunar Tree planted in his name. “Without,” Natalie told me firmly, “The bozo who keeps her on a leash so he has an easy way to make money for his stupid habits...”

“I don’t need to know. We’ll get Roza out to her ancestor’s tree and we’ll make sure Turdland has an…interesting time. Grandma’s got something really special cooked up for him.”

Ronan jogged in, Lunar-long legs making him almost as tall as his Earth-grown cousin, Noah, even though he was only nine and said, “Gee-Pa, everything’s ready for the windbag.”

At that moment, the windbag in question stepped out of a lift, saying, “We have very important work here to do! Billions of Humans are clamoring to see me…” they snapped their mouth shut, staring at the assemblage looking through them at the singer and several-times removed granddaughter of the Last Man to Walk On the Moon stopped, cleared their throat and said, “I mean ONLY to speak for Madame Golovkin when I say…”

The grandkids pushed them aside and went to Roza, gently taking her hands and leading her past Turdland, ignoring them. Just then, every piece of spy equipment Turdland’s people had brought had its electronics and quantum circuits scrambled. They shouted, “Hey!” and them found themselves alone.

With me. I said, “Nice to finally mee the unenhanced you, Brad.”

Resources: The Moon Trees, https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/;  https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html

Image: https://external-preview.redd.it/xL2Y2UHb2B0JN5P162FShQfxqCTYNuOp3WEYxdF86j4.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=6955074e421a5e98c69b2da35179a3a91faa5662

IDEA ON TUESDAY 641

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)

Horror Trope: artifact of doom
Recent Event: A real-life, right now mummy kidnapping! http://www.examiner.com/art-in-new-york/ancient-egyptian-artifacts-discovered-smuggling-bust

Oh, we LOVE our mommies…er…mummies! 100 pieces of King Tutankhamen’s funerary stuff, as well as a bunch of “fake stuff” (they call them replicas) is currently on display here at the Science Museum of Minnesota – which is what’s inspiring THIS post. So OBVIOUSLY, the stolen sarcophagi (which, BTW, in Latin means “flesh eater”…ew…) are bad luck for the New York antique dealers who went down in the bust. So far, the curse of THESE mummies hasn’t reached the Jordanian collector being sought after by his countrymen…

But WHAT IF…he made a clean get away and he’s tipping a few cold Mountain Dews in his air-conditioned house in Jordan even as I write this. He’s pocketed his finder’s fee and he figures he’s home free and is just opening the file on his computer for his next heist. It picks up a virus like so many other computers and his AVAST program supposedly eats it up.

The next time his fourteen-year-old son, Itamar goes online to update Snapchat and chat with his friends all over the planet, the computer virus from the sarcophagi takes a little leap from inside his phone, onto his hand and after he’s done with his session, he yawns and rubs his eyes, passing a proto-biological virus to the moist membranes of his eyes.

Late in the morning – because his dad is pounding on the door to wake him up he rubs his eyes and notices his vision is a little foggy. He tried to tell his dad to knock it off, but all he can do is moan which sounded WAY too much like a sound he’d make when he was...He covered his mouth in horror, sitting up in bed. He didn’t notice anything except that the hand in front of his face was wrapped in dark brown bandages…

Names: ♂, Jordan
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

THE “PERMANENT” WORLDS I HAVE CREATED: Parameters and Stories…NOW What?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Sixteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things with my blog. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are both married, we have a bonus daughter and her wife and we have three grandchildren, the oldest of which just became a teenager. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless other publications as a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens. Oh, I also discovered that more and more of my stories are falling into a set of futures I’ve invented. This is all because I dislike "disposable worlds" -- too much like the society we live in. I want to reuse the places.

THE COLLAPSE: Invented by Jeffery Kooistra (https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Jeffery_D._Kooistra) I have permission to tell stories in his world!

WHEETAH WORLD: Humans and WheetAH are the ONLY sapient life we know of.

KOREA COLONIZES SPACE: South Korea kidnaps North Korea to a prepared Valles Marineris while the reigning Kim is visiting the World using teleportation technology and their advanced fusion power tech…

RIVER: Humanity split into the Confluence of Humanity, which is a secular, biotech-anything-goes society where Human is whatever we want it to be (which of course, raises problems, like Irog and Gordon Oyeyemi…) and the Empire of Man, which has “Emperor Reverence” and Humans MUST be 65% Original Human Genome Project DNA or more…it encompasses 4 worlds, one of which is River…includes Enstad’s Planet and Sirmiq.

VERTICAL VILLAGES: After the near-collapse of the environment, Humanity passed (“with strong coercion”) the Climate Rescue Edict from the World Council of Authorities Secular and Religious (WCASR) which moved most of Humanity into Two-Kilometer-Tall arcologies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology) of 500,000 each; 20,000 arcologies named after the nearest large, sprawling city it replaced. This also birthed the Return To the Wilds Act which sent most people who had no “wild world” skills packing in to the Vertical Villages. Deconstruction And Recycling Robots (DeARRs) rolled out to take everything unnecessary apart, transport it to 10,000 person Towns for processing and shipment to the Vertical Villages for reuse. Being a Townie was a temporary assignment and entailed being shipped to an area you were totally unfamiliar with (culture, language, etc). Also, Narns had started to appear (initially raccoons and crows – already smart, but driven by Human intersection with their natural world and driving them to evolve far more quickly than would have been possible. (What if Humans were used to “educate” alien races less advanced in order to pay off the Debt incurred when we got FTL, extended life, and fusion power? How does The Information Apocalypse and the Library in the Erg of Bilma fit in? And what about the subjugation by Western Civilization (BTW – initiated by the Greek and Roman Empires, proceeding to the British Empire, then the American Empire, followed by the Chinese Dynasties, and the Indian Empire; concluding with the Mayan and Aztec and Inca cultures; have done to countless cultures) in fact the idea of Human Cultures subsuming successive cultures? Is that our biology or a Fact Of All Life?

UNITY OF SAPIENTS: Humanity was one of the weakest members of an association of Diverse Biology Sapients (DBS classifications ala James White’s SECTOR GENERAL interstellar hospital books and stories) by virtue of our first interstellar probe swarm bound for Proxima Centauri’s single planet, literally running into the Shabe who had been studying Humanity (ostensibly to incorporate Humanity’s oddly flexible DNA into a service branch of Shabe. In FACT, there were three factions vying for power who wanted to use Humanity to further their cause and figure out how Humans remained so “plastic”…)

So far, I’ve written at least ONE story in each world – mostly unpublished (though there are several that ARE.) In future posts I’m going to talk about the creation of each one of the “universes” and what I did to make them real…and how you can do it if you’d like!

That’s it for now!

Image: https://elblog.pl/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/compressed_img-SW9CNvKccpWEU8CW1VgAGkFH.png

WRITING ADVICE: How Do I Know What I'm Saying?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Seventeen years later, I am revising and doing some different things with my blog. My wife and I are now retired senior citizens, our kids are all married and we have three grandchildren, the oldest of whom is starting high school the Fall; the middle starting seventh grade; and the youngest starting Kindergarten while his dad starts college. I have forty-five professional publications, plus countless others, I’m a slushpile reader, and sometime essay contributor to Stupefying Stories https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/. And my FIRST novel came out at the end of March this year, 2024.

These days, I write whenever I want to – or when I’m not busy exploring the world with my wife or kids or grandkids. I write and read constantly. Then I discovered that I was writing longer and longer pieces. My new focus is to write shorter; and to write HUMOR. On purpose. Maybe I can still irritate people while being funny. It works pretty well for John Scalzi! We’ll see what happens. I’ve also started to ponder the question above: HOW DO I KNOW what I'm saying – be it in essays, curriculum, fiction, or the odds and ends things I do?

I’ve spent the past few days reflecting on recent rejections; 32 times since May of 2023 – though there have been 3 acceptances since then as well. Two of the acceptances were in the works for a long time – EMERALD OF EARTH, and a short story, “What Fraction Makes Man”. One was a surprise, “Feedback” (which recently ALMOST made it into the 2024 (so-far) MOST read stories at STUPEFYING STORIES!) If you’d like to read it, follow the link: https://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2024/03/feedback-by-guy-stewart.html

So, what exactly am I looking for? What do I think is important and how does it come out in my writing?

So, let me poke around one of my best-received stories: “Fairybones”. It was published years ago on the podcast website, CAST OF WONDERS. The editor liked it SO much, she put in a nomination for a Nebula award and it was one of the “Best of the Year” (2015) by DIABOLICAL PLOTS editor, David Steffen. You can listen to it or read it here: https://www.castofwonders.org/2015/11/episode-181-fairy-bones-by-guy-stewart/

The theme WAS unusual – it had a “typical” disconnected teen boy and his grandmother. I’m a retired teacher and spent 10 years substitute teaching 6th-12th graders in science; ten years teaching 8th Grade Earth Science; another 10 years teaching 9th Grade Physical Science; and ten years as a School Counselor following the graduating class of 2018 from 9th grade through graduation (and other classes as needed). My judgement of “typical” was gathered over 40 years of experience with adolescents, half of them boy-men; half of them girl-women.

She was a retired community college professor who’d had no intention of giving up her research just because she retired. She’d discovered…creatures…in the marshland near where she lived now. Her grandson’s parents were off somewhere and she volunteered to watch over him.

The first thing someone mentioned was that “old people” in science fiction intended for young people were unusual. Old people who didn’t want to “impart their wisdom to the Next Generation” were even rarer. Clementine Dresden, retired community college teacher has kept up her research. She’s divorced, had two children, who have complicated, Late-21st Century relationships and travel to “futuristic” destinations…but have little use for a sulky teenaged boy with the improbable name Dexter bar-Jonah Dresden-Xiong-Johnson-Niabuto.

He shows up on her “doorstep” and will be staying for a while. Ultimately, she involves him with her research into the reason that the usual “…mouse, rabbit, squirrel, or vole skeletons in owl pellets had started to vanish...”

To stave off deadly boredom, he agrees to help her with her owl pellet survey. She not only discovers that her grandson is smart, he discovers that his grandmother is smart as well.

There’s humor in the story. Science. Fiction. An unexpected relationship grows beyond its previous boundaries. And the weird thing is that Clementine is ME…the me I’d be if my wife left me (not a reality, we've been 37 years together as of yesterday). I put ME into the story.

The setting is also near and dear to me – it’s at the end of the street. I even used the real name of the park reserve in the story. I KNOW there are Great Horned Owls at the reserve – I hear the pair calling to each other roughly every-other late autumn. Oh, I tossed in the hint of conspiracy there to keep the story moving.

I even play with the expectations most of my peers have of teenagers. See, I’ve always liked them. I LOVE being mentally challenged (I KNOW how that sounds, but that’s NOT what I meant!). Clementine does, too (though she’s out of practice): “She’d never suspected her grandson, or anyone between the ages of fourteen and eighty-three, of having a flexible mind or the ability to do more than act predictably given their current cultural parameters. She certainly didn’t. The evidence was giving her a headache.”

I’m NOT going to tell you the end of the story, you can find out if you follow the link above. The exercise was for ME to figure out what I write about.

So far: science; the PRACTICALLY unbelievable; even friendship; oddball characters; and ‘“I’m not stupid, Grandma. After all, I am your grandson.”

“He smiled so brilliantly and with such conceit that she knew he was teasing. She patted her Afro and said, “That’s true. I will deny neither observation.” Again, their gazes caught and they both burst out laughing.” And lastly, I just realized family.

In my most recent story, these are AGAIN themes. That one was rejected once, but I just rewrote it pretty much entirely. The thing is that, now that I’m actively learning what my themes are…maybe I can actually start structuring stories to clarify the theme as well as strengthen the theme to a point where the characters come alive and the story’s heart starts to beat…

Links: https://swirlandspark.com/2014/12/03/what-are-you-trying-to-say/
Image: https://handmadewriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/picture1.png