IDEAS ON TUESDAY 667

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: “When wizards are immortal, they don’t need to train successors, and my not be able to…”
Current Event: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/07/pipeline-knowledge-lost-time-gained

Sidaji the Immortal pursed his lips, glaring down at the bucket of swamp water, tapping the edge. His fingers strayed to the runic marks inscribed on the sides. He stared for some time before looking up and saying, “You are Luca Růžička.”

Luca sighed and tugged on his soaking wet jeans. His black Converses squelched on his feet and he scratched at a mosquito bite on his forehead.

Ranghild Peeters, the beautiful and incredibly annoying second apprentice said, “You’re not supposed to pick at pimples. I’ve got a skin cleanser...” She stepped a bit away from him as the smell of Okefenokee swamp drifted up from the water leaking from Luca’s tennis shoes and dribbling on the Persian rug.

Luca snapped, “It’s a mosquito bite.”

“Yeah, right,” said Ranghild.

“You try sloshing around in a swamp to get a bucket of ‘water clear of duckweed, water clear of waste’ and see how long you can keep the mosquitoes from eating you alive!”

Sidaji looked at her and said, “You are Ranghild Peeters.”

She blew her startlingly raven black bangs up her forehead and said, “Yes, Immortal One. Now, can we get on with the transformation. I’ve got things I have to do today.”

Luca muttered, “Like flirt with every guy in Minneapolis?”

Ranghild shook her head, “We’re broken up. Get over it.”

“I didn’t break anything up. You dumped me.”

“Only because you’re being such a...”

Sidaji the Immortal straightened up, lifted his arms and thundered, “Silence!” The thunder was literal as the windows of the mansion they were living in on Mt. Curve Avenue overlooking Lowry Park shook in their frames. Only Luca and Ranghild’s unity spells kept them from shattering. Across the street in the park, an autumn flock of common egrets took wing, rising up in a cloud of white stark against the golds, reds, oranges, and browns of the pond.

The wizard looked down on them, having swelled to twice his usual height. The floor beneath him creaked as he stepped toward them, saying, “þearf sy forþsetennes héafodcwide manian gescaep lifiendee!”*

They looked at each other, shrugged, and Ranghild said, “Your Immortal Greatness, we are currently in the early part of the 21st Century. I’m not sure shouting in Old English will accomplish anything. Especially as neither one of us can understand it. You enchanted us with this century’s English vocabulary.”

Sidaji stared at her, blinked, then said, “I seem to be having some trouble remembering things today.” The wizard’s apprentices both stepped back in unison, finding that the grand piano behind them blocked their retreat. Sidaji laughed, rattling the chandelier in the entryway.

“You’re immortal!” Luca exclaimed.

“What do you mean you’re having trouble remembering?” Ranghild exclaimed.

Sidaji pushed his sleeves up to his elbows, exposing heavily tattooed forearms. His hands were blunt – the hands of a farmhand rather than a dandified city boy – and his nails, while clean and trimmed, the nails of a man who had worked for his livelihood. He looked at his hands, studying them for a moment. Then he looked at his apprentices. He smiled and said, “My body is immortal, child. There was never any guarantee that my memories would be immortal as well.”

They looked at each other and Sidaji laughed again. “What are you laughing at?” Luca said.

“The two of you are acting like you’re in a movie. Are you really that much in love that you can’t think independently?”

Both of them, temporarily frozen in age as teenagers and prone to forget that they had actually been born in 11th Century Denmark and the Kingdom of Bohemia, were neither teenagers nor Americans and effectively his slaves – blushed furiously. Sidaji waved them away, remembering at the last moment to disempower the gesture, said, “That doesn’t seem to help me remember how to turn this swamp water into botulism infected water.” He looked at them and added, “Why are we going to poison the water supply of Minneapolis?”

Names: ♀ Denmark, Belgium ; ♂ Austria, Czechoslovakian

Translation: (From Old English – http://www.oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/) “There is far more of import here than your mortal sex lives!”

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

AT MINNESOTA MINICON 58... as an attendee, a panelist, a book hawker, a proud Dad, and a teacher of FLASH FICTION.

https://mnstf.org/minicon58/

THIS WEEKEND I WILL BE AT

MINNESOTA MINICON 58...

as an attendee, a panelist, a book hawker, a proud Dad (daughter is on a panel by invitation!), and a teacher of FLASH FICTION.

Looking forward to it! Maybe see you there?

(THAT WOULD BE GREAT!)

Slice of PIE: Will All Intelligent Alien Civilizations Be Modeled On the Benevolent Government Democrats Are Striving For?

Question: Why do so many people who DON’T read science fiction widely, make the assumption that any Aliens we come into contact with who have starships, no war, unlimited wealth, with a unified, single party government, be ecologically-pre-civilization-static, single-class, benevolent, democratically elected, and all-inclusive civilization... possibly be REAL?

Do they have evidence that “U-SPG-EPCS-SC-B-DE-AI civilization” is the only way to govern well? (WE are evidence to the contrary. Our governments have always been fractured (check history books); but we use nuclear power, genetic engineering, and we travel in space – all of these achievements are limited and the majority of “doom-sayers” assume that we will destroy ourselves…but despite dire predictions, we haven’t as of this moment. We absolutely have wars, threats, and cruelty…yet seven billion of us persist at this time. Countless others have tantrums about how dumb the “others” are and that unless the entire world embraces their ideal of government, we will continue to be hanging by a thread? Maybe a spider silk thread…)

How did Gene Roddenberry’s dream up the idea of a United Earth and a United Federation of Planets? Except for hippies who were dreaming of yellow submarines and Woodstock, the rest of the world was in shell-shocked horror discovering that the SECOND War To End All Wars hadn’t performed as promised. Things were growing worse. How did Roddenberry get to Star Trek?

That’s easy enough to summarize from the article referenced below: “I really don’t consider myself a science-fiction writer, but I’m interested in what’s happening on this planet and what may happen…Intolerance in the 23rd century? Improbable!...If man survives that long, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures…we couldn’t do a space show without at least one person on board who constantly reminded you that you are out in space and in a world of the future…A science-fiction buff since junior high school, he had the idea for a series that would mix…The Twilight Zone..The Outer Limits with a cast of continuing characters…[a]…space-adventure series [like] “Wagon Train to the Stars,” a nod to the westerns that were still the gold standard in popular TV drama in the 1960s…born in the midst of the turbulent 1960s…it…often reflected and commented on the issues of that divisive decade: the Vietnam War, civil rights, Cold War politics, the budding environmental movement. The show had an idealistic, ’60s counterculture mind-set, imagining a 23rd-century world in which humans had outgrown war and prejudice…[STAR TREK] proved that an outer-space action show could appeal to our intelligence, tackle serious issues—and, in a troubled time, offer some hope for the future.” He certainly didn’t base his enthusiastic hope for humanity on any kind of reality, making the assumption that we would reach a point of evenly distributed wealth and overcome all forms of prejudice to reach the

But…

In the STAR WARS Universe, an Evil Empire has overthrown by an UNQUESTIONABLY Good Republic (it’s “goodness” is an unargued given). But shortly after that happens, the New Republic was once again overthrown by an Imperial copycat of Darth Vader called the First Order which launches its takeover in THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015 – ironically, (hmmm or was it political commentary?) the same year Trump declared his presidential bid). On what basis is the Republic declared “good” and the Empire “bad”?

In Frank Herbert’s DUNE novels, his assumption is that humanity can only avoid the extinction of Humanity by creating an Omniscient God-Emperor to derail a religious High Priesthood of Bene Gesserit and capitalistic Traders. “ We've a three-point civilization: the Imperial Household balanced against the Federated Great Houses of the Landsraad through [CHOAM, the Directors of all wealth], and between them; the Spacers Guild with its damnable monopoly on interstellar transport. Reverend Mother Mohiam.” (Note she omits the hidden rule of the Bene Gesserit.” Paul Atreides (aka Paul Muad’dib institutes “…his Golden Path, [Frank Herbert’s]…argument of how to create a healthy society, avoiding despotism and hero worship, a trap in which social groups can be caught: ‘To make a world where human kind can make its own future from moment to moment, free from one man's vision. Free from the perversion of the [any?] prophet’s words. And free of future pre-determined...’” From universal foundation does Frank Herbert’s declaration of what humanity needs depend? On what foundation of human understanding does he make his postulation?

In TV’s extremely popular series, THE EXPANSE, the UN has seized power from most of the world’s governments because of nearly uncontrollable Climate Change – which they stop. They continue to rule Earth as well as colonies on the Moon, Mars, and in the asteroid belt as well as several other Jovian moons and a very few interstellar colonies until rogue Martian marines form their own government, conquer everyone, and call them all the Laconian Empire…[This is all from the resource below. I read the second book, CALIBAN’S WAR thinking it was the first and while I thought it was a great deal of fun, never went back to read the others. I also read A GAME OF THRONES and while it was also fun, (nowhere near as fun as his Haviland Tuf science fiction stories); I didn’t return to that series, either and never watched a single episode of the TV show…]

There are many futures for Humanity portrayed in science fiction literature. These four are currently best known because they were either visual presentations or MADE into visual presentations. Others await production and the passing of time to test their precepts.

Until then, we’re left with what we have here and now, and what we hope in the future – and our own hands to make it – though there are some who believe that we do not labor alone working for the better future or Humanity on Earth, now. [No, I DON’T mean Aliens Among Us!]

Finally, with the perspective added by a few more years, I wonder why so many people today assume that "all is lost" and there's no possible way we could survive to even THINK about a world like the one Roddenberry invented nearly six decades ago? Could it be the BBC's news coverage? Racial unrest (I live in the city and a few blocks from one of the places waves of civil unrest rolled over a bit over two and three years ago...)

Do I have hope for a STAR TREK future? Can we make it? With deep hope and belief, I STILL have to say, "Yes."

Sources: https://time.com/4406710/star-trek-history-excerpt/, https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Galactic_Empire, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizations_of_the_Dune_universe, https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Laconia_system, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muad%27Dib
Image: https://coldnorth.com/owen/game/startrek/universe/galaxy-relic.gif

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 666

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.” Let me know if anything comes of them.

SF Trope: Absolute xenophobes
Current Event: http://io9.com/what-will-human-cultures-be-like-in-100-years-453934475

Diandra Ngobogo and Guychel Kolchak walked side-by-side in the Mall of America. The Mall was crowded – more so than it had been in decades. The entire building had been renovated and vertical banners proclaiming, “Fifty Years Of Quality Shopping” floated from antigrav advert-eyezers, brushing shoppers with trailers of brilliantly colored silk.

It was just as effective as elaborate signage had been in the last century. Most of the people ignored them. While it was true people ducked into and out of shops, the majority simply walked, talking.

To themselves.

Even so, it was quieter. The near silence was broken only by the squeak of tennis shoes and murmuring voices, as if someone had stumbled into a Buddhist temple filled with saffron-robed monks doing their morning prayers.

Diandra said, “What could you possibly want with that?”

Guychel said, “Where would she go with someone like him?” He squeezed Diandra’s hand so hard, she yelped, yanking her hand away from his.

He didn’t notice even when she glanced at him. He did notice when she shoved him hard enough to stumble into a column that rose up all seven stories to support a semi-transparent roof panel. He said, “I’ll talk to you in a minute,” tapped his phone and glared at Diandra and exclaimed, “What was that for?” He tapped his phone again and muttered, “No, not you! I’m talking to Diandra.” He paused. “She’s my girlfriend.” Paused again then said, “Why would you think that?” and hung up on the caller. He finally looked at Diandra and said, “What?”

Balled fists on her hips, she jerked her head sideways once, calling Guychel. She murmured, “We haven’t said a word to each other since we got here.”

“We’re talking now,” he murmured back.

“You didn’t even notice when I stopped holding your hand!” she said.

He looked stupid at the offending member then at her, murmuring, “So?”

“Why do we even go to the trouble of getting together if we’re just going to walk alongside each other and still talk to the rest of the world?”

He stared at her then swallowed hard. He hung up and said to her directly, “Are you breaking up with me?”

She hung up as well and said out loud, “I like you a lot. Why would I break up with you?”

“You’re not talking to me, though,” Guychel said.

“I’m talking to you.”

He gestured angrily, “You know what I mean! We’re not on the same circuit!”

Diandra stared at him for several seconds before he looked away. She said, “I skipped fifteen times from Jakarta to here just to be with you. Do you see any more couples here?”

Guychel looked. He frowned. Then he turned in a circle and finally said, “None that I can see. They’re all here by themselves for whatever reason, but they’re with their real friends, too. What’s wrong with that?”

She’d done the same thing, tracking various Mall walkers. She finally said, “I ain’t a genius…”

“You are, too. That’s what the datafile says. It’s why I texted you.”

She blinked in surprise then smiled, “You flirted me because I was smart?”

He grinned lopsidedly, “That and you’re a sexbag.”

She sniffed and slugged him on the shoulder and said, “You’re no outtrash yourself.”

He blushed under his pink dyed blond hair. The two colors clashed remarkably. He said, “So, what you’re saying is that we should like, really talk to each other?”

Diandra shrugged, “Could be new.”

Guychel grinned then looked up. Way up. He frowned. “What?” Diandra asked.

He jerked his chin up. “Someone was watching us.”

She touched her headset then said, “I ran it back. You’re right. Who was that?”

Names: ♀ Indonesia, Central African Republic; ♂ Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia (Siberia)
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

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 29: NOT the "Final Frontier", the Wild, Wild Higher Frontier!

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...

“‘If the idea of mining asteroid seems outlandish,’ Vescovo argues, ‘many technological breakthroughs – the Wright brothers' first manned flight, for example – have likewise carried the same burden. Until, that is, they actually happen. The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said that the first trillionaire will come through asteroid mining.’” Victor Vescovo (One of AstroForge’s main investors and the explorer who built a submersible that in 2019 made him the first person to visit the bottom of all five oceans.)

So, I think there’s a reasonable chance mining asteroids will one day be a reality. We’re completely unamazed today, of incredibly wealthy people taking short trips to the “bottom ledge” of space – even actors who’ve PRETENDED to live and work in space, (“No, I'm from Iowa, I only work in space.”), have actually ridden on top of a rocket.

“By April 5, 2025, a total of 13 private visitors, known as spaceflight participants, from seven countries have visited the International Space Station, according to NASA. International Space Station Visitors: 283 individuals from 23 countries have visited.”

“As of March 2025, 682 people have reached the altitude of space according to the FAI definition of the boundary of space, and 721 people have reached the altitude of space according to the USAF definition.” (https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-visitors-by-country/)

While the number of people who’ve gone into space is hardly staggering, the KINDS of people who have gone has increased – there’s even a way to go into space as a “tourist”!

How long has it taken for this number to climb from one (Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), First person in space. — Soviet Union Vostok 1, 1961) to Humans having a space station that has been occupied continually for 25 years, and hosted 721 people who have BEEN TO SPACE?

That’s at TINY number of years. If I wanted to, I could probably calculate the actual Rate of Growth of Space Occupation/Visitation Over Time…but I that’s pretty much beyond my capabilities in math (calculus????) or whatever.

But GIVEN that, let’s see what the rate of growth and in particular, mining of the “new” world that Europeans started mining:

USA is 250 years old in 2025 AD.
Earliest known metalworking: 5000 years before the Roman calendar.
“The earliest known metalworking in North America began some 7,000 years ago, when Native Americans mined copper in hand-dug pits on an isolated peninsula in the Midwest. Remains of this massive deposit and the booming industry that grew around it are now part of a national historical park.”
The European invasion started in 1000 CE, the Vikings being the first perpetrato
“The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the Ngwenya Mine in Eswatini (Swaziland), which radiocarbon dating shows to be about 43,000 years old… The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the Ngwenya Mine in Eswatini (Swaziland), which radiocarbon dating shows to be about 43,000 years old. At this site Paleolithic humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre. Mines of a similar age in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools.” ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining)

The Dawn of Mining to the Asteroid Age was about 40,000 years (for the ease of calculations). Some 1600 generations; let’s say 1000 (a generation in prehistoric southern Africa was substantially SHORTER than a generation of 21st Century (48th Century China; 21st Century in India (though it’s 2082); Reiwa 7 in Japan)…so, let’s give us (ONLY for the sake of argument!) from the establishment of the OLDEST known Earth Human mine it took 1000 generations.

But THAT included the development of Human civilization from the invention of cloth and leather to expanding Human occupation of more and more hostile environments. THAT part of our history is past. Let’s take it from the inauguration of mechanized mining: “…Water wheels date to the Roman period and were used to grind grain and lift irrigation water. Water-powered bellows were in use on blast furnaces in China in 31 AD.[4] By the 13th century, water wheels powered sawmills[5] and trip hammers, to pull cloth and pound flax and later cotton rags into pulp for making paper. Trip hammers are shown crushing ore in De re Metallica (1555).” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanization)

So pulling it all together, it took some 2000 years to raise Human mining from pickaxes, water wheels, and charcoal fires, to automated, computerized digging, transporting, and processing, to a space-going civilization. Let’s take the “automated, transporting, and processing” as a given – BUT, add digging, transporting, and processing IN A VACUUM and add 1000 more years. That’s NOT to say that we can move FASTER than the civilization 2000 years ago; but let’s just say (1000-500 or 750 year) or somewhere between 2025 and 2775 as a full-blown space-occupying civilization. I’m NOT talking about Humans on Pluto or anything; but there will certainly be large habitats between Earth and Mars (where many ASTEROIDS are); probably islands of Humans between Earth and Venus – who KNOWS what’s on the surface there (well, WE do, but the days are brutal because the day is nearly as long a its year, and everything made on Earth pretty much disintegrates because of TRULY acid rain, no real sunlight, and perpetual cloudiness…

Likely there will be “islands” in space – asteroids mined out and abandoned, then gengineered plants cultivated on the interior under the light of self-replicating-and-repairing sunlamps…with the requisite adaptations to a new environment…leading (inevitably to revolution and a break from Earth and the birth of a “frontier society” akin to the American West, Russian Siberia, British Australia, and China’s Xinjiang province with its mosques, steppes, sand dunes, and majority population (47%) of Uighur, dubbed by “official Chinese”, as “a place which is luoho and luan, or “backward and chaotic” (sounds like the wild, wild West to me!).

Me? I’d lay my bets on SOONER than the 28th Century…

Today’s Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250320-how-close-are-we-really-to-mining-asteroids
Other data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_nationality
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

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS : Of NASA, Democrats, Republicans and the South Korean Space Sprint

Today, I thought I'd bring to your attention a book series BOTH my wife and I have fallen in love with! The fifth (and I hope NOT final book) recently appeared in many different bookstores (with a great deal of grief, NOT at the place I have often bought books, and actually once worked at; a place I'm not going to name, but a "brick-and-mortar-store" that often "anchors" shopping malls and once played a huge part in my reading life and have since (and will not completely) eschew for Independent Book Stores...

The SERIES is by Mary Robinette Kowal who writes not ONLY "alternate history science fiction", but delightful fantasy as well. I met her and got her to sign a book of mine at my LOCAL Indie bookstore, UNCLE HUGOS SCIENCE FICTION and UNCLE EDGARS MYSTERY Book Store... (visit the site here -- you CAN order online! Uncle Hugo's & Uncle Edgar's Bookstores - Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mystery Books 

After JFK sent the United States on a gentle landing (as opposed to a “collision”) course to the Moon, it seems that Democrats turned from the stars to focus on Earth…

Even in our 2025, budget battles in Congress have focused on moving into space or more closely monitoring Earth for Climate Change [And Near Earth Asteroids that might collide with the planet and change all life as we know it (see Mary Robinette Kowal’s novels THE CALCULATING STARS (2018), THE FATED SKIES (2018), to be followed by THE RELENTLESS MOON (2020), and the conclusion of the quartet with THE MARTIAN CONTINGENCY) (which started out as THE DERIVATIVE BASE) a couple weeks ago in 2025.]

The focus has been essentially along party lines, with Democrats seeking to strengthen the knowledge base of our own world, and Republicans eschewing Earth for our place in space.

Private industry is maniacally developing launch vehicles, with one currently making test trips up and down and which will very soon be added to Russian Soyuz capsule as the only vehicle able to carry Human crew and passengers; of course, all of this is with a close eye on enlarging their cash cards. Other nations, once content to either ride in the wake of space giants Russia, the United States, and China; are now racing on ahead – with dozens of countries claiming a space program (seventy-two of them), but only fourteen of those with a serious launch capability.

Six have the capability of launching AND RECOVERING biological material; and finally only three have sent astronauts from their own space program into space – Russia (first, April 1961), the US (second, May 1961), and China (third, October 2003).

The International Space Station has been occupied without interruption since November 2, 2000 (currently, 18 years and 343 days) with a total number of visiting scientists of 236, coming from eighteen countries.

Humans have a presence in space – near space, anyway. We’ve landed on the Moon 21 times, starting in 1959 with the Soviet Luna 2 in 1959, to the most recent landing a semi-successful landing of Intuitive Machines IM-2; "6 March 2025. The spacecraft was intact after touchdown but resting on its side, thereby complicating its planned science and technology demonstration mission; this outcome is similar to what occurred with the company's IM-1 Odysseus spacecraft in 2024. On March 13, Intuitive Machines shared that, like on the IM-1 mission, the Athena's altimeter had failed during landing, leaving its onboard computer without an accurate altitude reading. As a result, the spacecraft struck a plateau, tipped over, and skidded across the lunar surface, rolling once or twice before settling inside the crater."

Spacecraft have landed on Mars eight times (all US ships) and Venus six times (all of them Soviet Union ships) and Magellan took extensive radar images that were processed into 3D images. Humans have also shot probes through the atmospheres of Venus (once). NASA/ESA and Italy had Cassini drop a probe into the atmosphere of Titan eventually crashing into its atmosphere while gathering data. The Galileo probe went to Jupiter.

So – why am I here? To say that I’m irritated that Democrats seem fixed on Trump’s idiot statements about AGW and insist on directing NASA to send up more satellites to take more pictures of Earth and add more data to something that while people DENY it, has a relatively high probability of being a real trend; those Democrats are totally ignoring the importance the current president has put on NASA’s return to the Moon and mounting a mission to Mars (mostly because it’s flashy and I think he wants to be mentioned in the same space-breath as JFK…)

Check the articles below if you think I’m being an idiot. They’re (mostly) non-partisan (the one partisan piece does the same thing current Democrats are doing: dancing around a revitalized humans-in-space program that Trump’s Tweets have re-initiated).

So, what’s this have to do with writing?

Americans are not only oblivious to but actively ignoring the efforts of the rest of the planet to get into space. In the upcoming issue of ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact, I have a short story, “Kamsahamnida, America” in which South Koreans land a woman on the far side of the Moon using a bit of gravity modification technology.

The concept is NOT a mere SF idea, however. During a month-long stay in RoK, I saw firsthand, the South Korean’s American-like obsession with space. From science museum images of Korean astronauts on the Moon and Mars, to the attitude of people regarding what Americans would consider “cramped living quarters” and the reverse paradigm of the US and its European roots that “wide-open-spaces” and single-family-homes is the only sure sign of success and the Korean paradigm that the poor have “houses” and the rich have apartments that OTHER people take care of so they can do IMPORTANT work. Also, the Korean space program, while it hasn’t landed a person anywhere yet, was independently developed in a way reminiscent of the American space program of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and started with sounding rockets and have gradually scaled up to full-sized rockets capable of launching satellites and (I’m sure) eventually crewed spacecraft…to the fact that in the center of the peninsula, you’ll find the National Fusion Research Institute…(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DA8GnrhTCY; http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=29116) South Koreans are actively experimenting with rockets, fusion power, and countless other technology applications of physics.

I believe that South Korea will not only one day stun the world by skipping over the “big” nations to make a conceptual advance that all of them expected to be the sole province of Western White Big Country Big Budget Science…That’s what I explore in the story in the November/December ANALOG.

I think they’re poised at the edge of a leap into space; and “Kamsahamnida, America” is the first in a set of stories that will be set in the same universe. It’s also a universe that sees the achievement of a Korean dream: to reunite the peninsula.

Articles: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5503/cosponsors, https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-spacex-agree-commercial-crew-development-is-the-highest-priority/, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/where-candidates-stand-nasa-space-exploration-n637771, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/midterm-election-congress-nasa-space/575320/, https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-1c5f68682303ae92a6aed0b75bfcaf6f, http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2019/nasas-planetary-defense-budget-growth.html, http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2019/what-the-recent-budget-deal-means-for-nasa.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_policy_of_the_United_States#Kennedy_administration, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government_space_agencies
Image: https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xqjn5zeqnaujr6klqsdgb6sy/bafkreieh7oppvypyjnnkimtgd33m2x2pi7zoflkfkidvtesgwbqy2powlq@jpeg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 665

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: “Alucard” – Dracula Written Backward as a way of disguise…
Current Event: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/10/50-scariest-monsters-movie-history/

“The word ‘monster’ comes from the Latin word monstrum which is an aberrant occurrence, usually biological, that was taken as a sign that something was wrong within the natural order,” read Wyndham D’Aquino.

“So, what are you trying to say?” said Charlotte Mogwai.

“Nothing,” said Wyndham, looking out the window at the house across the street. Small, run-down, it was just like the rest of the neighborhood. Pathetic. It was easier than looking at Charlotte. But he added, “You know, the fact is that it’s an aberrant occurrence.”

“Are you saying Dejario is a monster?” She snorted – a most unladylike sound, Wyndham thought – and said, “You’re just jealous!”

He shrugged and put down his tablet computer. “Yeah, but that doesn’t make Dejario any less a monster.”

“There is nothing wrong with the natural order! It’s just that...”

“It’s just that he’s not natural?”

“It’s not like he’s a vampire or a werewolf...”

“Those things aren’t even ‘monsters’ according to this definition! They were just made up in Hollywood to make money for the studios…” Wyndham said.

“So you’re saying that Godzilla was part of nature?” asked Charlotte.

He opened his mouth, paused to reconsider, then said, “Inasmuch as mutations are natural, Godzilla was.”

“Dracula’s natural?”

He shrugged, “Based on a real villain with as taste for bloody impalement of his enemies, then ‘yes’. Perverse but natural.”

Charlotte scowled, whipped out her tablet computer and said, “Cyclops, Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein, Werewolf, Invisible Man, Mummy, Bigfoot, Dinosaurs, Zombies, King Kong, the Blob, CHUD, Cthulu, Kraken, Medusa, Triffid, Trolls, Freddy Krueger, Ghost, Hulk, Evil Clown, Leprechaun, Megalodon, Predator, Wolfman, Wyvern...”

“Stop! No, they’re not all natural!”

“So, he’s not a monster.”

“He is a monster!” Wyndham said. “Besides, his name is Namel B. Isivnieht, from Russia.”

“So? Lots of people have strange names! Especially when they come from Russia.”

“His name is The Invisible Name, backwards – what? You failed spelling and grammar in school as well as math?”

“I didn’t fail math!”

“I was there – you did! Big time!”

Charlotte was ready to slap his silly face off his silly head and raised her arm to do it when something gripped her wrist – and another part of her body – and said with a Nigerian accent, “You don’t have to worry about him anymore, girl!”

As she struggled against the unseen hands, Wyndham suddenly crumpled across the room, blood spattering out from the back of his head as he pitched forward. A woman’s voice said, “Get your hands off her, Name – or the next bullet will be for your head!”

Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #31: Wesley Chu “& Me” (Part 1)

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 Wesley Chu – with a few from me…

Up until recently, I hadn’t read anything by Wesley Chu. Then I found out he’s going to be at a conference I’ll be at in April – Minicon 54 (Minnesota Science Fiction/Fantasy/Weird conference 2025)…I thought I'd find out what I can learn to fuel my evolution as a writer!
(https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2022/09/slice-of-pie-my-evolution-by-star-trek.html).

So, I thought it’d be a good way to become familiar with Wesley Chu and his work today…born in Taipei, raised by his grandparents in Taiwan, joined his parents in Lincoln; degree in management information systems; ten years in the banking; then acted in film, television, and as a stuntman. First novel, The Lives of Tao.

Wesley Chu: “Full-time writing is a lot like parenthood, without having to change diapers as often. Mind you, I have no children. Since we’ve already established that I don’t really know I’m talking about, let’s assume you trust me when I say you have to deal with a lot of shit. In the early days, writing will keep spitting up on your shirt and everyone will think what you’re doing is ‘cute.’”. Also: “Chu has acted in film and television, and has also worked as a stuntman. Chu has appeared in several commercials alongside numerous celebrities, such as Michael Jordan. He is familiar with several forms of martial arts such as wushu/kung fu.”

Me: Wow, I wasn’t expecting QUITE so much truth from a SF writer, especially one who has “made it”. I’ve been writing stories since the end of 7th grade, a year or so after I discovered science fiction in my elementary school library (THAT story is here, where I read my first SF TV show and read my first novel…That was in 1968. My first PROFESSIONAL publication didn’t arrive until twenty-five years later in October of 1993, when my story “Test” was published (and I was PAID FOR IT!!!) in a magazine called HiCall. It DID speed up after that…

WC: When asked, “Do you make a conscious decision about how to structure your story before you start writing?”, he replied, “Yes. Although sometimes in writing, will realize the interesting central conflict is different than expected, then go back and change the beginning. Sometimes write some, then outline. I like to outline extensively, then toss the outline and make it up as I go.”

Me: I absolutely DO plot out my stories. That being said, is the plot written in stone? NOPE. As I write, I find that my vague “purpose” for the story not only changes some, but it almost always SHARPENS. For example, my current work-in-progress started out with something like this (The oldest note on this story is dated 5/25/90…thirty-five YEARS ago…reads: “An AI at a remote lunar mining operation must carry a message of mutiny to the proper authorities. If “she” fails, the humans will die, but a message will get through. If she takes the Mass Driver, the message will get through, but she will ‘die’…magnets will scramble her memory.” She hates humans for forcing her to choose, but reclass young teenaged girl who “befriended her”.”

Right now, the story in a paragraph (this is actually the first time I’ve done it. I’m also influenced by things likes movies and stories. In this case, the SCRIPT of “I, Robot”: “Near the Martian Mass Driver, there’s an accident and Ravrani Joshi, who is well known by her fellow Martians to talk with sapient robots, Artificial Intelligences, and Artificial Humans. An industrial accident kills her. Then robot she talks to most, Robot 9374, or Arnine, cannot save her, but discovers that terrorists known as the Soldiers of the Face had targeted her – and others like her. Arnine discovers that Facers are planning on sabotaging the programming of the Driver to destroy stainless steel processing facility on the moon of Deimos – with evidence designed to spark a pogrom against anyone who believes that artificial life forms are sapient and that ONLY Humans have that quality. This story ends when Arnine sacrifices themselves to keep the future of Humanity richly diverse rather than racist/being-ist…”

This post gave me what I needed to refocus my story! I’ll come back to Wesley Chu in a couple of weeks – after I’ve had a chance to see him in “real life”!

References: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/another_word_11_14/
https://writingexcuses.com/tag/wesley-chu/; https://scififanletter.blogspot.com/2013/05/author-interview-wesley-chu.html Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 664

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.

Witchcraft For World Peace
Current Event: http://wildhunt.org/2016/02/call-for-global-witchcraft-community-to-unite-against-terrorism.html

Saga Pai-Teles shook her head then said, “How much do you really expect us to accomplish?”

Djamel Vlach sighed, “I’m sure nothing, but what else can we do that might even conceivably make a difference? I’m not a soldier, and unless you enlisted in the Royal Marines or fought a stint with the Aegis Mercenaries in the past few months, I’m pretty sure you don’t have much experience with fighting, either.”

“But we’re not ‘fighting’ – not like that anyway. Our powers are of Earth, wind, ice, fire, and water.”

“Sounds like the name of an American band from the nineteen seventies.” She frowned at him and made a faint movement with her fingers. He laughed, “You think charms and wardings are going to be able to stave off the black market weaponry of Daesh, or Boko Haram, or the Taliban?”

“Shows how much YOU know! We’re not here to fight anger with anger. We’re here to fight anger with the power of nature and of the true spirit of Humanity. There are way more...”

Djamel wasn’t listening to her. His eyes had grown wide. “OK! Now you’re talking! Taking out Daesh with a hurricane or an earthquake or even a flood is totally cool! I could get into that and I even have a couple of spells that enhance water movement!”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” she stopped talking abruptly. “Then again, I have a couple of other spells that help anyone who’s got a gift for dowsing.”

“What’s that?”

She looked at him steadily and when she had his complete attention, she said, “Dowsing is all about FINDING water, Djamel. If I could find the water…”

“I could direct it.” Djamel scowled again. “My powers aren’t that…um…powerful.”

“Mine, neither. What we need is someone who can magnify or enhance our simple powers,” Saga said.

“I don’t have simple powers! They’re plenty strong enough!”

“That’s not what I meant! In order to deal world peace and muffle terrorism in our time, we have to overcome terror with peace. But it can’t be done if we’re weak.”

“We need, like, a talisman.”

“A crystal, or a…” Sag was saying.

Djamel cut her off, “The Vial of Trench!”

“What’s that?”

“A Vial of water collected from the bottom of the Marianas Trench.” He looked down at her, “Can you think of a more powerful talisman to increase our mission to bring peace on Earth than focusing our meager powers through a vial of water from the bottom of the Earth’s sea?”

“I can’t…”

“We’ll do it and it’ll start now?”

Names: ♀ Finland, Portugal; ♂ Algeria, Hungary
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/71/e5/9871e52bbc09c525af21b8f6471eab15.jpg

JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 10: Pushing Out the Borders

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.

LAST TIME

I leaned in, “You might want to read through Lunar Law, Mr. Turdland.” I turned and walked away. I turned back, “Just to show you there’s no hard feelings, the venue you’ve been offered is owned by Jax Lunar Lumber, Limited Liability Lunar Company.” I turned and headed down the hallway as the door slid closed behind me. I was under no illusions that I had won anything but a brief reprieve from conflict between myself, family, and this man…

I ‘pinged’ the Lead Grandkid and whispered, “He’s going to be a big problem, Sweetie. Prepare the Forces.”

Nat said, “Hearing you loud and clear Grandpa!”

“Also,” I said, “Sturdlan Vilbix is armed, possibly even to the teethe – literally. But the scan of his skull wasn’t clear. If you could get a closeup, maybe dental X-rays, I’d appreciate it.”

“Ten-four, grampa!”

I pulled up the security feed and settled back to see what our uninvited guest was up to. He stormed down the hall, pushing past anyone who got in his way. I grimaced. He was not going to make this difficult. He reached a short section of corridor, and I sealed him/them in. First he rammed into the door, expecting it to open for him. Then he turned up, faced the image feed and flipped me off. The feed shut off.

I smiled and turned it back on, touching an audio feed and said, “You think we’re some sort of amateurs up here, Mr. Turdland? You may have dealt with Earth security…” He shut me down again. I turned on a different speaker, “But this is the Moon. We’re a bit more…” He shut me down, I opted for a feed next to his ankle. I cranked the volume and said, “…sophisticated than you seem to be prepared for.” I was glad he jumped when I opened the door at the same time. “If you’d follow the directions you’ve been given to your accommodation…”

“This is kidnapping!” he shouted, turning to the visual feed and flashing both of his middle fingers at me.

“If you’ll read your Lunar Rights Manual, you’ll see it’s not.” I hung up on them as they raised both of their hands again. I added a spray of ultrasound to mess with his enhanced hearing as well as check his teeth – and the rest of his body – for weapon implants.

I went to my messages and skimmed them, then stopped in startlement…I read, “We’ve found it!”

I shook my head, pulled up the list and laid it alongside the list one of my spies had sent me. Scowling, I read, “Nearly all the seeds germinated successfully, and after a few years, the Forest Service had about 420 seedlings.” I nodded. We knew that much. What was interesting though, was that the list of known Moon Trees was only one-hundred and twelve. A bit over three hundred of them were unaccounted for. Redwood, sycamore, Douglas fir, Loblolly pine, and sweet gum. Where were they? What about the trees in Brazil? Planted in the Amazon Rain Forest? There are even a few whose status remained unknown. Why is that? You’d THINK four hundred seedlings, some of which were ceremonially distributed, then “lost”, and when located, left a fourth of them unaccounted for.

NASA and the world forgot about the trees for a while – did they have something to hide? And now it seemed like at least a few of the missing trees had been discovered. And suddenly an exploitative talent agent show up on the Moon, ready to take “his talent” all over the planet… Scratching my chin, I scowled. Brad Barphmin, alias Sturdlan Vilbix shows up with a key to anywhere on the Moon he wanted to search for the lost Lunar Trees.

Why? What exactly did he want? WHO did he need?

I bit my lower lip, then called Solar Commonality Intelligence. This would likely call for cooperation of everyone in the volume of the Oort Cloud. And we would best get our act together, soon. While I was happy to Jax Lunar Lumber to do its duty, it was way bigger than I’d thought.

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

WRITING ADVICE: “God Bless You Gravity Modification” Gave Up On It, READY To Fix It NOW?

In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, In April of 2014, I figured I’d gotten enough publications that I could share some of the things I did “right”. I’ll keep that up, but I’m running out of pro-published stories. I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, but someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. Hemingway’s quote above will remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales, but I’m adding this new series of posts because I want to carefully look at what I’ve done WRONG and see if I can fix it. As always, your comments are welcome!

Forever ago, ANALOG Science Fiction and Science Fact did something called a "Tag Line". It was an editorial summary of what the editor thought was the PIVOTAL question that the story attempted to answer. As it wasn't published, I had to think of my own tag line: "We always thinks about how paradigm changes will affect “society”, but what about how will it affect the 'little people.?"

Elevator Pitch (What Did I Think I Was Trying To Say?)
For the first time ever, I drew on my missionary experiences from my eight months in Nigeria, Cameroun, and Liberia. I wanted to imagine what the introduction of gravity modification would do in a situation of rebuilding after war – war that the “big countries” had never paid much attention to. I was modeling the story on John Brunner’s ANALOG March 1973 short story, “Who Steals My Purse?” In THAT one, repurposed ICBMs are used to drop small TVs on Vietnam along with tools, seeds, and other developmental material that the people could use to raise their quality of living (and presumably grow to love Americans and overthrow the communist regime…)

Opening Line:
“Gordon Oyeyemi Daboh huffed, shaking his head.”

Onward:
“He said, ‘Building five new schools here in God Bless You isn’t impossible. We have clay, concrete, straw, lumber, paint, and bamboo.’ He flicked his hand at the meager supplies piled near the edge of the burned-out clearing. The faint concrete outline of the original elementary school was visible through a layer of fine ash. A pile of debris loomed on the edge of the gravel boulevard, waiting for removal or reuse. ‘But we don’t have time, and we have few volunteers. We have limited building supplies! Your, your,” he karate chopped the air in front of the young woman standing before him. Her eyes widened and she stepped back, ‘handwavium is as useless to us as our three buckets of glow-in-the-dark paint!’”

What Was I Trying To Say?
I wanted to communicate that technology, even when it’s incremental, can be used to dramatically change the lives of normal people for the better. (It contains the obligatory warning against the military machine…the fact is that my son, my father, two of my nephews, and some of my best friends have served and DO currently serve in all of the branches of the military. I STILL stand by my statement.)

The Rest of the Story:
Gordon and Comfort butt heads almost immediately. The shoestring operation of rebuilding the schools (the original title was “The Everyday Use of Gravity Modification in Rebuilding Liberian Schools”) is fraught and gets worse when a squad of wandering mercenaries get wind of Comfort’s gmod device. Expecting to easily find it, they have no idea it’s woven into strips of hook and loop (for a fascinating AND HUMOROUS (I REALLY appreciate the humor!) take on hook and loop and its registered trademark, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY) that are easily applied to pallets. There are accidents – and then a kidnapping of the village Elder and his daughters – and Gordon has to use the soldiering skills he swore off of to rescue them and get back on track…)

End Analysis:

OK, so writing the synopsis up above, I just realized what my problem is…Lisa Cron’s rules from her book WIRED FOR STORY clearly spell out the mistakes I made:

2) Grab the reader, something is at stake from the first page.
5) Plot (what happens): make characters confront internal and external issues to confront their "inner demons."
9) Start: character’s worldview is knocked down.
11) Character is action: to start with, anything they do makes things worse.
17) Challenges start small and end huge.
19) Character becomes one by doing something heroic. In other words, "The Character HAS TO CHANGE!"

First line has no grab; Gordon’s inner demon is NOT clear (“I REFUSE to ever be a soldier again!”); external circumstances don’t slam into internal issues (He wants to be JUST a teacher! He didn’t even want to be a principal!); his worldview stays pretty much the same – it should start with him thinking he’s escaped notice and that quitting Lagos’ special operations unit of cloning soldiers after meeting former "enemies" has set him free; he can’t do everything right from the moment he leaves to rescue the Elder and his daughters, he has to screw up.

OK – I get it. I didn’t know about Cron’s advice when I wrote this one. Now that I DO, I can rewrite the story with the “rules” (she didn’t call them rules, I did…) in mind.

Rewriting with a newer and wiser goal in mind! Which answers the question below:

Can This Story Be Saved?
Simple answer – “Yes.”

[BUT…if anyone would like a copy of the current work, and if you would read it AND maybe help me figure out a new name for it AND if you promise to be brutally honest with me…I would be in your debt.]

Later.

Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 663

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, http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0129b/
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

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: Indifferent Incomprehensibility Between Alien Intelligences = Conflict?

On October 7, 2007, I started this blog. Sixteen 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 three grandchildren, (with a fourth on-the-way!) the oldest of which will soon finish his first year in high school, one smack in the center of Middle School; the third almost done with kindergarten. 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.

Inspiration: February 28, 2025
Interesting Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NlqhEeK1iw

I read and write science fiction. I couldn’t tell you how many stories I read include some kind of peaceful confederation of intelligent aliens.

The stories don’t always depict those beings getting along! Even in the most hopeful one, one many of us grew up with, STAR TREK’s United Federation of Planets, there’s all kind of conflict. There’s hatred. Humans hate Klingons; Klingons hate Humans; Vulcans don’t hate Humans, but feel they are infinitely superior to Humans; the Borg are the ultimate form of organic life – to be controlled by technology (kind of like us…) and aren’t technically part of the Federation. There’s bias based on color (Andorians, Orions); gender, (Orion females were the foundation (while appearing male) ; Skreeaa males were too emotional; and (obviously) mental capacity – Vulcans being telepathic, Humans only mildly so); Betazoids; the Cairn; Species 8472; El-Aurian…there are others as well.

Among Humanity, our largest conflicts haven’t been based on any biological difference (though the Nazi believed that anyone who wasn’t blonde with blue eyes was an inferior Human; possibly not even Human at all. Probably I could safely say that the largest conflicts resulted from different philosophies, points of view, or perception of what the Universe should be like or was like.

I’m secretly convinced that I would love aliens to be “just like me”! I’m secretly convinced that aliens will prove that what and who I am indicates some kind of innate superiority. It’s not even a secret that I’m convinced that other people are absolutely certain that the universe, aliens, and other intelligences will turn out to be clones of themselves, and identically mirror their points of view, and philosophy or not even their philosophy, but the TRUTH of the universe…

Most of us UNDERSTAND how unlikely that is; in our brain. It’s just hard to get our emotions to agree with our brains. Without any conscious effort, we find it necessary to firmly believe that we’ve got it all figured our and KNOW what the universe beyond Earth is going to be like. Back to STAR TREK, Gene Roddenberry was convinced that by the time Humanity reached the stars – ostensibly sometime in the 23rd Century – religion would have vanished, mostly because it had vanished from his own life and it would obviously collapse the instant Humanity met non-Humans. To his worldview, this was the only INTELLIGENT, STAR-FARING conclusion.

And yet…religion crept back into STAR TREK, mostly after he passed away.

So, giving the whole idea of a United Federation of Planets a serious thought, a REALLY serious thought…let’s look at one of the more fascinating aliens STAR TREK presented. They were simple, really: the Horta. Creatures who lived in solid rock, passing through it like we pass through air. They were silicon life forms. Since then, we’ve even discovered life on Earth that, while it’s not BASED on silicon, it’s dependent on silicon – the diatoms. “Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth's biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year, take in over 6.7 billion tons of silicon each year from the waters in which they live, and make up nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans. The shells of dead diatoms can reach as much as a half-mile deep on the ocean floor, and the entire Amazon basin is fertilized annually by 27 million tons of diatom shell dust transported by transatlantic winds from the African Sahara, much of it from the Bodélé Depression, which was once made up of a system of fresh-water lakes.” (From the WIKIPEDIA entry) Discovered in the early 18th Century and finally identified for what they were in the latter part of the same century, they opened a gate for the identification of life forms first discovered in the mid-to-late 17th Century…and published with illustrations in the book Micrographia.

Currently, Humanity is convinced that ALL life in the universe will OBVIOUSLY be multicellular and recognizable to us and that with just a bit of effort, we’ll be able to communicate with them. The we will be able to understand their hopes and dreams and intentions and senses of humor or even what they find offensive – because it will be what WE find offensive…though we’ve somehow managed to understand that we won’t have the same artistic senses. Art and beauty and non-quantifiable aspects of Humanity will be acceptably mysterious. But government? Right and wrong? The importance of certain kinds of math or physics or sciences – well, we are CERTAIN that all of those will not only understandable, but OBVIOUSLY ones we share and a firm foundation on which we can build a comprehensible, mutually beneficial, and enjoyable Federation (as we will all have identical DEMOCRATIC ( = Democratic PARTY) beliefs and sensibilities…because we are expecting that alien civilizations will want to SHARE…

STRANGE assumptions to make as we have absolutely no evidence to back up such a belief…only a “feeling of certainty that we have it figured out”. One might even say it’s become a practically RELIGIOUS doctrine.

And like (some people I’ve heard of and read) religion – supported by absolutely NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER.

Having a conflict implies that we will share enough biology and psychology to have to both WANT…or NOT WANT. Do we dare make such an assumption? Last thought: I’ve long thought that the absolutely worst result of First Contact would be that Interstellar Civilizations WOULD IGNORE US because no one will have absolutely nothing AT ALL in common…

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MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 28: KARMAN+ This Is REAL NEWS and REALLY NOW!

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…

So, today, the “internet was blowing up” with the news regarding a $20,000,000 investment in the asteroid mining company, KARMAN+ who have “raised $20 million in seed funding led by Plural and Hummingbird. The funding, which included participation from HCVC, Kevin Mahaffey (Lookout), co-founder Teun van den Dries and angel investors, will be used to develop its first technology demonstration mission and customer missions, expected in 2027.”

Aside from being a different company, why is this such a big deal? LAST month, AstroForge made a similar announcement, which I wrote about here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2025/01/mining-asteroids-part-27-future-marches.html

Then there’s Open Asteroid Impact, whose plan is to send robots into space to mine the asteroids: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/04/mining-asteroids-part-21-startling.html

While this still smacks of Science Fiction. The generally recognized SF story detailing asteroid mining was “The first mention of asteroid mining in science fiction apparently came in Garrett P. Serviss' story Edison's Conquest of Mars, published in the New York Evening Journal in 1898. Several science-fiction video games include asteroid mining.”

Needless to say, this came out around the same time as the the works of Jules Verne started to appear.

“So what?” you say.

Well, Jules Verne might not have gotten a lot of the DETAILS spot on – FROM EARTH TO THE MOON; TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA; AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS; JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH…and others (though he DID hit one or two of the nails on the head in PARIS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.) However, Humans have landed on the Moon, dived 20,000 leagues under the sea; easily gone around the world in eighty days; though the whole “journey to the center of the Earth” thing doesn’t really work out as the planet isn’t hollow…

What’s to stop this 21st Century version of Humanity from seriously mining the asteroids? Hmmm?

Today’s Source: (Multiple reports!) https://techfundingnews.com/karman-plus-asteroid-mining-technology-funding/ ; https://www.karmanplus.com/techcrunch-karman-digs-up-20m-to-build-an-asteroid-mining-autonomous-spacecraft/; https://spaceinsider.tech/2025/02/21/karman-raises-20-million-to-mine-asteroids-to-supply-the-space-economy/; https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/asteroid-mining-startup-raises-20m-usd ; https://www.finsmes.com/2025/02/karman-raises-20m-in-seed-funding.html ; https://payloadspace.com/karman-raises-20m-for-asteroid-mining-demo/
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

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IDEAS ON TUESDAY 662

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: xenofiction (point of view of an animal)
Current Event: http://www.arkanimalspace.com/ark-blog/theo-the-bomb-sniffing-dog/

Mia had one mission in life.

She was an IED-expert. When she was called up and shipped to Afghanistan, it was the single most exciting moment in her short life. She was certain she’d been made for it. Certain that no one else could do it as well as she could. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her mission was to save lives by getting rid of IEDs that littered this sad country after its abortive war. She was set to do whatever was necessary – almost.

When she found IEDs, she refused to touch them and certainly refused to disarm them no matter how simple the device was. In fact, she couldn’t disarm an IED even if her partner’s life depended on it. She couldn’t handle them – because she didn’t have hands.

But smelling an IED was an entirely different story. She could tell the exact makeup of the IED from thirty meters away.

It had taken her a lot of time to train her partner to be as good as she was. The language barrier itself was nearly impossible to overcome. Ethan Pai-Teles was virtually deaf, couldn’t tell the difference between a rubber band bomb and a mercury-tilt switch bomb. Mia could smell mercury from a long way away – the sharp, poisonous tang would keep her away even when Ethan tried to bribe her with treats.

She’d usually answer him, “Totally unsafe, Ethan! Totally unsafe!”

He rarely understood her. At least now he slowed down some. When they first started working together, he’d tried to get her to understand English. She got that – some of the first words she’d understood were “toy” and “walk”. But the language was so limited. Ninety percent of the scent keys aligned with real language were missing in English. It was nearly impossible for Ethan to hear anything but the most rudimentary phrases in the Bark Tongue.

Yun, a Chinese Shih Tzu soldier Mia had met at the Summer Olympics had it easier. Her partner at least understood the importance of pitch in real speech. Ethan – she loved him, but MAN! – was practically tone deaf, even as far as Humans were concerned.

She had to rely on body language, just as he’d devised a series of hand signals that allowed them to work together as their sight at close range was very nearly the same.

They were patrolling a stretch of road they hadn’t been in a bit. They’d been working together – she knew it was many, many sunrises past the last sandstorm, Ethan said “Two years, six months, five days, thirteen hours and,” he’d glance at his arm, “fourteen minutes” – and she caught the whiff of an IED.

She growled. It smelled strange. Very strange. There was the sharp, Human smell of plastic explosive but it was overlain with something different. She’d never caught the scent of anything like it…except maybe when they’d trained together when she was a pup. It had been in a very dry place, a long way away from her favorite water and the fabulous birds Ethan killed for her but didn’t allow her to eat.

This place had two white marks laid on the floor of one of the buildings. Ethan had made a violent sound and exclaimed something softly and low so she could actually hear it, “Area Fifty-One?”

This smell was the same as that...

Names: ♀ UK-Scotland ; ♂ UK, Portuguese
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