Use the link below! It's LIVE!
THE biggest advantage is that all the places I write and have written are linked here. Eventually, I'll be able to have people order books through my site/Rampant Loon Press (my publisher!) and support a small press!
Showing posts with label etc...Comments on OTHER Subjects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label etc...Comments on OTHER Subjects. Show all posts
September 9, 2025
New Website -- FIRST PEEK (BY NO MEANS DONE!)
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
April 18, 2025
AT MINNESOTA MINICON 58... as an attendee, a panelist, a book hawker, a proud Dad, and a teacher of FLASH FICTION.
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!)
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
January 15, 2025
What I've LEARNED WRITING, My PUBLISHED Stories, and LINKS To Online FICTION
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
January 3, 2025
Comments on OTHER Stuff: My “Evolution By Star Trek” (Sort of Like Trial By Fire…)
From the moment I first watched it, I fell in love with Star Trek and it's been over half a CENTURY since then. I became a SCIENCE TEACHER because of Star Trek...and just retired after 40 years in the classroom. This (at the time) single show shaped my life.
How? I played Star Trek and Aliens instead of “Cowboys and Indians”…of course, I didn’t have the special effects crew to create beams of lambent light or make totally cool sound effects. (Wanna hear one? Click on this, but keep your volume low! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMFeEcSuX5Y (OOPS! Sorry…*wink*) actually THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbFmzZPyKlk) So I ran around shooting aliens with a hand-carved phaser painted green with a yellow stripe down the side. I’d cut a bit of wood at an angle in order to make a handle, then nailed five finishing nails into the “barrel”. To simulate the phaser sound effect, I let forth with a squeal while vibrating my lips like a trumpet player.
Star Trek ignited in me a deep desire to leave Earth and go to the stars. In those days, you had to be an astronaut and take your life into your own hands every day. Apparently you also had to be an elite soldier in the military. I couldn’t even do a PULL UP to pass the Presidential Physical Fitness Test…how would I possibly pull myself up by my bootstraps when I couldn’t even pull my pudgy body up high enough for my chin to reach the bar. And in the midst of the Vietnam War, I wasn’t real keen on enlisting before I got drafted, so that route was closed by a decision on my part. Star Trek came along just as I was finishing up THE WONDERFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET and SPACESHIP UNDER THE APPLE TREE, and so I never completed the two series. But it was Star Trek (and growing up!) that launched me into the junior high library.
I started reading more science fiction. I blew through the juvenile works of Robert A Heinlein, Donald A Wollheim (who founded DAW Books), Andre Norton, A.M. Lightner (who I just now discovered was a woman!!!), Alan E. Nourse, and (of course), Madeleine L’Engle.
But, I’ll never forget perhaps the most influential of the YA science fiction novels I ever read: British author, John Christopher’s WHITE MOUTAINS Trilogy (eventually a quartet). I was in 7th grade when I first checked out the first book, THE WHITE MOUNTAINS – I give all kinds of details in SIX essays I wrote on my blog over the past nine years about the books. Needless to say, those books compelled me to keep the story going. They lit a deep desire in me to create my OWN worlds…( https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2013/05/slice-of-pie-no-new-writing.html, https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2021/06/slice-of-pie-in-terms-of-my-writing.html, https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2015/09/slice-of-pie-who-are-we-imitating-these.html; https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/11/slice-of-pie-teen-humor-combatting-grim.html; https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2012/09/possibly-irritating-essays-how-teenya.html, https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2012/07/possibly-irritating-essay-on-this-tour.html)
Reading THOSE books compelled me to pick up my pencil and write a truly horrible piece called “The White Vines” it was also written in painstakingly neat cursive. I’m sure I reread the WHITE MOUNTAIN books several times (I have two sets in my own library today!), until I finally moved on when I discovered the adult SF section of the Public Library and a magazine that took my fledgling writing and set a fire under me to one day get a story published in a floppy, pulp magazine called ANALOG Science Fiction & Fact.
But when push comes to shove, it really comes down to the single most influential television show I was ever (allowed by my dad!) to watch. It introduced me to strange, new worlds that even the stories I was reading couldn’t quite match. I started writing science fiction because of ST. I teach a class called ALIEN WORLDS to gifted and talented kids during the summer and at other conferences and venues because of Star Trek. I teach a different summer school class called WRITING TO GET PUBLISHED…because of Star Trek, and it’s wonderful!
Admittedly, it's also sort of creepy – but in a cool way.
Program Guide: https://guide.chicon.org/; https://locusmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/chicon-8-twitter.png
Image: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cc3d1b051f4d40415789cc2/eef621ab-a509-4949-8717-d98cece8fa9e/james-bama-novelization-cover.png
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
December 21, 2024
Science Fiction MYSTERY: I NEVER REALLY KNEW THERE WAS SUCH A THING, Until I Saw "I, Robot"...
As a kid, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and books like that bored me.
I loved Asimov and the other panoply of writers from the end of the 60s through the 1970s. But if you’d asked me if Asimov wrote mysteries, I’d have said, “No. He’s a science fiction writer!”
About six or seven years ago, I stumbled across Craig Johnson, who wrote the novels about sheriff Walt Longmire. I can’t tell you even how that happened, but I fell in love with Longmire – and I’m currently rationing the last few of his novels that I haven’t read!
What caught me? How come I never noticed that Asimov’s novels were mysteries – and I read Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and even have a copy of The Robots of Dawn from the Science Fiction Book Club. But I didn’t READ them as mysteries. I read them as “robot novels”.
I’m going to look at this today!
First, what caught me with Longmire? Why’d I even BOTHER TO READ THE FIRST BOOK? I am no fan of Westerns (REALLY NOT!), and I never really thought of myself as a “mystery reader”. However, an old friend of mine LOVED the books and because I respect him, I tried the first one – COLD DISH. I was hooked because first off, Longmire’s not a supremely confident, “just put a gun in my hand and I’ll bring justice to the Old West ‘cause I’m the baddest-assed Lawman in the West!” kind of guy.
He's Human – I mean, he’s Human in the best possible way. Somehow, Craig Johnson managed to write Longmire as a quirky, smart – I mean, the man quotes Shakespeare! – and not entirely sure of himself. He also trusts the dangdest people. Sometimes, when he does, my first impression is that the person isn’t WORTHY of trust.
But, Larson gets that, too. Sometimes Longmire makes mistakes in who he trusts and then there are dire results. Also, Longmire DOESN’T ESCAPE HIS MISTAKES OR COME OUT UNHARMED! Even in movies, characters often make mistakes and other people suffer. Most of the time, it’s Longmire who suffers – though, just like in real life, others pay the price for his mistakes. They also pay the price for his well-night-to-unstoppable sense of justice – his daughter Cady ends up paying one of those times.
In essence though, what is it that attracts me to that kind of story? First off is the mystery – don’t get me wrong, I LOATHE mysteries in real life! I need to know what’s happening and to whom. I don’t mean just like, MURDER mysteries, though I’ve tried my hand at one or two – my first sale to CRICKET Magazine was “Mystery on Space Station Courage” (November 1997). No murder, just some strange sounds that turned out to be from someone who was trapped and might die if Candace can’t figure out and convince others that there WAS a mystery!
Another story where I use elements of mystery and science fiction is “Dinosaur Veterinarian” (ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact, November/December 2022). There you have a series of deaths seemingly caused by birds – which hinges on the fact that birds are relatives of the dinosaurs (doubters among you? Just go to the grocery store, and in the ethnic foods section, find a bag of frozen chicken feet! Don’t tell me that those feet DON’T have scales on them!) Anyway, my veterinarian character Javier Quinn Xiong Zaman DVM [aka Doctor Scrabble© (Because in the game, J, Qu, X, and Z are the highest scoring tiles)] has to find out what’s hunting and killing soldiers from both North and South Korea, as well as an entire international group of birdwatchers…
Of course he solves the mysteries.
Recently, I discovered that Isaac Asimov loved writing SF mysteries as well. Despite reading his work for most of my adult life, I didn’t notice that he wrote mysteries until the movie, “I, Robot” hit the silver screen with one of my favorite actors Will Smith, playing detective Spooner. What MOST people don’t know, is that the actual story that the movie is based on was in ASIMOV’S Science Fiction. “Robot Dreams”, while it isn’t ANYTHING LIKE THE MOVIE, had the seed in it. The movie-makers just added a Human cop with a grudge against robots to make the MOVIE…seems more Human, cause, really, would YOU go see a movie about, say, a Wyoming sheriff…who was a ROBOT? I mean, really?
Anyway, I’ve discovered I enjoy mysteries – also like WATCHING them, too, in particular the Hercule Poirot mysteries of Agatha Christie.
But I think I like not only the logical order of mysteries, I like that the logic comes wrapped in fallible Humans…or even fallible robots. STAR TREK: The Next Generation’s Commander Data’s holodeck adventures as Sherlock Holmes are intriguing and I enjoy those as well.
While reading a bit for this article, I stumbled across this: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/its-simply-too-dangerous-to-arm-robots in which it explains how “San Francisco was embroiled in controversy earlier in December of 2022, over a proposal to allow police to deploy robots armed with deadly weapons. After initially greenlighting the technology, the Board of Supervisors reversed course due to widespread public outcry. For the time being, killer robots are banned in San Francisco, but the controversy there has put the issue in the national spotlight. People are increasingly aware that this technology exists and that some police departments want to deploy it.”
In a nutshell, people hated the idea and voted it down. Interesting, eh? Robots that can kill are NOT all right, but Humans who can kill are a-OK and we should be happy to sell them guns…maybe this world ISN’T ready for a robot detective yet. Then again, mostly when we think of a “robot detective”, we’re thinking of an ANDROID detective, a law enforcement officer who is built as an “humaniform” robot. But what about MACHINE detectives that don’t look anything like Humans, but are sapient and trained as police officers…what about them?
I'll be exploring this subject through stories more in the future! I'll let you know if I succeed...
Another Article I wrote on SF Mysteries:
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
November 10, 2024
AT MY FAVORITE PLACE:
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
August 31, 2024
An INTERVIEW With Bruce Bethke, MARCH 12, 2024
I've been spending time trying to figure out WHAT I'm writing about -- early in August, I posted this:
While searching for advice on the subject, I stumbled across an interview with my very old friend (met him before I met my wife), that shed quite a bit of light on my current question: "What AM I writing about -- and what SHOULD I be writing about?" Angelique Fawns published it on March 12, 2024. Fawns is one of the staff writers at THE HORROR TREE online magazine.
What's best is that the light it shed wasn't in the spectrum I was expecting. I was actually hoping for something in the "brilliant yellow", sunshiny, and happy part of the spectrum...
What I GOT, was something in the UV or IR part -- maybe even the gamma radiation or microwave, far-ends part of the spectrum. You know, the parts that are DAMAGING...causing burns, and genetic mutations.
I don't mean that in a negative way, either. Sure, the middle part of the electromagnetic spectrum is "useful". Our own eyes aren't adapted to be able to sense ANYTHING outside of the very narrow band called Visible Light. Other animals can see in other odds-and-ends part of the spectrum. Bees see into the ultraviolet. "Infrared sensing snakes use pit organs extensively to detect and target warm-blooded prey such as rodents and birds."
Bruce's insights in were...tough for me to read. He's the editor/owner of Rampant Loon Press and published my YA/MG novel, EMERALD OF EARTH: HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES in March this year.
But to get down to the nitty-gritty, I picked up a few unexpected insights to myself:
1) "I compose and perform a story and capture the performance in the medium of words on paper...my musical background strongly affects how I put issues together. When I assemble a table of contents, it isn’t just a list of stories. It’s more like a set list or a concert program [with] a sense of pacing, tone, and dramatic structure in the order..."
I compose my stories like LESSONS -- I was, after all, a classroom teach for 41 years! Maybe that is a piece of why my sales have pretty much been steady at about 10% of what I write.
2) "...the head of...a major record company...After listening to my demo reel...told me that the objective isn’t to be really different. It’s to be just a little different, so that your work stands out, but at the same time to sound enough like someone else who is already a major hit-maker that the first time listeners hear it, it sounds like something they’ve already heard six times, and they love it and can’t wait to hear it again [and] to hear that little bit of difference you bring to the formula."
It's funny -- because I CAN do that and never have. I suppose a fear of being accused of "copying". I CAN write the spirit of the stories I love.
And the rest? There's more advice here:
1) Write to market…pick a category you like to read and think will be fun to work in, and figure out what you can do with it that is slightly different from what everyone else and their cat is already doing.2) Learn the Lester Dent formula: crank out hundreds of novels using a universal plot formula. was designed for 6,000-word short stories, but works just as well for short novels, with some adjustments.
3) Pick a pseudonym. Your name is a brand…you want to have an entire stable full of names, so that you can switch back and forth between identities...You are in the entertainment business now…[and] pseudonym is a character…a role you perform for public consumption…
4) Before you start writing, figure out how your story ends.
5) Write short novels. The day of the BFFB (Big Fat Fantasy Brick) is over. The optimum length in today’s market is 40K to 50K words.
6) Forget traditional publishing. Start with self-publishing directly to Kindle.
7) Consider whether serialization is right for you…on Kindle Vella or Royal Road first…It’s a great way to build your fan base.
8) Start an email list…Your pseudonym can get a website. Build a mailing list. Start a blog. Interact with your fans, and make them feel that they are sharing in your success.
9) Keep writing those books…Write a never-ending series…[and]…don’t stop writing it until people stop buying it…[and] if you’ve gone three books without having a bestseller, kick that pseudonym to the curb, revise your formula, and start over as someone else.
Success in this business requires talent, ambition, good craft skills and work habits, and a certain measure of luck…there is no luck…I have seen that a modest amount of talent and good craft skills and work habits beats enormous amounts of talent and lousy work habits seven days a week and twice on Sunday.
For the COMPLETE interview, go here: https://horrortree.com/bruce-bethke-stupefying-stories/
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
August 27, 2024
THIS HAPPENED HERE -- AND WAS REPORTED ON THE BBC WEBSITE! (I was right there FOUR DAYS AGO!)
Minnesota: Lightning strikes and a rainbow forms during storm (bbc.com)
THIS report was on BBC today! I DO love to read the BBC articles -- such a DIFFERENT point of view of the world!
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
August 21, 2024
STUPEFYING STORIES! MY FAVORITE ONLINE MAGAZINE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
June 19, 2024
Hey folks interested in EMERALD OF EARTH! Rampant Loon Press has stopped paperback and Audio Books anwhere except Amazon.com. They've placed EMERALD on KDP Direct! So, if you are a Kindle member, you can read EMERALD OF EARTH for free! If you want the PAPER BOOK or the Audio Book, Amazon is the ONLY place you can buy them!
Amazon.com: Emerald of Earth: Heirs of the Shattered Spheres eBook : Stewart, Guy: Kindle Store
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
April 28, 2024
CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 35: ALIEN ALIENS HAVE INVADED MY WIFE!!!!
MY POST IS A DAY LATE BECAUSE...WELL READ THE POST AND IT MIGHT MAKE SENSE...
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...
My wife of 36 years was invaded Friday (though on reflection, probably the actual assault began the day before on Thursday while we were preparing our gardens) by an organism that is NOT supposed to be inside the "Universe known as My Wife".
How do I know it was an alien invasion?
She had a violent allergic reaction to it after the organism breached the protective layer of the body called the Skin and began to reproduce.
She had a violent allergic reaction to it after the organism breached the protective layer of the body called the Skin and began to reproduce.
If it was a virus, it invaded My Wife’s Cells, injected a bit of DNA into the original cell, that replaced a bit of DNA in the original cell’s copying program and induced My Wife’s Cell to begin to make copies of the Viral Cell.
My Wife’s Cell became a minion of the Alien Cell and set about creating copies of ITSELF to take over other of My Wife’s Cells.
This is purely and completely the plot of the 1950s movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.
If the invader was instead, a single-celled organism, it did a much more “HG Wells War of the Worlds invasion”: aliens overwhelm the rightful inhabitants of the world known as My Wife’s Body and go about wreaking havoc on My Wife until most of My Wife has been annihilated and the Aliens have taken over – for whatever their Nefarious Purpose is.
Entire organisms are a different story, so I’ll only point out that a creature many of us know, love, hunt, and eat in this central part of Abya Yala is known by the Latin name, Phasianus colchicus. The Common pheasant was introduced in Abya Yala in 1773 to become well established throughout many of the Rocky Mountain states, the Midwest, the Plains states, as well as Canada and Mexico. This is, also, an invasion of massive proportion, which few (if any of us) care about.
My Wife’s Cell became a minion of the Alien Cell and set about creating copies of ITSELF to take over other of My Wife’s Cells.
This is purely and completely the plot of the 1950s movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.
If the invader was instead, a single-celled organism, it did a much more “HG Wells War of the Worlds invasion”: aliens overwhelm the rightful inhabitants of the world known as My Wife’s Body and go about wreaking havoc on My Wife until most of My Wife has been annihilated and the Aliens have taken over – for whatever their Nefarious Purpose is.
Entire organisms are a different story, so I’ll only point out that a creature many of us know, love, hunt, and eat in this central part of Abya Yala is known by the Latin name, Phasianus colchicus. The Common pheasant was introduced in Abya Yala in 1773 to become well established throughout many of the Rocky Mountain states, the Midwest, the Plains states, as well as Canada and Mexico. This is, also, an invasion of massive proportion, which few (if any of us) care about.
But, who the freak cares?
Funny you should ask! The INVASIVE pheasant, who is definitely NOT FROM AROUND HERE, ie: an ALIEN, “There are a number of negative effects of common pheasants on other game birds; pheasants lay their eggs in the nests of grey partridges, prairie chickens, ducks, grouse, and turkeys. Pheasant eggs also have a shorter incubation time and when they hatch, the female parasitized by the common pheasant abandons the rest of the incompletely incubated eggs, which then die. Also, pheasants raised in other species' nests imprint on their ‘alien mom’ which result in them act totally weird for pheasants. They often use resources for bobwhites, partridges, and grouse due to habitat and food competition, and also survive certain infection easily, while ruffed grouse, chukar, and grey partridge die.
Pheasants also harass or kill other birds like prairie chickens.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_pheasant)
We are surrounded by Alien Invasions…maybe that’s WHY the idea of Alien Invasion and Alien Aliens are so fascinating to us? It’s written into our very DNA. Maybe the Universe is trying to tell us to FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO TO PROTECT FROM ALIEN INVASIONS!
We are surrounded by Alien Invasions…maybe that’s WHY the idea of Alien Invasion and Alien Aliens are so fascinating to us? It’s written into our very DNA. Maybe the Universe is trying to tell us to FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO TO PROTECT FROM ALIEN INVASIONS!
*ahem*
Just a bit of food for thought…
Sources: Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg
Just a bit of food for thought…
Sources: Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
March 28, 2024
Minnesota Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction Convention!!!!
NO POST SATURDAY AS I WILL BE AT THIS PREMIER EVENT Friday Evening, March 29, 2024 through roughly 3:00 Sunday afternoon, March 31, 2024.
I will resume posting on Monday!
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
March 21, 2024
MY NEW BOOK IS LIVE FOR PURCHASE: Trade Paperback, EBook, and Audible!
My book, EMERALD OF EARTH is NOW LIVE both for Kindle/Nook, and other electronic platforms AND TRADE PAPERBACK!!! on Amazon.com and many other of your favorite online book sites!
The link for Amazon is here. (I'll add others as I find them!)
Amazon.com: Emerald of Earth: Heirs of the Shattered Spheres: 9781958333167: Stewart, Guy
Also -- on STUPEFYING STORIES, Bruce Bethke has some interesting commentary on how the publication came about and a sidenote about the Audible Version at
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
January 21, 2024
RECONCILIATION BLOGS, MOVIES, AND TV SHOWS -- all the links you could ever want!
Enjoy...though I'm not sure that's QUITE what this is about...
SPIDERMAN 3 AND RECONCILIATION
https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2024/01/possibly-irritating-essay-spiderman-3.html
STAR TREK, ALZHEIMERS, AND RECONCILIATION
STAR TREK, ALZHEIMERS, AND RECONCILIATION
https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2019/02/slice-of-piemaybe-alzheimers-star-trek.html
INTERSTELLAR AND RECONCILIATION
INTERSTELLAR AND RECONCILIATION
https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2014/11/possibly-irritating-essays-interstellar.html
"ONE MILLION NINE-HUNDRED THOUSAND" - a short story of mine that was not published...
"ONE MILLION NINE-HUNDRED THOUSAND" - a short story of mine that was not published...
https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2016/08/writing-advice-can-this-story-be-saved_28.html
"A QUANTUM ECHO AT TACONITE HARBOR" - another short story of mine that was not published...
"A QUANTUM ECHO AT TACONITE HARBOR" - another short story of mine that was not published...
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
July 18, 2023
The Pretty-Much-Finished-Except-For-A-Few-Tweaks Cover Of My New Book
My OLD book:
(1998)
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
July 15, 2023
Sneak Peek At the ALMOST Ready COVER of EMERALD OF EARTH...PUBLICATION DATE TBD!
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
December 10, 2022
Oddly Enough, This Appeared on My FACEBOOK Feed Today...
Oddly enough, this appeared on my FaceBook feed today via Writers Write who added a new photo to the album: More Quotes On Writing. The Quotable Anne McCaffrey.
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
March 5, 2022
COVID-19 and me...
I tested positive...got hit by the symptoms...taking an investigative drug to shorten my stay with COVID-19 and keep me from getting serious symptoms. Recovering. Tired. This is about all I can write.
See you next week.
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
June 12, 2021
Finished My 200,000 Word Novel Yesterday...MARTIAN HOLIDAY...that is all
Take four characters from the Bible: Queen Esther; Daniel (his real name) and Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego (their Persian names); Steven the Martyr; and Paul the Apostle...
Put them on Mars in the 24th Century.
Add Artificial Intelligence, Human Clones (who are shades of blue to keep them separated...), and an underground.
Toss in Martian artifacts that point to extraterrestrials once having been stranded there...
Then outlaw Old Organized Religions and replace it with the Unified Faith in Humanity and have a bit of harassment going on...
And you have MARTIAN HOLIDAY...(PS - The word "holiday" has another definition linked to the Roman Empire...)
This is IT for today (oh, my foster-daughter got married yesterday, too!
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
January 1, 2021
Happy and Blessed New Year!
Guy Stewart is a husband; father, father-in-law, grandfather, and recently retired teacher, and school counselor who maintains POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS offering his writing up for comment. His first novel for YA/MS, EMERALD OF EARTH came out in 2024! He also writes on other worlds that have touched his life: GUYS GOTTA TALK ABOUT DIABETES, ALZHEIMERS; BREAST CANCER! He has 70+ publications in Analog, Cast of Wonders, Shoreline of Infinity, Cricket, Stupefying Stories, Nanoism, an essay in The Writer, and created experiments for episodes of the PBS science shows Newton’s Apple, and The New Explorers—for which he became the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.
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