Soul Mates And The HEA Real or Fantasy Part 4 - Is Monkey Sex Best There Can Be

Soul Mates and the HEA Real or Fantasy

Part 4

Is Monkey Sex Best There Can Be? 

Previous parts of this series on Soul Mates linked into and through the HEA are:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/03/soul-mates-and-hea-real-or-fantasy-part.html

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/08/soul-mates-and-hea-real-or-fantasy-part.html

Part 2 starts with a list of related posts and the Index post to the series of Believing in the Happily Ever After.

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/09/soul-mates-and-hea-real-or-fantasy-part.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/11/index-to-believing-in-happily-ever-after.html

I'm posting this 4 minute cat video about origin of domesticated house cat, and the world view of the domestic house cat because I discovered it "by accident" the day after I wrote the Part 3 of this series of posts.





That Cat Video, if you don't see it here, is on this website: https://www.chabad.org/3968315

The previous Soul Mates and the HEA post tackled the issues surrounding defining Happiness.

Romance fans generally assume that joining with your Soul Mate automatically creates Happiness in you, and not the sort of spike to a peak and equally steep decline to misery that Happiness usually is associated with.

We try to sustain the PEAK experience - thinking this is the proper mode of function and an achievement.  Falling off he peak experience is felt as failure, or as proving that what was experienced was not happiness.

Language fails to capture the nuances of human experience in the defined denotations of words.  Fiction must step into the gap and evoke emotional tone-poems in readers to explain how what is going on inside of you is also part of the experience of life felt by others.

Yet at the same time as we are all alike, we are each individually unique.

So the teen's view of "nobody ever felt like this before" is true, at the same time it is false.  Everyone loses virginity in some aspect of life.  It isn't always sexual virginity that is lost -- but the experience is the same.  You can't do it for the first time again.

Firsts are unique, but everyone experiences their First.  Your First will differ markedly from the First of other people.

So, we might further refine our definition of "Happily" in "Happily Ever After" as FREE ACCESS to the best sex, ever.

Remember, in Part 3 of this series, we focused on the necessary but not sufficient condition for happiness as being Freedom, but noted how many types of freedom there can be, how unique to an individual's life-pattern the sense of freedom can be, and what responsibility has to do with feeling an optimum level of Freedom so there is a chance at Happily Ever After.

So if Happiness must include some sort of sexual experience (for some people that might not be true), and the sexual experience must be "peak" or "the best ever" or "optimized for this individual" then the fiction writer must portray the various parameters that combine to create "the best sex."

There is a principle in Magic, "As Above; So Below" -- or the material world mirrors its supernal counterpart.

Or, for example, the Laws of Thermodynamics apply both to the material world and to the supernal world(s). (In Kabbalah there are 4 Worlds, us and three Worlds previous in the creation process which is ongoing).

Do you see how the World you build for your fiction defines Character, Story, Plot -- and let's you choose among limited bundles of Themes?  For example, if Magic is real in your Fictional World, then your Characters have one set of problems.  If Magic is not real, doesn't work, can't intrude, in your Fictional World, your Scientist Characters (lead Characters in Science Fiction Romance) have a different set of problems to solve.

In our real world, there are those who see the world interlaced with something supernal -- G-d, Supreme Architect, Creator, Little crazy-gods raised in dysfunctional families, demons, angels, etc. -- and those who see only the hard-surface of Reality (with or without quantum theory).

We all seem to live in the same World -- but large groups select clusters of rules and theories to believe in, or to explain what they observe about Life.

What is the truth about Reality - the reality your reader lives in?

As with the virgin who is convinced by personal experience that no other human ever in all history and pre-history has ever-ever-ever experienced THIS (peak sex, or whichever sort of virginity is being lost), the truth about the nature of Reality is both true and untrue at the same time.

Usually, by the word "true" we mean to refer to a binary view of reality, an Aristotelian view, a duality view -- and the only other value that can exist in that World is "un-true."

But, as with the Virgin, human experience is not yes/no, on/off, clean, clear and defined.  Human experience is more often a spectrum.

Those with some sexually active years behind them understand how wide a variation of experience is possible with sex and how complex that experience is.

Writing for a readership that is sexually Virgin, has just lost Virginity and is blown away by it, or has a gaggle of rug-rats to wrangle because of sexual activity (both judicious and injudicious), the Romance writer must choose a theory of how sex works, why it works, what is good and desirable, and what causes Epic Fail Mode to engage.

Then, the writer has to convince the reader that this choice is a valid one for this particular Character in this particular World.

In real life, the reader probably knows that sex can lead to the ultimate misery in life -- but believes with all the heart a human can muster that sex is the gateway to the HEA.

Sex is a necessary ingredient in Happiness for most people (keep in mind, not for everyone).

As a writer, you get to choose a definition of Happiness that your Characters start out believing, choose Events that disabuse them of that notion, and choose a new definition of Happiness they settle into at the HEA (and by that point it is not "belief" that shapes their emotions, but "understanding." )

This series on Soul Mates and the HEA is working out one such set of premises that work for fiction.

We established that Strength of Character is rooted in the signal/noise ratio of the energy flowing between the Soul and the Body.

When the Signal is high, intense, loud, the Soul is in command of the body so the body experiences Emotion energized by the Soul.

When the Noise laced through the connection disrupts communication from the Soul, the Body is left to become "feral" -- reverting to the Wild.

If you haven't watched the cat video yet, (it is about 4 minutes), do play it to the end.

It pretty much defines "domestication."  The most prominent characteristic of domesticated animals is not compliance with human wishes, but rather that humans have taken command of the species' breeding.  We breed dogs for certain traits, and cats for others -- chickens, cows, etc.

In other words, domestication is genetics -- and we do this with plants, too.

We now know that experiences alter the way genes "express" in a human being.  You might have wild genes, but living civilized will reshape how they express in your body.

So where, in human nature, does "experience" reside?  From what part of human nature does assessment of the intensity of an experience arise?

How do we know it was good sex - good enough to marry?

You might build your fictional world around the "truth" that emotional experience arises from the Soul, but is evaluated by the Body.

That bit of Worldbuilding would lead to one bundle of Themes.

You might build your fictional world around the "truth" that emotional experience arises from the Body, but is evaluated by the Soul.

That bit of Worldbuilding would lead to an entirely different bundle of Themes.

Your main Characters might journey, stepwise, through many novels, from the World where emotion arises from the Body to the World where emotion arises from the Soul.

What would it take to make that transition?  How many different ways can a couple experience sex?

Humans seek Happiness -- and envision achieving Happiness and staying happy for the rest of their lives.

Can you write a series of novels starting with a couple forming and experiencing intermittent happiness, lousy sex and good sex and great sex, and no idea why this variation occurs, all the way to the same couple discovering why their performances vary and how to change the way they live to create reliable, ever-after peak happiness sex every time?

How many world-structure theories would they have to explore - one per novel?  Atheist and humanist all the way to some of the less popular strict religions -- and a wide variety of philosophies like Buhddism or Hinduism, and the whole panoply of Neo-Paganisms.

Each culture has a view of where in a perfect life sex belongs -- and what makes for Great Sex.  The current readership believes that the Body rules, emotion originates in the body and sex done right is simply a matter of yielding to urgent physical needs.

In fact, the current readership is dominated by those who have been taught it is unhealthy to resist such urgent bodily needs -- and it is actually impossible to resist the body's urgings.

And that is true, too.  If the connection between the Soul and Body is frayed, full of noise, corroded away, it really is impossible to resist the rulership of the body.

However, humanity has produced whole cultures that feature individuals who have complete control of the body -- Fire Walkers, staying warm in icy-snow without fur wraps, reducing oxygen consumption, walking on nails, -- and they are not tightly focused on the Judeo-Christian view of God.

Something about humans is able to control the "life-functions" of the dependency on food, clothing, shelter, and sex.  In your fictional universe, is that something Soul?

Neuroscientists have measured differences in brain functioning among humans who pray, and those who don't -- or those who aren't praying at the moment.  Holistic Health professionals activate that mechanism in a vast variety of ways.  Tantric Sex is all about control, conscious domination of the sexual energies -- the exact opposite of, "I can't resist you."

The "truth" is that in the real world, "I can resist you, but I choose not to," is the way it has to be said.  Being overwhelmed by Bodily demands is a CHOICE - not a defeat.

So, if one chooses to be overwhelmed by the Body, does that choice lead to Happiness Ever After?

THEME: Never resist bodily urges because it is unhealthy.

If the majority of experts believes and teaches that Theme insistently, just as physicists have insisted you can't travel faster than light, the science fiction writer takes the opposite assumption

THEME:  It is unhealthy to let Bodily urges rule behavior.

and explores "what would happen if ..." you successfully set Bodily Urges in their proper place?  Star Trek's Vulcans do this with Logic -- but get punished for it when the body rebells and defeats Logic.

If he Body's dominance is a defeat not a choice, then you have been robbed of the Happily Ever After ending you were born for.

What of humans living on another planet?  What of human cultures exposed to Alien cultures?  What if there is an Alien culture (full of sexy hunks) where the HEA is a minimum expectation -- and there is much more beyond mere Happiness?

Are humans intrinsically designed to "look up to" Something like domesticated cats?  Is that why we keep cats as pets?  Does it matter which Something we look up to?  Must we "look up to" a Something that provides the Happily Ever After?

What could possibly be better than pure Monkey Sex?

If Tantric Sex is sex that doesn't involve the body, a pure Soul orgasm, what would a balanced combination (Soul connection to Body wide open) of Body/Soul Monkey/Tantric sex feel like?  After years of common Monkey Sex, would a human who experienced Body/Soul sex feel like that Virgin who is convinced no one ever had a First Time like hers?  Would that human be correct, or have humans always had people who live the HEA with balanced Body/Soul sex?  Is there a way that is known, or do we have to marry an Alien to experience this?

Is a sexual orgasm a phenomenon of the Body that does not touch the Soul?  Or a phenomenon of the Soul that does not touch the Body?  Or are Body and Soul a joint task force targeting Happily Ever After?

The writer has to choose answers to these questions and use those answers (themes) to build a world for the Characters who will live, grow, learn, and adopt various answers to those questions.

Writing Science Fiction Romance does not require you to "get the right answer" to those questions, but it does require (like Science Fiction) mastery of the process of finding questions and posing them in a way your fictional Characters will be able to answer satisfactorily.

Watch that Video and think about those cats.  Why are cat pictures so common on the social networks?

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Is The DOJ Watching Facebook Advertisements?

"Targeted" advertising is probably efficient and convenient.  If you don't think that it is worth paying for puce eyeballs to view your book advertisement (because you assume that people with puce eyeballs will never buy your book, anyway), Facebook allows you to make fairly sure that puce eyeballs don't see your ad.

Leave aside the moral hazard, and the possibility that you are setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is probably no "Title" in American law that obliges a Romance author to pay a social media site to show book advertisements to persons not interested in reading/fiction/women's fiction.

On the other hand, if you are a homeowner or landlord and your advertisement is intended to find a tenant or a buyer, you need to be careful about the demographic choices by race/gender/zip code/nationality etc that you can make on Facebook.

Legal bloggers A. Michelle Canter,  Heather Howell Wright  and Christopher K. Friedman  discuss the issue of discrimination in advertising on Facebook for the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

HUD and DOJ Challenge Facebook's Advertising Platforms Under The Fair Housing Act.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7ddea6b2-740b-488c-885a-afe42fa274dd

It's a fascinating insight, that points out that data-driven, targeted marketing might create new avenues for liability, both for the platforms, and possibly for those who use the bells and whistles that the platform provides.

It is also astounding how much information "the Internet" has on myriad individuals. The privacy enthusiasts at EFF are raising the alarm about warrantless surveillance of utilities company customers (electric, gas) through the use of "smart meters" that have been forcibly installed across the USA. Allegedly, law enforcement has started to ask the utilities companies for access to the data.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/08/win-landmark-seventh-circuit-decision-says-fourth-amendment-applies-smart-meter

Allegedly, as often as every five minutes, 24/7, a smart meter on your home may be transmitting information about what you are doing inside your home (as long as you are using either gas or electricity to do whatever it is you are doing.)

1984 indeed.  Perhaps this might lead to prosecutions of persons using their irrigation system under cover of darkness during watering bans! These rfi emitting devices may be hazardous to health (but there is a device you can purchase from Amazon to interfere with the rfi. )

For more info on smart meters:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/08/05/smart-meter-dangers.aspx
 

https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/harvard-medical-doctor-warns-against-smart-meters/

http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters/

Back to Facebook, blogger Stefan Herwig discusses "Networked Propaganda" and copyright issues in a thought provoking article.

https://thetrichordist.com/2018/09/09/networked-propaganda-guest-post-by-stefan-herwig/

Apparently, with Facebook, a user does not have to make choices about what he/she sees.  Facebook, allegedly, takes it upon itself to ensure that users see views that reinforce and encourage and validate their views beliefs and biases that are already held by the user.

For those who wish to advertise to like minded readers, here are some very helpful resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3hIafdFCmM&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiH-hfhonDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6ATUw0BIU

Especially for our European readers, please be advised that this blog contains an eclectic selection of links, almost all of which may come with assorted "cookies", whether you click on them or not. Enjoy!

(Or clear your history and your cache!)

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

The Need for a Wife?

The 1971 launch of MS magazine included a now-classic essay titled "I Want a Wife," by Judy Syfers. It's very short; you can read the whole thing here:

I Want a Wife

The author, of course, isn't asking for a life's companion. What she wants is a multi-purpose appliance called a "wife" to run the household, handle persnickety domestic details, and deal with the demands of the outside world. (Note the tour-de-force of never applying a pronoun—and therefore a gender—to this hypothetical perfect wife.) For example:

"I want a wife to keep track of the children’s doctor and dentist appointments. And to keep track of mine, too. I want a wife to make sure my children eat properly and are kept clean. I want a wife who will wash the children’s clothes and keep them mended. I want a wife who is a good nurturant attendant to my children, who arranges for their schooling, makes sure that they have an adequate social life with their peers, takes them to the park, the zoo, etc. I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because, of course, I cannot miss classes at school. My wife must arrange to lose time at work and not lose the job. It may mean a small cut in my wife’s income from time to time, but I guess I can tolerate that. Needless to say, my wife will arrange and pay for the care of the children while my wife is working. I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean. A wife who will pick up after me. I want a wife who will keep my clothes clean, ironed, mended, replaced when need be, and who will see to it that my personal things are kept in their proper place so that I can find what I need the minute I need it. I want a wife who cooks the meals, a wife who is a good cook. I want a wife who will plan the menus, do the necessary grocery shopping, prepare the meals, serve them pleasantly, and then do the cleaning up while I do my studying."

And how about this zinger? "I want a wife to go along when our family takes a vacation so that someone can continue to care for me and my children when I need a rest and change of scene."

When ours was a two-income household with school-age children at home, this essay struck a chord with me. As the author concludes, who wouldn't want a wife like that? Has any actual wife ever enjoyed the services of such a convenient paragon? It's an established truism that in two-career marriages, even those in which the husband shares household chores, the wife typically has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that everything gets done, and she performs most of the "emotional work" of maintaining family and social ties. On TV, Mrs. Brady and Mrs. Muir had faithful housekeepers. Still, the mothers in those sitcoms didn't lie around and relax—or devote themselves solely to intellectual enrichment. While Mrs. Muir was a professional writer, she spent plenty of time on household tasks. Both she and Mrs. Brady not only directed the housekeeper but joined in the hands-on work. What about previous eras, when middle- and upper-class women routinely had servants? Nevertheless, they had to oversee the servants, plan the meals, etc., not to mention hiring the housekeeper, nanny, maids, and other staff. Granted, maybe aristocratic ladies managed to shift all the domestic responsibility to the housekeeper and the butler, with nothing to do themselves but approve menus; their "wife" duties probably focused on maintaining the family's social position. Also, if we traveled back to, say, the nineteenth century and enjoyed the services of such workers, from our modern perspective we couldn't help being aware of how we were exploiting them.

If you're familiar with the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, you'll remember feckless bachelor Bertie Wooster's omnicompetent valet, Jeeves. What we all really need isn't a wife, but a Jeeves. Aside from a few references to his relatives, Jeeves doesn't seem to have a life outside his employment. He not only manages Bertie's apartment, meals, clothes, and other mundane necessities with impeccable perfection but often steps in to untangle Bertie's personal crises.

If we could afford a Jeeves in reality, though, we'd have to acknowledge his right to a life of his own, not to mention being nagged by our consciences for underpaying him. What we actually want is a Jeeves-type robot. Alexa and Siri can answer questions, carry out some tasks, and remind us of appointments, but otherwise we have quite a distance to go in terms of artificial servants. Wouldn't it be ideal to have the multi-skilled domestic robot often portrayed in science fiction, as affordable as a car and as efficient as Wodehouse's ideal "gentleman's gentleman"? Only one potential problem: A machine that could perform all those jobs with the nuanced expertise of a Jeeves would have to approach true AI. And then it might demand its rights as a sentient being, and we'd have to worry about exploiting it.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Soul Mates and the HEA, Real or Fantasy Part 3 - Convincing Your Reader

Soul Mates and the HEA, Real or Fantasy

Part 3

Convincing Your Reader

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg 

Previous parts of this series on Soul Mates linked into and through the HEA are:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/03/soul-mates-and-hea-real-or-fantasy-part.html

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/08/soul-mates-and-hea-real-or-fantasy-part.html

Part 2 starts with a list of related posts and the Index post to the series of Believing in the Happily Ever After.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/11/index-to-believing-in-happily-ever-after.html

One major reason "the general public" does not read Romance Genre, or hasn't read any Romance but believes Romance is trash, is that to be a genuine Romance popular among Romance readers (and award winning), a novel must have an HEA, a Happily Ever After ending for the most beloved couple.  Other Characters may get their comeuppance, but the main Characters must leap off the end of the novel into an HEA.

The general public doesn't accept the premise that the HEA exists in real life.  At most, real people can hope for an HFN (Happy For Now) state of affairs.

That is actually not true, but very few people understand that, so if you are aiming to market a Romance to the general (wider) public, then you must have at least one skeptical Character who will have his/her mind changed by your Thematic argument, and one Character who will not undergo a shift of opinion. 

Though Theme is always a simple, clear, short statement, the novel the theme generates is actually an argument in which the writer must present the case for, and the case against, the theme, ending without forcing a conclusion on the Reader.  The novelist must respect the Reader's intelligence.

This kind of Reader skepticism about the premise of the novel, about the essential defining theme of an entire genre, is one thing Readers of Science Fiction and Mystery have in common.

In Mystery/Detective genres, the defining theme is that Justice Will Prevail.

In Science Fiction and sub-genres, the defining theme is that Science Conquers All, even though right now Science is utterly wrong about the novel's main problem or premise (e.g. you can't go faster than the speed of light).

In Science Fiction, the favorite genre of working Scientists, the state of your reader's mind when you make them believe the impossible (e.g. you can go faster than light) is called "Suspension of Disbelief."

You don't have to make them believe, but just stop disbelieving.

Previously, the Romance Genre aimed at an audience that already believed in the existence and accessibility of the HEA - just find your Soul Mate, win his attention, and you've got it made.

Romance readers find "accidental meetings" with the Soul Mate entirely plausible -- in fact, Romance genre audience expect that most often in real life, that its how Soul Mates meet -- by accident.

These attitudes make Science Fiction and Romance Readers almost identical markets.

In real life history of Science, most civilization blossoming Discoveries happened by accident.

In real life history of Romance, most vast culture shifting Stories (Helen of Troy), happen almost by accident.

But after the initial Event happens, both genres require Strong Characters to act boldly and heroically to move lives, family attitudes, public Grant Money, into the project (a marriage, or a Doctoral Thesis).

Science Fiction is usually about a Scientist who is good at Science being called out to do Action/Adventure Heroic Deeds.  The cliche image of the Scientist is a person who is physically inept, socially challenged, and incapable of heroism (Clark Kent).  The story in Science Fiction is usually about Clark Kent ripping off his shirt and leaping into the sky as Superman.

Romance is usually about a young girl who lives in an intolerable situation, may be good at managing the situation but is called out to do Scary Commitment Heroic Deeds.  The cliche image of the young woman is a person who is subservient, a victim, a child in an adult body who wants to be rescued and taken care of -- instead of rescuing and taking care of.  The story in Romance Genre is about the child inside growing up into the adult role of womanhood (despite having to be a Lady, sometimes).

In other words, both genres are about a revelation of Identity.  Self-discovery, or demonstration to others about the true nature of this Character.

So how can the Science Fiction Romance writer convince Readers to suspend disbelief in the HEA?

Both genres focus on Characters becoming Strong.

In Science Fiction, the Character's Strength is developed as physical challenges are overcome using intellectual attributes.

In Romance, the Character's Strength is developed as sexual challenges are overcome using intellectual attributes.

You might challenge the idea that hot-sweaty Romance requires application of intellectual attributes, but consider the intellectual courage necessary to throw off the shackles of convention, of self-image, of Identity, and explore the full range of the physical body.

In Theme-Character Integration Part 13
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/07/theme-character-integration-part-13.html
we pondered the idea that strength of character, in real life and in fantasy fiction, is proportionate to the strength of the connection between Soul and Body, that allows the Soul to train, tame, and domesticate the animal body, the purely physical nature.

A human differs from other creatures in that the human Soul is keeper and custodian of the Body.  When the purely animal nature prevails, the person behaves like any other primate - with lust overcoming common sense, with the need for revenge ripping the life to shreds.  Humans who commit what civilization calls "atrocities" against other humans, or who derive joy from ripping animals to bloody shreds, (but aren't technically insane people), are often recognized as "animals" because the Soul part of the person is not evident to other humans.

So if the hypothesis that the Soul exists and that humans are dual-beings, body-and-soul, welded into a single, inextricable whole, is accepted by the Reader, then the idea of a Soul Mate can be easily introduced.

So again, how can a Science Fiction Romance writer convince the wider readership to suspend disbelief in the HEA?

What exact is a Happily Ever After?

Science fiction readers have one concept of "ever after" -- Romance genre fans might not be as well versed in the mathematics of Time and so some might have a different idea of how long "ever after" lasts.

Lets assume the readers we are discussing all regard "ever after" as "until death do us part."

Dying before you've held your grandchildren, or taught them to fish, hunt and till the soil, could be considered a tragedy, while dying of old age surrounded by grandchildren would be a satisfactory "ever after."

This brings us to the question of what is Happiness?

It is said to be impossible to achieve by pursuing it.  But what is happiness?

How can you portray two Characters reaching an HEA if you, the writer, does not have a working definition of Happiness?

Happiness has to be very complex and must have some abstract, maybe mystical, components.

Maybe Romance Genre's HEA is actually not Happily Ever After, but Peacefully Ever After?

Can you have happiness without peace?  Can you have peace without happiness?

Some couples happily fight, bicker, rage and take out the anger generated at a job on their Mate.  It may not look or sound like peace, but something tranquil is going on there.

Some couples never raise their voices to each other or pick and criticize each other.  A few of those actually stay married through their grandchildren's weddings!

Sometimes marriages founder when one person is happy and the other not.  A spouse's happiness might not be contagious.

What is happiness?

Maybe we just have to accept that Happiness is different for each individual person.

Or maybe the sensation, the emotion of Happiness is the same for everyone, but the external conditions that trigger that emotional condition differ from person to person?

Could happiness depend on external situations not influenced by individual preferences and actions?

What is a Happily Ever After ending?

Are people happy when nothing bothers them?

Are there people who love to be miserable?  Or at least morose?

Would eliminating annoyances require removing bothersome, annoying and irritating elements from the environment?

Can people be happy in turmoil?

Well, then what is the relationship between Happiness and Strength of Character?

How many War Romances have you read and enjoyed?  Happiness (maybe not of the ever after variety, but definitely happiness) can be triggered and even sustained in a war situation with explosions and falling debris at irregular intervals.

So it isn't always the external situation that determines if the happiness is an ever-after sort.

Maybe Soul Mates create happiness for each other, just because they are Soul Mates.

A "mate" is not a copy, not the same -- but complementary.  A mate is not an opposite so much as a "fill in the weaker spots" fit.

In the case of Strong Characters as defined by the idea of Character being the connection between Soul and Body, and strength being the leadership of the Soul over the Body (STRENGTH CARD IN TAROT).

Can a weak Character be Happy?

Can an un-mated Character be Happy?

There are probably as many ways to achieve Happiness as there are definitions of Character, Soul and Happiness.

Each definition of Happiness, Character and Soul, and every combination of the three, generates a Theme which is vast enough to support an entire novel series.

A "story of my life" is centered on the pivot point of the change in the main Character.

As noted above, in Science Fiction it is the matured Science-nerd becoming the Action-Hero -- in other words, balancing intellectual courage with animal courage, Soul-Body Integration becoming strong and firm.  Thus Science Fiction is about a Weak Character Becoming A Strong Character.

Romance genre is about the matured girl becoming the Emotion-Hero -- in other words, balancing intellectual courage with animal courage, "giving herself to a man."  The Soul-Body integration of the valiant woman, the committed warrior woman, "makes a man of" a mere male.

In both genres, the Character becomes stronger, more integrated Soul and Body, because of the external Events of the Plot.

However, in Romance genre, you must deal with 4 variables ( a Boolean Algebra ) like the 4 Letters of the Divine Name.

You have two Souls, and two Bodies, and all four of them must undergo some change to fit together and become a single, strong unit.

The process (story and plot) of growth and change can be very painful, very miserable and not at all happy.  Happiness, though, might well be defined as having grown -- having grown enough to be able to look back and see the former self as immature.

Both Science Fiction and Romance genres are about yearning, striving, and committing to a strike for freedom (from different things, but always becoming free is the goal).

So it could be that both Science Fiction and Romance are genres aimed at a readership that prizes Freedom as opposed to Power.

Power may be identified as "My Will Prevails Over Yours - Don't Bother Me - Get Out of My Way Or I'll Destroy You."

Neither Science Fiction nor Romance Lead Characters will abide oppression -- not being the oppressor, or being oppressed.  All the great novels in both genres have at their core a Character striving for Self-Determination.

Both genres define the "end" of the story as the point where the freedom to choose a path through life has been achieved.

Freedom of that kind is the definition of "being adult."

The five year old dreams of being allowed to "stay up all night" or "go to bed when I want to."  But once mature, and having done that a while in college, it is revealed not to be "freedom" at all, but irresponsible.  Maturity brings behavior altered by the perception that true Freedom is defined by discharging responsibilities.  One must sleep to perform well the next day.

Human Happiness is inextricably bound to Freedom.

Apparently, humans can't achieve Happiness without Freedom -- but it may be possible that Freedom itself does not induce happiness.  There might be such a thing as too much freedom, a kind of directionless life that stalls into misery for lack of responsibilities.

They say that the elderly need to feel needed (i.e. be responsible for someone or something), to survive the longest possible time.

Perhaps the HEA is the Freedom To Choose One's Own Responsibilities?

They say there is a price to Freedom, and that every generation must fight for it.

Yet, even a Slave (as in a person who is owned, bred, worked by someone else) can be Happy.

How can a Slave be happy without freedom?  Even from Biblical times, some have preferred to remain slaves even when given their freedom.  There is even a ceremony involving piercing the ear to make a person who chooses to remain a slave (when they don't have to) into a permanent slave.  That is a FREE choice, and could lead to an HEA for that Soul.

Perhaps Freedom is a matter of the Soul.  If the Soul is free to grow, mature, become better integrated with the Body, achieve the purpose of that Soul's incarnation, then being technically enslaved would not inhibit happiness.

But being abused (beaten, tortured, raped, whipped) would prevent most Souls from achieving the purpose of their incarnation.

So, Freedom may not be Happiness -- but most likely you can't achieve Happiness without some Freedom.  The type of freedom may differ from Character to Character and historical epoch to epoch, but some sort of Freedom is an essential ingredient in the HEA.

Now we come to the intersection between Romance and Science Fiction.  Freedom.

The typical Action/Adventure Science Fiction novel involves the Main Character facing some sort of threat, usually physical, which he or she averts by heroic action.  Space Wars, Invasions, Revolts, being lost in space or slogging across an Alien Planet -- the stakes are always somehow involved in keeping or achieving freedom of choice.  Faster Than Light travel is the freedom to colonize other planets.

Humans regard any threat to freedom as a menace.

In Romance, the Main Character faces some sort of restriction in choice of Mate -- being the Ward of a step-parent, being the heir who has to marry for peace for the Kingdom, the chosen is unsuitable (or downright Alien) or just no Mate material in sight anywhere, something prevents the freedom to choose a Mate, and heroism must avert that threat.  Happiness is consumption of that Mating by free will choice.

Then there are the Romances where it is not so much the free Will as the Body's Lust that makes the choice.  And there are the Science Fiction novels where the Hero is sent on a mission he would rather avoid.

All of these typically popular novels lead to an ending where Freedom To Choose is secured.

We all know that the price of freedom is mortal combat, and each generation must win their own freedom.  Freedom does not come as a gift.  It can't be inherited.  It must be bought by the sweat of your own brow.

Freedom to choose your Destiny is the essence of both genres. 

If you choose wrong, you may not be headed for an HEA but only an HFN.

The Science Fiction Romance writer has a unique opportunity to explain the HEA to the general readership as winning the fight for freedom - freedom from oppressive dictatorships, from government, from nosey neighbors, social peers, even parents and cultural traditions such as Religions enforced by government authority.

It can't be freedom from Authority, per se, because that is the goal of the villains.  It has to be freedom to choose which Authority to ally with -- not subject or subordinate to.  Equal-to-Equal is a Free relationship -- not subjugation.

As we noted in the brief over-view of Jack Campbell's universe of military science fiction stories, ...

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/08/reviews-38-jack-campbell-genesis-fleet.html

...his Hero (who lives in two epochs of history of the galaxy separated by many years of cold sleep), Black Jack Geary, makes his early reputation fighting for the freedom of the new human colony he has just moved to.  He has a wife and child there, a commitment to a brighter future, and is living an HEA when a militaristic colony attempts a "takeover" of other colonies.

He fights for his family's life, prospects, and mostly freedom.

All military science fiction can be reduced to the simplistic term of a "fight for freedom."  What differs is the opponent, and the freedom to do what, and the tools the Hero fights with.  It doesn't have to be guns and space ships.  It can be sensors, analytic machinery, or even basic test tubes and centrifuges.

All Romance can be reduced to the simplistic term of a "fight for freedom" to choose one's own Mate.

Both genres are about striving for Freedom, and though it might be decades and many novels until it is achieved, Freedom is the Ending.

Freedom lasts through one generation's lifetime - then must be fought for again.

The fight for Freedom seems to be intrinsic in human nature.  And our thesis is that "human" is defined as a Soul welded to a Body (which definition could work just fine for Aliens who are not technically human).

That vision of human nature explains clearly why "freedom" must be fought for in each generation --  from the Body's point of view, the Soul is doing a "hostile takeover" of the Body, while from the Soul's point of view, the Body is striving to enslave the Soul.

All good fiction written by and for humans is driven by Characters with an Internal Conflict (Soul-Body conflict) generating the Story, which is projected or mirrored in an External Conflict generating the Plot.

Humanity's real life, real world, existence is the constant struggle between the animal nature of the Body and the spiritual nature of the Soul.

That struggle is the source for War -- from domestic disputes to Nuclear Holocaust, War is the animal need for dominance pitted against the Soul's need for Freedom.

Happiness, insofar as living humans can experience it, is at the balance point between the animal body and the spiritual soul.

Once achieved, that balance can be stabilized by a Soul Mate whose strengths complement rather than duplicate the strengths of the partner.  The child creates the very stable, very strong, triangle -- which is stronger than any mere pair can be.

Depict the steps necessary to stabilize a Character at that balance point between Freedom and Responsibility (Uranus and Saturn), and you may be able to lead skeptical Readers to suspend disbelief in the HEA long enough to enjoy some happiness.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Privacy Lost

John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost". This is about "Privacy Lost".

Almost nothing is private these days. Apparently, the legal standard for invasion of privacy is that a reasonable, modern person viewing ...whatever it is that is revealed about you without your consent... would be shocked and highly offended. Standards are gutter level, these days.

Moreover, there are internet sites that reveal (usually for a fee) a great deal of information about your full names, aliases, address(es), birth date, friends, business, education, employment, criminal record (whether you have one or not), so it is not easy to prevail in a complaint against an individual who doxxes you, since you cannot stop Spokeo.

Authors who write under pen names should take note. 

Legal blogger Tammy Winkler writing for the law firm Faruki Ireland Cox Rhinehart & Dusing PLL explains in "Snoops On A Plane: Looking For Privacy In All The Wrong Places"  how little an expectation of privacy the unwilling subject of someone else's photograph has --or should have-- when travelling. Even one's trip to the loo is fair game for comment and speculation in the Twittersphere!

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a2a6a8a1-2765-4fb5-83bc-e9f356e59241&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-08-30&utm_term=

Notice the neat riff on a movie about legless members of the squamata order of reptiles and also on a lovelorn country song by Johnny Lee.

Talking of planes, airplane mode on your smartphone is no protection of your privacy. According to a Tucker Carlson analysis (use Bing and search for "Tech Tyranny" and August 31st), your phone may be tracking you, whether it is on or off, regardless of the mode, and as soon as it is connected to the internet, it will send all your movements, locations and even biometric data (whether you are riding, driving, walking, sitting etc) back to its mothership, logged to the millisecond.  Even if you visit a hospital, a church, a private school...you are snooped upon.

And do you know who founded 23andMe?  Perhaps big brother has our spit, too!

Authors might do well to think of other people's privacy, too.  Emily R. Lowe and Susan Milyavsky, blogging for the law firm Morgan Lewis and Bockius LLP discusses much-overlooked website Terms of Use.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a06a2a60-acd9-459c-9886-4c219abfa55a&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-08-30&utm_term=

Authors and other website owners who are still using this boilerplate:

 We may, at any time and without notice, modify these Terms of Use by revising them on the Site. Your continued use of the Site constitutes your acceptance of any such revisions. You should periodically visit this page to review the current Terms of Use.

....  should consider adopting the wording suggested in the Morgan Lewis article.

To end on a positive note, the internet can cut both ways. The Trichordist exposes the fact that, while a well organized corps of internet savvy individuals can vote with the voices of millions (and across borders, too), their smoke and mirrors don't necessarily translate into a good turn-out for in-person demostrations.

https://thetrichordist.com/2018/08/28/dismal-turnout-for-anti-copyright-directive-protests-in-eu-suggests-little-real-opposition/

Happy Labor Day holiday!

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

The Purpose of Pain

This title doesn't refer to the metaphysical question of why suffering exists. (My favorite book on that topic is THE PROBLEM OF PAIN, by C. S. Lewis.) I'm talking about the biological and evolutionary reason for the sensation of pain. That subject comes to mind because, with age, I've started collecting a variety of physical aches and pains, none of them disabling yet (thank goodness) but cumulatively annoying. Are we biologically fated to put up with this nuisance, which in many cases can escalate to the level of extreme distress? Of course, I know why it evolved. Without that warning signal, we wouldn't notice when our bodies are being damaged. People born with congenital insensitivity to pain tend to hurt themselves a lot and often die prematurely. But does the process have to work as harshly as it does? Why can't the pain stop when the cause of the damage has been discovered and addressed? Instead, it may hang around throughout the healing stage. Also, some people suffer for years without any definite cause being identified. And women, at least, are stuck with some pains that seem completely pointless, as in severe menstrual cramps and the contractions of the advanced phase of childbirth. Why couldn't labor signs consist of mild cramps that get only closer together, not more intense, as the moment of delivery approaches?

Organisms too "primitive" to have brains with which to be aware of discomfort nevertheless recoil from hazardous stimuli. A robot could theoretically be programmed to avoid potential damage without consciousness. Why can't our nervous systems be programmed that efficiently? Yes, we need a warning device. But does it have to inflict discomfort or agony? Couldn't we experience a mild zap, like static electricity, which would recur every minute or so until we fixed the problem? Why didn't we evolve the ability to turn off pain as soon as we've found the source and started fixing the problem? Wouldn't it be nice to have a control panel in the brain with a "red alert" button we could switch off after acknowledging it?

The obvious catch is that if the damage signal didn't cause extreme distress, we might ignore it. Most of us know people who act as if powering through sickness or injury makes them tough guys (or gals). A highly rational being such as a Vulcan would respond appropriately to pain stimuli and wouldn't abuse the ability to suppress it at will. If we can't possess the rationality and control over autonomic body functions that Vulcans enjoy, couldn't we at least have some less agonizing system? Maybe if we ignored damage signals for too long, we could abruptly lose the use of some minor appendage or function, to jolt us into taking action. I'd accept that alternative over severe cramps or stabbing pains. For instance, this relatively mild but annoying chronic ache in the arms from shoulder tendinitis. I adjust positions for sleeping and computer use, conscientiously perform recommended exercises, avoid muscle strain, and apply ice to the affected areas. What more does it want from me? Why isn't there a handy diagnostic screen where I can check the status of the condition and respond accordingly? In some respects, the design of the human body leaves a bit to be desired.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Reviews 39 Souls of Fire Series by Keri Arthur

Reviews 39

Souls of Fire Series

by

Keri Arthur

In Reviews 38,
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/08/reviews-38-jack-campbell-genesis-fleet.html
we looked very quickly at 3 series of Military Science Fiction novels by Jack Campbell for the way his Hero, Black Jack Geary, strives to create the Happily Ever After conditions that do not exist in his universe (yet).

His motivation is fueled by his love of his wife (a hacker called Ninja for a reason) and his children.  Geary sees a future for them all, as a strong family, and pours all the skills and strength he has into crafting that future.

Though in both his life segments (before suspended animation freezing, and after being awakened), he has lived in awful conditions, he has always driven himself and others toward better conditions.

Today let's look at another best selling author, Keri Arthur, who is as good a writer as Jack Campbell (which is saying a lot) but is world famous for her Romance treatments of various topics -- dozens of novels to her byline, she's perfected her "Voice" and style.

We touched on "Voice" of a writer recently:
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/07/theme-character-integration-part-13.html

The Souls of Fire series is about a supernatural person who is a Phoenix -- literally rising from her own ashes.

The most fascinating concept introduced in this series is the co-binding of a male and female in the Phoenix process.

In Ashes Reborn,
the male counterpart of the Phoenix duo, Rory, is just now Rising, after a magical ceremonial summoning him from the core of fire.  He is in  dire need of a roaring fire and a lot of privacy for sleeping off the effects of rebirth, for days or weeks.

Meanwhile, the female of the duo, Emberly, is after the one who ordered Rory killed.  She got the shooter by firing the building where the shooter perched to fire at Rory (and her).  But there's more to the story.

In this Fantasy universe, we also have Vampires and other supernatural creatures.

It is a complex universe, with 4 novels extant.  There is a plague virus derived from Vampire blood, and the world knows enough about the supernatural creatures to have a Paranormal Investigation Team.  That team has plenty to do in a world with dark witches, other powers, and all the tangled power politics humans everywhere generate.

These novels are a spectacle waiting to be cast onto your living room big screen.

The most interesting thing Keri Arthur is playing with here is the Immortal Phoenix's love life.  The only ongoing Character in her existence is Rory, but she always falls for someone -- and this time, it's beginning to look serious when Sam finds out what Emberly is and how that relates to Rory.

So the Relationship dynamic among these Characters turns on thematic issues of Trust.  The Phoenix pair have to trust their lives to each other to pull off the rebirth trick, and have to keep that vulnerability from others.  Sam is one of those others.  Now Sam knows.

And they can only hope the Phoenix fire has beaten the Vampire virus.

Keri Arthur is one of the writers who delivers a steady stream of engrossing novels that have a recognizable Voice telling the tale.  But she also has the skill to bring you into the middle of a series and hit the ground running without being confused.

Part of the trick is that the universe Keri Arthur crafts for you is familiar but unique at the same time.  You know the Phoenix legend, then she gives it a twist.

This is what Hollywood is always looking for -- "The same, but different."

The Souls of Fire series should be studied for the world building as much as for the entertaining read about people (supernatural or not) striving to become better people, and make the world hospitable to the Happily Ever After ending.

This is the key ingredient in enticing those who can't believe in the Happily Ever After to read Romance.  Agree the world as they know it can't sustain an HEA -- but we can fix that.  Fixing the world is what heroes do. 

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Hacking Your Toilet and your Sex Toys

This last weekend, I was unexpectedly "trapped" away from home, without my computer.  I thought that I'd be able to blog using a borrowed computer, but Google wouldn't allow it.  The only way I could verify that it was me on a borrowed device was by a phone call to my home, and since I was not home.... I could not blog on time.

I think that the problem is the settings set up by the owner of the computer I had borrowed. She has "linked" all her accounts for the convenience, but with convenience comes tyranny.

And risk.

How convenient is it to be able to control your sex toys... remotely? Apparently, some people do that. How inconvenient would it be if a mischievous stranger could activate your smart Ben Wa balls during a serious moment, for instance when you were appearing before a judge and jury?

The mind boggles as to why someone would want to remotely flush their own toilet. A germaphobe, perhaps? There is an app and a smart toilet for that.  However, a malevolent hacker could take over the toilet and cause it to overflow and flood the home, because it is Bluetooth enabled.

Christoper A. Ott, blogging for the privacy and security law blog of Davis White Tremaine LLP discusses "Data Security Issues Posed by the Internet of Things.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f9b96473-237d-4b8d-84c9-30da1d77526b&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-08-24&utm_term=

Do you know how to disinfect a toilet by rebooting it?  Has it occurred to you to reset the password on your smart toothbrush?

This may be shocking stuff,  but it is not new.  In 2916 CNBC wrote about 12 shocking things hackers "are targeting right now".

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/12-shocking-things-hackers-are-targeting-right-now.html#slide=4

Heena Tandon blogged for media guru about "When Your Toothbrush Is Hacked."

http://www.mediaguru.com/when-your-toothbrush-is-hacked-iot-in-media/

Finally, and nothing much to do with advocating for unhackable toilets and sex toys, the Authors Guild is asking the US government to allow publishers and self published authors to bargain collectively with internet platforms, and hold internet platforms responsible for targeting piracy on their platforms.

https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-comments-to-ftc-on-internet-monopolies-impact-on-creators/

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

Thought Floating on Different Blood

I've been rereading a couple of Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters novels. Magicians in this series work with one of the classic four elements (air, water, earth, fire). People with those powers can see and talk with elemental creatures (sylphs, salamanders, gnomes, fauns, and many others) invisible to non-magicians. Many elemental entities have human-level intelligence; some are more intelligent and powerful than human mages. Elemental magicians, able to communicate with nonhuman creatures, must surely have a different view of the world from us ordinary mortals. People in ancient times believed in a host of intelligent beings who populated the natural realm, such as nymphs, satyrs, dryads, minor gods of rivers and mountains, dwarfs, faerie folk, trolls, etc. I suspect, however, that few ordinary people ever expected to meet one of those creatures. How different our world would be if such entities existed openly, where any of us (not just magicians) might encounter them in our daily lives.

In C. S. Lewis's PERELANDRA, the protagonist, Professor Ransom, travels to Perelandra (Venus), where he finds three intelligent species (not counting the life-form of pure spirit who rules the planet). One of his Perelandran acquaintances expresses surprise upon learning that Earth's ecosystem has only one sapient species. How can we fully understand ourselves, he wonders, if we can't compare our thoughts to "thought that floats on a different blood"? How would our view of our own species and the world we inhabit change if we weren't alone on our planet?

Although I've often wondered about a hypothetical alternate history in which other human species or subspecies, such as Neanderthals and the "hobbits," had survived to the present day, I sadly suspect that the prevailing attitude toward other races wouldn't be very different. Neanderthals and other hominids, and maybe Yeti if they existed, would look too human. They might well get treated as inferior beings, similar to the way Europeans historically treated other races, only worse, because some anthropologists might classify such hominids as "animals"—a bridge between Homo sapiens and lower species, intelligent enough to be useful but inhuman-looking enough to justify enslaving them.

Demonstrably sapient but clearly nonhuman creatures, on the other hand, would probably evoke a different response. What if we shared Earth with centaurs, merfolk, or intelligent dragons? Or the semi-civilized talking animals of Narnia? Tolkien (in his essay on fairy tales) says animal fantasies satisfy the perennial human yearning to reestablish communication with the natural world from which we've been cut off. Would a common experience of living alongside other sapient species—or extraterrestrial visitors—make human racial differences seem insignificant, as STAR TREK optimistically postulates?

The TV series ALIEN NATION explored this question in thoughtful detail. It portrayed human-on-alien prejudice and hatred, human-alien friendships and love affairs, and the mind-expanding experience of exposure to another species' view of the universe. This series about a shipload of extraterrestrial refugees settling in California, all of whose broadcast seasons and follow-up TV movies are available in DVD format, deserves multiple viewings. Also, a number of tie-in novels were published, most of which I thought were quite good. If nothing else, the fact that the Newcomers have three sexes would give them a different outlook on life from ours. The body and the senses inevitably shape the mind's perceptions of reality. An intriguing spec-fic example of "thought that floats on a different blood."

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Reviews 38 - Jack Campbell The Genesis Fleet Series

Reviews 38

Jack Campbell

The Genesis Fleet Series 

This is the 38th post focusing on reviewing books in print.

The Genesis Fleet started in 2017 with Vanguard, and book 2, Ascendant, came out in 2018.

 


I've often referred to the various novels or series I review here as examples of one or another writing craft skill or technique.

And I always elaborate on the reasons writers of one genre should read genres they do not like.

Jack Campbell does not write Romance -- but he understands the place of the Love Story in the unfolding of governmental affairs on a galactic scale.

He is famous for The Lost Fleet Series, and The Lost Stars series -- which I've mentioned many times as examples of the best way to structure an adventure with a Love Relationship driving the action.

The Lost Stars focuses on a subset of Characters who are in an intimate Relationship that affects the vast political landscape in a Stellar Cluster.  These events spin off from the Events of The Lost Fleet series, which I also recommend because the Relationship thread of the Main Character's life (Geary) deeply affects the course of the Plot.

The Lost Fleet Series is about Commander Geary, Black Jack Geary, a young man with a background in space warfare who has awakened to find himself in an era when the war he fought in has long been settled, though it is not over.

The initial colonization effort Geary had been a part of grows into two opposed factions fighting a war of attrition over a good part of the Galaxy.  Geary had gone missing in the first part of this galaxy spanning conflict, but had thus generated a Legendary Reputation that grew and grew.  When he wakes, he doesn't recognize the Identity his rescuers impute to him.

He is rescued from a suspended animation capsule, and immediately finds himself an officer on a warship, and very quickly becomes in charge and then commanding the whole war fleet, desperately trying to get home because it is "Lost" as in the title.

As Geary uses strategy and tactics from his own, long forgotten, era to get the Fleet home, bits and pieces of who he was are mentioned along the way.  He pulls off miracle after miracle, seemingly by magic, and the readers keep asking for the story of how he became this man.

The Genesis Fleet is the story of Black Jack Geary's early life, before his long cold sleep, and of the forces that annealed his Character into the leader he is when we first meet him in The Lost Fleet.

The first book of The Genesis Fleet is Ascendant.  Geary arrives on a new Colony planet founded by a small group, operating on a shoestring budget.  The Colonists apply for jobs, and buildings are erected by machinery.  It's a nice world, good potential –– so along comes a warship from another colony looking to take over.  Geary is handed the job of getting rid of that Warship -- but he doesn't have a Warship of his own to throw against it.  He takes the meager resources available and kicks butt.  Whew!  And he goes back to work at the job on the space station in orbit around the new colony.

The second book of The Genesis Fleet picks up Geary's life after his wife has had one child and is pregnant with a second -- he has a huge stake in this new colony, keeping his family safe.  But he doesn't want to go off taking wild risks because there are children to think about.

However, when pressed into service, he captains their only defensive warship to escort a vital freighter across enemy infested space.  This universe Jack Campbell has created uses several bits of science to move ships through space -- there are local Newtonian mechanics engines but they can achieve appreciable fractions of the speed of light.  There are "jump points" which seem naturally occurring, and eventually there are "stargazes" -- structures that create artificial jump points.

The power of this ships is by "fuel cell" -- large objects that act like batteries.

Geary takes it on himself to stretch his orders (well, to the breaking point) when his gut tells him he has to follow his cargo freighter all the way to its destination, not just through the enemy territory.

And he jumps his ship right into the midst of an all-out attack on another planet.  He can't risk his little warship because it is all that can defend his home and family (besides, it's expensive), and he can't let the enemy take over this neighbor planet because then the enemy will have a grand staging area to launch an attack against his family.

These two novels are about Geary.  The point of view and focus are tight and precise.  The writing is excellent.  Geary's motivation is to seek out or create the HEA -- he's got part of it, wife-and-kids, but they aren't safe and secure, so it's not a Happily Ever After yet.

If you don't understand why readers refuse to believe in the Happily Ever After ending, read all these Jack Campbell novels to glean a counter-argument that can convince your biggest skeptics.  The HEA is not something that just happens.  It is something that is created -- by heroic actions fueled by deep love and absolute commitment to the welfare of others.

I particularly like the Newtonian mechanics limitations on space-war tactics, and the reliance on automated systems for firing solutions.  The time-delay in communications caused by light speed and distance complicates everything.

Maybe the least plausible part of these novels is Geary's continued (but not continuous or easy) success at diplomacy.  It is very rare to find a polymath human who has both combat ready strategy and tactics plus political savvy.

We see that in our Pentagon Generals, and retired Generals who go into politics, so we think it is a common combination.  But it is not.

Black Jack Geary is a Legend, created out of real people, but a Legend nevertheless.

Create some Characters who are the material from which Legends grow.  Consider how their Legends distress the Characters themselves.

Military Science Fiction is a sub-genre that is the natural home of the hottest Romance.  Watch some old World War II movies, and read some Military Science Fiction.  Create yourself a Legendary Character.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

What's Yours?

Authors, do you own your own books' cover art?

You do if you created it yourself, or paid to have it created for you as a clear work for hire, providing you (or the person you hired to do the art) had the correct licenses to use the font(s), the image(s), the photographs.

Yes, that back matter photograph of yourself might not belong to you, unless you took it, or unless you acquired the appropriate rights in writing from the person who took the photo of you. The copyright of a photograph always belongs to the photographer.

If your traditional publisher has reverted your rights, before you self-publish the book, you may need to create or commission new cover art.

The same may apply to your website, depending on who designed your website. Your website might not be as portable as you suppose it is.

This last week, legal blogger David Oxenford, blogging for Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP (whom I cited in last week's blog) discusses ownership of blogs and webpages:

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=37f114cd-26f1-447d-9128-356f8005e27d&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2018-08-17&utm_term=

Although branding for authors is the topic for Emily M. Haas, blogging for Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, consistency in fonts, logos, and other visuals are important to an author's brand, but are also elements that may not necessarily "belong" to the author, unless she is conscientious about clearing or acquiring the necessary rights.

See, "If You are an Author Looking to Build a Brand, Here are Some Items to Consider" (sic)

Authors, if your artist is quite laid back, for now, you might nevertheless fill out and have them sign a license template, such as THIS which is generously provided courtesy of THE ARTREPRENEUR (on the understanding that you give them written credit).

https://artrepreneur.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Artist-licensing-agreement.pdf

On the positive site, not all copying is infringing. Legal blogger Brian Murphy writing for Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC discusses the case of the "ghost" building that appeared to be a copyright "gotcha", but wasn't.

When Copying Isn't Infringement.

I think I'd have made a Haint pun!

Finally, for those who find their rights being violated on or via CLOUDFLARE, (which is not a web hosting site) here is a place to start if you wish to file a DMCA notice.
https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200167716-How-do-I-file-a-DMCA-complaint-

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Annihilation

Last week, I watched the rather strange SF movie ANNIHILATION. (Spoilers ahead.) An anomalous phenomenon of unknown origin, labeled the Shimmer, has mysteriously appeared in the vicinity of an isolated lighthouse. Natural laws don't seem to work normally within its area of influence, and investigators sent into the zone don't return, with one exception (the protagonist's husband, who doesn't seem to remember anything, doesn't act like himself, and falls into a coma soon after his reappearance). Furthermore, the Shimmer is expanding. The protagonist, a professor of biology, enters the zone with an all-female team of scientists and emerges alone, four months later by outside reckoning but only a couple of weeks in her subjective time. Near the end, she's attacked by an amorphous entity that takes on humanoid form, at one point becoming a double of the heroine herself.

When debriefed after her return, the protagonist speculates that the Shimmer doesn't "want" anything and may not have even been aware of her presence. During her combat with it, maybe it was only mirroring her actions. At the conclusion, when she reunites with her husband, Kane (who has regained consciousness), she asks whether he's really Kane. He replies, "I don't think so." The film leaves open the possibility that she may be a doppelganger, too, rather than her original self.

We never learn whether the Shimmer has an extraterrestrial origin or has emerged from a rupture or portal between our reality and some other dimensional plane—or spontaneously evolved on the spot. And, as mentioned above, we don't find out what its purpose is, if there's any consciousness behind it at all. While it's realistic to leave these questions unanswered, since the characters have no plausible way of discovering the truth (maybe the scientists on the project will eventually be able to get some information out of "Kane"?), I felt unsatisfied, as I usually do with a story that doesn't have a definite resolution. I want to know what or who the alien intelligence (if any) is, where it comes from, and why.

Considering the random mutations of animal and plant DNA within the Shimmer, maybe the life-form at its center (if there is one) has only the "purpose" of evolving and reproducing, with no more conscious motivation than bacteria. It spreads, proliferates, generates copies of itself, and strives to maximize its exploitation of the environment by expanding its area of control. If, as the protagonist believes, it doesn't "want" anything, blind reproduction may be its sole "motive" for invading our world. It may be an example of the adage that a hen is simply an egg's way of making another egg, or as Heinlein puts it, a zygote is a gamete's device for making other gametes. The Shimmer life-form's only chance of evolving into a stable, more advanced phase may be to duplicate the human models with which it comes into contact.

This film raises the perennial science-fictional question of identity. If the doppelganger created by the Shimmer has absorbed the "real" person's memories and obliterated the original, is the doppelganger now "really" the person? One thinks of Dr. McCoy's qualms about the transporter on STAR TREK. If each transporter event essentially disassembles the traveler at the point of origin and reconstructs him or her at the destination, has the "real" person been replaced by a succession of duplicates? In the original film of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, the pod people sometimes talk as if they've absorbed the selfhood of the people they replace, as when they try to convince the protagonist that he'll be happier if he surrenders to the inevitable. In ANNIHILATION, does the doppelganger of Kane represent the first stage in an alien project to replace humanity, or is he/it merely a random byproduct of the "annihilation" of the original man?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt