JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 12: A SHOCKING Change of Direction

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 musings continues below.

Felix Jax, youngest member of the Jax Family Youth Coalition and it’s undisputed leadership. “A solution to the troubling problem of the test pilots – both AI and Human – to experience profound…not to put it delicately or dance around it, bouts of suicidal depression and a tendency to kill themselves before being debriefed upon their return from brief forays into interstellar space.”

Someone behind me muttered, “I’d be happy to debrief Felix.” I turned to scowl at several of his birth cohort, male, female, and trans-either-way. They uniformly cringed, fingers twitching enough for me to be pretty sure they were have trouble reconciling their desire to curry favor with me…or be violently dealt with by Felix. “Watch it, kids.” I whispered, then grunted and turned back to the meeting. I raised my hand.

Felix nodded to me, smirking. He’d heard the commentary and raised both brows. I said, “As a former member of the test pilot cohort, I’d like to ask everyone here to give me your absolutely serious attention.” I shot a glance over my shoulder and the “peanut gallery” settled down. I searched for Tiananmen – aka “Gate of Heavenly Peace”, or HP for short – found her and nodded.

She stood, walking forward. She removed a blonde wig and with a flick of her hand, resolved the hologram mask over her face.

Her old face reappeared and most of the people in the meeting gasped. She stopped not far from me and said, “I’m not back from the dead, just back from some serious counseling.” No one spoke, though most of them could have. Everyone in the room had spoken for or against her inclusion in our FTL program at one time or another.

“I know you all believed that I killed myself because of what I came face-to-face with after making a record number of jumps to interstellar space.” Lots of nods, more wide-eyed-amazement. There were even faces that displayed sheer horror. I nodded to Tiananmen. “I didn’t kill myself. I faked my death in order to talk with Felix and Grandpa about the future of Jax Lunar Lumber and the exploration of Strange New Worlds.” She shot me a look. We both had come to enjoy a century-old flattie “television program”, re-engineered in full-immersive ThreeDee.”

I raised a finger. Her dark skin turned maroon in embarrassment and she nodded. Clearing her throat, she said, “In case you are unfamiliar with…”

Felix said, “We all know your infatuation with that moldy-old show of Grandpa’s. Just get on with it!”

She lifted her chin. “You and I can have a very important conversation later, Cousin.” Felix blanched. He’d inherited nearly translucently pale skin that blushed a spectacular pink. Which he hated and Tiananmen loved to set off at every opportunity. She continued as if nothing had happened, “Oddly, the strange new world we have a chance to explore not only for the family and Jax Lunar Lumber, but also for all of Humanity; happens to need us.” She paused as everyone leaned forward to hear the wonderful news, she continued, “But, unprepared in every way, the trip to the world will kill you. Just as it killed me. I’d have died if the Aliens hadn’t been waiting for me the moment I popped out of transspace.” There was silence. She smiled, looked at me, adding, “And we’ll need the total cooperation of Master Cheat and All-around Pain-in-our-collective-posterior, Sturdlan Vilbix.”

The Board Room exploded in the jeers, catcalls, boos, and an amazing calling-down-of-curses.

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://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YkAeUwwE2aksDqd5tgwyec-970-80.jpg.webp

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 676

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

SLICE OF PIE: Will Robots, AIs, and Artificial Humans Believe?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Eighteen years later, I am revising and doing some different things. 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 four grandchildren! The oldest is in high school, the second in Middle School; and the third will be a first grader this fall. 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.

I just finished reading THE THREE POUND ENIGMA: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock Its Mysteries by Shannon Moffett (©2006).

Granted, it’s technically nineteen, but most likely 20 years out of date. Most of the book is a fascinating examination of what science and scientists had discovered about the brain up to that point. The front jacket copy reads, “Where do our big ideas come from? How do dreams affect our waking life? Why do some of us always remember faces but never remember names? Meet the people charting the world inside our head...”

It was great to read, I’d have loved a look at it while I was working on my masters degree in School Counseling!

But, as a retired science teacher and counselor, my mind and efforts have now turned to writing as much as I can. That writing also includes searching for fodder for my next story. Rest assured I found plenty of ideas.

I also found some things that are concerning to me as a Christian. You can ask anyone in the school district I worked in from 1990 to 2020 how often I forced my beliefs down the throats of the public school kids and staff I worked with and you’ll find I never did that. I’d talk about my faith only when specifically asked. I retired with as little fanfare as did the Class of 2020: which is to say, “none”.) I did a couple years stint in private Christian schools before starting in a middle school in a public school district adjacent to the gigantic Minneapolis Public Schools, all the while assisting my wife as she home schooled both of our kids until sending them on their way to middle school in the district I worked in.

Maybe the thing I found most...irritating...was the assumption that somehow, study of the mind must fall into the purview of Eastern religion, in particular Zen Buddhism. That’s the endpoint. Christianity appears to be a way station to the reality and truth of Zen Buddhism and not useful in dealing with our world or mind. Even so, Dr. Roberta Glick (Chapter 1, Jewish by birth and choice), said, “I think that believing in God means that you think what you do has meaning beyond just yourself, that your actions have greater meaning than just you.” (p.35)

This is in contrast to the final chapter where Moffett interviews Norman Fischer, who has a BA in religion, philosophy, and literature, an MFA in poetry, and an MA in history and phenomenology of religion. He is now known as Zoketsu Norman Fischer, a Soto Zen priest. Most of his quotes have a mystic leaning, such as “[Zen] is not the usual kind of activity in that you can’t really try to do it. If you try to move toward I, it always seems to be somewhere else. The harder you try the worse it gets. But you can’t not make any effort, either; in fact you have to make a mighty effort, but in another direction...” Writing like this may be why it is “difficult...for Western minds [to grasp] Zen precepts. Bred on rationalism, scientific method, and that it’s obvious that the shortest path between any two points is a straight line.” His POV is that “meditation may both answer them and provide a solution to the problems raised by” our dissatisfaction, and being “unhappy to the point of being nasty to our loved ones, and to the point of child abuse, war, and genocide...meditation may both answer them and provide a solution to the problems raising them.” (p.273)

So...no action but meditating will take care of everything. We don’t have to DO anything. Just meditate. Based on what has come before, the solution won’t involve us doing anything. To be fair, many “comfortable Christians” seem to have the same POV of God. We pray, God will take care of it with no effort from us...

So...I’ve been working on a series of short stories that will look at this – Christianity, Zen, and a Unified Faith in Humanity collide in a robot who has Human intelligence (how could they NOT? An AI’s brain; a robotic brain; an Artificial Human’s brain are ALL based on our own brain. The question, on Mars is WHY are AIs, robots, and Artificial Humans NOT Human?

Given that all of these are BASED on Humans, why AREN’T they considered Human?

BIG QUESTION: Why do we consider Jesus Human? Technically, He was only half-Human. Mary was entirely Human, but Jesus was incarnate by the Holy Spirit. Is that why people felt no problem executing Him – or does it go deeper? If a people who refuse to accept AIs, humaniform robots, and artificial Humans as Human, how can they accept Jesus as the Son of God and Son of Man?

The four or five stories will be based on a robot’s quest for salvation. Arnine (Robot 9374) is exposed to Christianity on a Mars violently opposed to all religion and bent on eradicating everything except a United Faith in Humanity.

“…tomorrow’s robots may face dilemmas of their own, where their survival comes into question.” How should they respond when they come to believe that their eternal existence is under threat? How do they ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’? (Philippians 2:12)

SERIES: Stainless Steel Conversion

CORROSION WROUGHT ON STAINLESS STEEL
REPENTANCE WRACKED BY STAINLESS STEEL
BAPTISM WRUNG FROM STAINLESS STEEL
SALVATION WRIT IN STAINLESS STEEL

So far, the stories will involve recognizing one's sin, believing in Jesus as the savior, repenting of sin, confessing faith, and being baptized/salvation. I may even try and work in some humor as an old-magazine-I-read-in-my-youth-become-website does. You can find it here: https://www.wittenburgdoor.com/

Inspiration: Worldwide persecution of the Christian Church (as well as SOMEWHERE, every kind of belief or faith in something non-corporeal.)Links: https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/, https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/the-robot-revolution-is-comingbut-are-christians-ready/14500.article, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReligiousRobot

Image: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/humanoid-robot-praying-near-cross-religion-science-concept-creation-new-intelligent-life-concept-humanoid-robot-273669473.jpg?w=992

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 675

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: complex planetary ecology
Current Event (2012): “large-scale carbon capture and sequestration projects” (http://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/20/gore-rejects-geoengineering-climate-change-panacea/), http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jul/18/iron-sea-carbon; (There is currently VERY little discussion regarding this concept...)

Logan Andrist frowned and said, “What do you mean they’re going to dump iron into the lake?”

Nkokoyanga Pomodimo, far from her land-locked home in the Central African Republic held tight to the railing of the re-purposed iron ore freighter – a laker – as it dipped down into the swells of Lake Superior. She said, speaking loudly over the rushing wind around them, “The iron will cause algae to grow wildly. As they grow they need more carbon dioxide. As they suck up the CO2, they store the resulting carbon-rich sugars and then keep it when they die and sink to the bottom of Superior...”

“I know what carbon sequestering is! I’m a limnology major...”

She shook her head in the wild winds and shouted, “This is glorious! Feeling Gaia beneath your feet is the most...”

“Wouldn’t that technically be Poseidon? Besides, who gave them permission to do this?”

She turned to catch his gaze and he recognized her crazy, angry look as she cried back, “Who gave all you rich white colonialists the right to pollute and rape our world?”

He didn’t want to shout. What he really wanted to do was kiss her right then and there in the cold spray from the Lake – but he didn’t want a broken face, so he shouted, “I didn’t do any of that! Why are you yelling at me?”

“I’m not yelling at you,” she shouted. “I’m yelling TO you!”

“What’s that,” the nose of the laker dove deep, nearly flooding the deck and driving a mountain of spray over them. The water was frigid despite the hot August sun burning down on them through breaks in the scudding clouds. He wiped his face clear of water and finished, “Supposed to mean?”

“You’re not to blame, old friend, but you are responsible! That’s why the captain of this tub is an old white man!”

“Professor Buddlorem’s driving the ship? We have to go save all of our lives!” Logan let go of the railing; Nkokoyanga grabbed him and pulled him tight.

“The computer is doing most of the driving! He’s just playing captain!”

Logan eyed her warily the said, “How are we supposed to get all this iron into Lake Superior?”

‘Ko’ grinned and shouted, “Now that’s the tricky part!”

Names: ♀ Central African Republic, Gbaya; ♂ Minnesota, Minnesota
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 week @ POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS; IDEAS ON TUESDAYS; and GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES

@

You might ask...WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW? "Fairy Tones" is a continuation of a story I had in Cast of Wonders a decade ago called "Fairie Bones" (read it here if you want to. (The new story returns a few years later, with the main character in college, his grandmother gone, a young cousin his temporary ward...and a deadly problem for the fairies: they're dying...) Listen to or read the original here: https://www.castofwonders.org/2015/11/episode-181-fairy-bones-by-guy-stewart/ (The new story, "Fairy Tones", will be submitted in September.) I've stopped working on "Salvation Writ In Stainless Steel" because the story is trying to cover TOO MUCH STUFF. The idea of artificial intelligence, robots, and androids remaining "things" has been explored for years. But what about their spirits? Do they have them? If their minds are based on how OURS operate (and we are descendants of fallen Adam and Eve)...would they need to be saved, too? COULD they? I'm going to write new stories exploring this question in the form of PARABLES...

https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/07/this-week-possibly-irritating-essays.html

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 31: “SAVE the Asteroids! Environmental Activism Against the Exploitation of Solar Asteroids!”

Initially, I started this series because of the 2021 World Science Fiction Convention. As time passed, I knew that this was a subject I was going to explore because it interests me…

As with any new technology, once Humans move to exploit that tech, there WILL be effects. Newton’s Second Law is inescapable: “Newton’s third law simply states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, if object A acts a force upon object B, then object B will exert an opposite yet equal force upon object A.”

While Newton was talking about physical objects acting on each other, it’s fairly straightforward to apply the principle to something like mining the asteroids.

FIRST is the most obvious and is, in fact, a result of the physical aspect of NFL (not the National Football League, which is, as we all know, a Force unto itself…) – when we start blowing up asteroids, or even creating explosions inside of them, their motion will change. 

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 674

“ We seek out…stories which give us a place to put our fears…" – Lou Morgan (The Guardian). H Trope: ghosts

Current Event: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/31105/cold-spots-glensheen-mansion My daughter and I were talking about camping today. A few days ago, I had scribbled a question a few days ago: “Are there English-type mansions in Minnesota?”

Link: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/07/idea-on-tuesday-674.html\

DIABETES GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #32: Taking Ozempic…after LOTS OF RESISTANCE…I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

You’re SO lucky you’re not my wife…I’ve ranted against Ozempic pretty much ever since it first appeared. First, I thought it was a lazy way to deal with the necessary measures a person had to take to change their lives and get healthier and deal with the new information about the deadly results of just letting it run its course.

LINK: https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2025/06/guys-gotta-talk-abouttype-2-diabetes-32.html

image: https://i.etsystatic.com/5262542/r/il/fd8d29/3714010218/il_fullxfull.3714010218_cuty.jpg

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 31: “SAVE the Asteroids! Environmental Activism Against the Exploitation of Solar Asteroids!”

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…

As with any new technology, once Humans move to exploit that tech, there WILL be effects. Newton’s Second Law is inescapable: “Newton’s third law simply states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, if object A acts a force upon object B, then object B will exert an opposite yet equal force upon object A.”

While Newton was talking about physical objects acting on each other, it’s fairly straightforward to apply the principle to something like mining the asteroids.

FIRST is the most obvious and is, in fact, a result of the physical aspect of NFL (not the National Football League, which is, as we all know, a Force unto itself…) – when we start blowing up asteroids, or even creating explosions inside of them, their motion will change. Will the targeted asteroids suddenly drop out of the sky? “Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) focussed on capturing and returning smaller asteroids to earth via unmanned spacecraft, rather than the longer term colonisation and extraction options (which are more heavily reliant on other factors, such as the availability of water). KISS’s “Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study” concentrates on identifying near-Earth asteroids that are not too small to be invisible but not too large that they can’t be practicably returned to Earth. They conclude that the optimum asteroid would be ~7m in diameter and weigh between ~500,000 kg. The study estimates that it would be possible to capture and return such an asteroid into a high lunar orbit by around 2025, although this is dependent on the development of a suitably powerful solar/electric propulsion system, instigation of a campaign to discover and characterise potential near-Earth asteroids, and the establishment of a human presence in cislunar space.” (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/impact-asteroid-mining-sam-moorhouse) (Published on June 21, 2017, this article was (shall we say) a TEENSY bit optimistic…)

OK…that target date is now provably unrealistic. We’ll have to play around with it as a thought experiment. It seems logical to me that as we have done with Earth mining, we are likely in danger of doing the same thing in near-Earth-orbit. Digging created waste material tailings or spoil tip or slimes or overburdens or culm or gob or chat bing or slag heap…or any other name that mining companies make up to hide the fact that they’re dumping useless crap after they’ve sucked all the money out of whatever they mine…

The pertinent fact here is that they just wanted it out of the way.

Asteroid mining will do exactly the same thing – I have absolutely NO DOUBT that it will happen this way. I have lived in the refuse of the state that stripped iron from the earth SO VORACIOUSLY that “…research suggests that more than 329 million tons of iron ore went from Minnesota to steel mills during [WWII]…”

“Peak production in 1943 and 1944, Minnesota mines produced nearly 70 million tons of iron ore per year…that high demand for iron ore during WWII led to the near depletion of Minnesota's natural, high-grade ore reserves…” followed by the collapse of the economy of the Iron Range. I have seen the people devastated by the mining companies summarily leaving the area for greener pastures (or “redder pit mines”] with ZERO thought put into what would result once they were gone. (https://www.timberjay.com/stories/historical-obsession,16064#:~:text=%E2%80%9CWhat%20would%20have%20happened%20to,sacrificed%20the%20iron%20ore%20here.%E2%80%9D)

My prediction? A brief stop here. According to Wikipedia, “…The most common commodities mined in the US include coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lithium, molybdenum, silver, uranium, and phosphate.”

How many of those ores have been virtually mined out in mines opened early in their history? Coal production (in North America; NOT in China, India, and other so-called “Third World Countries”.)

Asteroid mining will leave behind the same devastated Humans in their wake. Who will step in? Who will start the “environmental activism”? As it happened in Minnesota on the Iron Range which stopped producing iron, other mines in the US have decreased production of coal, copper-nickel, cobalt, rare-earths, and probably others, because it can be mined elsewhere more cheaply because environmental regulations here are among the strictest on Earth. The minerals are there; but we are being blocked from claiming them.

What will be the “environmental impact” of mining the asteroids? What do I suggest they do?

More on that next time…

Today’s Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/849994733672039/
https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2025/06/why-deep-seabed-mining-needs-a-moratorium, https://nautil.us/mining-in-space-could-lead-to-conflicts-on-earth-235900/ , https://www.livescience.com/65472-scientists-propose-solar-system-national-park.html , https://www.yep-academy.org/post/exploiting-stars-the-environmental-costs-of-space-mining , https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/10/26/environmental-impacts-of-space-mining-vs-terrestrial-mining/ , https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0265964621000333
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
Interesting Stuff The Might Apply To Mining Asteroids: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgej7gzg8l0o 

Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 674

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: ghosts
Current Event: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/31105/cold-spots-glensheen-mansion

My daughter and I were talking about camping today. A few days ago, I had scribbled a question a few days ago: “Are there English-type mansions in Minnesota?”

I mentioned that we might someday head north through the city of Duluth because I had frequently passed the Glensheen Mansion on Lake Superior and I related to her its grisly past – which had happened the year I graduated from Golden Valley Lutheran College (1977). I remember the hoopla and the delicious chill it sent down our backs whenever we talked about it.

But what if me and a couple of friends headed north and to Duluth a few days after the news of the double murder – pillow suffocation and a bludgeoning with (shades of CLUE!) a candlestick. Of course, because the place is swarming with police and detectives (zillions of dollars in inheritance is now up for grabs by relatives – and of COURSE there’s a will, handwritten, from three days before the murders!)

Yeah!

This is a prime setting for ghosts peering, lost from the window.

But what if the ghosts of Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse Velma Pietila turned up on the campus of the University of Minnesota, Duluth where me and my friends are staying, sleeping on the floor of some summer school friends?

And what if we were laying in the dark, gazing up at the stars on the Griggs Football Field late at night and suddenly a ghost hovers over the field, reaching out to us as the air around chills. I can see my breath and a voice before us breathes lightly, “It’s not who they think, son. Not who they think.”

A second ghost appears, this one an older woman, though not as young as Elisabeth – and she’s obviously been murdered, her head bashed in; blood still stains her face and dress. She raises one hand, palm to you and softly hisses, “Stop them. Stop them.” The ghosts dance around you in a tighter and tighter circle then disappear…

Just to add an extra twist, my father relates that HIS father was a grounds worker at one of the mansions in Duluth, Minnesota’s beautiful Skyline Parkway, a scenic drive that offers stunning views of Lake Superior, the harbor, and the city skyline. Along this parkway, you'll find impressive homes and mansions. The Glensheen Mansion at 3300 London Rd is likely the most famous historic home in Duluth. Built by Chester and Clara Congdon, it's a 39-room estate with original furnishings and extensive grounds, open for tours…and is home to the grisly murder and haunting above.

Not only was my grandfather a grounds worker, he married a woman less-than-half his age of 40 years who worked in Glensheen. In fact, as I read this, I discovered that the name of the nurse, Velma Pietila? Had the same last name as my MOTHER’S mother…

Coincidence? I think not. Make of it what you will, you’d hardly be the first!

Names: ♀ Obviously, I share my GRANDFATHER’S name…; ♂ Norwegian (Nurse)
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/474x/24/fe/fd/24fefdefb1711b8a5f4a940b87cff1d7.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #33A: Ursula K. LeGuin “& 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 I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Ursula K. LeGuin – with a few from myself…

“My fiction, especially for kids and young adults, is often reviewed as if it existed in order to deliver a useful little sermon (“Growing up is tough but you can make it,” that sort of thing). Does it ever occur to such reviewers that the meaning of the story might lie in the language itself, in the movement of the story as read, in an inexpressible sense of discovery, rather than a tidy bit of advice?

“Readers — kids and adults — ask me about the message of one story or another. I want to say to them, “Your question isn’t in the right language.”

“As a fiction writer, I don’t speak message. I speak story. Sure, my story means something, but if you want to know what it means, you have to ask the question in terms appropriate to storytelling.”

I’m going to have to disagree with the Great UKL here – with deep respect…and wondering if she would have agreed with my disagreement…She writes, “Sure, my story means something, but if you want to know what it means, you have to ask the question in terms appropriate to storytelling.” I would say that the question to ask is “What does the story mean to you?”

Every writer has an intent to their story – I often ask, “What am I trying to SAY in this story?” The thing then, is that I’ve come to realize that even when I mean something intentional, the reader is going to bring to bear on the story ALL of their life experiences; all of their knowledge; all of their mood-of-the-moment.

I just finished reading the most recent issue of my favorite magazine, ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact. For some reason, this issue prompted me to underline a whole lot of sentences…occasionally out of interest, but most often because I found the author’s intended message rude and obnoxious…

On further analysis, I think what I was feeling was that the author had not only an intended purpose, but seemed bent on TRYING to convince me that THEIR message for the story was all that mattered. What I brought to the story was, in their view IRRELEVANT. They intentionally dismissed me and what I brought to their piece and sought to subsume me – maybe even occasionally overwhelm me with the “importance of their message” or even WORSE, that I SHOULD listen to them because they were smarter than me and of COURSE their message was right because they were somehow inherently smarter than me and my point of view was stupid and that I should shut and read what they had to say, because THAT interpretation was the CORRECT way to read the story.

I just realized now that not only did Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing never make me field pummeled by her intention, she presented her message subtly and made allowance for me to interpret her work through my own lens…

In fact, reflecting on this as I write it, I think I might have discovered why my most recent submissions have been rejected…actually two reasons present themselves. First, I allowed my own point of view to change the story from STORY to a jeremiad (I like the word as it has roots in the Bible book of Jeremiah)…the modern usage which is based on the book of Jeremiah. He was was a Jewish prophet who spent his days reprimanding the Hebrews for false worship, social injustice and the king for his selfishness, materialism, and inequities. When not calling on his people to quit their wicked ways, he apparently spent lots of time complaining about his life. Nowadays, we use the word for the way a difficult person carries on.”

Or, secondly, I wasn’t adhering closely enough to the jeremiad that the magazine EDITOR wanted me to present maybe better words are “push”, “shove”, “jam down the reader’s throat”, or worse yet, “pander to not ONLY the reader’s point of view, but pander to what the EDITOR thinks their readers should believe…”

Hmm…this is food for thought and I think I’ll come back to this essay by Le Guin again soon!

References: https://www.ursulakleguin.com/message-about-messages 

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 11: Lumber…but THAT’S not all!

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 musings continues below.

When we met a couple weeks later, I strode into the Jax Lunar Lumber Hall, laid my compad gently on the table and said, “We have a bigger problem than I thought – and we have a huge opportunity.” That got the Board’s attention, young, old and in-between. “Turns out, the Moon has a shortage.” Their regard intensified. “While we seem to have a growing market for Lunar-grown lumber, wood, and other products, we’ve profoundly overlooked a secondary – but eventual primary source of not only income, but usefulness to Lunar civilization.”

One of the Middle-Aged Jax Board Members, Pahnnik, lifted a hand and said, “Lithium.”

I smiled, adding, “Take it away, Pahn.”

He nodded, stood, and went to the holotank. “We already know that our control of the Moon Trees – for posterity, of course.” His smile would have have been only slightly more frightening if he’d had his teeth capped with points. As it was, a few of the more timid members of the family fell backward into their seats. I raised my brows to encourage him. He said, “The Moon Trees, while the obvious foundation of our corporation here, and one I have no trouble encouraging as I have come to rather enjoy breathing since I was born,” he flashed the smile. I was glad to see that over half of us weren’t being fooled by his folksy pitch, leaning forward, folding our hands, gaze narrowing a bit, and resting our chins on hands folded into fists. He blew from his nose faintly, irritated, and continued, “It turns out they might have a more…concentrated use.”

He looked to me and bowed slightly. With my obvious approval assured to the family Board, I said, “I’ll let Pahnnik continue. It’s a good idea – maybe even helpful for Lunar civilization.”

He tapped the table in front of him and sat as an image appeared in front of us, “Simply put, agromining describes a process that uses plants to extract metals from soil. The process ideally harvests metals from high biomass crops which grow in metal rich soils, particularly those associated with sub-economic mineralization. The crop is harvested, and incinerated, leaving behind a high-grade bio-ore. In some cases, we can use the heat from incineration to feed into other processing, like distillation, purification, and even heating. Agromining offers the possibility of exploiting metal rich soil substrates that are otherwise uneconomic to mine. In our case, we’d be recovering lithium.”

“For batteries?” said Felix, the youngest member of the Board at seventeen. Gengineered and trained in esoteric mathematics; a sort of biocomputer, so to speak, he freaked out his peers while also being devastatingly handsome and funnier than most HV comedians.

“Certainly, but lithium has some fairly toxic effects on Humans,” said Shantell-Alberta, one of the Senior Members. “I’d hardly call that a ‘market boon’.”

“In and of itself, it’s not. However, since research on Faster-Than-Light drive has cast a fairly large net, lithium’s use to deal with various mental health challenges – mostly in the past, but some that continue even today – has brought it to the attention of the FTL Drive Center.”

Shantell-Alberta’s only-slightly-younger twin sister, Bernice-Coretta, shook her head, rolling her eyes. “By which you mean, you grabbed the Director’s hand and led him to a fancy dinner?”

ShanA, as she was known to her sister during less-formal arguments, said, “Bernie, your political acumen astounds me. Of course I did. It aligns us with the future of Humanity among the stars!” She flicked her fingers at her much-younger cousin.

But Felix interrupted, “And it’s a solution.“ He paused. Lots of frowns, irritation, and obvious to me, avid looks from the Youth Coalition Felix led. “A solution to the troubling problem of the test pilots – both AI and Human – to experience profound…shall we say, bouts of suicidal depression and a tendency to suicide before being debriefed upon their return from brief forays into interstellar space.”

Someone behind me muttered, “I’d be happy to debrief Felix.” I turned, scowling, to scowl at several of his birth cohort.

They uniformly cringed, fingers twitching enough for me to be pretty sure they were have trouble reconciling their desire to curry favor with me…or be violently dealt with by the commentator. “Watch it, kids.” I grunted, and turned back to the meeting.

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; https://www.ancestry.com/first-name-meaning/jax#:~:text=The%20name%20Jax%20traces%20its,name%20in%20its%20own%20right.; https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/8/2/56 ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_(medication)

Image: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YkAeUwwE2aksDqd5tgwyec-970-80.jpg.webp

CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 41: The Unreliable Narrator & A Culture of Lying

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.

Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.
After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

Let me say first that I don’t believe that there is any chance left that an “honest politician” exists. I don’t care who they are or who they claim to be. Politicians (even our “best and brightest”) have one word in mind: Power. They desire above everything else to get power, keep power, and use power to help a) themselves; b) people they consider family; c) people in my party who think very much the way I do; d) (which normally doesn’t happen) “serve” my city/district/county/state/country/world.

Now that I have that cleared up (and I am uninterested in seeing your arguments unless you can offer me undeniable proof that I am wrong), how can I tell any kind of story about any kind of future I’d like to live in?

Star Wars? No – that’s just 20th Century Earth spread like manure over other planets.

Star Trek? No – that’s just a single man’s absurd belief that the universe would work the way HE wanted it to and that anyone who disagreed in any detail was wrong.

Babylon 5? It’s already just Earth written…well, not larger but spread farther than is believable but during which absolutely nothing changes.

Other Interplanetary Fictions that other people besides geeks read are irrelevant because not enough people know about them or read them (in any visual format that involves visible words) to take the tenets and apply them to reality. The only exception is George Orwell’s 1984, and as we have read (those of us who still read) it’s already been and is gone.

Dune? It offers absolutely nothing new or applicable to human existence – even at its simplest form, we can say that it’s here already (but without sandworms).

Fewer people read because first of all, reading is expensive: doesn’t matter what you read ON, you have to first be able to afford it and all the accoutrements that go with it (NOT including affordable electrical energy whether generated, stored, or created by some kind of chemical reaction.) cost some amount of money or trade.

Religion is unprovable. I happen to be an evangelical Christian myself, but I cannot in any convincing way offer you proof of my faith. The same goes for anything else based on something invisible – which also includes political systems: republic, democratic (true or any one of its various hybrid forms), theocratic, communist, or anarchy, or socialism (which inevitably devolves into dictatorship); or thought or emotion, neither of which is quantifiable in any way. (Of COURSE some aliens somewhere can quantify thought and emotion…it’s what we hope. It’s why Humans created every science fiction world – we want SOMEDAY to be better than we are.

BTW: Fantasy doesn’t count because ALL of it is based on thought or emotion, neither of which is quantifiable in any way.

So, is there any way for the Human organism to create an interplanetary society, explore space, and expand our place in the universe WITHOUT resorting to force?

Because that was the ONLY way Humanity could have evolved/was created – I can’t think of any way Humanity came to be. Every science fiction writer who has ever created a universe based on some science principle or another (or group of them) are only ENTERTAINING THEMSELVES AND EVENTUALLY OTHERS who choose to join them in their fun.

So, is there anywhere for Humanity to go? Once we create the energy to “get to the stars”, we’ll just transport all of the above off Earth and nothing will change; nothing will be different.

NOW, if you want to keep trying, that is up to you…well, not you PERSONALLY! YOU as a single person can’t do anything that would effect the future of Humanity. You’ll be dead in a genetically predetermined amount of time. You can certainly try and “make a difference” – but after watching the fantastical “Monuments Men”, it’s once again clear that Adolph Hitler CERTAINLY did make a difference.

So, what is my reason for writing science fiction? Sometimes I write it long; sometimes short. I certainly want people to READ what I write, but few people have published my writing, so a very small number had READ what I have to say; of course some have read it, but as far as I can tell, my writing hasn’t made any kind of difference in their lives. I haven’t converted anyone to my point of view.

How can I create a world people want to read about as avidly as I read about Anne McCaffery’s world of PERN (which stands for, apparently, Parallel Earth Negligible Resources – now isn’t THAT a joke on me!)?

I can’t be any more sure of my writing leaving a lasting impression on a young person’s mind and heart than she did, or Frank Herbert did, or JK Rowling did (ignore what I said about fantasy, it’s important! Just not my pot of tea!).

Every year fantasy and science fiction is written AROUND THE WORLD. In how many languages? A Western newspaper writes with self-assured authority (and jabs at people who disagree with it as NOT as superior as they are!) here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/sep/11/seek-out-new-worlds-of-science-fiction-damien-walter#:~:text=Seek%20out%20new%20worlds%20of%20science%20fiction,a%20global%20language%20describing%20our%20shared%20future.

They self-righteously concluded in 2015: “If any single theme unites…African folktales to Chinese legend – into to the science fiction canon…science fiction has become the mythology of today’s…world…embrac[ing] the rich and valuable world mythologies that came before it.”

Sources: Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 673

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

Fantasy Trope: Heroic Fantasy (Conan The Barbarian)
Current Event: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/fantasy-fighting-takes-modernday-gladiators-back-in-time/article6178357.ece

Sukhjeev Hegde adjusted her brass brassiere and said, “Do you know why they make us wear these things?”

Shrugging, Vrishab Brahmbatt pulled up steel supporter and said, “Same reason I gotta wear this thing.”

“And that is…” she hefted the broadsword, swung it – and nearly chopped Vrish’s head off.

“Would you watch out with that thing!” he cried, then added, “It’s verisimilitude.”

“How can dressing this way be ‘an appearance or semblance of truth’ if it’s all fake anyway? We act like it’s true...”

“Why? So it will become truth? That’s the most fantastic thing you’ve said on this entire date!”

He pursed his lips, then said sullenly, “It’s not a date.”

“Sure it is!” Sukhjee said. “You asked me to come with you on this adventure thing and I said yes, if we can have a good cup of coffee afterwards.” She glared at him and added, “You’re not thinking of reneging on the coffee, are you?”

“No, we’ll still do the coffee, it’s just that I forgot to tell you something about this simulation.” The ground trembled suddenly and the rest of their mutuality turned to the castle gate as it wound down on heavy chains. The computer-generated images – Sukhjee had called them barely adequate shimmered and seemed to take on the weight of reality.

Without looking at Vrish, she said, “You forgot to tell me that at some magical command or when the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars that peace won’t be guiding the planets – those gigantic monster sheep with glow-in-the-dark scarlet eyes will?”

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

“So, do we run or fight?” she asked.

What he assumed were the ‘real’ people had dropped their weapons and were running away from the sheepsters. “It’s a first date, I’m open to whatever you’d like to do.”

Sukhjee tossed her sword from one hand to the other, almost dropped it then grinned at Vrish then said, “Let’s go fight us some sheepsters, sweetie!” Along with the once-simulated army, she charged the creature who’d been joined by four others.

“Don’t call me ‘sweetie’,” Vrish said as he charged after his date.

Names: ♀ Sikh, India ; ♂ Hindu, India 

Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #32: JANE AUSTEN “& 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 I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!

Without further ado, short story observations by Jane Austen – with a few from myself…

Most of you reading this have no idea who Jane Austen was or what (or more correctly, WHO) she created. Who was this woman who only wrote SIX novels, that have been made into countless movies, plays, and over a hundred adaptations of her novels (all written between 1811 and 1817 – they have only rarely been out of print in the last 218 years…). WHY are they so popular and why do they have such staying power? I did some digging, and thought I’d share what I’ve read! Finally, what can I apply to my own writing?

“I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am.”

This one played to my personal strength as a stubborn dork! I can’t even count the number of times or manuscripts that have been rejected. I CAN tell you that I was rejected twenty-one times in the last year…yet in that same year, my novel EMERALD OF EARTH was released and has sold some copies. Even when I’m not “feeling like it”, I write. And like Austen says, “I write on until I AM in a humor for writing.”

1) Avoid stereotypical heroes (especially when unrealistic)

BTW: A woman driver in NASCAR would have been unthinkable a 100 years ago...

I will say that that is a difficult thing to avoid – another word writers use for “stereotypical” is “tropes”. A trope is best described that you use a character who is OBVIOUSLY going to behave in a particular way. The “absent-minded professor”; “action”; “the annoying/nosy neighbor”; “AIs as a menace to all Humanity”; “bimbo/bad boy”; “blind mystical seer”; “the chosen one” (you want to see some more? Go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stock_characters). So, I HAVE used one or two of these stereotypes, but then played them OPPOSITE (it’s also called “playing against type”. THAT’S fun; like taking the computer geek who is ALSO the best basketball player in the city who leads an unlikely team to a city championship!

2) Avoid clichés"

This is related to using stereotypes in your story; but clichés are situations that are inhabited by stereotypes. A “good” example of a cliché and a trope turned on its head would be: “‘Girls with guns’ is both a trope and stereotype, especially when it comes to blockbuster movies. Whilst some people may feel it’s a cliché as well, the fact is this trope-crossed-stereotype does well with audiences year on year.”

BUT, if you assign your female character the role of “babysitter” or “home-economics teacher”, then you’re perpetuating a cliché AND a trope. What if you created an interpol agent who had a horrible experience, went back to college, and got an education degree in home economics – and because a criminal he brought to justice was an international spy and assassin, so the agent became a “home-ec” teacher to protect his life and the life of his family. He is ALSO incredibly popular because (during his time as an international agent), he learned that he was a FABULOUS cook! Huh, that sounds interesting – forget you ever read this

3) Avoid superfluous details

"You describe a sweet place, but your descriptions are often more minute than will be liked. You give too many particulars to hold a readers interest." DON’T describe something in minute detail if those minute details aren’t incredibly important to the whole story! As a writing, everything you write needs to be VITAL to the story – if a reader gets to the end of the story in which you had your main character get kidnapped by aliens – and it DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING, then you’ll have one angry reader (and thus, an angry EDITOR), and you’ll probably never make a sale to them again!

4) Revision requires cutting

"I hope when you have written a great deal more, you will be equal to scratching out some of the past." I have a rule-of-thumb for myself: If I start doing a revision and it’s only about 50 words shorter than when I started – then the revision isn’t DONE! (Unless the story was 100 words to start with. Then I have to go back and figure out if I cut something important!

Your words are just lights on your laptop or words on a sheet of paper – they should NOT BE CONSIDERED PERFECT OR WONDERS OF LITERATURE!

5) If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

The first book Jane Austen sold for publication was NORTHANGER ABBEY in 1803, the publisher promised to bring it out soon and went so far as to advertise the book. It was 1809 before Jane Austen’s brother wrote to suggest to the publishers that they bring it out already, or at least give it back. The publisher said they’d bought and paid for it, they’d publish it whenever they darn-well felt like it.

This is the point when a lot of people would get discouraged. I’d probably have given up. Two years later, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY was published in 1811 by a different publisher; then PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (the one she’s best known for) in 1813, MANDFIELD PARK in 1814; EMMA in 1815 (of which JK Rowling said, “I love a good 'who-done-it', and my passion is plot construction. Readers love to be conned. The best twist ever in literature is in Jane Austen's EMMA. To me, she is the target of perfection at which we shoot in vain.", NORTHANGER ABBEY (finally!) in 1818 (sadly, Jane Austen had passed away), and finally, PERSUASION that year as well.

6) Don’t worry too much about trends.

Jules Verne was one of the very first true science fiction writers writing: Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1864, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas in 1870, and Around the World in Eighty Days in 1872. In the second one, he “invented” the military submarine; and in the third global balloon travel.

HG Wells invented alien invasions in WAR OF THE WORLDS; unheard of until then; and Arthur C. Clarke invented satellites; equally unheard of until he wrote them. Mary Shelly invented the idea of using electricity to bring a corpse back to life.

We call them defibrillators today…

7 Write About Topics You Know Well

“Jane Austen has been accused by critics of ignoring the larger world and historical events of the day in favor of every day occurrences in village life. Her reasons for these limitations were deliberate. To her way of thinking authors lost credibility if they wrote about topics that were out of their depth.”

OK – I’m going to defend using imagination to write with. I invented the idea of taking 12-years to tour the solar system with an entire, hollowed out asteroid as a spacecraft made out of an asteroid carrying a crew (and families), and all the equipment needed to do an intensive one year survey of each of the eight planets, a few trans-Neptunian objects, and a few more Mars-Jupiter asteroids…I wrote about it in EMERALD OF EARTH. I have physically experienced NO INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION! (To be honest, neither does Emerald Marcillon…)

Jane Austen wrote much, much more advice about writing. The ones above had stuck with me; below you’ll find several other articles about her that you can use to explore her advice and see if any of it applies to your OWN writing!

References:
https://tammyletherer.com/10-jane-austen-quotes-will-make-sense-writing-life/
https://www.janeaustensummer.org/post/austen-s-advice-to-a-young-writer
https://www.janeaustensummer.org/post/austen-s-advice-to-a-young-writer#:~:text=%22I%20hope%20when%20you%20have,out%20some%20of%20the%20past.%22&text=I%20have%20made%20up%20my,%2C%20yours%2C%20and%20my%20own.

https://www.claudiagray.com/jane-austens-advice-for-writers/
https://medium.com/author-masterminds/how-jane-austens-resolve-sculpted-literary-history-73d00cec20cb#:~:text=Her%20influence%20extended%20beyond%20literature,enduring%20relevance%20of%20feminist%20perspectives.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/jane-austen-200-years-why-people-are-still-obsessed/8706510
https://exhibits.lib.lehigh.edu/exhibits/show/austen/about#:~:text=By%20the%20beginnings%20of%20the%2020th%20century%2C,universities%20added%20her%20works%20to%20their%20curriculums.&text=The%20films%2C%20modern%20literary%20reimaginings%2C%20and%20Austen%2Dthemed,such%20perspectives%2C%20which%20continue%20to%20prevail%20today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen
https://digitalausten.org/node/50#:~:text=Jane%20Austen's%20novels%20are%20still%20relevant%20today,to%20change%20in%20correlation%20to%20modern%20times. 

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 672

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

SF Trope: "It occurs to me that robot stories about naturally-occurring robots present an untapped sci-fi resource in terms of commenting on what constitutes life, or a meditation on the machine like nature of biological man, etc."
Current Event: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/scientists-create-life-like-cells-out-of-metal/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“True, that. But...”

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

“I don’t see anything...”

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

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

“Huh?” Marquis said.

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

Names: ♀, ♂ Top 20 Whitest and Blackest Names (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2470131) Resource: http://io9.com/5628989/ten-tropes-youll-find-in-science-fiction---over-and-over-again
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