WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #39: Ken Liu “& 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 Ken Liu – with a few from myself…

Ken Liu began publishing fiction in 2002. His first published work was "Carthaginian Rose", a short story on mind uploading. Liu has said he wanted to become a writer so he could make stories that ‘turn values upside down and inside out to gain new perspectives’.” I also found out that he’s married with two kids – and that they homeschool their kids. (Which is what we did…both are now extraordinarily successful in their chosen careers…)

But REALLY: what makes him so popular? Googling with the question, “How is Ken Liu so publishable?”, I need to point out that not ONLY is he publishable, he has MULTIPLE translations of his own writing, as well as translating Chinese SF, THE THREE BODY PROBLEM (Cixin Liu) into English.

What is it then – and could I replicate ANY of it? The above search produced quite a bit of information (from several sources): “He has a… ‘multidisciplinary background, prolific output, rigorous work ethic, and mastery across multiple linguistic and creative domains.” He has…‘.worked as a software engineer at Microsoft, a corporate lawyer, and a litigation consultant before writing full-time. ‘His technical and legal background infuses his speculative fiction…with deep, realistic mechanics regarding engineering, governance, and culture.’ As well, ‘He maintains a steady, disciplined approach to drafting new material and consistently produces short stories, novels, and translations.’

OK…I have zero experience in the technical…of course, I was in my first year of college when he was born in 1976. I was born in 1957; pretty much the same year as “real computers”: FORTRAN launched; IBM announced it would ditch vacuum tubes and introduced its first commercial transistorized calculator (the 608); Engineer Russell Kirsch created the first digital image scanner scanning a 176x176-pixel picture of his infant son. (see it here: https://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/singleitem/image/p16009coll19/1541/default.jpg); AI pioneers Simon, Shaw, and Newell created the General Problem Solver (GPS), an early computer program designed to mimic human problem-solving. But should that matter? Isaac Asimov was born barely out of the Stone Age, and look what he wrote!

Liu observes about writing itself, “I’ve always loved telling stories. I think we, as a species, are persuaded more by stories than facts and figures, for both good and ill.” But why SHORT stories? I started with short stories, and after my behemoth MARTIAN HOLIDAY (at some 234,000 words), I’ve started to come back to short stories. Liu has a great observation on that, “…(difference between) epic fantasy and short stories?

It’s the difference between architecture and miniature painting.

What doesn’t change, however, is my voice.” So, I continue to struggle with this whole idea of voice. What IS my voice? What is “voice”? According to Google: “In short fiction, it’s the specific way words are put together…making…a story feel like a living person is telling it to you, rather than a machine. It’s the personality of the person telling the story. first-person, third-person stories. It’s also how people in the story sound when they talk and think. (This one is perplexing and I’ll need to think about it) It is the hidden fingerprint that stays the same across all their different stories. Finally, it’s the details the writer includes.”

What is Ken Liu trying to “say” in his writing? “Across his short stories and his Dandelion Dynasty epic fantasy series, he explores how people build meaning, adapt to new systems, and bridge cultural divides.” But even deeper than that, “…he takes everyday figures of speech or emotional states and makes them literal physical realities in a sci-fi or fantasy world. He views storytelling as the primary tool humans use to make sense of the universe and map out their lives.” “On writing short stories, Liu notes that while novels require heavy, structured scaffolding and external plotting to sustain interest, short stories can survive and succeed purely on voice, a single resonant image, or an emotional exploration.”

What am I trying to say with my stories? That’s something I’ve been exploring for several months now. I’m not sure even Liu knows what he’s trying to say – someone else is saying what they observe. But is that what he’s TRYING for? My life as a kid was hemmed on every side by “athletics” – basketball, football, hockey, fencing (mom), track, baseball, track and field, and all the “stuff” that went with them. I hated all of those, but found I loved biking (for miles and all over), swimming, and camping…but they weren’t enough of “sport” to engage the family. All that to say that I think that I’ve been trying to show through my writing that “Find what you’re good at, and embrace those who will celebrate with you, then ignore the ones that can’t see it for what it is to YOU.”

Maybe. I’ll be exploring those more, so I’m creating a new category: What Am I Trying To Say?

References: https://www.writers-online.co.uk/how-to-write/how-i-write-short-speculative-fiction-by-ken-liu/ (2020); https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_interview/ (2014) https://catherine-bateson.com/ken-liu-from-short-stories-to-an-epic-fantasy-quartet/ (2026); his first story that was nominated and/or won multiple SF/F awards: https://gizmodo.com/read-ken-lius-amazing-story-that-swept-the-hugo-nebula-5958919
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK6miXJMTMNyB3kzq-r6I2LVCTZJj0CDS0dPV2Qapl6e9rZPuHx2u5QKcKT1QGeDg1_tPMv-lpnuSr_eiBjwPXmex9mcgtuH2-SUtZEpGWV0_HdtJQelVt5K69NulJBUqNju5GNjHgQibXsIo4NeWpTOj4ai85jCRjMHOtwtkqshzxFvZPUSjXZNq6=s320

IDEA ON TUESDAY 717

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: Back to school!
Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeepers_Creepers_2

Asmunder Helguson stopped at the edge of the school ground.

Rynhildur Eggertsdóttir shoved him, “Oh, come on, you big baby.”

Asmunder swallowed hard and said, “Maybe I shouldn’t have watched those last five movies of the 30 Scariest School Movies of all time.”

She shouldered him, laughed, and said, “You think? Maybe you should listen to your best friend sometimes.”

Asmunder glanced at her. She looked away. He whispered, “I would if that Greenland shark hadn’t eaten him.” Rynhildur growled and shoved past him, ramming him into a garbage can. He called, “Ryn! Wait! I wasn’t thinking...”

She turned as she walked, saying, “Try thinking before you say mean things, Ass.” She kept turning and disappeared into Reykjavik High School. He cussed in one of the obscure languages – Basque – and took a step toward the school. He stopped and stepped back. People who didn’t know him couldn’t figure out why he refused to go into the school. Even the people who knew him accepted that he couldn’t go in, but still didn’t understand why he wouldn’t do it. “Can’t do it,” he muttered. He looked up at the third floor, the wide dormer with three windows. Even as he looked, he saw a faint, ghostly shadow pass into the school.

He was certain the Greenland shark that had murdered his best friend haunted his school. That it waited for him.

That it might be waiting for something else. Suddenly, high overhead, the head of the shark came out of the building, paused, looked down at him, then turned and re-entered the school, disappearing. Asmunder staggered backward, certain that the creature – the ghost – had truly horrible things in store for the students. He was quite sure there was one, special student the shark would be visiting...

Resources: http://horror.about.com/od/horrortoppicklists/tp/30-Great-Back-to-School-Horror-Movies.htm
Names: ♀ Iceland; ♂ Iceland

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

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 716

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: [https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/popular-fantasy-tropes-for-writers]...Allergic To Evil
Event: https://fountainmagazine.com/all-issues/2025/issue-167-sep-oct-2025/the-allergy-of-the-soul-resisting-sin-in-a-world-of-temptations/

Andre Xavier Xavier, a Bryshwyn of Bryshwyns, the turban on his head release more than its usual curl of very pale, very curly hair. The curls sprang out all around.

As well, a line of monks striding in loose exercise uniforms keeping cadence happened by at that moment. Andre used a vulgar word that made even Raven Zoe Jefferson, a Nobody of Nobodys blush in embarrassment. The lead monk called a different cadence and they set off at a faster pace. Zoe said, “If I’d shouted that, I’d be in the gym for the next forty hours.”

“That’s not true!” Andre exclaimed.

Fendwyri Alyn Wader, whose family enabled music to communicate in addition to entertaining, walked by and said, “Of course it is, Bryshwyn! If it wasn’t for our kind, the Vacancy would be permanently filled with evil.”

“I thought you were allergic to evil, Wader?” Andre shot at the older boy.

Fendwyri spun around, eyes narrowing to slits as he shot back, “Aren’t you late to meditation?”

“Aren’t you?” The musician opened his mouth to snarl a reply then turned and ran.

Andre muttered the first syllables of another enablement.

Zoe kicked him in the shin, turned and sprinted after Fendwyri, snapped, “No more!” She passed the older boy who, once he thought he was out of their reach had slowed down to a jog. Now he exclaimed and tried to speak an enablement over her, so she spun, swept his feet out from under him and sprinted into the Canis Abbey proper, barely out of breath. She skipped to a halt, then strode to the front, plopped down on the bench then lifted her eyes to contemplate the slowly turning obsidian sphere hanging from the Abbey’s vaulted ceiling. No one noticed her because as she sat, Andre and Fendwyri came in.

The whispers started at the back of the nave and swept forward. Zoe ignored them until the older boy abruptly appeared next to her. She didn’t know if he enabled the floor to carry him faster than he could walk, but it didn’t matter as, glaring down at her, he whispered, “That’s the last time...”

The air around them grew cold and squeezing her eyes tightly closed, she only assumed her breath exhaled in a white cloud. A booming voice said, “All students will be seated and silent during meditations.” It was a standard warning. The University surveillance system could easily have generated it. However, it would not have added, “Masters Wader and Xavier and Mister Jefferson will please report to the commissariat following meditations.”

There was a faint rustle – though with the building now all ears no one dared actually speak – as everyone moved at the same time. Zoe kept her eyes closed as someone passed in front of her and sat down and someone dropped down next to her on her other side. She opened her eyes, but focused on the sphere instead of trying to look left or right.

The knees on either side of her gave them away as the colors were obviously Wader Green and Xavier Sable. Her own colors were Poor Girl Whatever. Instead of fear though, anger welled inside of her. What right did these two boys have placing her in between their familial feud? What right did either of them presume that she would be on “their” side in an arguments. Fendwyri was nice enough to her when they were alone. She considered Andre a good friend.

Her real enemy lived up the hall from her in the women’s dorm – Semolina Nyanchi Fieldthwaite. The girl with the amazing hair and the attitude to willingly flaunt it. The source of her control over enabling the growth of anything from snowflakes to Tower Trees, she was also a member of a family that had once shared the power of filling the Vacancy.

Now she just annoyed Raven and constantly made snide remarks. She tried focusing on the sphere again, finally and slowly calming her turbulent head games, when a cry went up from outside, “Syzhin devils!”

The assembly leaped to its feet as the land raid siren began its mournful wail, echoing even to the depths of the University; everyone rushing to defend the battlements against the scourge of the world.

Names: ♀ Popular African American name, Australian Capital Territory, Common African American last name; ♂ Popular American name, Brazil

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

CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 45: When We Get Good Enough, Will “Designer” Clones of Humans Made In Space Be ALIENS?

8/9/26
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...

The FIRST sentence of the definition of alien on Wikipedia is this: “Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth.”

From MARTIAN HOLIDAY: “They waited until the interior doors opened. Svetlana lifted her helmet and stepped back pulling off a thin, black stocking cap, shaking her hair free. It was a stunning indigo, just the blue side of black.

“You’re an Artificial Human, but your skin isn’t purple!” cried Chumani.

Svetlana said, “The Free Martian Fellowship recognizes any cloned person as fully Human, no matter their color.” They stared at her, so she continued, “For most of the 19th and Twentieth Centuries on Earth, people with dark brown skin tried thousands of ways to lighten it. We’ve been doing the same thing for Artificial Human skin for the past twenty myears. Nanomachines designed to work on artificial skin can make any AH look like any uterine-born Human.”

“How can we tell you apart?” Chumani said

“Why would you need to? We’re not clones of each other. We may look like our donors, but we’re not from any single stock.”

A young man, his stunner aimed at Paolo, said, “What do we do with the trespassers?”

Paolo said, “What if I could prove to you that not only am I a Christian Witness, but that I’d be willing to join your Fellowship?” Svetlana snorted and lifted her nerve disruptor, a rare, deadly weapon with a gruesome way of killing. Paolo spread his arms and said, “If you think I’m lying or trying to pull something, kill me now.” He closed his eyes and dramatically lifted his chin and arms.

She said abruptly, “What can you offer the Fellowship that we can’t get anywhere else? We’re not uniformly Christian. There are Buddhists, Muslims, several Confucians, and others of one faith or another, as well as a few outright atheists.” Her gaze narrowed, “‘Our religion is freedom. Our worship is action.’” Svetlana holstered her disruptor but Micah kept his stunner in hand, though lowering it a bit. There was long silence as other men, women, and Artificial Humans drifted in. None of them were armed. Svetlana turned to look at them, then turned her attention back to him. “Well?”

“I can offer you an intact, virtually undetectable communication network already established among the Christians on Mars. Adding the Martian Fellowship would be no problem.”

In the world of MARTIAN HOLIDAY (incidentally, it’s a ROMAN kind of holiday, not a Christmas kind of holiday), there are Humans with all rights, Artificial Humans with no rights, plus thousands of microorganisms, plants, animals, and even pets with other genetic modifications – unfortunately including fursnakes that hunted at the deepest levels, even some from reconstructed prehistoric stock, like the legendary Titanoboa at 13 to 15 meters long and weighing more than a metric ton.

Despite their Earthly origins, would the genetically engineered life forms be considered “Earthly”? Are Artificial Humans human or alien? What does being alien mean? Here’s a definition: “An alien is a creature from another world, a person living in a country where they are not a citizen, or something very strange and unfamiliar. Extraterrestrial (Not of Earth; Outer Space): A living being that comes from a planet other than Earth. Science Fiction: Popularly shown in movies and books as life forms from distant galaxies (sorry AI overview, not even close. Vulcans; Klingons; Na’vi; Xenomorphs; ET; Superman; Jawas; or Dalek – are NOT from distant galaxies. They’re from alien WORLDS )

So…genetically engineered life forms – like the Artificial Humans – are not technically FROM Earth, but Mars…If there was no Mars, there wouldn’t be AH (or “ayches”) there. So…they are, in a strict way “alien”. In fact, even though some of the aliens listed above are at least PART-Human, they aren’t ALL Human…so are they actually ALL aliens?

I’m not even sure myself, but I’ll be thinking about it as time goes on...comments welcome (as long as they're thought out, not reactionary, and polite!)

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 715

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: inside a computer system
Event: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23343-interspecies-telepathy-human-thoughts-make-rat-move.html
Old Event: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_(1971_film)

Amelia Qasoori curled her lower lip, tucking it under her teeth then tapped them as she stared at the Apple 27 inch Cinema Display screen. She tapped another key on her computer.

Artem Torres tossed his backpack on the lab table, peeked over her shoulder then went to his own computer and booted it up. His screen was much smaller however and there were multiple images. All of the images were of rats.

Amelia glanced over at him and wrinkled her nose and said, “I don’t know how you can stare at those ugly things all day long.”

He smirked at her and said, “I can open the cages and play with them if you’d like.”

“You’re both obscene and disgusting at the very same instant,” she said, leaning closer to her screen and tapping a section of an image. The screen was covered with tiny squares.

“What’s even more disgusting and obscene is that we’re trying to do the same thing with organic and inorganic matter.”

Amelia nodded slowly as she tapped another square then made an entry on an old-fashioned yellow notepad with an even older-fashioned pencil. She made a few more notes, then typed for several minutes. The images on the screen whirled wildly and when they were done, Artem leaned back on his lab stool, looked at the image and said, “I don’t see any difference.”

Amelia made a raspberry. “That’s because you’re a wetwareologist. You people couldn’t feel your way off a kindergartner’s graphing calculator.”

“That’s not true! I use computer modeling all the time!” He waved at his smaller computer screen. “Just because everything I do is reality instead of virtuality doesn’t mean it’s not important.”

“I’m not talking about ‘importance’ here, Art! I’m talking about relevance. What I do is relevant. What you do is...cute in a sort of old-fashioned way.”

From behind them, a stentorian voice spoke, “My two favorite high school geniuses continue to banter mindlessly, ignoring my strict instructions to MELD the techniques and technology to form something new.”

Artem and Amelia jumped to their feet, spinning around. In unison they said, “Hello, Dr. Willard.”

He nodded to them and passed between them. He was tall. Unusually tall, well over two meters tall. He patted both of them on their heads. “So, my tremendous twins, what do you have for me today?”

“Look, Dr. Willard, I can make a fine rat robot for you! There’s no need for...”

“Dr. Willard, if you get me some really great tech who won’t talk back every time I ask for something, I could have a ‘borg rat ready for you in two shakes of a…a...”

“A rat’s tail, Mr. Torres? There’s no need for me to have a biological brain, Ms. Qasoori?” He stood back and studied her screen. Then he stepped sideways and leaned forward to study Artem’s screen. Straightening, he said, “What I need, dear pupils, is a seamlessly integrated part organic-part inorganic creature to do a very, very interesting job.” He favored each one with a cold glare, then left the lab, adding without turning around, “A word from me can get you into the most select graduate study programs in the world.” He stopped in the doorway, and still without turning around, said, “A word form me can get you barred from the most pathetic study programs in the world.”

Names: ♀ Australian (NSW), Pakistan; ♂ Russian, Spanish

Image: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/C2nVRtyWKDsGheTkefwup8-970-80.jpg.webp

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: My Continuing Exploration of Reconciliation in the House of Science Fiction

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 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.

I have a deep history dealing (or NOT dealing, as the case may be) with reconciliation. I’ve written on it several times, most recently “Spiderman 3” (here’s a link to the whole thing: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/01/possibly-irritating-essay-spiderman-3.html); but even though “The Lego Movie”, and “Mary Poppins”, and “Star Trek: Wrath of Khan” are all father-son reconciliation scripts, I’ve never once tried to WRITE a reconciliation story, in particular a FATHER-SON reconciliation story…

Christopher Brown wrote, “one writer half-jokingly called [it] reconciliationpunk”…in the sense that, to be able to imagine authentically better futures in our stories, we need to do a better job of understanding the past. Science fiction’s joy in freeing itself from the gravity of the real world gives it an intrinsic tendency to be ahistorical.”

I said I’d return to “Interstellar”, and I will, but here I only want to point you to my essay (https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/11/possibly-irritating-essays-interstellar.html) and say that I’m not ready to continue it yet…(I DID however pull it up and will read it (sooner, rather than later)…)

In my own, published work (see the links to the right), I don’t even see an attempt to deal with my issue…so, maybe I haven’t even tried? Maybe my limited number of publications have depended more on meeting a need or “clever story-telling” rather than writing about something important to me.

I’ll be looking into this idea of “reconciliationpunk”. He concludes the article with the following: “…utopian aspirations…are not easy to find in our science fictions…even as we populate them with more diverse and liberated communities….Reconciliation commissions in imaginary worlds are a weird way to find our way to better futures in the real one. But in a world ‘ruled by fictions of every kind,’ it takes the tools of make-believe to expose the real-world truth.” (Author of of Tropic of Kansas, co-editor of Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic. His new novel Rule of Capture.)

I have one final thought/observation that will be (most likely) dislikable at best and cause brutal accusations at worst. Brown writes in conclusion of the article, “…a lot of these broken America stories [exhibit a] desire for a kind of truth and reconciliation commission that would finally deliver justice for the crimes committed in our names by the nation-states of which we are each a constituent part, and to hold accountable the individual perpetrators of institutional wrongs.” I find this terrifying…who, precisely decides what an “institutional wrong” is? The obvious answer that comes across in this essay is that the ones who commit the “institutional wrongs” are the ones who we disagree with and who have what WE judge to be “wrong thought” or “crazy beliefs” or even “don’t have any idea what ‘they’ are talking about.” Which group of people decide what an “institutional wrong” is? The clearest answer that most people would ejaculate instantly, is “Anyone who voted for Trump and anyone who pretends to believe that Trump and his government should NOT be summarily executed without trial or consideration!”

This is…well. I’m just going to stop there because if someone who thinks my fears are ridiculous “because NORMAL people obviously want Trump and anyone who didn’t violently object to anything his government did OUT OF THERE NOW, and the Other Party will fix everything because they’re sane, unlike Trumpites.”

Short of a-Trumpers taking over completely and shutting down any dissent whatsoever, I don’t see anything even approaching “reconciliation” in our future…

So, that leads me to write about my own personal reconciliation, which is, of course where I started this essay. I can’t handle any of this…so, what makes me think I can write about characters with interpersonal reconciliation issues and how they link with the LARGER issues of societal reconciliation.

I watch the news and I live in a northern suburb of Minneapolis. (Lest you think to “tut-tut” my thoughts and worries, follow this link (Minneapolis Metro Area population = 3,757,952 residents; Minneapolis PROPER = 430,162; Brooklyn Center’s population is 31,846”. Current number of crimes in Minneapolis proper: 65.4 total crimes per 1,000 residents (roughly a 1 in 15 chance of becoming a victim of either property or violent crime); Current number of crimes in Brooklyn Center: 33.70 incidents per 1,000 to see what I am talking about: feel free to peruse this link: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mn/brooklyn-center/crime)

We have many friends here and while we KNOW we need to be cautious, we don’t live in fear. We shop local, schooled local, (I taught in a school where 65% of students were non-white – both of my kids graduated from the school)…

So, what am I talking about reconciliation for?

It’s hard work. And maybe…just MAYBE…I can start to write about reconciliation BOTH societally and personally. Then maybe, just maybe, my fiction can begin to make a difference…

LINK: “Christopher Brown Guest Post–‘Truth and Reconciliation and Science Fiction’”; https://locusmag.com/feature/christopher-brown-guest-post-truth-and-reconciliation-and-science-fiction/
Inspiration: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/02/possibly-irritating-essays.html Image: https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/14/61/31/10/240_F_1461311036_MViWj3gBpw4LNjp4h0mdikU2gho7a51c.jpg

IDEA ON TUESDAY 714

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: Ghost stories…

David stepped into the house long-abandoned by his great-grandparents.

Still standing after the most recent clashes between Israel, Palestine, and what his great-grandmother and her parents called, “The Annihilator of the Jews”, former UN President Alija Suleiman Muhammad Umar, now King of the Restored Umayyad Caliphate, which controlled the majority of oil left on Earth. As a Canadian citizen, he was entirely welcome in the Caliphate. As the American citizen he ACTUALLY was, he’d have been forbidden to set foot in the Middle East.

He sighed. There wasn’t really much left of their home – though he recognized a few things. The dining table that could easily seat sixteen adults. High overhead, the shelf that had held family heirlooms away from questing child hands. He smiled. When he became a man at thirteen, he’d been allowed to climb the long ladder and, taking each relic and climbing cautiously back down, he’d listened as whatever adult was nearby, give a concise (great-grandfather was NOT so concise, though his stories were full of wonder!) tale of where the object began and how it came into their hands.)

Eventually, they’d end up in the Hall of Paintings – and more recently, Holograms; and after a gift from his researcher uncle, the holograms were animated and semi-sentient. Those were his favorites.

After the Second Lightning War, funded by a conglomeration of backers who believed that the Jews had discovered and then appropriated the technology that allowed the manipulation of gravity, most of Jerusalem had fallen into ruin and continued to decay. He sighed and reached out to take hold of a rung of the ladder. Only seven steps remained, but he held them gingerly as if they would break away if he sneezed on them.

At that idea, he sneezed.

“Bless you,” said a voice. It wasn’t a Human voice – he was considered the most skilled Speech/Voice Recognition Technologist in the Solar Commonwealth – besides, it had spoken in Old Hebrew.

David said, “Who is that?” The voice echoed back in Old Hebrew. David spoke again in American English.

The voice said, “Who would you say that I am?”

David made a face, the said, “Very funny. You’re obviously some sort of joker…”

“I am not,” the voice said in Old Hebrew.

David scowled. Shaking his head, he replied in the same language, “First guess is that you’re the ghost of Christmas Past.”

The voice hummed, then replied in 20th Century English instead, “Remarkably close. I am the voice of an AI who has come to visit disaster on a world that mocks and assumes it’s better than any society that has evolved on Earth – and any society that will ever arise on this planet. I am the Ruach of Vengeance…”

Event: https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/ghosts-of-a-holy-war-the-1929-massacre-in-palestine-that-ignited-the-arab-israeli-conflict
Names: ; ♂ David Shain­berg ♀ Ruach ("spirit" or "wind", usually, “ghost”), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Jerusalem
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51niGRrH6DL.jpg

JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 15

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 stores. Knox 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 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’s writing of THE MARTIAN as a series of blog entries, the result of MY online storytelling continues below.

The last story entry was a LONG time ago, so, I’ll give a paragraph and continue from there (If you want to start again, Start here, click on the JAX LUNAR LUMBER tag, then skip Chapter 14 and pick up the story right after these events…)

Sturdlan Vilbix – known to our entire family by a disrespectful nickname as Turdman -- was the personal manager of Roza Rymbayeva Golovkina, a famous Kazakh singer and song-writer. She was a very-distant descendant of the last Human to walk on the Moon in the 20th Century – Eugene Andrew Cernan. He’d been the Last Lunar Walker, and his descendant, under the tutelage of Turdman who’d capitalized an otherwise mediocre career as her manager and his relentless mentioning of her five-times-great-grandfather’s fame.

He’d also had the great misfortune to alienate the Gang of Four, my grandchildren, Noah, Natalie, Ronan and Lennon.

On this fine day and their arrival on the original SPACE STATION COURAGE, Turdman had tried to hurry me into some dark corner thinking he could make me disappear so he could take over our business and add it to his empire. Turdman grabbed me by the bicep and squeezed. It HURT! He had muscles trained under the full gravity of the world that had nurtured Humanity into intelligence.

Now, here he was steering me further into Jax Lunar Lumber’s first jump station to our holdings on the Moon, using gestures to station dozens of drones in the ceiling, on the floor, on desks, in trees, and anywhere their cameras – I was pretty sure the glittering light twirling around the back and belly of each one was a camera designed to record, broadcast, and recreate every scene, every motion, and every nuance of the Six-Times-Great-Granddaughter-Of-The-Last-Lunar-Walker – or “Six-T-Granddaughter-OT Last Lunar Walker”. That quickly morphed to Antichrist, or 6T for short.

He’d dismissed The Gang of Four (with their current Accomplice Zachary). I smiled as the Gang pushed him aside as they surrounded us. The faceplate of his spacesuit had abruptly malfunctioned – Lennon raised her eyebrows at me, baring her teeth like fangs – as Turdman’s voice cut off.

She grabbed my hand as the Women made off with the World-Famous And Very Important Ms. Golovkina, the famous Kazakh singer. The young men picked up Turdman, slapped a highly-alcohol-dosed suit patch on his absurd stage outfit, adding a small injection of cheap beer to his water bottle – which he’d been slurping since he’d come aboard the Station, and hurried him away to destination Empty-Air-Lock. His protests were oddly slurred.

Natalie and Lennon sandwiched Antichrist between them, carrying her away, disappearing smoothly through a holographic DO NOT ENTER: DECOMPRESSION ZONE BEYOND wall. Ms. Golovkina screamed. Or tried to. Natalie offered her a popular, expensive bonbon named after her.

“Get that freaking disgusting thing away from me!” she shouted, spitting it out.

Lennon leaned in and said, “I thought they were your favorites?”

“They’re The Idiots favorite.” She paused, “Think you guys could make this kidnapping permanent?”

The Girls said together, “Really, Lady Golovkina?”

Just before the hologram reappeared, she said, “I’d give you the passwords to The Idiot’s Private Money Stashes if you make me disappear for good.” The hologram flicked back on and they were gone, Noah, Ronan, and Zack staring after them, still holding the cussing and crying Turdman between them. They looked at each other, all popping evil grins, and shoved the squirming Turdman ahead of them.

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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways

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

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: What EXACTLY Am I Trying To Say With My Writing…Is It A GOOD Thing, Or A Selfish Thing?

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 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.
I’m hard at work writing a short story for my favorite magazine on Earth, ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION AND FACT – it’s a story pulled out of my novel MARTIAN HOLIDAY and hopefully it will be for ANALOG.

But is that a “good thing”? Is it self-centered? Lately, I’ve been wondering what is it I’ve been trying to say all theses years…I’m gonna ignore my essays, because they have a very particular goal in mind every time I write one. They say essays come in various categories, (persuasive, informative, argumentative, critical, personal, comparative, how to)and I’m pretty sure I can yank each one from the several hundred I’ve written over the years. I recently had a query from someone whose job is “Author Brand Architect & Publishing Strategist”. I have some idea what that is now, but after talking to my wife and my daughter (who is a successful writer (as well as a mental health therapist, focusing on adolescents) – we decided that it sounded a bit too far into the “too good to be true” camp. Enthusiastic and polite, but…well, I’ve decided not to pursue that.

At any rate, I’ve been wondering what exactly it IS I’m trying to say to the world – in particular in my fiction. I think I’ve hesitated for some time because I’m AFRAID of what I’ve been trying to say all these years. So…finally, I think I’ll take a few of the stories I know BEST and tell you what I’m trying to say in them…

Certainly Orson Scott Card is “…speaking to this (maybe in more than one story): “This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.” ― Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s…”writing primarily focuses on feminist retellings of mythology and history. She often subverted patriarchal narratives by shifting the focus to female perspectives, exploring the clash between pagan matriarchal traditions and emerging Christianity, and examining themes of personal freedom and morality.”

Lois McMaster Bujold's writing “…explores themes of overcoming adversity, the power of empathy, and the triumph of intellect over physical might. She often highlights characters with disabilities or those marginalized by society…”

Steven Brust “…explores the tension between personal ambition and the consequences of one's choices. Through his signature "Cool Stuff Theory of Literature" (writing stories about what he finds coolest), he masks sharp, egalitarian socio-political critiques.”

Bruce Bethke “… confronts Cynicism Toward Authority and Revolution: His broader writings look at the absurdities of power, often highlighting the cycles where revolutionary movements ultimately get replaced by equally oppressive authoritarian rule.”

C.S. Lewis “…wrote his Space Trilogy (also known as the Ransom Trilogy) to combat the rising tide of secular humanism, scientific materialism, and technocracy. He argued that humanity's dream of conquering and colonizing the universe without God was a dangerous and spiritually empty ideology.”

CJ Cherryh’s “…science fiction…explores the realities of human survival, political pragmatism, and the profound difficulty of understanding genuinely alien minds. Rather than focusing on miraculous technologies, she examines how individuals, cultures, and species navigate social inertia, maintain institutions, and adapt to survive…”

So, how about me? I DID run across this in an essay I wrote in February of 2022: “I guess I adhere to the MASH ‘school of writing’: deal with a serious issue; and (in the best episodes), reveal a humorous side to the deadly side. I’ll need to remember that in the story I’m writing right now.”

That’s given me an idea – maybe I need to go back to what I’ve written in the past. There must be SOME hints of what I’m doing with my writing in among the past 19 years of nattering on about myself and what interests me! Besides, while I KNOW the number doesn’t reflect the “number of fans” I have, it DOES reflect (actually COUNTS) the number of times people have visited my website:

That seems to be a few…

or a bit more on “what I’m trying to say”, follow the link to an essay by me published by SFWA in July of 2012 (I know, fourteen years ago! But I find my thoughts are still pretty much the same…) here: https://sfwa.org/2012/07/11/guest-post-when-did-science-fiction-and-apocalypse-become-interchangeable/

I also answered some questions on goodreads when EMERALD OF EARTH came out a few years ago. You can read it here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/1229225.Guy_Stewart/questions

But the question still remains for ME to answer, “What am I trying to say?” I think it may be a good idea to READ WHAT I'VE WRITTEN! It also wouldn't hurt if anyone reading this would respond and tell me what YOU think I'm trying to say!

Inspiration: My Own Work and other writers I admire.
Image: https://austinkleon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/85167617_1212494135614198_5965732498133583053_n.jpg

I Needed THIS To Be EASILY Available...it wasn't until now!

 

SLICE OF PIE: Our Unlikely Love for ENOLA HOLMES and the Genre of the MYSTERY...and others...

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 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.

Seeing the advertising for the first ENOLA HOLMES (2020 movie Netflix) brought out a feeling of, “Of all the IDIOTIC STUFF on NORMALLY idiotic television (my father called the television the “idiot box” (this was when the thing actually WAS a box holding a cathode ray tube…). My wife had the same reaction.

A couple nights ago, we were searching for something new along the lines of “The Thursday Murder Club” movie – nothing too difficult to watch, nothing to strain the brain, but clever, snarky, and with a touch of humor.

The search turned up the usual suspects, almost all of which we’ve seen. Now, I KNOW I am well-known as a SF fan and writer and that it perfectly just! However, several years ago, I developed a taste for the detective Walt Longmire (Did I ever mention that I also LOATHE Westerns? I do.), and in a strange turn of events, Brent Spiner (STAR TREK’s Mr. Data) played Sherlock Holmes in the movie, FIRST CONTACT…which was actually a Star Trek full-length movie!

One of the movies ranked with That included ENOLA HOLMES. With a heavy sigh, we decided to give it a try, but had a few other movies in the queue which we could reasonably spend a few hours mindlessly watching.

The “blurb” for the BOOKS was…questionable…at best (though the first and a later one were both awarded Edgars (YA lit’s equivalent of SF’s HUGO, and movie’s Academy Award): “The Enola Holmes Mysteries…[star] Enola Holmes…14-year-old sister of…Sherlock Holmes, twenty years her senior. The…series borrows characters and settings from the established canon of Sherlock Holmes, but the Enola character is Springer's creation and specific to this series.” The 14-year-old Enola is the same age as our granddaughter…who is also into mystery, murder, and mayhem…she ALSO has a wicked sense of humor. Figure Holmes himself is usually represented with something of a sharp (or wicked) wit, we hoped that Enola might have some of that.

With further study, we found that the two were NOT quite the same: “A 2020 mystery film starring Millie Bobby Brown as the title character, the teenage sister of the already famous Victorian-era detective Sherlock Holmes. The film is directed by Harry Bradbeer from a screenplay by Jack Thorne that adapts the first novel in The Enola Holmes Mysteries series by Nancy Springer. In the film, Enola travels to London to find her missing mother but ends up on a thrilling adventure, pairing up with a runaway lord as they attempt to solve a mystery that threatens the entire country. In addition to Brown, the film also stars Sam Claflin, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter (who, BTW was ALSO Bellatrix Lestrange, evil witch in four Harry Potter movies).

To arms, then: it turns out that you can’t see a movie by it’s title or blurb…Enola Holmes was truly fantastic! As such, it compelled us to NOT immediately blitz through the other two without a care in the world! We waited a few days before watching EH 2 last night; and we MIGHT last through the night tonight without watching EH 3! (Maybe…) The question was WHY was was it SO FREAKILY GOOD?

First of course, was that “Sherlock Holmes”! Really, how much more compulsion do you need? The character “…holds the Guinness World Record for the most-portrayed literary human character in film and television. Estimates indicate that over 75 to 130 actors have played the detective on screen, with comprehensive lists (including stage and audio productions) featuring nearly 350 actors…” https://www.imdb.com/list/ls098162253/

Secondly, I just realized that both SF and Mystery are what are called “genre literature” which is, by definition…”any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time…” The genres most of us are familiar with besides SF and Mystery are (off the top of my head) spy, fantasy, horror, Western – though it appears not even the EXPERTS know how many genres there are. Seems to be some number between three https://www.thoughtco.com/genre-in-literature-1690896; to seven; to 28; to 35; to 113…to (I’m sorry, I didn’t have time to count them) several HUNDRED (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_writing_genres)...

Sherlock Holmes is possibly even his OWN genre! I write “hard science fiction” – which is what MARTIAN HOLIDAY is…but it has a religious flavor to it as well (Christian, witchcraft (there’s a coven), and Buddhism (the Dalai Llama of Mars puts in an appearance), as well as the United Faith in Humanity.

All of this to say that my wife and I watched Enola Holmes 2 (2022): “In September 2020, co-producer and star Millie Bobby Brown (16 in the movie rather than the books’ 14)…an original story based on the real 1888 matchgirls' strike and the life of labor activist Sarah Chapman…to advance her career as a detective (or a “finder of things” [she] has to work with others and not just be reliant on herself. It's a story that goes from 'I' to 'we', and that is a story of sisterhood.” We will soon be watching Enola Holmes 3…

I think I’d like to try my hand at a Sherlock Holmes on Mars story…or even better, invent my OWN sleuth…maybe a retired science teacher who’s looking for something to do in his retirement.

Hmmm…

Inspiration and references: ENOLA HOLMES 1, 2, 3; Bellatrix Lestrange (four HARRY POTTER movies; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millie_Bobby_Brown; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre

MINING THE ASTEROIDS Part 39: Wanna Be An Asteroid Miner When You Grow Up?

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…
Today’s Source: https://www.planetary.org/articles/chinas-tianwen-2-mission-has-probably-arrived-at-a-quasi-moon-of-earth (June 24, 2026)

Oddly enough, under the influence of my son (there’s a LONG and fascinating story there about the ASTRONOMICAL advance of his reading skills and interest since first grade…) I found out that HE read THREE BODY PROBLEM by Liu Cixin (as I am interested in words and language, his name is pronounced “lee-oh ts'-uh-sheen” – Or as it reads on the cover of the book (incorrectly, apparently) Cixin Liu). So, I’m reading it now.

At any rate, the race to mine space (not with exploding mines, but taking ores from asteroids and refining it on Earth (or…in space, but I think that’s a DIFFERENT story!) appears to have started:

“Asa Stahl, PhD; Science Editor at The Planetary Society wrote on May 21, 2024: “Earth hosts seven known quasi-moons, an unknown number of minimoons, and maybe, sometimes, two ghost moons. Though none of these pseudo-moons are as big or influential as Earth’s one true natural satellite — the Moon — they are still valuable for science and exploration. Quasi- and minimoons offer promising targets for future space missions, a window into our planet’s neighborhood, and a sampling of the sort of asteroids that could potentially hit Earth.”

He wrote in an article posted June 24, 2026 that, “China’s Tianwen-2 mission has (probably) arrived at a quasi-moon of Earth.” Andrew Jones, also an editor at TPS, notes, “… around July 4, we [should] get the confirmation that, ‘Yes, Tianwen-2 is in its desired orbit, here's an image.’” EDITORIAL SNARK: It is ALMOST certainly sheer coincidence that China will land on a moon (quasi or otherwise) around the 250th Anniversary of the US and “roughly” 57 years after Neil Armstrong, et al landed on the Moon in 1969…

Back to mining! https://fortune.com/2026/07/02/china-private-space-industry-landspace-geely-spacex-rainer-zitelmann/ Fortune magazine reported that “Initially, Chinese policymakers did not take Elon Musk’s company particularly seriously. But as Falcon 9 dramatically lowered launch costs through reusability and SpaceX began dominating global launch markets, attitudes changed. Chinese leaders recognized that they could not rely solely “the government to mine/colonize/pioneer space”. As a result, hundreds of commercial space companies emerged. Many were founded by engineers who previously worked for state-owned aerospace organizations but became frustrated with bureaucracy and slow decision-making. By 2022, China had approximately 430 private space companies. By 2024, the combined value of the country’s 100 largest space firms was estimated at roughly $100 billion.”

CHINA is getting excited about space and mining the asteroids, while WE diddle around, assuming that American dominance in space was a given and we now have more important things to do – like play video games, own more powerful cell phones, and buy more stuff…led by a self-centered billionaire whose sole vision involves remodeling swimming pools and rebuilding extravagant ballrooms…Americans will shortly find themselves farther behind the “unAmerican” powers that we did when Germany invaded Poland and Japan surreptitiously took over the US AFTER the WWII…with manufacturing and technology.

“The United States still enjoys a significant advantage [over China]. Measured against SpaceX alone, the gap remains substantial. But that comparison can be misleading. China has built remarkable depth across the entire industry. In launch services, satellites, communications technologies, and space manufacturing, dozens of Chinese companies are now competing simultaneously.

“The history of Chinese industry reveals a familiar pattern: first imitation, then improvement — and finally innovation. This evolution has already occurred in sectors such as automobiles, batteries, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. There is little reason to assume that space will be different.”

If anyone reading this is planning on being an asteroid miner, I would suggest you make like the Iron Rangers in central Minnesota did at one point in the 1940s, “…due to the diverse immigrant workforce, many spoken interactions in the mines and surrounding communities occurred in Finnish, Slovenian, Croatian, and Italian…” (https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/immigration-iron-range-1880-1930)...

START LEARNING CHINESE!

“What’s a quasi-moon?” Funny you should ask… https://www.planetary.org/articles/the-quasi-moons-of-earth
Planetary Society article: https://www.planetary.org/articles/the-quasi-moons-of-earth
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://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000087284388-7gj0v4-t500x500.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAY 712

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: Benevolent Alien Invasion (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BenevolentAlienInvasion)
Current Event: http://fortune.com/2016/06/01/poverty-simulation-camps/

Landon Smith shaded his eyes as he looked up into the crystal clear Nebraska sky. September was an odd time for an Alien invasion. “What do you suppose this group wants to see?” he asked the girl next to him as he pulled off his cowboy hat and wiped at the band of sweat. Even though school had already started, it was still a scorcher. Clarkson in Omaha had drawn him from his hometown with the brass ring of the first full-scale Theoretical Alien Psychology and Philosophy PhD in the country.

Olivia Williams had come for the same reason, though she hated the fact that she’d also promised to the college place-kicker on the football team. She sighed. She STILL wished people wanted her for mind more than her extra-point record. She said, “The same as all of them – poverty-stricken Earth People.”

“Yeah, but…” he began.

“Why come here and not Harlem or…”

“Addis Ababa or Dakar…”

“Or any of a hundred other places?”

“Why here?” they said together.

“It’s not like they talk to anyone – or even pay us any attention. We could be stray cats as far as they’re concerned.”

“Have you ever watched one of their ‘poverty retreats’?” Landon said as they first pallet jack rolled past with a platform of weird aliens. He knew he wasn’t supposed to feel that way, but they were all but incomprehensible to him – or any other Human for that matter. Not one single alien conformed to a body layout that even remotely resembled something on Earth. The “parallel evolutionists” were rethinking their theories at an alarming rate. The Laws of Evolution were being seriously considered as totally outmoded and insufficient to explain, well…anything living. One of the reasons he’d decided to major in TAPP.

“They’re so weird, they aren’t even creepy. Even in my worst nightmare I wouldn’t have been able to imagine these intelligences.”

“That’s why they aren’t particularly scary.” Landon said, “They don’t remind us of ourselves in any way, so they CAN’T be frightening. They’re…alien.”

They said the last word together again. She shrugged, “Well, I for one am looking for some way of breaking through their indifference.”

“You don’t hold with Feng Youlan’s theory that they simply cannot see us – that we’re so far outside of their realm of experience that their brains can’t interpret us at all?”

She laughed and they walked away, arm in arm. Behind them, one of the aliens twitched something that might have been an eye and might have blinked in what could be thought of as interest.

Names: ♀ common Arkansas names, ; ♂ common Idaho names
Image: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/C2nVRtyWKDsGheTkefwup8-970-80.jpg.webp

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #38: “Agatha Christie & Me”

In this series, 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. I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect to 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! For example, “Agatha Christie was a prolific short story writer. She wrote 153 short stories collected in 14 original books, (and also wrote 66 detective novels) featuring famous sleuths like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. So, without further ado, short story observations by Agatha Christie – with a few from myself...)

Christie's work has sold more copies than both Shakespeare and the traditional King James Bible. She DID write GREAT WORKS that had a profound impact on the mystery genre in the English-speaking world. But she also wrote lots of short stories. But what did she have to say about WRITING them?

1. Start Your Plot
“There is always, of course, that terrible three weeks…when you are trying to get started on a [book] story. There is no agony like it.”

2. Let Your Plot Develop
“Christie found her ideas by letting her mind run wild while she was busy doing other things.” It’s NOT new or unique. It’s ALSO fun!

3. Use What Interests YOU
Christie had MANY interests: medicine, archaeology, card playing, psychic stuff, her dog, world travel, nature, and just living life to its fullest. I love science, science fiction, camping, biking, and the culture of the schools I’ve worked in, plus other countries I’ve been to. All of these can help your plot.

4. Plot Your Character’s Flaws
We ALL like to read about characters like US – except THEY can do things we can’t! Christie created one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. This did not mean she liked Hercule Poirot! Develop your character’s background, flaws, sharp edges, and history...even though the reader might NEVER see these.

5. Plotting Characters & Their Potential
Christie once wrote that “In everyone there arises from time to time the wish to kill, though almost NEVER the will to kill.” I use my writing skills to create “monsters”, aliens, and then TONS of stress, and suspense to drive every story. Christie embraced the “dark side” of people by using her knowledge of psychology.

6. LET Cause & Effect Drive Your Plot
“To get at the cause for a thing, we have to study what happened.” Two of the most important questions for a fiction writer. ‘What if?’ leads to the WHY. ‘What happens next?’ is important for the WHAT HAPPENS. That’s cause and effect at work. If this happens, what will happen next? OUTLINE YOUR STORY! Writers can expect to spend hours alone while plotting, writing, and editing. Some writers prefer to share the task; others like Christie liked to plot alone?

FINALLY.
Mastering plot is not easy, but Christie shows that great storytelling comes down to precision, misdirection, and careful planning. Whether you’re crafting a complex mystery or simply trying to keep readers turning the pages, these tips offer a timeless blueprint for success. Use them to deepen suspense and deliver endings your readers will never see coming.

References: https://anarrativeoftheirown.substack.com/p/writing-rituals-of-agatha-christie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUBdgv38SF4,  https://www.agathachristie.com/about-christie/how-christie-wrote, https://www.reddit.com/r/agathachristie/comments/1asnltb/what_are_the_short_agatha_books/
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CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 44: UNBELIEVABLE Aliens

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...

What alien was THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE you ever forced yourself to watch (even for a few moments, just to see what would happen)?

Apparently, people LOVE playing with the idea of aliens! Following that, my opinion will be the one I’m expressing here because there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus about the WORST alien ever presented to an audience.

For me, ET seems the most absurd. First of all, I’ll remind you that I started my teaching career as a science teacher. I’ve done ALL of them in elementary, middle school, and high school – except for Honors Physics. My science is pretty solid, so I feel comfortable saying that for trying to be something terrifying, ET is absurd. First and foremost, it would never have lasted long enough on its homeworld to even BEGIN evolution! (Don’t get me wrong, if God wanted to create any life form they wanted to, they could have done so. ET, here I come!)

BUT, given that public school science eschews Divine Creation, the creature that the movie depicts as not ONLY intelligent, but smart enough to invent, design, build, and fly a starship that skip Normal space with impunity and (obviously) and fly from their home world to numerous other planets.

The problem is that I don’t see how they could possibly survive the early stages of evolution. They can’t run, for heaven’s sake! Their neck could snap in the event of a hard fall; a trip; or a stiff breeze!

Look at ET’s fingers for heaven’s sake: I assume for lack of evidence otherwise, that ET is the lifeform on their planet that invented a star drive capable of propelling them through some kind of alternative space that doesn’t require travelling slower than the speed of light – which would mean it would take tens, hundreds, or thousands of years to make it to Earth. That requires some kind of science to create a technology, and technology is notoriously fickle and would require tools that were smaller than ET’s fingers…

I’ll grant eyes so large they make adult Humans swoon and cause children to place implicit trust in a creature who’d traveled some incredible number of light years to reach them. ET is also intelligent enough to make sense of colloquial English, as well. Linguist? OK, I’ll grant it. But logical? Realistic? Sorry – the biology just doesn’t carry it believably for me. Granted: I hardly look like the end result of intelligent Humans who first escaped being eaten enough times to have lots of kid; who then started tinkering with science and technology; and who recently (finally) returned Humans to orbit the Moon and who have had a sustained presence outside of Earth’s atmosphere for 27 years.

But supposedly, ET is some sort of scientist; an explorer; and granted he has psychic powers that allow him to lift things and fly them by sheer power of mind…

But as a fictional alien? Sorry, I’m believing that our REAL First Contact will introduce us to aliens who are at least as intelligent as the smartest Humans…

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial, https://www.reddit.com/r/FIlm/comments/1k9xtml/hot_take_i_hate_et_its_antiscience_trash/ Image: https://www.savannahnow.com/gcdn/authoring/2013/06/26/NSMN/ghows-GA-1525da98-72f7-4b22-8bdb-9522cdabe259-0091e7b9.jpeg?width=660&height=587&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

IDEA ON TUESDAY 711

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: apocalyptic diary/journal/log
Event: http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/lost-continent-discovered-beneath-indian-ocean-130225.htm

Andrianampoinimerinatompokoindrindra Zehrezgi – who preferred to go by Andri Zee – tried to keep his last meal down as the boat rocked beneath his feet.

“Isn’t this exhilarating?” exclaimed Shamma Maslah.

“When do you think the hurricane is going to stop?” he asked.

Shamma burst out laughing. “There’s no hurricane! In fact this is the calmest day I’ve seen since we were out here.” She glanced at him and went to the railing and said, “If you don’t like the ocean, why’d you come out here?”

“This site is within the waters of my country.”

She made a face, saying, “I didn’t know you had a country. Not how you talk about it anyway.”

“Madagascar is my homeland!” She grunted and leaned over the rail, looking deeply into the water. “Watch out!” he cried, stepping forward, arm outstretched.

She looked at him and laughed, “What? It scares you when I lean out this far?” she said, leaning back over the railing. Suddenly the water below her grew dark and began to bubble, gently at first, then wildly. Water geysered into the air. She screamed and staggered backward, into Andri Zee’s arms and they watched in horror as...

A fluorescent orange conning tower surged out of the water, sluicing aside until the hatch on top opened up and a young lady waved at them.

Shamma shouted, “Laura! What’s going on?”

Laura shouted back, “You won’t believe what we discovered! Not only is Mauritia a sunken island – there was some sort of sealed chamber there!”

“What?” Andri exclaimed. Majoring in archaeology, THIS is what he’d come for! “Where is it?”

“They had to send down the big sub and they’re bringing up the entire chamber right now.”

Shamma looked at Andri then Liz, bobbing in the conning tower of the sub and shouted, “The time is all wrong! Mauritia sank when the dinosaurs died. There shouldn’t be anything there.”

Liz shrugged, “I don’t know about when it sank or what should and shouldn’t be there, but there’s something big and it looks like it was sealed. See you in a bit!”

*

They rendezvoused at the small sub dock. The massive winch from the ship platform had lifted a barnacled encrusted, roughly cubic case into the air and was swinging it over the helipad, where it lowered the box down.

The metal groaned as the cables above relaxed. Andri said, “It’s heavier than it looks.”

“Way heavier,” said Liz.

Shamma frowned. There was something about it. Something strange. Despite the noise around her, she could hear…not exactly hear…sense? Feel? She wasn’t sure. Something. The hot sun of the Indian Ocean beat down on the head of the crew. Men and women in trunks and halters scampered around the deck, disconnecting chains, cables, hosing down the object. SCUBA divers were lifting up from the waterline; heavy metal music abruptly blared from the deck speakers and the recovery work began in a part atmosphere.

Shamma found a spot, out of the way. Her work on the project was cataloging and identifying life forms; part of a survey team that had set out to begin to quantify the anecdotal evidence that the oceans were beginning to recover now that the world population had precipitously fallen during the H7N9 Pandemic of 2038-2042. With over two billion people dead, the Earth seemed empty now. It scared her sometimes. Abruptly, a migraine assaulted her. It had been years since she had one.

That was when heard a voice, speaking in Olde English. She only caught the first few words, vaguely familiar, but somehow wrong as well, “In the beginning, I created this earth to inhabit heaven...” The migraine became blinding and with a squeak, she passed out.

Names: ♀ UAE, Somolian; ♂ Madagascar, Ethiopian; ♀ Hebrew (diminutive of “Elizabeth”)
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GUY'S GOTTA TALK ABOUT...5/30/2026 Writing, Ideas, and Type 2 Diabetes...

My WRITING 5/30/26
“High Carnival” free: https://amazingstories.com/2026/04/high-carnival-by-guy-stewart-free-story/ MARTIAN HOLIDAY on Amazon. Try CH1,2 free here: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2026/02/martian-holiday-read-chapters-1-2.html

IDEA: Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “Fantasy can be metaphor for life in this world, allowing a writer to examine any subject with impunity.” – Melissa McPhail.
F Trope: Conjuring…
Event: http://www.spellsofmagic.com/spells/spiritual_spells/conjuring_spells/390/page.html
Jacob Adams scowled, shivering in the cold. He wore black jeans and boots, but all he wore on top was a baseball cap turned backwards and an A-shirt. “All I want is a fire to keep warm! I said the spell, how come it’s not working?” His breath puffed out a white cloud with every word.
Ada Contepomi stood with her fists balled on her hips. She was wearing her light blue parka, mittens and knee-high Mukluks. She said, “What exactly did you expect?”
GGTA: POST #1 – LOOKING BACK I’ve been pre-diabetic for a few years. I knew I could change my diagnosis if I just followed a few simple steps. I needed to lose weight, exercise more, and eat right. My response to that knowledge was, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll get to it! Besides I eat pretty good. I ride my bike! I sometimes lose weight!” Well, the jig is up. I’d been caught with my proverbial pants down. Nothing evil going down, but I’m now officially diabetic.
https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2026/05/my-first-post-at-guys-gotta-talk.html
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