Theme-Symbolism Integration Part 4 How To Use Candles As Symbolism by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Theme-Symbolism Integration

Part 4

 How To Use Candles As Symbolism

by

 Jacqueline Lichtenberg 

The previous parts of the Theme-Symbolism Integration series are:

Foundation Posts on Use of Theme:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/03/communicating-in-symbols.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/05/theme-element-giving-and-receiving.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-use-theme-in-writing-romance.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/10/believing-in-happily-ever-after-part-4.html -- on structuring nested Themes into a novel.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/08/plot-vs-story.html  -- defining the terminology I use in these posts to distinguish plot from story and why they are indistinguishable.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-learn-to-use-theme-as-art.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-you-can-do-in-novel-that-you-cant.html  -- compares use of Theme in a movie with the use in a Novel.

The posts with "Integration" in the title are advanced posts about blending two, three, and four of these components into such a seamless whole that no reader will ever be able to see the seams -- but writers can and do see those seams.

Previous parts in this Theme-Symbolism Integration series are:

PART 1 of integrating Symbolism with Theme is You Can't Fight City Hall -- about the romance inherent in Politics and Power (or Power Politics)
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2014/12/theme-symbolism-integration-part-1-you.html

PART 2 Why Do We Cry At Weddings?
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/08/theme-symbolism-integration-part-2-why.html

PART 3 Why Do We Cry At Weddings - part 2
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/08/theme-symbolism-integration-part-3-why.html

Part 1 of this series ended with:

------QUOTE----------
The most passionate Romance is all about the Powerless vs. the Powerful.  The winner is always the Strong Character with a vividly defined set of values, sense of right and wrong, and unbending pursuit of the ethical and moral path.  Find your epoch in the cycle of Pluto, then find the symbols in that epoch to bespeak your theme.
---------END QUOTE---------

This is Part 4 on the candle as a symbol.  By examining how and why a Candle is a symbol, what it is a symbol of, and why it is used to evoke tears (as in Why We Cry At Weddings), and other emotions, we may learn how to invent the symbols of a truly non-human civilization that modern human readers can comprehend on a non-verbal level.

The objective is to create symbols modern humans react to, and even recognize, but see as non-human.

So we need to look at the symbols that evoke emotional responses for us to find where those symbols have their roots in the objective, true-for-non-human-civilizations too, reality.

The nature of objective reality -- and even the issue of whether there is such a thing at all -- is the the "warp" of the fabric of the Theme.  The "woof" might be the existence of the Soul -- woven into theme at "right angles" to the "warp" of objectivity.

Weave these component elements into a fabric in such a way that your reader only sees the pattern or picture on the fabric, not the individual threads.

That is the difference between reading and writing -- a reader sees the pattern, a writer works with individual spools of multi-colored thread and a loom to weave them on.

That reader/writer difference in perspective may also be the difference between the Living Creature view of "reality" vs. that of the Creator of that Reality -- (again the existence of a Creator is a Thematic thread the writer uses, that the reader does not see.)

The reader sees Karma working out in Poetic Justice, but the writer created that effect from the axioms and postulates, "warp and woof" of the worldbuilding.  The reader sees the picture; the writer works with colored threads.

When a Romance Novel fails with a reader, what the reader is seeing is incoherence in the warp/woof blending of those threads.  The reader sees "broken threads" (e.g. in reality, there is no such thing as an HEA, and in this worldbuilding there is an HEA but it comes out of nowhere for no reason.)

The reader sees a philosophical premise (the HEA), but nothing to indicate how this invented World differs from their everyday Reality in such a way that this invented World must necessarily permit an HEA .

To read, and convince, such readers, writers work hard with the "warp and woof" of the cloth of their theme.

Suspension of disbelief pivots on Theme as the foundation of story and the foundation of plot.

Story and Plot must be cut from the cloth made by the threads of Theme, and sewn together into a garment that fits the reader.  

So let's study the Candle as a symbol,  and how, as a Romance Writer, you can learn to use that symbol and fabricate others from the warp-and-woof from which The Candle Symbolism is created.

It is, in the odd way that all symbols demonstrate, about the Power of the Powerless, which is a subject that makes up into  large sets of fabulous Themes.

In Parts 2 and 3, we talked about Crying at Weddings.

Note how "light" pervades the imagery of Weddings.  Imagery is the alphabet of symbolism.

And of course, candles are often part of wedding ceremonies.

Never forget that traditionally "wedding" meant a female becoming the possession of a male, with the male having the power of life and death over that female.  "Keep them barefoot and pregnant," was not just a saying.  It happened, and still happens some places today.  It is a situation that generates huge, complex Themes about the Power of the Powerless.

Little by little, in leaps and bounds, the definition of "wedding" is changing as fast as the definition of "marriage."  That change is changing the definition of Romance, both in real life and in fiction.

What we are looking for here is the level of abstraction at which no change is happening at all.  If we find that level, we find "reality" (whatever that is).

We don't put candles on a Wedding Cake (though sometimes we put them beside the cake)

 


 -- but we do put them on Birthday Cakes.

 
We all know what a candle is, and how to light them.

All your readers know that mastering FIRE was a huge dividing line in the development of the human animal into a civilized beast.
We also know the oil lamp - Aladdin's Lamp and all its ilk - was the only source of night time illumination for thousands of years, toxic smoke and all.

Olive Oil is a favorite for burning.  Various forms of tallow, all kinds of smokey, stinky stuff has been burned for the sake of light at night.  Today we do the burning way off somewhere at a Power Plant, and bring the power to our homes to make various things glow for us.  But in essence, nothing has changed.

Is electricity fundamentally different from Fire?

Is candle-wax fundamentally different from Olive Oil?

Is oxidation different from electricity?  What if all Power Plants used nothing but Solar or Wind (or wave or geothermal) power?  Would that make the electricity we use to make things glow different from the light of a candle?

If we don't use oxidation for light, does that fundamentally (thematically) change the symbolism of a Light?  What has Fire to do with the symbolism?

We are surrounded by fire in so many forms.  Stoves burn Natural Gas (some are electric; some solar).

We make a fire in the fireplace for Winter Holidays -- mostly no longer used to warm the house, but a symbol of the Winter Solstice festivals.

Some fireplaces have been converted to natural gas, and had fake ceramic logs inserted to look like wood.  It's too much work to clean out wood-ash once a year.  Besides, wood makes toxic fumes, shortens your life, right?

Some houses have natural gas heaters hidden away in the attic or basement.

Other than smokers, people can go for months without lighting a candle or an actual open fire.

If your stove is electric, and your clothes dryer is electric, and your water heater is electric, when do you ever LIGHT a fire (with a match?).

Who has lit a fire with flint-and-steel or rubbing two sticks together since Scouting days?

How common is open flame in your life?

Among your readers, fire is reduced to a mere symbol, relegated to special occasions, right?  But the discovery and mastery of fire is the, single, outstanding progenitor of human civilization (maybe including The Wheel?)  Using Fire to make Wheels turn was a biggie, too.  How did that go for your Aliens on their native planet?

Do you see the parallel between Theme-Symbol Integration and Fire-Wheel-Integration?

The less common the underlying progenitor of a civilized process is, the more penetrating the encounter with its symbol.

The sight of a candle flame can yank a modern human's heart strings like almost nothing else.

Some people meditate using a candle flame.

Staring at the flame to clear and silence the chatter in your mind is one of the beginner's exercises in meditation.

As far as I know, there is no currently existing culture that dates back to the taming of fire, or even to the invention of putting a wick into oil to make light.  The Oil Lamp pre-existed Middle Eastern civilizations - Assyrian, Egyptian, Babylonian -- and they're all long gone.

Here's a quote on the earliest oil lamps:
http://www.historyoflamps.com/lamp-history/history-of-oil-lamps/

----------QUOTE-----------
After human race first tamed the fire and started to use it as a light source, a need appeared for a smaller, controllable flame - a more sophisticated solution, if you will. First such solution was an oil lamp some 70.000 B.C. Early humans used shells, hollow rocks or any nonflammable material as a container and in it some moss soaked in animal fat which they would ignite and it would burn with a flame.
--------END QUOTE------------

70,000 years ago?  

It was a practical device for extending the work day at a time when getting the project done was always and ever a life-or-death proposition.  Also, of course, fire deterred predators.

Some recent research indicates cooking food makes nutrients more accessible to human digestion, so that could have helped the R&D geniuses 70,000 years ago (yes, they were the Bill Gates' of their day) figure out how to make, contain, and use fire.

Along in there somewhere, the fearsome thing (I'm sure some wildfires were started inadvertently, and stories told about that terrifying high-tech marvel the smartphone - uh, I mean Fire) became a SYMBOL.

What would flame have first been a symbol of?

That could matter to a modern Romance writer leaping into writing fantasy or science fiction romance stories because aliens on other planets -- think major love-interest -- could belong to a culture where FIRE is a symbol of something very different from what all our modern Earth cultures think.

To create a connection on a romantic level between a human and a non-human, raw-basic-symbol systems can evoke even more intense emotion than we ordinarily experience in daily life.

So think about the simple, basic FLAME.

Think in the abstract about symbols.  We extract the essence of a material thing and make a symbol out of the outline.

The symbol, the mere suggestion, reminds us of the real thing.
The symbol evokes a series of associated emotions, usually at a semantic level above words, a level where music and scent light up brain cells and recreate an experience.

From that first use of fire as symbol -- maybe a bit after the 70,000 year ago mark -- meanings associated with that symbol would have been changed, added to, morphed into, re-interpreted, and re-associated with different emotions.

But it is all rooted in the routine, daily, boring, encounter with the reality.  That Reality recedes as technology distances people from it -- then it becomes a symbol, a selective recreation of reality.

For example, maybe people started holding weddings at night around a fire because all day long everyone was in a headlong dash to get life-or-death stuff like sowing and reaping done.

When was the last time you shouldered the harness of a plow blade and pulled it through stubborn sod?  What does a plow blade symbolize to you?  Blisters on your shoulder?  Oxen pooping in your barn?  The smell of sweaty horse?  No, you go to the rental place and lease a gas-powered plow for a Sunday afternoon to make your garden this year.

Yet the symbolism of beating swords into plow blades still "works."  How many sharp-edged swords do you own?  (Not stage-steel, but real fighting weapons with blood on them?)

Life was hard, and mostly people died young.  Life was hard in the daytime, and people could relax and do "human" things only at night.  Have you ever been so far away from the glow of city lights that you literally could not see your hand in front of your face?  Have you ever tried to walk in a forest in a night so dark you had to put your hands out and grope?  That is the world where the light of a single candle pierced the nerves and gained eternal meaning -- meaning true even in today's street-lamp world.

So fire-light became a symbol of romance, or at the very least license for wonton sex.

To this day, the "candle-light-dinner" is a symbol of courtship, even if we have to remember to turn the overhead lights out so you can see the candle light.

The candle -- or oil/wick/flame -- has become a symbol of both Life and Death.

We light candles (or sparklers) on birthday cakes to count our years, or dodge that issue:

 

We light a candle to commemorate death -- the candle light vigil ceremony on the site of a murder or tragedy has been pushed back into prominence even as religious observance wanes.
  Making these candles is a whole modern industry.  You can find these vigil candles on Amazon -- and not all who use them or attend memorial vigils are in any way religious or what is termed God-Fearing.  Neither warp nor woof of the fabric of their philosophy contains a God-is-real thread.  But they "do" vigil candles right alongside devout worshipers of diverse God-concepts.

So which is the Candle a symbol of, Life or Death?  Sex, Romance, Happiness, Bereavement, Mourning, Calming Meditation, Wedding, or what?

Perhaps the candle is a symbol of wisdom?

.

It is said (tall tale) that President Lincoln gained his education by reading books by the light of a log-cabin's fireplace.  Have you ever read a book by the light of a fireplace?  Or a candle?

It takes me 7 or 8 candles burning at once to see well enough to read a nice, clean font from a modern book on super-white paper.

I can, however read well by a fancy 1800's style oil lamp with a fancy woven wick and carefully crafted chimney to keep the fire burning brightly, never mind toxic carbon emissions.

 So an oil lamp is to me a symbol of the serene happiness attained by reading in bed at night -- yes, I've done that.

Some people have memories of camping out in tents lit by such an open-flame lamp (though today's children mostly use solar-charged electric lamps).

Sometimes, those camp-out-at-night memories are great happy memories, so the open-flame light (or electric camp lantern) evokes happiness.

  Sometimes the camping memories evoke spooky ghost-story marathons long past a child's bed time, lending the groggy tiredness to the spooky-pleasure (because it's fake-spooky).

Now we're getting somewhere.  Consider the inventors of the oil lamp 70,000 years ago didn't even have a nice, modern tent for shelter.  We recreate our origins and surround ourselves with those ancient things -- the out-doors, the night sky, open flame, spooky stories -- and regard them as SYMBOLS.

What was real, everyday, common, can't-escape-it, reality 70,000 years ago is reduced to mere symbol today.  What was alarming and threatening is titillating today.

Today, we use those symbols to evoke what was once the reality of existence -- being spooked was being really scared death was immanent.

Ghost stories by candle light.

Today, at Halloween, we see symbolic ghosts made out of thin plastic sheeting hung from trees in people's yards.

What is a ghost?  Well, no two traditions agree on that, but generally it is a remnant of some part of a human being.  We term that non-material part we imagine we have our Soul.

Romance writers can gain verisimilitude by paying attention to the Candle as a Symbol, analyzing it, projecting it into the cultures of aliens.  The symbolism may never be referred to in your novel, but it will be the firm foundation of your worldbuilding, and that firmness will be evident to your readers even if they can't point to what is causing them to feel that way.

Invent the 70,000 year ago culture of your Aliens before coupling your invented Alien to an everyday, modern human.

Romance stories that rivet a reader's attention generally contain a core element of a Soul Mate mechanism, even when the words Soul Mate, or even just Soul, are never used by narrator or in dialogue.  The element is in the worldbuilding even if the worldbuilding contains a Theme thread that says, "In this universe, God is not real" and there's no such thing as "Soul."

Whether you, the writer and the reader, see God as the single organizing principle of Life, The Universe, and Everything, or not, somehow being "In Love" activates some component within a human being's perceptions that the human never knew was there before.

Some of your readers only imagine what they would be like if such a component was activated inside them.  Some yearn for it.  Some fear and flee from it.  Some don't believe it ever happens to anyone.  And some have experienced it, only to have disaster part them from their spouse, and now they are hoping it will happen again.

Neuro-scientists are zeroing in on the brain structures and activity associated with all these complex human experiences.

The thesis they are pursuing is that the brain and its functions completely account for everything humans experience, do, decide, believe (yes, even your Politics is just a genetic property of your brain -- you have no choice!), and theorize.

Many readers of Science Fiction Romance are keenly aware of this brain research.

So Romance writers have to worldbuild some theory of Soul into every story-universe, or the characters won't seem real.

What do I mean by "world-build?"

What the characters believe about their world is not the same as what their world REALLY is, what it's laws-and-rules are.

In fact, many great science fiction novels pivot on the characters discovering things are not what they believe them to be.  Think about the film, The Matrix.

Or think about the novel THE FLICKER MEN that I talked about in this post:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/09/reviews-19-by-jacqueline-lichtenberg.html

Remember, I pointed out THE FLICKER MEN is not a Romance, but Science Fiction Romance writers need to read it anyway?  This is the reason you must absorb what is going on in novels like The Flicker Men.

The Flicker Men pivots on a worldbuilding concept woven of recent discoveries in particle physics and mathematics, and is a valid extrapolation from that new science, which creates the plot.  The story is woven from cognitive dissonance, and utter consternation, culture shock, psychological disorientation, and the struggle to overcome that paralysis and deal with the harsh realities that have been revealed.  That harsh reality is that some people have Souls -- and some do not.  Time is not what you think it is.

In contemporary romance, you can find great novels about deeply religious characters discovering God is a myth created for political purposes by con-artists -- and characters who are absolutely convinced there's no such thing as God or the Soul discovering the chilling (spooky) tangible reality that God is Real, and "my Soul knows it."

Romance deals with exactly that kind of cognitive dissonance discovery -- when you Fall In Love, you discover your own Soul, and the conversation your Soul is having with Another Soul.

If you are convinced Souls don't exist, then you may mistake Love for Lust --- or vice-versa.  And therein lies a Plot.

What your Soul knows and what you know are not always the same thing -- and therein lies the kind of Conflict that writers weave Nested Themes for long series of long novels around.

This quandary is all about our cherished theoretical notion of reality vs. the actual function of immutable reality around us.

Some people move through life smoothly, and others encounter vast difficulties.  Bring a pair formed of each type of person into conflict, take up the issue of whether "Life Is Good" or "Life Sucks" and you're off and running with long series of THEMES driving an ever-changing matrix of conflicts.  Add deranging astonishment of an awakening Soul discovering another Soul to Love, and the pages sizzle.

When you are handling an abstract theme -- such as "Souls are Real But God Is Fictional" or "God is Real and only Some People Have Souls" -- you handle these boring abstractions with symbolism.

You never state the theme in words, not narrative, exposition or dialogue.

You "show don't tell" by using symbols.

So you bring in a candle as a symbol -- but what is it a symbol OF?  How do you use the Candle as a symbol that your reader will understand?

You understand candles, flames and the chemistry of oxidation.

Just as a map is a piece of paper with a two dimensional drawing (OK, Google Street View is handy, but think of the simple navigation map), a candle is not what it symbolizes any more than a map shows a street you can drive on.

Any symbol abstracts certain functional components and leaves out all the rest of reality, just as today we seek to have an open flame for the Holidays without the toxic smoke and shovel loads of ash.  Is fire still an effective symbol without fumes and ash?

There is almost no experience of a human being that is not "symbolized by" a candle.

It's life, death, joy, sadness, Solstice, anniversaries, security and threat.  The whole gamut of human experience is tied symbolically to "Light dispelling Darkness."

Remember, the Bible starts with LET THERE BE LIGHT.

It is said, when things look bleak because humans are holding a war, destroying things, hating each other, etc. that the light of a single candle dispels the darkness, mental, emotional, and actual Darkness.

The same about Good and Evil: the light of a candle overcomes Evil.  The candle flame repels wild animals, stops sneak-thieves, etc.  A single act of random kindness is like that candle flame -- and can redirect the path of a human being.

Another proverb about the candle-symbol is that a lit candle can light other candles and not be diminished by giving away it's light.

Think about that very hard.  What can you give and still have?

In Judaism, every Friday at sundown, candles are lit.  In some traditions, oil is used instead of candles -- olive oil with a floating wick, older than the high-tech invention of the candle.

Look at this picture:

What is she doing?

She is gathering the light of the candles to her eyes, then saying a Blessing, and after that she will cast the light she gathered back onto the candles in the official act of kindling the light.  The candles are not "lit" until after the Blessing is said -- and that moment of Lighting officially begins the Sabbath, during which time fire is not kindled.

It is said that the Sabbath candles of the Matriarchs of Judaism lit the tent for the whole week.  Does that mean physical light?  Or does it mean the metaphorical "light" by which we "see" right from wrong?  The nature of that metaphorical Light is a thread of the warp-and-woof of your Thematic Fabric.  It is by that Light that your reader discerns the Poetic Justice visited upon your Characters.

In Judaism, the "day" begins at sundown.  "And it was evening and it was morning the First Day."

Evening comes first.

The Day is the first unit of Time.  The Soul enters manifestation through the dimension of Time.

The Sabbath day ends in a series of symbolic actions.

Fire is kindled once more, a blessing said over wine, incense and fire, and then the fire is extinguished by dipping the candle flame into the wine, marking the division of Time when it is again not only permitted but required to kindle fire.

Thus the candle and its flame are used to mark an interval of time that repeats at set intervals.  By marking that singular Day, all the rest of the Days of the Week are thereby defined.

The Soul enters through the dimension of Time, and the Soul then participates in marking and counting Time, dividing Time.

Those who practice Evil also use candles to symbolize their powers.

So what is it about a candle that contains all of these abstract Thematic Elements, from Good to Evil and from Joy to Sorrow?

What exactly is a candle?

Let's view a candle as a mechanism for supporting the Flame.

Flame is pretty much the same thing no matter what is burning (oxidizing).  Flame is a zone of incandescence where a chemical reaction is taking place, combining oxygen with (whatever) and producing Light as a byproduct.

The chemical reaction has to be "sparked" -- that is, something HOT has to be touched to the substance that will burn.

How hot depends on the substance that will burn.  Each substance has it's own temperature where it will start to combine with the oxygen in the air to produce something else (ash, CO2 and water, whatever).  Some candles smoke, others not-so-much.  Smoke is not a property of the flame, but of the substances reacting.

How relevant to the symbolism is the substance the candle is made of?

Another common use of Flame as Symbol is in the Hanukkah Celebration, which commemorates the victory of the Maccabees and the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem.

This dates from the Exodus from Egypt, when God Commanded that a tent be built called the Mishkan or tent of meeting, where Moses would meet with God and bring instruction to the Jewish people.

One feature required for this operation was a Lamp that was to be built hammered from one piece of gold by an inspired artisan.

Here's an excerpt from
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/What-Is-Hanukkah.htm

As the story goes:

-----------QUOTE-------------

Chanukah -- the eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev -- celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.

More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G-d.

When they sought to light the Temple's menorah (the seven branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks; miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah (candelabrum) lighting: a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled.

-----------END QUOTE-----------

So, we have candles used as an anniversary celebration SYMBOLIZING the Olive Oil Lamp that the High Priest lit in the Temple (which practice persisted for centuries from the 40 years in the Desert wanderings).  Ever been in the Sinai desert?  It's DARK.

The Shape of that Temple Lamp is described in the Bible, but even so there are various opinions on how it was shaped.  Here are some.

From the Temple Institute website

And other Rabbinic traditions specify straight branches like this Hanukkah Menorah:

Note the different shapes for the branches holding up the flames on

a) the design prescribed for use in the Temple by the High Priest

b) the design seen on  carvings (Roman etc)

And note how the Hanukkah Menorah has 8 branches, not the 7 of the Temple version -- commemorating the 8 days that 1 day's worth of olive oil burned.

Note how even today old, traditional Hanukkah menorah designs are used, but how artists have embellished, re-designed, and re-imagined the Hanukkah Menorah.

And the Menorah has become a subject of freehand, creative art by and for kids, and for adults:

On a side note: The word Hanukkah or Chanukah is used to designate the process of dedicating the Temple, which included cleaning up the mess left by the invaders, repairing, and then purifying (spiritual cleansing), as well as making the oils and incense and other consumables according to the detailed instructions.

So today, when we buy a new house or move into an apartment, we hold a Chanukat Habayit -- a house-warming -- party.

Hebrew is a language which is not cognate to English, so it "works" grammatically in a different way. The exact same "word" appears in different forms and has different meanings -- but all the meanings are related even if they're not related in English.

The word generally used for Education is Chinuch.  It's the same word as the Holiday Chanukah, in a different grammatical form.  In Ancient Hebrew, Education is Dedication - like the Temple is dedicated, like the Holiday of Hanukkah commemorates.  A housewarming party for the mind/spirit/soul of a child.

If you ponder that conceptual linguistic relationship for a while, you may see how today's modern argument over "Common Core" educational standards can be resolved.  We think of education as something one person does to another -- as an adult "teaching" a child, basically by force and over the child's vigorous objection, for their own good.

What the child learns is the adult's choice, not the child's.  Yes, there are schools that try to break out of that box, and perhaps that movement will grow. Today we don't punish the child for misbehaving; we reward them with time "in the corner" with educational toys and optional activities.

But for the moment, think conceptually about transforming the subject of the Common Core discussion from parents vs. government to the ignition of a child's Soul into an enthusiastic dedication to Light.  Remember, the candle symbol is embraced by those who do not accept the concept of A Creator.

Redefining Education could make a great cultural theme-thread for the fabric of your Romance novel worldbuilding.   Your aliens might require Earth to re-define "Education."

Think about the child's Body -- and the child's Soul.

Here is the post I did which has a link to 6 other posts I did on the Soul-Time-Hypothesis:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/01/cycles-and-seasons-margaret-carter.html

Remember, the Soul enters manifestation through the dimension of Time.

The principle being practiced in Orthodox Chinuch today, by some groups, uses the principle of how a Soul takes possession of a Body through Time to help that Soul become dedicated to Life and Light.

The theory is that the Soul makes its first connection to its Body at conception (maybe before) (a moment in Time), and gradually, in stages through Birth (a Time) and at lines of demarcation throughout childhood -- (3 years is when Chinuch begins, 12 or 13 is when the Soul becomes fully responsible for its own body, and there are stages between), becomes more and more manifest, more in control of the Body, more dominant in the ebb and flow of the animal processes within the Body.

The Soul manifests through the dimension of Time through the medium of the Body.

Leveraging that principle, Chinuch gradually turns over responsibility, one thing at a time, to the child, as they gain dedication.

So what has that to do with the Candle as Symbol, and how to discover and invent symbols for an Alien Civilization?

If we look at a candle, we see two distinct parts -- the candle-shaft of wax & wick (or pot of oil & wick) -- and the flame.

Let's look at the candle shaft, or oil&wick part.  Maybe that's the real symbol.

In the actual instructions in the Bible, the Lamp to be lit in the Temple by the High Priest is described in meticulous detail.  It is to be made by hammering a single block of gold into this specified shape, and the shape is to be adorned with various "decorative" devices.

Since we know that no detail mentioned in the Bible is just filler, we know that the "decorations" may be decorative, adorning with beauty, but there is undoubtedly more to it than that.

The formula for making the oil is described in microscopic detail, and those who did the work trained apprentices in exactly how to do this oil preparation -- far more detail passed down orally than is written.  Much of that detail may be lost now.

After years of intense study, The Temple Institute has been recreating the implements used in the Temple Building itself.

This image and the quote below is from the Temple Institute website:
https://www.templeinstitute.org/history-holy-temple-menorah-1.htm
------QUOTE-----------
The menorah weighs one-half ton. It contains forty five kilograms of twenty four karat gold. Its estimated value is approximately three million dollars. The construction of the menorah was made possible through the generosity of Vadim Rabinovitch, a leader of the Jewish community of Ukraine.
--------END QUOTE---------

Note: THE UKRAINE.

It is amazing, impressive, and a powerful symbol even though it is not being kindled.  Without any flame, it is a symbol.

All by itself, without flame, the Lamp is a powerful symbol, and a potentially functional device, a physical reality.

So, perhaps the lamp or candle-holder for the flame and what is burned to make the flame (candle wax or oil) matters somehow in both symbol and actuality?

But it seems to be the focus is on either the Flame itself, or perhaps on the Light it sheds.

All kinds of things burn -- forest fires burn trees, shrubs and houses.  Oil wells can burn oil and gas before we can capture it and make it burn where we want it to.

Volcanoes and lightening set fires everywhere.  The Earth is always on fire somewhere.

Magnesium burns under water.

There's flame everywhere.  But a LAMP (or candle holder) contains, tames, directs, controls the Flame, bends Fire to our Will.

So the lamp or candle-shaft as container of the fire is a symbol, all by itself, of bending Nature to our Will.

Or, if we Identify with the Flame itself, the lamp or candle is a symbol of bending us to the constraints of material reality.

Is a candle a symbol of the thing that burns, or of the burning?

Or both?

Let's look at the symbol again.

We  generally favor pictures of lit candles.  If you go into a lamp store, they usually display most of the lamps or fixtures lit so you can see how beautiful they are.

The whole POINT of the Flame-Container image as a symbol is that it HOLDS LIGHT and SHEDS LIGHT.

The container contains something dangerous and puts it to use in our world, at our behest.

Does it symbolize POWER?

Note we began this exploration with the idea of the Power of the Powerless.

Does the candle symbolize the power we have over life?

No.  We use it to symbolize death, bereavement, sadness, and situations we have no power over.

Does the candle symbolize the powerlessness of humans in the face of life and nature?

No.  We use it to symbolize birthdays, romance, a warm Yule log at Year's Turning.

Does it symbolize Danger?

Well, we've used FIRE to signal from mountain top to mountain top -- both enemy-coming and triumph-assured signals have been done with fire and smoke.

So what DOES a "candle" taken as a whole, wax/oil, wick, flame, symbolize that it spans all these emotions?

Symbols generally bespeak that which can not be spoken, that which is not believable but is known to be true fact -- what is called "a higher truth."

Symbols communicate Higher Truth.

So let's ponder the underlying concept of all Romance, particularly Paranormal and Science Fiction Romance.

That is the elusive and maddeningly implausible concept of the Soul Mate.

To dedicate yourself to a life's search for your Soul Mate, you have to accept there is such a thing as Soul.  To fabricate Theme, you can postulate all sorts of different origins and natures for Souls.  Your Aliens may have Souls that differ in substance, structure and function both in actuality and in their mythology from that of humans.

But to do "Soul Mate" stories at all, to deal in the concepts related to Fate and even Luck, you have to postulate that the Soul is Real.

If the Soul is real, then it has to have some sort of relationship to the Body.

So to worldbuild for a Paranormal or Science Fiction romance story, we have to postulate a structure for the Human Being. (see why I said you have to read The Flicker Men?)

If our Humans (and maybe Aliens, too) are structured with a 1)Soul,
2))a Connector, and
3)a Body,

then the CANDLE is the perfect symbol for the entire Human Being -- or Sentient Being.

1)The Flame symbolizes the Soul,
2)the Wick symbolizes the connector
3)the wax/oil symbolizes the Body
And that jives perfectly with the Kabbalistic concept of what a human being is.

In the symbolic candle, we (the human) supply the spark, the flame is ignited, the wax/oil is CONVERTED (not destroyed, changed) and appears CONSUMED through TIME.

In the real human being, God supplies the spark, the Soul is ignited by the male-female Spiritual Interaction that parallels the creation of a zygote (the candle) by physical interaction, and through time, the Soul consumes the body just as the flame consumes the candle.

We grow old, wear down, and die just like a candle.

Sometimes we "gutter" and go out before our time.

The Soul is connected to the body through that "thread" -- the silver cord that has been reported during out-of-body experiences.

Our Souls take incarnation for the purpose of consuming a body through Time, converting the physical material into something spiritual.

As I noted, the Candle is a symbol of great power.  It makes no sense that this symbol has survived to this day, and is embraced and used by those who aspire to Good, and those who admire Evil, is used at occasions of Joy and Sadness as well as Commemoration and Spiritual Practices.

There is only one thing in this world I can think of that possesses all that and needs a symbol that represents such diversity of meaning.  That one thing is the Human Being.

We are Good and Evil, Joy and Sadness, a Light to the World and the Bringer of Darkness.

If you find a Soul Mate among Aliens in the Galaxy, those Aliens will likewise exhibit that kind of flexibility of spirit and purpose.

If Symbols convey a higher-truth, it is possible we can open First Contact without war just by establishing that we use the symbol of the Candle (or oil) Lamp.

The Lamp may be just as important as the Flame.

The way we put Candles into a Lamp designed for oil is an interesting variation.  Themes can be spun from that addition.

So, is it the Light that is the point of the candle, or is it the Lamp that contains the Candle.

If you are a Candle, then what contains you?

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

New Publisher - New Romance Novel Contest

Romance Novel Contest Link:

inkitt.com/swoon

This below is from an email that came to Jacqueline Lichtenberg on January 11, 2016.

---------quote-------------

I was looking for romance authors on Goodreads, and found your contact through a website link. Here is something you might be interested in:

Inkitt is using data analysis to determine and predict the success of a novel. We are also working together with some of the world’s biggest publishing houses to publish any potential best-sellers we find. We are just about to sign a massive deal for a fantasy book series.

We are now looking for our next novel to publish - this time from the romance genre.

In partnership with the Rebecca Friedman Literary Agency, tomorrow Inkitt is launching a brand new romance writing contest. With a publishing deal and a $500USD prize on the line for the contest winner, this is a huge opportunity for romance authors. The judging panel is made up of bestselling authors Laurelin Page and Melody Grace, as well as literary agent Rebecca Friedman herself.

Here is the contest link:

inkitt.com/swoon

Even if you are not interested for yourself, you could help many authors by publishing a blog post and by sharing the contest link on social media. This could be someone’s big break in the book world.
Best,
Mihaly Borbely
inkitt.com


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

I don't know anything about this publisher, but if you have a property in the drawer, you might try it here. Be sure to read the fine print to see when you can market it elsewhere.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Mediacracy

Did you know that the word "mediacracy" exists? It does, although the Blogger spell check, and the AOL spell check put red squiggly lines under it.

References were reluctantly revealed by a Google search, after helpful suggestions that I might really be looking for "mediocrity" or perhaps "mediocracy" (which latter, btw, contained politically biased suggestions that mediocracy referred to the most recent Republican administration.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediacracy
Mediacracy is a situation in government where the mass media effectively has control over the voting public.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mediacracy

Noun[edit]. mediacracy (countable and uncountable, plural mediacracies). Rule by the media; a situation in which the media dominates or controls the populace...

 

www.unwords.com/unword/mediacracy.html

Definition of mediacracy :. 1. (n.) Government, usually indirectly, by the popular media;

 

And there were three or four more sources. Apparently, great thinkers have been opining about the media controlling the voting public for several years. In former times, the great newspaper barons were allegedly thought to be potentially dangerous opinion makers and kingmakers.  

If newspaper barons interest you, there are some vigorous discussions of the part played in UK political elections using this search   However, I'm more interested in the types of social order that might inspire world building in a steam punk, cyber punk, science fiction, futuristic or fantasy novel. 

 

In a past blog post, I've opined about a Pharmacracy, and for a compendium of almost all the forms of government from acracy to xenocracy, go here:http://phrontistery.info/govern.html

I particularly like Stephen Crisomalis's term "kakistocracy" and the excessively polite explanation for a word surely derived from "poop". 

(See http://www.heptune.com/poopword.htmlhttp://www.heptune.com/poopword.html )  And, by the way, the top ten pages of a Google search led me to a Brazilian football player. I had to know the scatological synonym for "kaka" and search for "kaka + ...." in order to find the poop-word site.

 

It must be said, the phronitistery site's excellent list does not include "Pharmacracy", nor does it include "Mediacracy", but "pharma-" and "media-" may be of Latin origin, and "-cracy" is Greek.

 

 How did I get onto this train of thought? A confluence of blogs. One was a blog post by Chris Castle which discusses the power of Search, and asks how far, in theory, a search engine with a monopoly and flexible morals could influence an electorate.

https://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/the-devils-greatest-trick-after-canada-could-google-throw-a-u-s-election/

 

One of many interesting speculations in the piece is what would happen if, for example, a search engine gave users the option to filter out the name of a political candidate that they disliked. Such as "Trump".  What if the Search engine imposed a filter without being asked... such as making rapid encounters with "kaka" of the excremental kind  hard to find?  Or the helpful attempts to direct me to "mediocrity" or "mediocracy".

Chris Castle's blog post also discusses the power of the media to influence pharmaceutical drug taking by a suggestible populace. Drug marketers create a drug, and then create a need (or the perception that there is a need), for what the drug does. A solution in search of a problem!

 
http://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/CJR-2005-07-Bitter-Pill.pdf

 

The next article was Philly Law Blog, ostensibly partly about the erosion of The First Amendment, or at least of free speech. (I usually follow the law blog for information on current doings relating to copyright matters.)

 

https://phillylawblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/this-is-the-article-central-high-school-doesnt-want-you-to-see/

I googled The First Amendment: 

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Perhaps the loophole is the word "Congress".  It seems that the press itself, also various universities, and a State department of education or two are able to abridge freedom of speech without the assistance of Congress.

As a writer and a logophile, I am bemused and offended by the continual banning of words, and dictionaries dropping words, and the touchy feely folks who tinker with politically incorrect words in the worlds' most important religious texts. There is quite a difference between forgiving "trespasses" and forgiving "debts"  for instance.

 

The final blog article was by Richard Russo for the Authors Guild, among other things comparing the permissionless innovativeness of Google to that of the scavenging seagulls in Finding Nemo.

https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/richard-russo-on-authors-guild-v-google/

Not only does the word mediacracy exist. Some might suspect that a mediacracy has been established, and we never noticed.

 

Rowena Cherry

Colorful Vocabulary

Contrary to the popular belief that using lots of profane or obscene language demonstrates laziness, limited linguistic skills, and lack of imagination, a new study suggests that copious swearing correlates with having a larger vocabulary in general.

A Good Sign If You Curse a Lot

The experiment tested "general verbal fluency" by asking people to produce lists of words beginning with certain letters, names of animals, and taboo words. The first two positively correlated with the last. According to the WASHINGTON POST article, "These findings suggest the idea that 'fluency is fluency,' as the researchers write. People who could recall a lot of bad words also tended to be more eloquent in general." People who are truly at a loss for words come out with place-holders such as "um" and "er," not profanity.

I'm a little dubious of the conclusion. Simply because an individual can "recall a lot of bad words" tells us nothing about whether that person habitually uses the words in everyday conversation. The article also cautions that most people still have a negative view of those who swear a lot. Anyway, it's an interesting angle on the topic.

Psychologist Steven Pinker's book THE STUFF OF THOUGHT includes a long chapter titled, "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television." (That rule was invented before cable, of course.) The criterion by which the notorious seven were chosen is puzzling. Our language has lots of words equally offensive that aren't on the list. And one that is, as Pinker remarks, doesn't seem to belong—"tits." Although slightly vulgar, it's hardly obscene. The chapter explores in detail the kinds of words labeled profane or obscene (mainly terms related to religion, sex, gore, and excrement) and queries why certain combinations of sounds are taboo while their neutral or euphemistic synonyms can be spoken in polite conversation. Pinker points out that cursing constitutes a sort of verbal assault; it forces listeners to think about the unpleasant aspects of the subject (sex, excrement, etc.) whether they want to or not.

Personally, I don't use the taboo words in conversation. I wasn't brought up hearing them (I didn't know the worst of them even existed until adulthood, when I encountered them in books around the time they ceased being considered "unprintable"), and because of that early conditioning, they still make me wince. I associate them with anger and abuse. When upset, I resort to phrases such as "dang it," "rats," and "heavens to Murgatroyd." I'll write the once-forbidden syllables—sparingly—in fictional dialogue if they suit the particular character's personality and situation. After all, my characters don't have to be (and shouldn't all be) just like me. Nevertheless, if subjected to the experiment described in the article, I think I could produce a fairly long list of such words. The seven that used to be banned from TV only scratch the surface.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Marketing Fiction In A Changing World - Part 17 - Make Your Living At Non-Fiction

Marketing Fiction In A Changing World
Part 17
Make Your Living At Non-Fiction To Support Fiction Writing
by
 Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Last week we heard from a Guest who works as a High School teacher, clueing teens in on the secrets of analyzing novels for the moving parts we talk about on this blog.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/12/guest-post-star-trek-fan-fiction-writer.html

The previous parts of this series on Marketing Fiction in a Changing World are indexed here:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2014/05/index-to-marketing-fiction-in-changing.html

Today let's look at how fiction writers actually make a living.

In "reality" the life of a writer is not like in the movies.  There is no background music except the din of the telephone as collection agencies swarm.

A living wage is something far different from the national minimum wage.  As a writer of original material, not a work-for-hire, you are not working for wages.  You are a business owner working for yourself, as a self-employed executive.  You make a contract with the publisher, licensing your product, not "selling" it.  But very often, the owner makes less than the employee whose wages he/she is paying, just as publishers make more than the writers.

As you noted, Leslye Lilker is the originator of the enchanting, famous, and utterly riveting character of Sahaj, Spock's son in an alternate universe Star Trek.  That's fan fiction, but it is professional quality writing.

Most of us who write fiction, fan fiction, or any form of genre fiction including science fiction novels, Romance stories within science fiction, or actual blended Science Fiction Romance, Paranormal Romance, or any variation, find the author's portion of the cover price just way too little to live on.

Unless you sell over 150,000 copies of every title your publisher issues, you just can't make ends meet.  Writing pays less (way less) than minimum wage if you just write stories of novels.

That is why authors are re-issuing their own books as self-published after they retrieve the rights from the original Mass Market publisher.  We all need suplemental income.

Intermittent, full-time-temporary employment is often the answer to this problem.

Here is an example of where writers get that kind of work.

NPR put this estimate up in the middle of August 2015.  Check out the amount of money being spent, and understand commercials are like little movies -- they need WRITERS.

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/19/432759311/2016-campaign-tv-ad-spending

--------------QUOTE-----------
The 2016 election is already providing a lot of eye-popping statistics about the ballooning spending candidates will do in the 2016 election. Among them:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's superPAC has already raised more — in the first half of a non-election year — than Obama's main superPAC did in all of the 2012 cycle.
The latest big TV ad buy in the 2016 presidential election — on Ohio Gov. John Kasich's behalf, totaling $375,000 — is worth more than seven times the annual median U.S. household income.

There have already been seven times more political ads in the 2016 election than at this point in the 2012 election, according to Elizabeth Wilner, senior vice president at Kantar's Campaign Media and Analysis Group.
Or just try to digest the aggregate numbers. For instance, political TV ad spending will top $4.4 billion for federal races this year, up from $3.8 billion in 2012, Wilner estimated.

Yet TV ads seem to have only small effects on how Americans vote. So why do campaigns spend such huge chunks of their budgets on television spots? It's the need for name recognition, at first. Later on, fear, habit and the hunger for the small sliver of votes at play also drive the huge spending.
-----------END QUOTE------------

Writing for a political campaign is intermittent full time work using and honing skills similar to fiction writing.  Moreover, moving around inside a political campaign will fill you up with story ideas -- with material that directly connects to your intended audience.

Politicians need to reach an "everybody" audience, so your personal fiction audience will be represented among those who work for candidates and those who listen to the messages.

These numbers are about the National Presidential Campaign.

You don't land one of those jobs the first time you venture into non-fiction writing, copywriting, advertising copy writing.

In fact, there are courses in advertising writing, and there's a long apprenticeship.

So consider volunteering with a local political campaign, write local driveway-throw-away newspaper articles about a candidate, get a toe in the door by writing "letter to the editor" or op-ed, write on blogs for the candidate.

Start small, local, and working for people you know personally.  If you can work up the ranks of unpaid volunteers, and become a paid writer -- next election cycle you might land an actual worthwhile job, a paying job, for a State office candidate.

Paper newspapers are dying, as we've noted in this series of posts.  But local advertisement papers still exist -- they don't pay much, but they are a resume item credential.  Learn to handle social media and keep up on all the changes -- remember to tell your political advocacy story in pictures.  Those folks on YouTube who advocate for candidates freelance are using professional video production tools and talents.  But you can start a channel and put up your own advocacy, displaying your writing skills.

More and more money is going into politics -- that won't last because Congress is going to re-do the laws (again) to get around the Supreme Court, but while the money allowed into politics is unlimited -- grab your piece of the action.

Become a VOICE -- but be sure to use a different byline than you do for novel writing.

Here's a discussion of when to use a pen-name:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/06/reviews-15-by-jacqueline-lichtenberg.html

The most successful, best-selling writers I know of began their writing careers in journalism.  It is still the training ground.  If you didn't major in journalism in college, you can attain the skills and reputation by volunteer writing.

Remember, every word you see or hear about candidates was WRITTEN.  And some of those writers got paid a lot more than you'll make on a Science Fiction Romance title.


Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Will SCOTUS Hear The Authors Guild?

Last week the Authors Guild filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking it to review an October decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Authors Guild v. Google, a case that began in 2005 as a result of Google’s wholesale copying of millions of copyright-protected works.

Please read the press release here.

https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-petitions-supreme-court-to-rule-on-google-copying-millions-of-books-without-permission/

The Authors Guild is encouraging authors to help raise the visibility of the petition and of the issue in general by promoting our press release and any positive media coverage. Additionally, the Authors' Guild put together a sequence of questions and answers highlighting why it’s so crucial for the future of authorship and copyright law that the high Court weigh in to redress the Second Circuit’s alleged misinterpretation of fair use. 

You can find it here.

https://www.authorsguild.org/authors-guild-v-google-questions-answers/

Here are two examples of the important Q & As.

Why is the Authors Guild still pursuing this case against Google?Google copied 20 million books to create a massive and uniquely valuable database, all without asking for copyright permission or paying their authors a cent. It mines this vast natural language storehouse for various purposes, not least among them to improve the performance of its search and translation services. The problem is that before Google created Book Search, it digitized and made many digital copies of millions of copyrighted books, which the company never paid for. It never even bought a single book. That, in itself, was an act of theft. If you did it with a single book, you’d be infringing.

How complicated can it be for Google to ask an author permission to use her work?Exactly our point: the rights are eminently clearable. The court refused to acknowledge this point or take it into consideration. For example, our sister organization, the Authors Registry, as well as the Copyright Clearance Center, find authors for royalties from overseas uses with little difficulty or expense. And there are innumerable collective rights organizations around the world who do this all of the time—without much difficulty, and with much less money than Google.

Happy New Year!

Rowena Cherry

Time Travel and Language

The season finale of THE LIBRARIANS (on the TNT network) illustrated this problem. Two members of the team jump back to early seventeenth-century England and meet Shakespeare. Flynn, the genius polymath head librarian, priding himself on his mastery of dialects, addresses the locals in sentences randomly peppered with thees, thous, and forsooths. His strange speech patterns convince them he's a foreign spy. His partner salvages the mission by claiming they talk oddly because they're from Flanders.

One of my "pet peeves" is reading a tale of travel into the distant past that doesn't confront the language issue.The Librarians manage okay in Shakespeare's era because that falls into the early modern period. Although their vocabularies might include words strange to each other, basic understanding is no problem. When an author sends a character any further back without explaining how he or she can communicate, my suspension of disbelief is (as Marion Zimmer Bradley would have said) hanged by the neck until dead. Oddly, the TV series SLEEPY HOLLOW goofs badly in the opposite direction in one early episode. Ichabod and Abigail encounter descendants of the "lost colony" of Roanoke, sealed into a pocket dimension for the past four centuries. Their dialect is unintelligible to the modern heroes until Ichabod figures out that they're speaking Middle English! No!! That's at least a hundred years off. The earliest English colonists arrived in North America in the late sixteenth century, contemporary with Shakespeare and not long before the King James Bible, which many ordinary laymen still read today. I didn't give up on the series after that critical research failure, but it was close.

One time travel romance I've read that sent the heroine back to the medieval Scottish Highlands completely flubbed the language issue by having the Highlanders speak broad Scots, as if they lived in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. In the unlikely event they spoke any English at all, in this case it WOULD be Middle English, and most likely the northern dialect, not the London version in which Chaucer wrote—therefore incomprehensible to a twentieth-century American with no background in that subject. Since this novel was a fantasy rather than science fiction, all the author had to do would have been to drop in a sentence stating or hinting that the heroine understands the local language by magic. But she didn't. In E. Nesbit's classic THE STORY OF THE AMULET, the children travel to many different places at various points in the distant past. They understand and speak the local languages in every case—but they have a magic amulet, so the reader can easily accept this ability.

Connie Willis's series about time-traveling Oxford historians (DOOMSDAY BOOK, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, BLACKOUT, and ALL CLEAR) features the well-known SF trope of a device that packs needed information into the subject's brain in a few hours of intensive treatment, languages included. SF stories can use technology similar to this or a variation on the familiar "universal translator." Or they can have their protagonists learn languages the old-fashioned way, as Hugh and his family have to do when a nuclear blast throws them from about 1960 to the far-distant future in Heinlein's FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD. Heinlein also considers this issue in DOOR INTO SUMMER (whose narrator skips thirty years ahead by "cold sleep") and TIME FOR THE STARS (whose narrator ages only a few years during a near-lightspeed interstellar voyage while about eighty years pass on Earth); both protagonists are puzzled by later generations' slang and other newly coined words. In fantasy time travel fiction, as in THE STORY OF THE AMULET (or stories such as the Narnia series, where travel to other dimensional planes is no barrier to mutual intelligibility), magic can always be invoked. I just want authors to recognize there IS a potential problem and address it somehow. They should also keep in mind that linguistic change doesn't apply only to English. An American heroine who speaks modern French wouldn't necessarily get along any better in twelfth-century France than she would in England of the same period. A character fluent in Hebrew, if transported back to first-century Palestine, should manage fine in synagogue and Temple services, but conversing with people on the street would require Aramaic or ancient Greek. An author could also have fun with a character who prepares in advance for travel to the first-century Mediterranean world (for example) by studying classical Latin and Greek—only to be tripped up by colloquialisms and slang not taught by the standard textbooks.

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series shows awareness of linguistic issues even though Claire travels back only two centuries. Although she has no trouble talking to the eighteenth-century Scottish Highlanders—those that speak English, anyway—language change does cause a few small misunderstandings. When she tells the men who capture her on arrival that she's a nurse, they think she means a wet-nurse; the profession of "nurse" in the medical sense didn't yet exist by that name (or, if it did, wasn't well-known as such). She has to explain to Jamie what a sadist is, quite accurately, because the Marquis de Sade didn't write his notorious books until near the end of the century. When at one point she jokingly tells Jamie, "Go directly to Hell, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars," he's naturally baffled (though of course this is more of a cultural than a linguistic lapse of communication).

Jumping back to the present, Happy 2016 to all!

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Guest Post - Star Trek Fan Fiction Writer, Author of Sahaj, Leslye Lilker

Guest Post

Star Trek Fan Fiction Writer, Leslye Lilker 

Author of Sahaj Commenting On 

Kraith, House of Zeor, and New Sahaj Stories Now Available

Let me introduce Leslye Lilker.

She is one of the Greats of Star Trek's original fan fiction writers.  Her series of stories about Sahaj, an original character she created, has the same stature as Kraith, Night of the Twin Moons, and half a dozen others that are still famous.

After I sold my first science fiction story, I became a Star Trek fanfic writer, and now I have been quoted in academic books on fanfic, and on Star Trek fanfic.  My fanfic is more famous than Sime~Gen.  I have done articles for many academic publications on Star Trek fanfic as well as being mentioned in other academic books about Star Trek.

www.amazon.com

 
http://www.amazon.com/Fic-Fanfiction-Taking-Over-World/dp/1939529190/

In August, 2015, I got a call from France -- yes, the country!  A producer doing a TV documentary on Star Trek fandom in the USA called me because she had read my article in Anne Jamison's book, FIC.  She called to make an appointment to interview me at my house for her documentary.  Fan Fiction is alive, well, and still having a growing impact on the whole world, and what is old is new again.  Hence, Science Fiction Romance writers can benefit from studying the fanfic origins of the peculiar blend of science and fiction that is now evolving into a new field.

The most quoted Trek item I've done is Kraith, such as this one in New York Magazine recently:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-very-cool-development-kraith-in-new.html

Kraith is an alternate universe aired ST:ToS series that was printed on paper.  The various stories appeared in a multitude of fanzines, and were then collected in Kraith Collected -- a 5 volume series now on the web for free reading.

http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/kraith/


In her comments here below, Leslye mentions the Kraith -- a large ceramic cup, handmade and no two-alike, a Vulcan artform.  Kraith Collected covers each have an image originated by contributing artists, so here are the images that were used.

During the years the 50 or so Kraith Creators who contributed ideas, stories, poems, artwork, etc were working, other fanzines like Night of the Twin Moons by Jean Lorrah, and the Sahaj Universe series of stories by Leslye Lilker, (now Leah Charifson) were also being published.  I read them all, of course.

As you know, Jean Lorrah and I partnered on Sime~Gen, so we never lost touch the way so many of the people involved in the Star Trek fanzine scene did. Recently, many of these disconnected souls have turned up on Facebook and reconnected.

Leslye Lilker found so many of us interested in more Sahaj stories that she broken out her outlines from the 1970-80s and has begun to write those stories. She has already produced several new ones about Sahaj's teen years, and one that has him at age twenty-seven.

In the intervening years, she has been teaching students to dissect and understand novels in the basic terms of conflict, resolution, main character, theme -- the functional components that have always made stories compelling.

The original Sahaj stories exhibited professional grade writing craftsmanship, and the new ones shine with "best seller" vibrations.  As I have maintained all these years, just because it's not a Mass Market paperback doesn't mean it's not perfectly crafted.

Sahaj is, in Leslye's alternate universe Trek, Spock's son by a vindictive Vulcan woman, "now" off the scene.  You really have to read the stories of how all that happened. Then you need to read all the stories about how poor Spock, already in conflict with his human side, attempts to parent his oh-so-emotional son. In 1983 we left twelve-year-old Sahaj in a fairly stable environment as he’s settled into growing up in Sarek's household, with Spock coming to visit as much as he can.

Sahaj is learning the “whys and wherefores” of Vulcan culture, but is acutely aware that he doesn't quite belong and he may choose another path, but he has a plan which will eventually bring him his lifelong goal: to live with his father full time, which would be on the Enterprise or some other Starfleet home.  This is a much better life than he was headed for when he was born, so for all the awkwardness of his position, he's comfortable in it, hatching ambitions as any pre-teen would.

So this is the ongoing saga of a child we meet early in his life, and now watch grow into adulthood. It is a compelling story that hooks readers, whether they are Star Trek fans or not.

So far, it's not "Romance" -- but it is a grand science fiction story setting up something very romantic indeed.

Reconnecting with old friends, Leslye found others still shared her interest in classic Trek, and when one of the Sime~Gen folks on her Facebook Group posted the URL for Kraith, she reread "Spock's Affirmation" -- and sent me the following commentary, which she has edited once.

Keep in mind that she was talking to me, and we both know that Kraith was written as writing exercises for a class on writing, and as commentary on aired-Trek's dodging away from what I knew was "real" science fiction.

I added an alien dimension to Spock -- truly a non-human -- and to Vulcan culture.  And I added so much Worldbuilding that reviews of Kraith by academics peg the Hero of the series not as Spock or Kirk, but as Vulcan Culture.

I can't argue with that.

Note: "Spock's Affirmation" was written many years before they invented and added kolinahr to the official Star Trek Universe.  Copies of Kraith Collected had been seen around Gene Roddenberry's office at Paramount.

Here in her own words is how this Kraith story struck Leslye Lilker on re-reading.

-----------QUOTE-------------

Upon rereading "Spock's Affirmation" some 40 years later, I found myself unable to analyze it the way I teach my students to analyze literature. Yes, the main plot is Kirk must get the Kraith, Spock, and the dancers to their destination by a certain time. There are hints of subplots but they are mere skeletons, waiting for the tendons, muscle, and flesh that come later in the series. It adds intrigue but the reader’s mood (the feeling the reader has at the end) is less than satisfied. For example, the subplot of 'what happened to Sarek?’ is not addressed in this story. Everyone assumes he’s dead except for Spock, but we don’t get that answer at the end of “AFFIRMATION”. That’s okay, though, because we know how sagas are.

Characterization: the most interesting character to me was the one Jacqueline invented:  Ssarsun. He/she/it/?? is, multileveled, flawed, totally believable (if you can believe a telepathic lizard raised on Vulcan - and I can). Ssarsun has a sense of humor, can drink Scott under the table, and is determined to save Spock’s life. What more could a reader want? Spock, usually my favorite character in anything I read, has morphed, without motivation or reason, from the Spock we saw on TOS, to an alien, a Vulcan who maybe has already achieved kolinahr, a complete purging of emotion. Since this was why Jacqueline wrote “Affirmation” I would have to say she achieved her goal. If I pretended that this was a new character, I could accept him as I could accept Michael Valentine or other alien SF personas. So the role Spock played worked. I just didn’t like him much as Spock. His dialogue was more informal than I was used to. There didn’t seem to be a real connection from him to Kirk or McCoy. I think the worst part for me was when he came back from the Affirmation with the news that not only his newly taken wife but his still in utero son were dead. The son would have been the next “kaydid” (which is what my eyes saw instead of the Vulcan word Jacqueline created) and Spock’s only reaction was to say he was tired and needed a day to recuperate.  But that is imposing my own needs on this character. As Professor Thomas Foster states in How To Read Literature Like A Professor, don’t read with your own eyes. Read from the author’s eyes.

The point of view was difficult to describe, as the story was written the way John Steinbeck wrote OF MICE AND MEN, as a screenplay. With the exception of McCoy and Ssarsun, the reader can only judge by what the characters do or say (character traits.)

I get that Spock is the last of his line to be a katydid, which is how I think of your word for the Vulcan in his line who can conjoin many in a mindmeld. I am uncertain of why this would be important, but then, I was quite tired and slightly overwhelmed by personal matters when I read it. Yet I got it.

The tone of “Affirmation” (the writer’s attitude toward the subject) comes across loud and clear: critical of the way aliens were being portrayed on the screen.

Since “Affirmation” is the beginning of a saga and because it was written for a TV show, theme is difficult to express. We teach that theme comes out of conflict. The conflicts in “Affirmation” were many but the resolutions were few, so I cannot define a theme at this point.

I’m going to have to say that Kirk is the protagonist because he’s the one who has the goal to achieve. I’m not quite sure who the antagonist is. I suspect it is the portion of Vulcan society who wants Sarek’s line dead.

Now, all of this you spoke of in your introduction but I didn't read your introduction until after I read the story. What you did so well, was hook your reader into the big story. There’s a huge alien Universe hulking just behind the curtain. Will I go back for more? Of course. I mean, I already have, in my previous life. This is just rereading, with a somewhat more professional eye.

I do have to laugh though. When I described the bottle of Tembrua in my rewrite of "The Bronze Cord" it sort of  looked like the picture of the Kraith cup.  It wasn't intended, but we are all touched by what we read, what we see, the politics going on around us, the technology we have at our fingertips, and all of that may come out in your own writing, even if it is from a subconscious level.

I liked what I read well enough to want to read more. That's a very good thing.! And it is also a very good thing that this story can hold up after all these years. It’s a definite hook, which captures the attention of your readers and leaves them wanting more.

---------END QUOTE--------

Here is further commentary by Leslye Lilker on the Sime~Gen Novel, House of Zeor, which was written concurrently with Kraith.

------------QUOTE-----------
I dragged myself home after another ‘first day of school’ today wanting nothing more than a nap, but in my inbox was a little reminder that I had promised to compare House of Zeor to “Affirmation.” So I took my kindle to bed with me and flew through Chapter One and started Chapter Two but I had to force myself to stop and rest. And that, dear friends, in my opinion, is the best thing one can say to a writer: “I couldn’t put it down.”

That same Professor Foster mentioned above also has a book out called (you got it!) How To Read Novels Like A Professor.  He states that a decently written piece of fiction will foreshadow the entire story in the first few pages. And Zeor does. As a matter of fact, I think I’ve pieced together enough evidence to put it in the archetype of a quest story.

Let’s start with the quest. Your quester is Hugh Valleroy. His stated reason for the quest: to rescue Aisha Rauf. The stated place to go: Sime Territory. Obstacles along the way: first and foremost, Klyd, the channel, didn’t want him as a partner. It would be a dangerous journey, and the danger started with Klyd drawing selyn at an intensity enough to burn and nearly kill him. The real reason for going: self knowledge.

The point of view is third person limited, my personal favorite, although it does bring in the possibility of bias and unreliability. Unlike “Affirmation” the reader immediately sinks into Hugh’s head, feels what he feels, understands his thoughts. This makes for a dynamic character who is affected by what is happening around him.

The conflict is already clear: Sime v Gen: both human mutants who must learn that they need one another (okay, so I read the book a long time ago and it stuck with me.) So out of this man v. man conflict comes a theme of infinite diversity in infinite combinations combines to create a greater truth and beauty.

I think that the reason Zeor is a better crafted book is because the author was telling a story that she wanted to read. She created the characters (and I don’t deny I see Trek footsteps in this -- and that’s okay) but the novel is not contrived just to prove a point, the way “Affirmation” seemed to be. After reading just the first chapter, I can tell you I can see these people. They are real. I like them. I want more. I want to know what happens next.

I just have one question: is his name pronounced KLIDE (long I) or KLID (like lid)? I never did know.
-----------END QUOTE----------

Klyd Farris is with a long “I” – here is the page with sound files of the Nivet Territory accent for a number of words and characters in the Sime~Gen Novels.
http://www.simegen.com/jl/nivetsoundfiles/

---------QUOTE-----------

BIOGRAPHY: Leslye Lilker

My mother hooked me into Trek when it first aired. I watched a few of the first season and liked the show, but I was 15 and dating. In fact, I was headed out on a date the night the second season started, and she stopped me at the door. “You have to watch this show. You’ll like the guy with the ears.”

Mothers know best. I never did go out on the date that night, but made him stay home and watch “Amok Time” with me.

Another eight years or so would pass before I renewed my interest in the reruns. I distinctly remember watching “This Side of Paradise” and wondering why our heroes were running around the galaxy with all the girls and no one was procreating. Then I thought of writing a “what if Kirk” had a kid and decided immediately that he probably had dozens and who cared? But Spock? My Spock? My Spock who suffered so with his half human side? What better way to help him resolve his own issues by having him help his own child resolve his? And why should it be easy? Why not have the kid be old enough to express himself clearly? Why not have him brought up with all emotions engaged, even though he was 3/4 Vulcan? Why not have his first words to Spock when, at ten years of age, he meets his biological father for the first time be: “Take your logic and shove it widthwise!”

And thus Sahaj came into being, and a series was born.

   (Sahaj Collected turns up on Amazon for as much as $200 as a collector's item. JL)

Of course, it took years and years to flesh things out, to learn how to create scenes that popped for readers. I have published the very first scene I wrote about Sahaj in IDIC #1 in 1975. Then I put it beside the rewrite I did in 1977. Then I added the rewrite I started in 1995 and finished in 2015. Anyone who wants to demonstrate the development of a writer is free to use those three versions. But understand: I am not holding myself up as the model. I am still learning every day.

I’ve had many careers over my life, but when I was 55 I decided to become a certified English teacher, and have been spending the last ten years teaching HS sophomores at all levels how to communicate through their writing. This is a good example, I think, of learn one, teach one, because it is in the teaching that the lessons are really learned.

I’ve just released a new Sahaj story -- one of humor, which I will use this year in teaching my kids the benefits of puns. It is currently available though Smashwords, and once they approve it for their catalogue, it will go to Amazon, Apple, and wherever else they market their stuff. Oh, Barnes and Nobel, too. As time allows, I will offer the original zines, rewrites of my stories in the original zines, and more new Sahaj stories. If you want to keep updated, friend Sahaj Xtmprsqntwlfb on FB and he’ll let you know when there’s something new.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010152360445&fref=ts

“Nothing Fishy Going On Here” https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/569672

LL&P
Leah (Leslye)

--------------END GUEST POST----------

If you want my advice, go read as much Sahaj as you can lay hands/Kindle on.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Boxing Day Notice For European Visitors

Thank you for visiting, European visitors!

We are required to make sure that our European visitors are aware that European Union laws require us (the authors) to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on our blog. (Not by the authors. We have no control over the cookies. We don't even know what the cookies are! They are Google's cookies). In many cases, these laws also require us to obtain consent. 

If you follow this blog, we assume that you consent.

Google tells us that, as a courtesy, the good Google folks have added a notice on our blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. 

Google tells us that we are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for our blog, (but we have no idea how to go about confirming whether or not this notice actually works, short of asking European visitors to leave a comment telling us!) and that it displays (but we don't know how to do that, unless European visitors kindly leave a comment to that effect). If we employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for us.  I don't think we do, but I'm not omniscient.

What I do to avoid being tracked by Google is to go into my Safari Preferences every day, and I delete every cookie that I don't want.

My real blog follows, but this blog will repeat from time to time.

Best wishes,

Rowena Cherry

Alternate Histories

Kate Hill's guest blog inspired me to some thoughts about the Alternate History subgenre. Two of my favorite series fall into that category, S. M. Stirling's DIES THE FIRE universe (as well as his stand-alone novel THE PESHAWAR LANCERS, with one related novella) and Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (Napoleonic War with aviators on flying dragons). Alternate history has gained new popularity in recent years with the rise of steampunk. If not set in an author-created secondary world, steampunk stories are usually alt-hist versions of the Victorian era. One of my favorite vampire authors, P. N. Elrod, recently released a novel in that subgenre, THE HANGED MAN, featuring a female psychic investigator in a nineteenth-century England somewhat different from our own. Neil Gaiman's delightfully bizarre short work "A Study in Emerald" places a Sherlock Holmes spinoff in an alternate nineteenth century where eldritch Lovecraftian entities have taken over the world, with Queen Victoria herself one of them. Human society muddles along well enough under the allegedly benign rule of the Great Old Ones, but resistance movements do exist. I'm also a big fan of Kim Newman's ANNO-DRACULA and its sequels, in which British and European history as we know it takes a dark twist when Count Dracula, instead of being slain by Van Helsing and company, defeats them and forcibly marries the Queen, thus becoming Prince Consort and de facto ruler of the realm.

I agree with Kate that an advantage of alternate history fiction is its visible connection with our own world. I confess I started to lose interest in Stirling's "Island in the Sea of Time" trilogy, well-written and engaging though it is, when the characters (thrown back thousands of years by an Event that transported the entire island of Nantucket through time) sailed to the Mediterranean region in the Bronze Age and commenced altering the entire future history of Earth, potentially beyond recognition. Good story, but a different kind of story.

Alternate history should be distinguished from what's often called "secret history," in which the publicly acknowledged events of the past aren't changed, but major influences act behind the scenes to subvert the truth as we know it. For example, in Katherine Kurtz's TWO CROWNS FOR AMERICA, occult forces on both sides conspire to support or undermine the American Revolution, with the full knowledge of George Washington and other leading figures of the time. The eighteenth-century flashbacks in the TV series SLEEPY HOLLOW fall into the same category.

How close the point-of-departure falls to our own time heavily affects how far the result will differ from our timeline. Consider how much time the "butterfly effect" has in which to operate. For instance, the twenty-first century in the world of Stirling's "Island" trilogy, after thousands of years of divergent development, would look hardly anything like ours. On the other hand, Jo Walton's "Small Change" trilogy (beginning with FARTHING), eight years after England made peace with Germany early in World War II, reveals Europe under Nazi rule and Britain leaning toward fascism, but the setting has recognizable similarities to our own 1950s. Speaking of Nazis, Norman Spinrod's rather odd novel THE IRON DREAM takes a metafictional approach to twentieth-century history. The book is framed as a commentary on a book-within-the-book, a science fiction novel written by a minor German author named Adolf Hitler, who failed as an artist and, instead of entering politics, moved to the U.S. and became a writer. So authors can create many different types of "gateways" into alternate histories.

The further in the past your point-of-departure occurs, the less likely it is that any historical characters from our own timeline will exist in the alternate world. After all, a day's difference in the date of a baby's conception would result in a different individual, because a different sperm cell would fertilize the egg. "Butterfly" one such timing change into millions. Those historical characters often show up anyhow, though, because it's just more fun that way. I'm perfectly willing to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy spotting parallel-world incarnations of real-life statesmen, generals, authors, and other notable figures.

Near-future science fiction involuntarily morphs into alternate history when overtaken by real-world events. Heinlein turned this inevitable development to his advantage in his Future History series. In his later novels, he establishes that the books in this "history" represent only one of many different timelines in the development of twentieth-century Earth.

Check out Uchronia, a website on alternate history with a huge bibliography:

Uchronia

Merry Christmas and Happy Yuletide!

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Index to Theme-Plot-Character-Worldbuilding Integration

Index

to

Theme-Plot-Character-Worldbuilding

 Integration 

Posts in this series:
Part 1 -
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/04/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 2 -
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/04/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding_14.html

Part 3 - index to Monthly Aspectarian Reviews
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/04/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding_21.html

Part 4 - Sidewalk Superintendent
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/05/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 5 Murderer In The Mikdash
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/05/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding-part.html

Part 6 - Fallacy, Misnomer and the Contradiction
NOTE: Fallacy and Misnomer have been discussed separately, links in this Part 6
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/12/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 7 - The Legacy as Motivation
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/03/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Part 8 - Would Aliens Share Human Fallacy and Religious Impulse?
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/04/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 9 - Convincing Elder Characters
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2017/05/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 10 - How To Marry A Billionaire
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/03/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 11 - Arranging Marriages
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/06/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Part 12 - Character Driven Plot
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/06/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding_25.html

Part 13 - Historical Verisimilitude

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/07/theme-plot-character-worldbuilding.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

This Week In Copyright

Is the worm beginning to turn? The "worm" of internet piracy is rather like an aircraft carrier. It has massive inertia, and it has government backing. It took a jury this week to send a powerful message to ISPs that allegedly profit from piracy and exploit the loopholes in "Safe Harbor."

Allegedly, a manager at an internet company instructed employees how to handle "customers" and "subscribers" who were alleged repeated copyright infringers.

https://phillylawblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/the-truth-about-bmg-v-cox/#more-6297

"Notably, Cox’s Manager of Customer Abuse Operations, wrote in an email:

As we move forward in this challenging time we want to hold on to every subscriber we can. With this in mind if a customer is terminated for DMCA, you are able to reactivate them after you give them a stern warning about violating our AUP and the DMCA. We must still terminate in order for us to be in compliance with safe harbor but once termination is complete, we have fulfilled our obligation. After you reactivate them the DMCA ‘counter’ restarts; The procedure restarts with the sending of warning letters, just like a first offense. This is to be an unwritten semi-policy… We do not talk about it or give the subscriber any indication that reactivating them is normal. Use your best judgment and remember to do what is right for our company and subscribers… This only pertains to DMCA violations. It does not pertain to spammers, hackers, etc."

The musician-and-songwriter related blog, The Trichordist, has an excellent summary of the week's top copyright-related news, not all of which is good for singers and songwriters and other creators whose income is controlled by government bureaucrats in the Copyright Royalty Board.

http://thetrichordist.com/2015/12/19/artists-rights-advocates-make-gains-in-2015-webtech-admissions-laid-bare/
"DMCA abuse that has been used as a shield against copyright infringement liability by the internet and web/tech communities. Many businesses including many ISP’s and content hosting platforms such as YouTube have used the DMCA to build massively profitable businesses that are largely comprised of infringing works, otherwise known as User Pirated Content. That may be about to change thanks to this ruling."

All the best,
Rowena Cherry

Guest Post by Kate Hill: Writing on Alternate Earths

The Main Benefit and Challenge of Writing a Story Set on an Alternate Earth

The idea for my latest release, Blow by Blow, formed while I was plotting a book about the vigilante who appears in this novel. The vigilante's story was originally going to be a science fiction romance, but as I worked on the outline for Blow by Blow, I decided that a futuristic setting would be better for both stories.

Setting the book on a planet that is radically different from Earth might distance us too much from some of the issues encountered by the characters. Rather than ask readers to completely suspend their disbelief, my goal is to make them feel like the events of the story could happen or, in some cases, are happening in the world we live in.

To me, that's the main benefit of writing a book set on an alternate Earth. It resembles our world, therefore the characters' actions, traits and surroundings are similar to our own. It's also in some ways easier to write in this setting than to create a world with a completely different environment and alien cultures. This benefit, however, is related to what I believe is the main challenge of writing in a futuristic setting.

If there are no noticeable differences between the world in the book and our world, then it would be more sensible to make the story a contemporary romance. In Blow by Blow, I renamed major places. All the rules and laws of the fictional world are not always identical to those on our Earth. The biggest change is the second civil war that happened in the States. The challenge is to include enough differences to show readers that it's not the world as we know it, but it could be.

Readers, how do you feel about stories set on an alternate Earth? Authors, what do you feel are the major challenges and benefits of writing a book using this setting?

About Kate Hill

Always a fan of romance and the paranormal, Kate Hill started writing over twenty years ago for pleasure. Her first story, a short erotic vampire tale, was accepted for publication in 1996. Since then she has sold over one hundred short stories, novellas and novels. When she's not working on her books, Kate enjoys reading, working out and spending time with her family and pets. She also writes as Saloni Quinby. Visit her online at:

Kate Hill

Blow by Blow

by Kate Hill

M/M Futuristic

A hunky former heavyweight champ and an ass-kicking beauty fight for their lives and their love in a futuristic world of MMA.

Theo "Little Raven" Fisker, is a bantamweight with attitude who plans to make a name for himself in the Radical Warrior Tournament, a prestigious mixed martial arts event. The problem is no team will sign a male fighter who walks out in silver and pink with nail polish to match, until he meets Master Jesse.

Impressed by Theo's talent, Jesse welcomes him onto his up and coming team. Fists and sparks fly when Theo meets gorgeous Valentin Merrickson. Theo draws Valentin out of his protective armor and sparks hope for a life the tough heavyweight never imagined possible. Their love grows, but threats from extremists and an injury that ends Valentin's career in the cage might tear them apart.

Excerpt

"I spilled an entire tray," Theo said, raising his eyes to the heavens. Waiting tables wasn't exactly the cake walk he'd expected.

"Nobody's perfect," Valentin said.

Theo turned to him, his gaze sweeping him from head to toe, and said, "I'm not so sure about that, Sunshine."

Valentin's expression turned stony. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Because just looking at you is enough to brighten anyone's day." The words left Theo's mouth before he could stop them. That had always been one of his biggest problems. A thought popped into his head and he had to say it. He rarely considered the consequences.

"Ohhh." Liz smiled and glanced at Valentin. "Now that's a line I need to remember."

Valentin glowered and finished his drink quickly.

"Should you be drinking while you're training?" Theo asked. "We have a tournament coming up at the end of the month."

"It's water with lemon in it, not that it's any of your business," Valentin said, but his faint smile belied his rude tone.

"Just thinking about the team," Theo said, deliberately using a flirty look. He removed his apron with the words Panoramic View embroidered across it in silver and embellished with a black skull.

"Nice belt." Valentin nodded toward Theo's waist. "Looks almost like a chain whip."

Theo glanced toward Liz, who stood at the other end of the bar. He wasn't sure how his new boss would feel if she knew the dual uses of his attire. He probably shouldn't even admit this to Valentin, but he said softly, "It is. My father was an artist--a martial artist--and he made jewelry as a hobby. He liked finding ways of making weapons fashionable." Theo gestured toward his belt.

"What else does he make?"

"He's dead," Theo said quietly. Though his father had been dead for years, thinking about his loss still hurt.

"I'm sorry," Valentin said. "That belt must be pretty special to you."

"It is." Theo sighed. "I really need to catch the bus and get to sleep."

"No car?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it. I used a rental to drive here, but I returned it yesterday."

"Want a ride?"

"Didn't you just get here?"

Valentin shrugged. "I'm done with my drink and I'm in training, too. Ready to go?"

Narrowing his eyes, Theo considered the offer. Just sitting next to Valentin in a car, smelling his cologne, would be enough to make him horny all night. This guy would not be good for his training. Why did he have to join a team that had the most gorgeous man in the universe as its heavyweight champion?

"I'm ready. Just let me get my bag."

"Right here." Liz, who had approached, picked up his black bag from behind the counter and handed it to him.

Theo took it from her.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed a news headline on the widescreen TV above the bar.

"Hey, Liz," said one of the waitresses, stepping behind the bar to turn up the volume. "The Spellman Hill Vigilante strikes again."

Theo listened to a brief report about two guys who had been knocked unconscious by a helmeted figure while attempting to mug a woman on her way home from work the previous night.

"Spellman Hill Vigilante?" Theo asked.

"Yeah. Over the past year or so a guy in a black helmet has been on the streets stopping crime in and around Spellman Hill. He seems to focus on crimes against the gay community, but not always," said the waitress. "A few of his victims claim he attacked them at random, but I'm not so sure. Cops don't like him for obvious reasons, but I feel a little safer knowing he's around."

"I wish the news would stop sensationalizing this guy," Liz said, shaking her head.

"Hey, in a way he's a hero," Valentin said.

Liz raised her eyes to heaven. "Just as long as he doesn't try to be a 'hero' near my club. If you ask me he's just a wacko."

After saying good night, Theo and Valentin walked out of the club together. Valentin was more than a head taller than Theo, so even with his high-heeled black boots Theo needed to look up to him. He kind of liked it. Hell, he loved it.

Outside they climbed into Valentin's sleek black sports car. It probably cost more than Theo had made fighting over the past couple of years. Still Valentin could probably afford it with little stress. He'd done well in his career and Theo had read several articles in sports magazines that mentioned Valentin's wise business investments.

Smiling, Theo stretched his long legs and leaned back in the leather seat. "I could get used to this."

"I know what you mean," Valentin said under his breath. His blue gaze lingered on Theo's legs and crotch.

"Are you flirting with me, Sunshine?"

"Why not? You've been doing it all day."

From Siren Publishing

Blow by Blow

Love Among Other Species

Recently PBS aired a program on "love" in the animal kingdom. It was really about courtship and mating behaviors of various animals, but it did devote a few minutes at the end to the question of whether attachments between animal mates should be called "love." The animal planet network occasionally shows programs about attachments between animals of different kinds. Some are cases of mothers adopting and nursing orphaned babies of other species, but many are animal "friendships" that provide no obvious, tangible benefits to the two parties. Surely it makes sense to apply the word "love" to those relationships.

In the seventeenth century, Rene Descartes maintained that nonhuman animals were mere biological automata with no internal life at all, no consciousness of pain or pleasure, much less thoughts or emotions. He forestalled objections that the same principle could be applied to human beings on the grounds of our capacity for complex, innovative actions. Nowadays, we know many animals have similar abilities.

Twentieth-century behaviorists would have agreed with Descartes that since we can't directly perceive feelings, only actions, we aren't justified in attributing emotions to "lower" animals. Strictly speaking, though, again on the same principle we can't assume other human organisms have emotions (or any kind of inner life) either. In practice, because we witness other people reacting to stimuli in the same ways we act when we feel certain emotions in response to similar experiences, we accept that those people have emotions like ours. We make the same assumptions about pain, pleasure, fear, anger, joy, etc. in preverbal babies (again, think of the movie INSIDE OUT), even though they can't discuss their feelings. The most parsimonious assumption, it seems to me, is that if animals react to external events in ways similar to us, they probably have similar internal experiences (especially "higher" animals that clearly have the brain structures to embody those feelings).

You've probably seen web pages that question whether your dog or cat really loves you and offer checklists of dog or cat behaviors that indicate "love." For instance, here's a slide show of actions that prove your cat loves you:

9 Signs Your Cat Loves You

Personally, I don't believe our dog and cats snuggle up to us only because we feed them. They show affection to everybody in the house, not just the habitual food-dispenser (me). I vote for the "love" label.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt