Fantasy and/as Escape

A heartily recommended story in APEX (which can be read at no charge): "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies," by Alix E. Harrow:

A Witch's Guide to Escape

There are two kinds of librarians in the world, "the prudish, bitter ones. . . who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches." This story's narrator, a librarian of the second kind, makes it her life's mission to guide readers to the books they need. Delightfully, books in her library have feelings and WANT to be read. A deeply unhappy boy in the foster care system finds his way to the library and becomes enthralled with tales of travel to other realms. Of one obscure novel whose "happy ending" returns its protagonist to the mundane world, the boy says, "The ending sucked." The narrator knows what he needs is the book whose title forms the name of the story, but to give him access to it, she would have to break a fundamental rule of her vocation.

Tolkien, in his classic essay "On Fairy Stories," lists the three primary functions of "Faerie" or "Fantasy" as recovery, escape, and consolation. About escape, so often condemned by "realists" as "escapism," he says, "I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. . . . Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter." C. S. Lewis, commenting on this passage, asks which people most dislike talk of escape; he answers, "Jailers."

This past week, I read THE HAZEL WOOD, by Melissa Albert, with a seventeen-year-old girl narrator whose grandmother wrote a collection of dark fairy tales that has become a cult classic. The narrator discovers that the world of the tales, as we would expect, actually exists and that the truth of her own past is inextricably bound up with the reality of her grandmother's stories. This novel combines my two favorite fantasy motifs, portals to magical worlds and a hero's discovery of his or her own other-than-mundane origin. (In THE HAZEL WOOD these revelations come with a grim twist, for the faerie realm the narrator enters is a far cry from Narnia.)

Another recent metafictional portal fantasy that grabbed me was Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children trilogy (EVERY HEART A DOORWAY, DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES, BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY). It centers on a boarding school for children and teenagers who have traveled to fantastic worlds, have returned against their wills to the "real" world, and find themselves unable to adjust to the change. Their oblivious parents expect the school to "cure" them of their "delusions," but in fact the founder of the home is a former traveler herself. Each inmate searches desperately for the door back into his or her true home; few ever find it. Such fantasies of "escape" incorporate the poignant realization embodied in many of "James Tiptree's" stories as well as countless other speculative fiction works: There is a place where I truly belong, but it is not here.

As more than one author has pointed out, it seems funny that critics often labeled science fiction "escapism" when that field grappled with world-changing issues such as nuclear war, overpopulation, and climate devastation long before they were on the radar of most members of the general public. (We may hope that attitude is fading away, now that many blockbuster films are SF or space opera and a science fiction romance—THE SHAPE OF WATER—won an Oscar.) Fantasy and SF, of course, aren't the only fictional escape portals available to us. Horror can serve as a consolation for real-life evils because the monsters in horror stories are clearly defined and able to be destroyed. In murder mysteries, including those populated by the bloodiest of serial killers, we escape to a realm where truth is revealed and justice prevails. Even a "realistic" novel about the dreary problems of a mundane protagonist can offer temporary relief from our own dreary problems, because art gives shape, structure, and direction to the turmoil of ordinary life. And aren't truth, justice, and artistic structure worthwhile phenomena to contemplate regardless of genre?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Theme-Conflict Integration Part 5 DEFIANT by Dave Bara

Theme-Conflict Integration

Part 5

DEFIANT by Dave Bara 

Previous Parts in Theme-Conflict Integration:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/08/theme-conflict-integration-part-1.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/05/theme-conflict-integration-part-2.html

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/03/theme-conflict-integration-part-3.html

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/04/theme-conflict-integration-part-4.html

In Part 4, we looked closely at the TV Series The Orville, first season.

Now we will compare that brilliant TV writing to a novel, a completely different story-medium.

I like Dave Bara's novel series, The Lightship Chronicles, which we discussed previously:
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2017/03/reviews-31-dave-bara-lightship.html

IMPULSE
STARBOUND
DEFIANT

I like and even love them because of the presence of various favorite ingredients of mine. So I'm biased in comparing these two stories THE ORVILLE and LIGHTSHIP CHRONICLES - one arising as homage to STAR TREK and the other exploring what happens to humanity after we spread to the stars.

After the Star Trek epoch of human history, when the civiliazation we have built collapses, then what do we do? And why do we do it?

Sound familiar?  Yes, my interest in that question dates back to way before I sold my first story -- which is the Sime~Gen story, Operation High Time, set in the epoch after the collapse and even after the rebuild of Earth's civilization when humanity is at the verge of exploring the Stars (again?).

So variations on that far-future story are irresistible to me.

Dave Bara has created a universe with a different History from what I have played with but retained the element of "Love Conquers All" that is my special interest.

In Bara's hands, the Romance theme becomes more a matter of "Love Conquers All After Love Causes All The Problems."

Problems caused by Love are usually the worst sort.

So while both THE ORVILLE and LIGHTSHIP CHRONICLES have strong elements of STAR TREK (the Galaxy spanning canvass), lots of explosions, fireballs in space, daring rescues, etc., they are each designed specifically for their delivery medium.

As I have noted in the Theme-Conflict Series, The Orville is tissue thin drama, hammering on Teen Themes played out in Adult lives - a miss-match that annoys a lot of folks who grew up on Star Trek.

The Lightship Chronicles are dense drama, hammering home one of my favorite master themes, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Or put a more old fashioned way, "All is not as it seems."

The Orville is "on the nose" in theme and dialogue.

The Lightship Chronicles strives mightily to stay "off the nose" and only fails in action scenes.

The Orville is a stripped down, crystal clear (to adult viewers) depiction of a life of adventure working beside various Alien species -- comically recreating 21st Century social issues (such as prejudice against gelatinous beings as Chief of Engineering) -- a broad parody of current US culture for adults that seems plausible to the kids it is aimed at.

The Lightship Chronicles is a deep, complex depiction of interstellar trickery, betrayal, illusion, power-play strategies, firm alliances, trustworthy indivduals in a non-trustworthy bureaucracy. The substance is adult fare -- the writing craft inadvertently creates the Marty Sue effect referred to in my previous review of the Trilogy.

If I were 10 years old, reading this trilogy and watching The Orville (not acquainted with the previous decades works), I would be screaming for the depth and substance of the Lightship Chronicles done as the TV Series The Orville is done.

I wouldn't know as much about why I see it this way, or why it could never be this way.  So I would set out to make it this way.

The themes and conflicts that are possible on TV (even now that we have the episodic structure of series replacing the anthology structure Star Trek had to use) are expanding as the audiences become redefined.

The Orville is a major network, prime time, production aimed at the broadest and thus lowest common denominator -- what is called, in screen writing, High Concept. So it has to glue more eyeballs to the commercials than a novel.

A printed novel doesn't have to glue eyeballs to the page.  It has to induce individuals to part with a chunk of change, and that's it until the sequel is published.

These two different functions define the difference in content.

However, if you've been following my "changing world" posts,

...you know how enthusiastic I am about the expanding opportunities for video-production storytelling to reach small, but well defined audiences.  Streaming, and "originals" from Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Apple YouTube, and more jumping into the fray every year, provide platforms for works to reach a narrow audience in a cost-effective way.

That audience may have narrow tastes but it is scattered worldwide.  Netflix is distributing (and redistributing) worldwide. I watch non-USA produced TV Series on Netflix and Amazon (with subtitles in English!).  Many are more substantive than US TV fiction.

Long series with deep, complex themes are beginning to appear.
However, most of the deepest and most complex video drama series are running one or two seasons, not twenty years as is necessary for the real depths to emerge.

There is hope to see some of these complicated novel series with abstract IDEAS (science fiction is the literature of ideas, and must become the video of ideas very soon!) to reach small audiences via streaming-original productions.  Pilots for such series are now appearing as 90 minute movies, not labeled pilots.

Violent action, solving problems by killing people and destroying things still sells better than problem solving by understanding and love.

Soon those small streaming video audiences will be nurtured by additional offerings, and the numbers watching will grow to commercial success magnitudes.

Small is not a property of "streaming" as a delivery channel, but rather of the type of theme and which of all the conflicts inherent in that theme are deemed most popular.

Right now, the prevailing theme that The Orville (and The Lightship Chronicles) are bucking is, "Success = murder, theft, dishonesty, trickery"

The only way for a Hero to win is to break his/her code of Honor, and breaking that code makes the Hero righteous.

Dave Bara uses the novel structure to pose the question, "When, Why, and How must we destroy to survive?"  Many thematic questions of right and wrong -- and of Identity -- are posed by the material Bara is working.

The scene structure craft deficiency Bara displays leads to his Characters coming off as children (not very bright ones, at that).  So he generates every action scene by the orders of the one Character authorized to give orders being challenged, discussed, or suggestions being made DURING the action.  In real life, this behavior leads to the questioners dying very quickly, and the rest learning when to speak and when not to.

Scene structure and information feed skills we have discussed in these Tuesday posts would cure that quickly, and re-form this marvelous material into something that could translate to a TV Series.  I think it could be made into something that would draw a wide audience.

The strength of Bara's presentation lies in the Main Character having a trait of "Intuition" -- he just knows things that others don't.

On The Orville, the First Officer (ex-wife of the Captain) likewise has Intuition but focused more on reading people (of various species).

Yes, the oddball trait of knowing things others don't, things the Character can't possibly know but does, is one of the main ingredients in stories I love the most.

Bara's Main Character is right, bucks authority, acts on his own recognizance, and wins.  He's my guy.

It's clear why his subordinates don't take his orders without question.  But placing the questions during the action destroys the effectiveness of this trait.

Do an in-depth contrast/compare between Bara's Peter Cochran Character and:

A) Jean Johnson's Ia
B) Gini Koch's Kitty Kat

Both rise from lower ranks to Command Rank, just as Bara's Peter does -- for similar reasons, a lightening fast intuitive response to danger, and to knowing what others believe you cannot possibly know.

All of these action-science-fiction Characters, Ed Mercer of The Orville, Peter Cochran, Ia, Kitty Kat, have spouses and/or ex's, lovers, affairs, or prospects. They are complicated people with complex Relationships driving them.

This Character portrait was DISALLOWED in Action-genre in general and in Science Fiction in particular for many decades.

We take it for granted today -- but it is new, powerful, and the signature of a maturing audience that such Characters sell action stories.

There is hope for deep, broad, far-ranging thematic compositions to make it to the Big Screen theatrical release, or 20 year TV Series (TVs aren't so "small screen"ish anymore.

Check out the TV Series on Netflix, "Transporter" a 2012 spinoff made from a Movie Trilogy.  Big screen to small screen evolution.

It is a pure action premise (I could wish this guy could teleport; that would have made it more interesting to me).

And it follows the rules we've been talking about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transporter:_The_Series

-------quote------
Transporter: The Series (French: Le Transporteur : la série) is an English-language French-Canadian action television series, spin off from the Transporter film series created by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It was co-produced by the French Atlantique Productions and the Canadian boutique entertainment company QVF, Inc., and broadcast by M6, RTL Television, The Movie Network, and Movie Central. Originally, HBO and Cinemax were involved,[1] but they dropped out in 2013.[2]

The series follows the events and concept of the film trilogy, continuing the adventures of Frank Martin, a professional freelance courier driver for hire who will deliver anything, anywhere for the right price, and lives by three "unbreakable" rules, which he frequently breaks. Chris Vance takes over the role of Frank from Jason Statham and was joined in season 1 by Andrea Osvárt as his office manager Carla Valeri, Charly Hübner as mechanic Dieter Hausmann and François Berléand, the only returning actor from the film series, reprising his role as Inspector Tarconi.[3] The second season added Violante Placido as Caterina "Cat" Boldieu, his new booking agent. Unlike Carla, who did not make it to the second season, Cat usually joins Frank on his adventures.[4]

Twelve episodes were ordered in 2012 for the first season with an overall budget of US$40 million or €30 million.[1] The show premiered that year on 11 October in Germany on RTL, and on 6 December in France on M6. The Canadian premiere was on 4 January 2013 on HBO Canada and Super Écran 1 (with the first episode available online from 18 December 2012).[5] The series started broadcasting in India on 25 January 2013 on Sony PIX, and premiered in the United States on TNT on 18 October 2014. Twelve more episodes were ordered for season 2, which began production in Morocco in February 2014.[6] Season 2 premiered in Canada on 5 October 2014 on The Movie Network and Movie Central,[7] and in the United States on TNT on 29 November 2014.[8]

On November 26, 2015, it was announced that the series was cancelled and would not be renewed for a third season.[9]

------end quote-----

Read that whole article -- it is textbook for the future of Series Development.  Various countries, various production companies, various funding sources -- 3 movies and 2 seasons of TV episodes.

The series premise didn't even have teleportation and they couldn't sell it as a Gunsmoke, 20 year project.

The theme bundles contained within "Might Makes Right" are waning in popularity.  Questioning that theme, posing different problem solving strategies (e.g. "Love Conquers All") now has a chance of reaching a receptive audience -- an audience to be nurtured.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Watch Oz (or Ozzy)

Ozzy Osbourne is worth watching.

Legal blogger David H. Evans  for Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (USA) explains with highly readable dry wit that "Ozzy Osbourne is an Antitrust Plaintiff."

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f540eeef-f909-4006-935f-c696c4a0fdc3&utm_source=lexology+daily+newsfeed&utm_medium=html+email+-+body+-+general+section&utm_campaign=lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=lexology+daily+newsfeed+2018-03-28&utm_term=

IMHO, if Ozzy Osbourne proves that it is anti-trust for a creator to be obliged to play in (what that creator feels is) an undesirable venue in order to be allowed to play in (what that creator feels is) a desirable venue...would this have implications for creators in other categories of the Arts who wish to "play" in one arena, but not in another?

For instance, in an Amazon book store, but not in KU?

And from Down Under, Oz legal bloggers John Hannebery  and  Lachlan Sadler   for Davies Collison Cave explore the possibility that "You won't own copyright in photos taken with Google's new camera."

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6f7dd0d4-f44d-4d38-a0d4-04712e978956&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-03-28&utm_term=

Although the article is written for an Australian audience, the bloggers suggest that the "Clip" might have the most interesting consequences for American photographers.

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

Telepaths and Language

I've been reading the early books in the Honor Harrington series. The one I'm into now, ASHES OF VICTORY, includes a conversation about the possibility of teaching the intelligent, telepathic treecats American Sign Language so they can communicate with humans. (A few have empathically bonded with human partners, as in the link between Honor and her treecat, Nimitz, but even so the content consists of emotions and impressions, not language.) One of the greatest difficulties mentioned is that treecats, as a fully telepathic species, don't have a verbal language of their own.

This isn't the first place I've encountered the assumption that telepaths wouldn't develop language. (Those who "speak" freely with members of their own species mind-to-mind, that is, not touch-telepaths like Vulcans or others for whom mental communication depends on a personal bond.) But is that necessarily true? Granted, they wouldn't need to evolve language if they possess fully developed mental communication. Wouldn't they eventually have reason to invent it, though? Once a civilization becomes complex enough to require long-distance communication, it seems that a language composed of words or analogous symbols would be vitally needed. Furthermore, it's hard to imagine how a civilization could advance beyond a certain level without a means of recording information in a permanent form. Also, technology arises from science, and science needs mathematics. Math is a language of a sort. So by the time we made first contact with a society of telepathic aliens, it seems they would probably have a concept of language in some form; they would therefore be open to the concept that we "handicapped" mind-deaf Earthlings need that kind of medium to share information.

The dragon character in Heinlein's BETWEEN PLANETS belongs to a species whose vocal apparatus can't produce the sounds of human languages. He wears an electronic device that translates his speech into English. Something like that might work for telepaths. If their culture is advanced enough to have invented math, they should be able to understand the purpose of a device that shapes thoughts into audible or visual code.

In one STAR TREK episode, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy get captured by highly advanced aliens (again!) and meet a young woman who's empathic and mute. Her innate lack of speech suggests that her species communicates solely through mental channels. We can't tell whether she understands the human characters' thoughts or simply feels their pain.

What do you think? How hard would it be for a telepathic species to grasp the concept of words and syntax, then learn to use them for communication?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Theme-Conflict Integration Part 4 Battle of The Orville TV Series

Theme-Conflict Integration

Part 4

Battle of The Orville TV Series

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Previous Parts in Theme-Conflict Integration are:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/08/theme-conflict-integration-part-1.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/05/theme-conflict-integration-part-2.html

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/03/theme-conflict-integration-part-3.html

Now in Part 4, let's look at how to use the theoretical (thematic or philosophical) ideas sketched in Part 3 where we looked at how humans develop to maturity, what part fiction plays in that process, and how the attention of humans focuses on different "conflicts" as the human grows to maturity.

To each epoch of an individual human's life belongs a specific bundle of thematic concepts.  The fiction writer, in choosing how to present a story (not what story to tell, but how to structure and present the story), builds into the presentation structure an appeal to a specific age group.

The older we get, the more different age-related conflicts we understand and appreciate.  That appreciation of childhood and teen-hood conflicts re-ignites in a human raising children.  We come to once again see the world with a child-like (not child-ish) sense of wonder. Everything is new again.

Aliens who don't "raise" or nurture their own children might turn out very differently.  By studying humans (and your target readership), you can design Aliens who engage and challenge the age group (or maturity stage) of your target readership.

So keep in mind that the point of this blog is to create "Aliens" who have something to "say" (theme) to humans (your readers) who are living through a "stage" of life (conflict).  

We have a wonder-inspiring example of how to write for modern Teens in the TV Series, The Orville.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5691552/reference

I suspect the people who dislike The Orville had heard it was a Star Trek inspired show and expected it to appeal to those who are now two generations away from ST:ToS.

The Orville seems to me to be designed to appeal to bright 7 year olds, or well educated 12 year olds.  It might seem a little "thin" to 19 year olds.  

The Conflicts are about external threats which do not derive from the spiritual and psychological issues of the main characters -- or they put the main characters (Bridge and Engineering crew) into a predicament that would make a teen squirm.  

Many of these squirm-worthy predicaments are taken right out of psychological textbooks on Teens. Most involve some ignominy or loss of dignity.

Seeing adults lose dignity absolutely thrills 7 year olds.

A mature human attains a level of dignity which can't be reduced by external situations because it arises from within, but that kind of dignity is imperceptible and utterly alien to Teens.  They've never experienced it, so it does not exist.  Hence bathroom humor, or the embarrassment of being thrown into a physical embrace and being seen by others who take it as sexual.

Sex is absolutely the most embarrassing thing to a Teen.

If it still embarrasses you at 30 or 40, you know there's a Child Within You who has not attained maturity. Likewise bathroom humor is funny only to the immature.  Just because you've survived a few decades, don't think you are completely mature.

One vital ingredient in Romance is that Child Within who relishes new experiences, and everything (even dull routine) seems new and exciting.  Romance happens at any age, and always taps into that level of the virgin, the beginner, the First Time Experience.

At any age, we can recaptitulate our Teens.

It is astonishing when it happens.  "I'm a kid again!"

As noted in Part 3, the Teens are the epoch of mastering social interactions, learning how to meet people, how to explain who you are and why you are important to the stranger. 

Identity is a discovery of the Teen years.

A Teen held back from enlarging a circle of associations will still be "Finding Himself" in his twenties.  

Or perhaps never "find himself" and know his own Identity -- usually, if that happens, then getting married plunges a guy into a new level of maturity.  Possibly that won't happen until the first child is born.  In many cases, your children are you Identity.  

If you were your parent's Identity, you will carry a different Conflict and Agenda through life.

So, examining The Orville for clues to the Target Audience, we see (as with ST:ToS) a wild mixture of purely adult ingredients (offhand references to Literature, or old movies, 20th century emblems older people would be familiar with) and plot-sequences designed specifically for today's Teens.

In one episode, The Orville came to a planet where everyone looked human (but had no connection to Earth) and the entire look-and-feel of a city street, or food shops, and laws and customs where exact clones of 20th Century Earth (North America specifically).

However, for today's Teens these similarities are invisible - they weren't there; they don't know except from old movies.  It was an Alien World to one Target audience (the 7-15 year olds) and A Big Rollicking Ripoff to their parents. 

On this non-Human 20th Century Earth planet, people wore triangular badges, with one triangle up the other pointing down.  Up meant "like" and down meant "dislike" -- to register a "like" or "dislike" people would touch your badge, and a central computer tallied your score (yes, Facebook).  Individuals who collected too much disapproval were put on trial, forced to explain themselves publically (remember Teen Embarrassment and Thirst For Approval).  If the public voted them down, they could be subject to a mind-correction.

THEME: there's something wrong with you if you aren't popular, and that something must be corrected or it is a threat to everyone.  Popularity = Truth

The Orville is designed to be a comedy, and pulls it off without being condescending or crass. The airing of the triangles episode coincided with some publicity money going into trying to convince parents that screen time is unhealthy.

The Ripped From The Headlines element in this THEME is a commentary, a statement, that "It's Wrong To Seek Popular Approval."  

The Headlines were all about how it is up to parents to keep phones from kids because the ONLY USE FOR A PHONE that a kid will have is to SEEK APPROVAL.  

In other words, the seeking of approval is so WRONG a thing for kids to do that were it not for access to Facebook via phone, kids would not seek approval.

The satire element of depicting an entire civilization (of presumably adult people) based on amassing popularity is the kind of "exaggeration" you learn to do when studying comedic writing.  

The second to the last episode in the First Season of The Orville is also aimed at 7 year olds with a sprinkling of material that would prompt adults to watch with their children.  

You know this is a 7 year-old's episode because it is all about "What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up."  

Here, The Captain learns he only got the job of Captaining The Orville because his ex-wife used her connections to push him ahead for the job.

At first he reacts with resentment, and then tumbling self-confidence.  That's how a 10 year old might react, not the mature man he's supposed to be.  After some scenes, and a test-of-courage and ability to call the shots, he apologizes for not simply saying Thank You instead of picking a quarrel with his Ex (who is his First Officer).

Children love watching adults behave as children.  

The episode is thematically tight, very well written, but painfully childish and thin at the conceptual core.  The Theme is born out in the B-Story of the helmsman who is discovered (as a result of playing a practical joke on the green blob character) to have a keen intelligence and an exemplary academic achievement in Engineering.

In a 7 year old's world, it seems plausible that the Captain and First Officer would both have neglected to read the Service Records of those assigned to their ship.

In a 40-year old's world, neglecting duty like that evokes pure contempt, and then disbelief that this Character is actually a Captain.  An Ensign would have done better.

The issue was who would replace the Chief Engineer -- this helmsman has the knowledge, but no evidence he is Command material.  He also showed no ambition.

At the end, there's a scene (this is tight writing) -- one single scene where the Captain has passed the test he set for himself, to prove himself to himself, and is sitting beside the helmsman, asking point blank why he never showed people how smart he is.

Remember, the connecting tissue of this Theme-bundle is "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  And the CONFLICT: "Do I dare be me?"  

The Captain had ambition, but loses self confidence.

The Helmsman repressed his ambition because where he grew up, popular approval was withdrawn if you were smarter than everyone else.  Intelligence is cause for disapproval.

The Teen years, as I noted in Part 3, are all about forming associations, finding where you fit in by finding yourself, creating an Identity to show others.

The Captain's and the Helmsman's career choices and bids for external approval connect these two episodes thematically.  

These are adults serving in High Risk professions, at or near the top of their career tracks, with the emotional maturity of 7 year olds and the self-knowledge of maybe a 15 year old.

In reality, such people would not be in charge of anything, least of all a well armed ship.

But to get the thematic points across to children, the writer has used what Save The Cat! terms "On The Nose Dialogue."  It is especially noticeable in the scene where the Captain asks the Helmsman point blank why he hides his intelligence, and the answer is point blank.  That brief exchange neatly states the Theme (gorgeous writing craft), but both utterances are "On The Nose" -- saying what you mean in so many words (not good writing).

How to avoid on-the-nose dialog is another topic, but in brief it is done with show-don't-tell, inference, and symbolism, as well as Theme-Plot Integration.  You bait the audience into figuring it out for themselves - you don't tell them.

In summation, The Orville is a good laugh wrapped in a sardonic depiction of childish (not child-like) adults.  It says to all our current 10 year olds that they don't have to grow up in order to "be successful."  

The acting may lag a bit, but much of the TV writing is brilliant, well worth studying because it is "thin" enough, transparent enough, that beginning writers can see the gears (if you've read the SAVE THE CAT! series).  The overall production and appearance is award quality as it uses the cheap, flat look as a feature not a bug.

If these characters mature in Second Season to emerge as actual adults, this could be a landmark Series leading another generation to study and invent space travel and colonization.

Note the production was created and written by the same person who acts the Starring Role: Seth MacFarlane is the brilliant, adult, genius behind this Kids-R-Us series.

Overall, the first season is a love letter to Star Trek by an infatuated teen.  As a Romance writer, always remember Teens are your core readership and Teens have more disposable income than their parents do as well as a more pronounced tendency toward impulse buying.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Leaking Clouds, Dark Days, Do Not Track... My Underwear

When marketing a novel, the received wisdom is -or used to be- that a reader must see the cover/title/author name at least seven times (presumably in a positive context) before that reader is inclined to purchase the book. Does it still work that way? Maybe. The ad-funded internet giants would like authors and publishers to believe that paid advertising works.

When marketing a song, the vinyl model was that it was worth giving radio stations one's blessing to play the song, because the more a song was heard, the more likely it was that a listener would like it, and the more a listener liked it, the more likely they were to buy the vinyl.

The internet is funded by advertising. Perhaps the biggest question is, who pays? (Quis solvit.)

For Crowell & Moring LLP,  legal blogger  Christopher A. Cole asks "Is the Cambridge Analytic Scandal a Watershed moment for the Ad-Funded Internet?

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f81ed65e-14d4-4c3b-8a8e-509726507d88&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-03-30&utm_term=

The legal blog article mentions the use of blackmail and dirty tricks to influence elections, and also the use of information scraped from Facebook "friends" for the purpose of psychological manipulation.

There's a lot of passive blackmail and extortion on the internet, anyway, and deleting social media accounts is not a viable solution. Public figures and would-be public figures are obliged to join social media sites to protect their own names and identities. We writers probably all know of someone who had to become "thereal...." because his or her real name or pen name had already been taken by someone else.

That does not mean that one has to give these sites one's true birthdate (as long as one can remember the lie), or be bullied into giving answers to their questions. Remember, the more you reveal online about cousins' names and memorable streets where you have lived, and school names, and youthful crushes, the less choice you have when filling out those banking secret questions/answers that have to be changed every few years.

Moreover, ages are not private. In "A Dark Day For Hollywood..." legal blogger Tony Oncidi for the law firm Proskauer Rose LLP reveals the gob-smacking truth that a Californian law prohibiting online commercial sites' publishing of Hollywood actors' ages is unconstitutional.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7aad561a-cbc6-4723-825b-4fddc6cef270

Apparently, it's a free speech issue. If a commercial site wants to sell true information about how old you are, even if you object, they may do so.

For the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, legal bloggers John F. Delaney and Aaron P. Rubin reveal that over the first half of 2017, Facebook received almost 33,000 requests from law enforcement for user "data" and 57% of those "requests" forbade Facebook to notify the users that their information had been requested by the authorities.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=03dbdcc2-2c7b-4616-ba91-49e6482462a6

Coming back to Christopher A. Cole, he suggests that advertisers who buy into "data analytics" to target their pitches will need to pay attention to the sources of the "data".

"Data", by the way, comes from the Latin "dare" (to give), and its singular "datum" used to mean "that which is given".  How ironic! (I shall now go back and edit to add a plethora of "give" words.)

I cannot help wondering if everyone is missing the woods for the trees. By what metric do the purchasers of advertising know if their advertising budget is well spent? Clicks, perhaps?

If advertising is the problem, it is helpful to know how pay per click (PPC) works.
https://farotech.com/blog/how-does-ppc-work-a-beginners-guide-to-pay-per-click/

Christopher Carr of Farotech tells us that 64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online.

Why buy online? Oh, yes, it is convenient. Instead of a check out clerk knowing that you buy (insert most embarrassing product) ... you'd rather risk all the internet and the Dark Web too knowing your buying habits, and embarrassing afflictions, and monetizing the knowledge.

But, if you want to buy online, why not do the research, clear your cookies and cache, and go directly to the website without clicking a Google ad link?

Perhaps the problem is not the ability to buy online, or the convenience of clicking through. It's the aggregators' interest in TARGETING the advertisements. Even that probably does not serve the purchaser of the advertising or the recipient of the advertising. If I bought a houseful of perfectly fragrant and safe, 30-year guaranteed hardwood flooring three weeks ago, how likely is it that I want to replace my new flooring with more of the same this week?

As a Romance writer, what am I supposed to think about the advertising executives at a brassiere-selling business if they seem to expect me to rip my bodices and need replacement underwear every single day?

Which brings me to Under Armour. They've been hacked. According to Lifelock, (2 days after Wired,  Fox and NBC broke the story) approximately 150 million social exercisers using the MyFitness Pal app need to change their passwords immediately.

Another tip:
Don't let your computer or your ISP or the "cloud" store your passwords for you.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/252437297/Firefox-bug-exposes-passwords-to-brute-force-for-nine-years
By Peter Loshin

IMHO, permissionless "targeting" is akin to stalking. The most elegant legislative solution would be to give legal standing and force to a Do Not Track request. Right now, too many sites ignore a "Do Not Track" setting and install tracking cookies regardless.

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

Robot Children, Puppies, and Fish

The March issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN contains a new article on improving AI by developing robots that learn like children. Unfortunately, non-subscribers can't read the full article online, only a teaser:

Robots Learning Like Children

As we know, computer brains perform very well at many tasks that are hard for human beings, such as rapid math calculations and games such as chess and Go—systems with a finite number of clearly defined rules. Human children, by contrast, learn "by exploring their surroundings and experimenting with movement and speech." For a robot to learn that way, it has to be able to interact with its environment physically and process sensory input. Roboticists have discovered that both children and robots learn better when new information is consistently linked with particular physical actions. "Our brains are constantly trying to predict the future—and updating their expectations to match reality." A fulfilled prediction provides a reward in itself, and toddlers actively pursue objects and situations that allow them to make and test predictions. To simulate this phenomenon in artificial intelligence, researchers have programmed robots to maximize accurate predictions. The "motivation to reduce prediction errors" can even impel androids to be "helpful" by completing tasks at which human experimenters "fail." A puppy-like machine called the Sony AIBO learned to do such things as grasp objects and interact with other robots without being programmed for those specific tasks. The general goal "to autonomously seek out tasks with the greatest potential for learning" spontaneously produced those results. Now, that sounds like what we'd call learning!

On a much simpler level, MIT has developed a robotic fish that can swim among real sea creatures without disturbing them, for more efficient observation. This device operates by remote control:

Soft Robotic Fish

The Soft Robotic Fish (SoFi) doesn't really fit my idea of a robot. To me, a true robot moves on its own and makes decisions, like the learning-enabled AI brains described above—or at least performs choices that simulate the decision-making process. The inventors of SoFi, however, hope to create a future version that would be self-guiding by means of machine vision. Still, an artificial fish programmed to home in on and follow an individual live fish is a far cry from robots that learn new information and tasks by proactively exploring their environments.

Can the latter eventually develop minds like ours? The consensus seems to be that we're nowhere near understanding the human mind well enough to approach that goal. In view of the observed fact that "caregivers are crucial to children's development," one researcher quoted in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN article maintains that a robot might be able to become "truly humanlike" only "if somebody can take care of a robot like a child." There's a story here, which has doubtless already been written more than once; an example might be the film A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, which portrays a tragic outcome for the android child, programmed to love its/his "parents" but rejected when the biological son returns to the family.

One episode of SESAME STREET defined a living animal or person as a creature that moves, eats, and grows. Most robots can certainly move on their own. Battery-operated robots can be programmed to seek electrical outlets and recharge themselves, analogous to taking nourishment. Learning equals growth, in a sense. Is a machine capable of those functions "alive"?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Theme-Conflict Integration Part 3 Battle of the Generations

Theme-Conflict Integration

Part 3

Battle of the Generations

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Previous parts in this series:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/08/theme-conflict-integration-part-1.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/05/theme-conflict-integration-part-2.html

In addition we talked about the depiction of complex battle scenes in a galactic civilization consisting of various Aliens, one species of which was messing around with their own genetics, then applying what they knew to other species.  That is Chuck Gannon's work and it is discussed here:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/06/depiction-part-11-depicting-complex.html --

Chuck Gannon's space battles are emblematic of domestic disputes.

My Tuesday blog entries are about writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (Paranormal etc) ROMANCE.  We focus on relationship driven plots where the core conflict occurs because of a Romantic entanglement.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/10/index-to-targeting-readership-series-by.html

We have mulled over what exactly constitutes "romance" -- what do we mean by that word?

I use the definition that "romance" is a higher state of conscious awareness of another person - a Soul hidden inside a body - and because that perception is not available to all humans at all times, it always seems the one "in love" is "crazy" because they are operating on information not available to others.  Astrologically, this is a state of consciousness induced by transits (or natal positions) of Neptune.

That perceptual mis-match is the core of what drives every science fiction story I love.  It is the core of HARRY POTTER - he can do things others can't, so he learns and acts on things others don't credit.

These kinds of stories are the essence of Romance - the one-eyed in the land of the blind.  Perception.

It is a sort of "cognitive dissonance" which is part intellectual (Mercury) and part spiritual (Neptune) often driven by extreme situations (Pluto) such as war, massive loss to flood, famine, misfortune.

The main survival trait of humanity as a species is LOVE, which is one component of Romance but not always the dominant one.  Sometimes Romance leads you astray.  Sometimes it leads to a path you would avoid at all costs, but which your soul desperately needs.

Romance, the "vision" of the impossible, the "what if.." and "if only .." and "if this goes on ..." of science fiction, is the main focus of the human adult in formation, the TEEN.

That is why science fiction first gained popularity among teens -- the conceptual essence of a science fiction story is the impossible made real.

That vision of the impossible made real is the essence of human progress in civilization on this planet -- and our ability to build civilizations and survive their collapse.

It will drive us to colonize space, and other planets, and survive the collapse and ruin of this planet (or the explosion of our star).

We find this vision of the impossible made real in teens.

It bursts into consciousness with sexual maturity, and ripens by age 30 (first Saturn Return), then the 40-somethings become dictators of what is real and true, while new teens burst out of those confines of stodgy, wrong-headed thought.

This is a cycle within generations, and also among generations -- it runs about 4 generations, 80 years, and has been known by many names over thousands of years and many civilizations (most unrecorded pre-history civilizations or even hunter-gatherer societies),.

Writers of science fiction romance, looking to target an audience, should take the age-cycled characteristics of fiction appetite into account.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/10/index-to-targeting-readership-series-by.html

And here is a key post explaining how to create a family argument among generations, as well as how to target specific age-groups with fiction themes that tickle their sensibilities.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/10/astrology-just-for-writers-pt-6.html

Here is the Index to posts about Astrology.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/03/pausing-for-you-to-catch-up-with-me_30.html

Now, Pluto is the drama behind the Theme-Conflict Integration -- the show-don't-tell.  You can SHOW Pluto driven events - they are larger than life, soap opera sequences of "the worst thing that could happen to this character."

People deride soap opera simply because it's unbelievable that so many huge disasters could happen to this small group of people.  But the truth is, families are composed of people with Astrological Natal Chart features that are in relation to each other - so when Pluto transits one person's sensitive point, it simulataneously hits the others in the family.

But each age group in a family react to the stimulus of Pluto differently because of experience.  To a Teen, it is a life-ending disaster, to a parent it is a frustrating setback, but to the grandparent it is your just comeuppance.

To the Teen, an event (such as the family has to move for employment) is the first time ripping events have destroyed expectations.  The teen is a virgin to high-impact Pluto transits.

The princess and the pea story illustrates this.

Likewise, to the Teen a major Neptune transit opens a whole new perception of reality, and it is the end of the world when the elders in the family joke fatuously about "puppy love" and older siblings tease.

Older Humans (not maybe your aliens?) regard the way Teens experience reality as a false view of reality.

That happens because, over decades, humans learn how wrong they were (via divorce, being fired from a dream job, flunking out of favorite major) when they assessed life through the distorting lens of Neptune.

Some Souls can translate Neptune data into useful information.  Most can't.

Two ways you find out which type of Soul you have is to
a) act on what you think Neptune is telling you -- and see what happens years later.
b) read lots and lots of fiction, especially science fiction and/or Romance.

Marriages leading to divorce are like that.  Raising a kid you thought would be one thing who turns out to think he is another thing, likewise contains a Neptune (illusion, idealization) message.  Soap opera stories are good cautionary tales.

Fiction is the main source for Teens, but today that does not necessarily mean novels, stories, movies, games, and other "published" professional fiction.

Today's teens are imbibing "fiction" via "social networking.

People depict their real life in a fictional way on social media, creating an illusion.  The most skilled social media teens can tell the truth and make it seem better or worse than reality.

The less skilled copy them, but don't cast the illusion well, or it doesn't come out as planned.

Teens are teens.  With hormones roaring to life, and no experience to guide actions, they have only the proto-type of an ability to understand what they are seeing via the lens of Neptune or Pluto.

However, all humans (even teens) are individuals, and react to what they perceive in idiosyncratic ways.  Many are born with the Soul level skills to perceive through the lens of Neptune, Pluto (even Uranus), with piercing accuracy their parents do not have.

Humanity as a species is designed with this generational cycle.

See the part near the end of this post:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/10/astrology-just-for-writers-pt-6.html

where I list where Pluto is during which decades.

Where Pluto is in the natal chart is fixed to a sign by generation, but for each individual is in a different House with different aspects to the faster, inner Planets.
The pattern is unique to each individual, but powerfully similar to members born in a particular span of years.

A third variable is age.

The human species has certain age-specific body functions, and thus very specific epochs in life - lessons on the table before you because of your age.

The first ten years are the dawning of consciousness.  According to one model, the Soul "descends" into the body in stages, a year at a time and by 12 or 13 is ready to begin learning life's lessons.

How do your Aliens mature?  Gradually?  Suddenly?

Humans stumble into sexual maturity with legendary ineptitude, in growth spurts.

But one thing the Teen years always bring is the business of enlarging and cementing Relationships.

The child's world is the parents, siblings, cousins maybe, and the home environment.  The Teen's world is the surrounding village, maybe people from other villages.  The adult's world include's the King's Castle, the tax collectors, and the conscripting soldiers.

Today, the conscripting soldiers have invaded the nursery.

That is the changing world in which the current crop of teens (born in 2005) are adapting.

We have brain studies showing how experience changes the way our genes "express" and how our brains develop different synapse patterns according to different stimuli,

That is why kids could program VCRs that mystified adults.

That is why the current crop of teens really need phones and Facebook.

The teen years mold the brain and body, and create the network of support groups (and the ability to join and/or leave a support group or clique).

The business of the teen years, the vital and profitable activity of teens, is reaching out to the "village" and working with, learning to know and appreciate, people of different ages, interests, skills, and talents.

The teens are called the formative years, and referred to later as "I grew up here among them" -- the social connections are important not for who is connected to whom, but for the ability to form connections.

Humans need the ability to form connections (not just friendships or romance but all sorts of connections) and to break or out-grow those connections.

The teens are the time when the brain learns connecting, but to learn that, there has to be practice, real-world application.

It used to be that Parents knew every other family in the village and chose who their children could associate with.

An adult raised that way would not be successful in today's world on Earth.

I suspect the interstellar consortium of former Earth colonies would likewise not favor adults whose teens were spent knowing only a very few other humans.

Today's teens need to develop synapses of no use (or even perhaps toxic) to their Parent's generation.

That need arises from the world the current Teen's grandparents built.

These Teens' business is to develop a perception level, an intuition, that will allow them to select out the FEW THOUSAND other humans who are worthy and useful associates.

Watch the structure of LinkedIn grow.

Watch the toxic robot-repeated messages flood outwards on whatever topic Big Bucks are funding (via Press Releases etc).

Teens will be hurt - many will die, becoming examples to their peers of what not to do.  Teens will sort out, churning some to prominence and others to obscurity.  Teens will learn that the prominent are not the powerful, not the decision makers whose judgement prevails and creates a new world.

Teens always set out in life to change the world they were born into.  That is their business in their teens.

In their twenties, their business becomes finding "The One" partner for life, and then having kids, supporting kids, and so on -- should you survive all that, then comes grandchildren.

But as soon as the human leaves the Teen years behind, the disapproval of whatever the new crop of Teens are doing sets in.

Some twenty-somethings cling to the latest Teen jargon, others discard it like dirt.

The Thirty-somethings who have Teen children try to beat "teen-ness" out of their children - deny them cell phones or the toxic social networks, keep their Teens from making the same mistakes they did.

That's what Parents do -- prevent children from making mistakes.

But what if the children are correct and the parents wrong?

That "what-if" is the essence of Science Fiction -- the dream (Neptune) that "I know better than those who have power over me."  It's Harry Potter.

The only way today's crop of Teens being driven to suicide by cyber-bullying (or doing the cyber-bullying or hacking and stealing, or sabotaging other kids) will learn to handle the social networking world, develop brain synapses their parents do not have and can not understand, and be correct in their judgement calls, is to wander the Web and get into trouble.

Getting into trouble and being rescued is what children do.

Getting into trouble and rescuing yourself is what adults do.

How do you get to be an adult if you've never been a child?

Today's readership is freaked out by children getting "wet" on Facebook because the social networking tools appeared after these parents were teens.  These parents do not know how to rescue kids from cyberbullies.

The only remedy they know is to cut off acccess to the Web.  But "the Web" is the village these Teens must reach out to, embrace, and master.

This speed of change in society has never happened to humans before.

"Unprecedented, Captain" is Spock's response to the unknown.

Most humans do not welcome encounters with the unknown.  Fear paralyzes then causes aggressive strikes against what might be a threat -- long before real analysis can be completed.

In today's world of social networking, analysis will lag change by years - enough years to bring up a new crop of Teens.

The fact of social change is not a problem to humans (but might be to Aliens, thus Star Trek's Prime Directive).  The problem for humans now comes from (as Toffler indicated) the accelerating speed of change.

Parents can't rescue and train children because the parents have no experience of what the children are adapting to.

Adaptation has always been humanity's main survival trait.

Our Teens can adapt to this new and changing world -- forty-somethings are already losing the flexibility of youth.

So, the Battle of the Generations is built into our DNA.

Pliability, and the ability to create new brain configurations to deal with new kinds of threats, is the main characteristic of the human Teen.

Stability, strength, Will Power is the main characteristic of forty-somethings.

These two characteristics might make Humanity (Earthlings) a fearsome, creeping horror threat to the Aliens out there in the Galaxy who do not have such short generations (anymore).

Or, perhaps your Aliens may retain that Teen ability to form new Relationships well into age?

The perpetual Teens would have an inexorable thirst for novelty (as do our Teens).

Now, suppose humanity is now about to meet up with Aliens from out in the Galaxy. Suppose we opt to prevent all our Teens from experiencing raw social networking because of cyberbullying and suicide triggers.  We might end up without any thirty-somethings who are capable of forming Relationships with those Aliens, taking as good a beating as the Aliens can dish out, and come back swinging.

Our thirty-somethings who didn't grow up in the brutal world of social networking wouldn't be able to keep interstellar war from destroying Earth.

Or maybe, there would be no Alien Romance to create an epoch of peace and plenty on Earth?

Humanity's survival might depend on our willingness and ability to inflict brutality beyond measure upon our own.

The greatest brutality might be the natural, inevitable, built-in human tendency to "protect" our children from adventuring into a wider social world than they have been trained to navigate?

Maybe we need to train our 5 year olds to navigate hostile social territory -- and thereby create friendly territory (cliques?).

High school and college are the realm of cliques.  Should we expunge clique-formation?

If Aliens infiltrate Earth societies, would be force change on these social tendencies to form safe-associations (cliques) that turn on the loner, and bully them to death?

Or would the Aliens swoop in and rescue the targets of our bully-cliques?  Take them far away and raise them through their Teens with magic skills?

The business, purpose of existence, of the human Teen years is the forming of wider social circles (search for a mate) and forming solid Relationships with absolute strangers from alien backgrounds.

Would you let your bullied Teen be adopted by Aliens and taken away for 15 years?

Do you think that kid would ever come "home" voluntarily?

If the Teen years pass in isolation from other Teens, what sort of Adult results?

Human parents have always acculturated their Teens to the world the parents grew up in.  The difference today is that this natural process denudes the new adult of the skills needed to "make a living" and find a mate, make a home, raise children.

THEME: humans need other humans, Relationships and love to survive as humans.

CONFLICT: parents must keep their children from associating with other humans with the power to harm.

The generations have always been at odds, but never quite like this, at the survival level.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

ICFA Report

The weather for the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (see http://www.iafa.org for details about the organization and the conference) was sunny all weekend. The temperatures on Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday, though, were almost chilly for Florida in March. Much nicer than home (Maryland), anyway! We got lovely days in the 70s and 80s from Friday afternoon on. With the theme of the bicentennial of FRANKENSTEIN, the main guest of honor was John Kessel, author of PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS, in which Mary, the bookish younger sister in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, meets Victor Frankenstein and his creature. I love a good crossover story, so this was one of my favorite recently published novels. Author guest of honor was Nike Sulway, whose luncheon talk on Thursday included her personal experience of first reading FRANKENSTEIN as a teenager in a shelter; her award-winning story "The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club" can be read on the LIGHTSPEED magazine website. The guest scholar was Gothic specialist Fred Botting.

Author Andy Duncan introduced John Kessel's Thursday night speech. Duncan offered the most entertaining and accurate capsule description of this con I've heard: "A science fiction convention with better food, and MLA for happy people." John Kessel spoke about the ethics and aesthetics of adapting preexisting stories and characters in one's own fiction. On one level, this activity is the essence of fanfic. On the literary side, this kind of adaptation has been termed "critical fiction," implying the re-use of elements from earlier works to expand on, interrogate, and critique them. Kessel quoted some critics who condemn this practice as, among other derogatory labels, "laziness." (Really? Shakespeare, almost all of whose plays were derived from earlier works, was simply "lazy"?) Kessel drew the sound conclusion that all writers inevitably build upon the works of their predecessors. Furthermore, the high value the modern era places on "originality" (in the sense of inventing one's own content) is a very recent notion, unknown to antiquity, the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance.

The Lord Ruthven Assembly, our vampire and revenant division, had its usual Friday night meeting. After the business portion, we screened ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, with popcorn. I'd seen it only once before and didn't remember much about it, so I had lots of fun watching it again. The movie drew pretty good attendance despite playing opposite the guest of honor readings. This mash-up of Dracula (Bela Lugosi himself), the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster contains some surprisingly clever humor as well as the slapstick. If you've never seen it, check it out.

Some sessions I especially enjoyed: The current state of weird fiction. The brave new world of publishing, with discussion of alternative publishing routes and tips on promotion. A "round table" with Theodora Goss on her THE STRANGE CASE OF THE ALCHEMIST'S DAUGHTER, another of my favorite recent novels; this crossover brings together daughters (biological or created) of famous nineteenth-century mad scientists—Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, Hawthorne's Rappaccini, Dr. Moreau—and a mystery for Sherlock Holmes. I was delighted to learn that there will be not only a sequel this July, set mainly in eastern Europe and introducing the daughter of Van Helsing, but a third book next year to conclude the series. Scientist Geoffrey A. Landis presented a slide show titled "To See the Universe Unseen," with enthralling images of the microcosm and macrocosm as viewed through microscopes and telescopes, phenomena invisible to the unaided human eye. He intriguingly declared, "The history of science is the history of instruments."

The weekend always concludes with the Saturday night awards banquet. The Lord Ruthven Assembly awards recognized THE COMPLETE SOOKIE STACKHOUSE STORIES by Charlaine Harris (fiction), VAMPIRE FILMS OF THE 1970s by Gary A. Smith (nonfiction), and MIDNIGHT, TEXAS, Season One (other media), with a special award for POWERS OF DARKNESS: THE LOST VERSION OF DRACULA, a translation of the early-20th-century Icelandic version (very different from Stoker's original) into English with critical essays and footnotes. I came home with the customary free books (given away at the luncheons and banquet) and inspiring thoughts about the realm of speculative fiction.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Business Model of Writers In A Changing World Part 3 - Choosing A Computer for Novel Writing

Business Model of Writers In A Changing World
Part 3

Choosing A Computer for Novel Writing

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg 

Previous Parts to the Business Model of Writers series are:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/01/business-model-of-writers-in-changing.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/03/business-model-of-writers-in-changing.html

Most computer salesmen will give bad advice about which computer, and which configuration you need for writing novels.

Most computer salesmen have never written a novel, and those who have did not sell their novel to a major publisher, have it go from hardcover to paperback, to re-issue to audiobook, to self-published version, and back to sales by a reputable publisher, and on to a videogame.

Most computer salesmen (and women, you know) have no clue at all what is involved in a career in "the arts." 

Most computer salespersons are convinced they work long hours for little reward.  Which is, in fact, true, but reveals a clueless state.

Even middle-good selling books do not make more than minimum wage for the writer.  In today's changing world where minimum wage is increasing, the purchasing power of the dollar (or whatever currency you get paid in) is decreasing faster than minimum wage is increasing, the writer's initial compensation (advance against royalties) is not increasing.

However, the demands in writer's working time and price of acceptable equipment to output text to a publisher, is increasing.

Although computers make rewriting take far less than a third of the time it took when you had to re-type every page over and over (often 5 drafts), it still takes time to create and polish the words that tell your story.

The price of paperback books has increased while the percent of cover price paid to the writer has stayed pretty much stationary.  So yes, writers get a little more per book sold.  And writers get a larger percent per e-book sold.  However, the number of titles published per year (in all forms) has increased.  Nobody reads everything in a given field anymore (least of all in Romance, or Science Fiction Romance).

Books compete with Netflix and other streaming sources for the entertainment-hour (and buck) -- there are more readers but they are more selective, and tend to prioritize FREE e-books (Kindle etc.) or the 99C deals offered by writers, direct.

So the number of readers per title decreases as the number of books sold per year increases.  That means writer's compensation decreases -- you have to work harder, be more productive, and market agressively just to stay even.

Yes, the price of computing power has decreased, but a computer that can handle a writer doing a Series still costs a lot more than a manual typewriter cost in the 1950's in hours-worked. 

Inflation changes the number of dollars involved, but not the number of beads of sweat.

So how does a writer choose a computer to do "only word processing" in order to write books?

Most clerks understand "word processing" does not require much computer capacity, heft or memory.  They will sell you a student's laptop.

Yes, you can survive that career stage where all you can afford is a student version laptop, maybe a "refurbished" one.  Most successful writers today started on the equivalent of that. 

If you are forced to buy a minimal computer, you will have to pay extra for a cloud subscription such as Carbonite or Dropbox (I use both) or Apple's iCloud or Microsoft's.

We have learned not to trust the hardware on our desks as we trusted the stacks of paper boxes in our garages.  Yes, many writers have lost "everything" to a garage fire or flood. But it was rare.  If the books had been printed, there was a way to get fans to hunt for used copies, then copy-type the whole thing onto paper again (which has been done!).

Today, a paper copy is scanned and OCR'd, and you are good to go electronically, again.  All my older titles were made electronic that way -- by the unstinting efforts of a fan.

Those starting out today have to think long-term.  Don't think "write this novel" -- but "When the 14th Book in this series is published, how will I supply the previous ones to the new market which uses totally different software?" 

Paper was paper, and typewriter fonts were just typewriter fonts (Courier, that's it.)  But today writers work in a "changing world" as this series title suggests.

That is not a "changed world" but a "changing world." 

Plan on format inaccessibility, the need to spend time reformatting, finding software that can read the old stuff and create something the new stuff can read, then more time correcting typos and resisting the urge to rewrite.

In other words, a writer's career is punctuated with doing over again what has been completed and left behind forever.

There is no such thing as "finishing" a novel.

Once that idea has taken root in your vision of the future of your career, you are equiped to choose a computer to write your next novel with.

The choice has to arise from these considerations:

1) store clerks don't understand that novels must be rewritten and previous versions (5-10) kept, character and place notes kept, versions from various publishers reissuing kept, -- when you say "word processing" they think "term paper writing" at the most.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

2) you can't afford what you really need -- and very likely they don't make it yet.

3) In the commercial marketplace, there is a difference between equipment (from chainsaws and snowblowers to computers) made for "home use" and what is manufactured and sold to businesses.  Business machines cost a lot (more than a lot) more than stuff made for hobbyists, students, and grandma.  But they last longer -- long enough to make up for the price difference, and more.

4) there is no way to estimate what you will need during the useful life of a computer.  If your career takes off, you will wear your computer out long before its time, but be able to buy another.  That's fine if you've been paying for bakup in various "cloud" spaces.

5) if your career does not take off immediately, you must keep the ever-more-obsolete computer running because you can't invest more in equipment

6) the new tax law (for 2018) is supposed to let you deduct the cost of new equipment in the year you buy it -- problem is you can deduct it against what you earn that year, and publishers do not pay on time (they just don't - it is part of their business model.) 

7) the computer will die, just quit, eventually.  Home office equipment usually lasts 3-4 years (by design), and today the software field makes 4 year old programs too obsolete to use. 

So how do you make this decision of what to buy?

You want to avoid buying more than you need. 

You want to avoid buying less than you need (a career catastrophe caused by yourself). 

You can't afford what you need.

You have no clue what you need.

Nobody has a clue what you really need, least of all the experts in computers.

In other words, it's pretty much like buying a car or a house -- mission-critical but sans knowledge of what the mission is.

So what do you do? 

The truth is that you can't afford what you need because the profit margin your business model produces is not sufficient to cover the cost of producing the product.  This is true for all but the tiny percentage of writers who go to the top of the charts -- and even then, it usually doesn't last a lifetime.  Monetizing your hard work over decades takes preserving that hard work in a form that can be re-sold and re-issued.  This is not a problem specific to writing.  You find exactly the same business model problem in all "The Arts." 

I've been writing novels on computers since before there was such a thing as Microsoft Windows, or its predecessor "Presentation Manager."  And I've struggled (with massive help from fans) with re-issue issues on every title.

I learned my solution to this impenetrable conundrum of a problem from my first typewriter repairman.

I was just starting to try to sell short stories.  I went to a used typewriter store, asked for a machine to write books on, and bought a nice one.  I wore it out.  I went back and bought another, which I had to take back for repairs several times a year. Became buddies with the repairman in the back of the store.

A couple years into this routine, the guy hands me back my machine and asks, "What in the world are you DOING to these typewriters?" 

Blink.  Blink,blink. "But I told you, writing books."

6-8 hours a day, typing 80-100 words per minute, when copying text. 

THAT is what secretaries in big offices do, not what salesmen envision writers do. 

So he says, "What you really need is an IBM." And he pointed me to a monsterous gray hulk he had refurbished.  I bought it.  Wore it out a few times, had it repaired, bought another.  Eventually, I was able to afford the new IBM and an on-site service contract, but I wore that out, too.

Many years later, I saw a fellow -- a big hearted guy -- who had a chain saw in his garage. Came a big storm that downed trees on his street, so he went to help the neighborhood guys and electric company linemen chop trees and clear the roads.  His chain saw broke.  It was almost new, but it wore out.  He asked the linemen.  They said it looked the same as theirs on the outside but was made chintzy inside. 

So this marketing ploy is still in play.

What they sell mass-market to homeowners and students LOOKS the same on the outside, but inside it is different from what they sell to professionals.  This holds in every type of product line where I've tested it, including now, computers.

In this new, still changing, world, though, box-makers of computers expect businesses to have cloud backup, etc etc, and consider desktop equipment a "consumer staple" not an investment in infrastructure. 

Computers, even desktops, are like phones now -- 3-years and it breaks.  The limit is designed in. 

This year, I had a Dell business grade desktop break down, and it didn't quite make 10 years as the previous Dell Desktop I had went.  In fact, I gave away the old Dell Desktop still in working order after 10 years.  This one, an even higher top-of-the-line went after 8 years, or so.

So I am not recommending Dell business computers anymore.

Each time you have to buy a computer, look around for the business that puts the most wear and tear on the hardware in the least amount of time, and uses the most capacity.

Store clerks hear "word processing" and sell you the LEAST rugged, lowest capacity hardware they have in stock. 

But the truth is, writing FOR A LIVING is not the same as writing letters to family and an occasional student paper.

The "change" in the world that has forced a change in the writer's business model is the shift from typewriter (a 20 year investment) to computer (a 3 year consumable tool). 

What you need to find each time you must shop for office equipment is the MOST rugged, highest capacity, fastest, smartest, top of the line business office tool you can possibly get.

Once you've found what the "real" high-productivity, mission-critical businesses use, then be sure to get the version that has the biggest harddrive, the most memory, and the fastest processors.  Even if you must start your career with "refurbished" computers, pick the ones used in high-volume offices (not your Doctor's front desk).

What you are doing, as a novel writer, is more demanding of your equipment than what the worker-bees in office cubicles do.  It more closely resembles what Gamers do, or perhaps what Videogame Producers and animators do.

Look at the equipment used by Hollywood post-production companies -- that is the equipment that can stand up under the pounding it takes to produce a novel.

But even so, you still need cloud subscription backup as well as your own external harddrive backup device.  Either of those could just POOF disappear with all your data without notice.  Lawsuits and apologies, even cash remuneration won't replace novel manuscripts. 

You can't afford what you really need, so create a "make-do" situation with a solid, well thought through, plan for the upgrade your first Advance Payment will finance.

For years to come, most of what you make will go to equipment upgrades, publicity trips, and many expenses that are not deductible. 

You need to order computers online, from the manufacturer, on the website page reserved for businesses not home-users.

Watch the world as it evolves for where the heaviest usage of computing power moves after it leaves Hollywood post-production studios.  That is where you will find the equipment it takes to create novels, and keep on creating without losing and doing over. 

Only a writer understands what novel writing entails relative to what is involved in, say, Term Papers. 

You can "get away with" using bottom-of-the-line equipment for years, but when you run the figures for your business, you will find the amount of time and energy you spend keeping your equipment functioning grows over time.  If you somehow swing top-of-the-line new equipment, you suddenly find the amount of time you can devote to word-creation triples or better.

This is your profit margin.  Calculate it.  Then decide if you want to "be a writer." 

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Dead Authors And Defunct Publishers Are Not Fair Game

Copyright lasts for the life of the author plus up to seventy years. Most English-speaking nations, and many non-English-speaking nations have agreed to this.  (Berne Convention, WIPO etc.)

A book may be out of print, but that does not mean that it is out of copyright. A book may be available to read online on a pirate site, but that does not mean that the book is "in the public domain" and free for everyone to exploit and share.

An ebook may be in a "private collection" sold as a CD on EBay, but that does not mean that the EBay seller is conducting lawful business, or that (whatever he or she alleges in the listing) he or she owns the copyright to the ebooks in the private collection.

One of many fascinating sources of good information on popular misconceptions about copyright is Angela Hoy.
http://writersweekly.com/angela-desk/when-authors-dont-understand-copyright-law

Her recent article "When Authors Don't Understand Copyright Law" is excellent.

Of course, the same applies to music, and song-writers.

Here's a prompt for a little navel gazing.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2d51dfae-5aa8-4b0c-a12c-afa0a5c8480f&utm_source=lexology+daily+newsfeed&utm_medium=html+email+-+body+-+general+section&utm_campaign=lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=lexology+daily+newsfeed+2018-03-07&utm_term=

The law blog article "Bloggers Beware...." by John Crittenden,  Lori Levine  and Peter Willsey of the law firm  Cooley LLP  raises the alarm that linking to content --that may infringe someone else's copyright-- may also be copyright infringement.

This may be an important alert to all bloggers and retweeters from Cooley LLP.  Please follow the link to find out what they have to say about the potential dangers of "embedding" other people's copyrighted images, and the possible consequences if the Goldman vs Breitbart ruling survives.

It would be improper to wonder whether the New York federal district judge departed from the powerful precedent set by the Californian Ninth Circuit judges because the (losing) defendant in New York was Breitbart, and the (winning) defendant in California was Amazon... but perhaps "improper wonderings" are grist to the author mill.

Meanwhile, for those who monetize their writing online, beware of snagging illustrations or sidebars from Facebook or Twitter, instead of paying the creator and copyright owner for a non-exclusive license to use the illustration or anecdote.

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

ICFA

This week the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts meets in Orlando, Florida, and I'm there as usual. This year's theme is the bicentennial of the publication of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. The weather forecast looks wonderful. I'll report on the con next Thursday.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt