Timing-wise, I really lucked out this year, if having (alien romance) blogging rights to Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve counts as luck. My wrist watch also stopped for Christmas, which is an inconvenience.
When I was a virgin (there's superstition for you), I used to stop watches regularly. I had to wear them pinned to my breast, like a matron (in the medical sense). Now, it's probably a matter of battery life!
Happy New Year!
I don't consider myself an astronomical heavyweight, intellectually speaking.
My natural, romantic bent is to consider Pink Floyd rather than Cepheid Variables,
a man's reaction to the passing of his life (Time) rather than the fact that a light year is a measure of distance (nearly six trillion miles). The coolness and romance of the idea of The Dark Side of the Moon rather than the possibility of habitable worlds (moons) in tidal lock around a Gas Giant.
Not so long ago, I was seated at a dinner party next to a member of the Pink Floyd, and --naturally-- I asked about the thinking behind The Dark Side of the Moon, which is why I feel free to mention coolness and romance.
Time is rather interesting as part of world building. How would a civilization tell time if they spent generations aboard a space ark? What method would remain relevant? I chose the female reproductive cycle when writing Forced Mate... No doubt it had something to do with my inconvenient effect on wearable timepieces when I was younger.
Looking back, I'm immensely amused by the spoilsports who all said that we all celebrated Y2K on the wrong date (wrong year). I must have spent at least twelve hours watching televised celebrations from around the world: rock stars and sopranos atop magnificent buildings, paper lanterns rising into the sky like miniature hot air balloons, ballet on beaches, fireworks along major rivers...
Obvious as it is to say, tonight, different nations --and different states-- will mark the arrival of 2007 at different times. I'm especially aware of this for a really silly reason. Not because my mother lives in England and will be celebrating five or six hours earlier than I will, but because my publisher's forums are on Central time and I'm on Eastern, and I'm determined to log in at midnight, and help break an attendance record. (forums@dorchesterpub.com, midnight Central).
Greenwich Mean Time is very useful, but we don't all set our clocks by that. Not everyone follows the same calendar. Take the Chinese New Year.
Suppose there were an Antichthon
Would that world measure time in the same way that we do? Would Antichthon have a moon? How likely is that?
Too complicated for me, this morning, is the idea that someone leaving Earth, traveling into outer space, and returning years later would experience the passage of time differently, and may return as a time traveller (not the same age as the friends and colleagues who remained on Earth). It is an issue I must look into before I get much further with my next book, though.
The Sparrow was interesting on time. I know Star Trek measured time in Star Dates, but I don't know how that was calculated. I never noticed time being measured in Star Wars...
Any astronomers want to help me?
Happy New Year.
Rowena Cherry
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
New Years Resolutions
Its that time of year when we all think about changing ourselves for the better. So here's my list of resolutions.
I resolve to finish the third star book and think of a really great title for it.
I resolve to send off my proposal for my timetravel paranormal which already has a great title. It's called Twist and its full of them.
I resolve to send off my proposal for my YA timetravel.
I resolve to write more, write better and make better use of my writing time.
How bout you? Any resolutions?
I resolve to finish the third star book and think of a really great title for it.
I resolve to send off my proposal for my timetravel paranormal which already has a great title. It's called Twist and its full of them.
I resolve to send off my proposal for my YA timetravel.
I resolve to write more, write better and make better use of my writing time.
How bout you? Any resolutions?
Thursday, December 28, 2006
A New Twist on Naturally Evolved Vampires
I've just read a first contact novel called BLINDSIGHT, by Peter Watts. It's not quite like anything else I've ever read, packed with enough ideas for three or four SF novels. A starship is sent to investigate an alien artifact that has attacked Earth for unknown reasons. The commander of the team is a vampire, a member of a species (or possibly a human subspecies) recreated from extinction through genetic engineering by using DNA from sociopaths and autistic savants. The team's linguist harbors a "gang" of artificially created multiple personalities. The narrator lost one hemisphere of his brain to radical childhood surgery for the correction of epileptic seizures, an operation that left him incapable of empathy. The aliens, with biology partly based on starfish, turn out to be intelligent without consciousness. The most provocative theme of the novel is the question of whether consciousness is truly an evolutionary advantage or, rather, a meaningless epiphenomenon that actually handicaps the organism burdened with it. This suggestion, to me, tips the story in the direction of horror. If this attempt at describing the book's plot premise doesn't come across as very coherent, blame me, not Peter Watts. This novel stretches and challenges the reader's intellect. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, a few pages later I lost my footing again. And the characters' vocabulary is as advanced as you would expect from geniuses who are experts in highly specialized scientific fields. Naturally, my main interest was in the evolution and biology of the vampire. But he's only one strand in the plot. The author's afterword to the book discusses some of the science behind the story, including a few pages about vampires, but this explanation only scratches the surface. I wanted more details, a chapter's worth of exposition at least. (I'd like to read similar essays about the physiology and psychology of the other characters, too. This is one book in which I'm more interested in the background than the story.) For that, one has to visit the website:
http://www.rifters.com/blindsight/vampires.htm
Unfortunately, there's no text to read. What you do get is a very clever slide show, a simulation of a pharmaceutical company's history of how the vampire race was recreated, with a detailed description of the biological basis of vampire traits. For example, they feed on human prey because the vampire's body lacks a vital protein that must be taken from human victims. They have an aversion to crosses (which, the voice-over points out, is far from solely a Christian symbol) because of a brain glitch related to their superior pattern-recognition abilities. (For example: When we see five or six marbles, we instantly "just know" it's five or six. We don't have to count. If we see fifty-five marbles, we can't tell how many there are without counting. A vampire can.) The right-angled figure of the cross causes neurons in the vampire's brain to fire improperly, causing massive seizures. As solitary, territorial predators, all vampires are sociopaths. They can't even endure the company of same-sex members of their own species. There's lots more information in the website slide show, all delivered in the bland voice of an accomplished PR man yet blithely spouting the most appallingly amoral pronouncements. Hilarious in a subtle and dark fashion.
http://www.rifters.com/blindsight/vampires.htm
Unfortunately, there's no text to read. What you do get is a very clever slide show, a simulation of a pharmaceutical company's history of how the vampire race was recreated, with a detailed description of the biological basis of vampire traits. For example, they feed on human prey because the vampire's body lacks a vital protein that must be taken from human victims. They have an aversion to crosses (which, the voice-over points out, is far from solely a Christian symbol) because of a brain glitch related to their superior pattern-recognition abilities. (For example: When we see five or six marbles, we instantly "just know" it's five or six. We don't have to count. If we see fifty-five marbles, we can't tell how many there are without counting. A vampire can.) The right-angled figure of the cross causes neurons in the vampire's brain to fire improperly, causing massive seizures. As solitary, territorial predators, all vampires are sociopaths. They can't even endure the company of same-sex members of their own species. There's lots more information in the website slide show, all delivered in the bland voice of an accomplished PR man yet blithely spouting the most appallingly amoral pronouncements. Hilarious in a subtle and dark fashion.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon
Folks:
I'm in the middle of watching a visual feast called Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon. I've seen about a third of it, so this isn't a review.
It's a movie with a D&D plot. There's the ragtag band of heros -- an over-the-hill King whose swordsmanship is rusty, a woman wannabe-mage wife of the King who contracts a curse while casting a spell, an Amazon dominatrix stronger than superman, a comic-relief character who isn't powerless, and so on, the usual.
This is a sequel, so they backfill previous stories real quick -- I haven't seen the prequels.
There's an old dragon asleep under a mountain, his powers siphoned off and imprisoned in a flask somewhere. There's the bad-guy who's gone after the Dragon's powers to cure himself of a curse (of vampirism) that should have been lifted, but wasn't because the caster of the curse died before fulfilling his promise.
What's WRONG with a story like this? There's plenty of aliens and part-aliens, lots of great stuff to look at, fabulous POWERS to play with, eye-candy gallore, shoulders and tushes to die for, eyes to pant over, and real women, heroic women with big problems -- and net-net, the thing is dullsville squared.
WHY? What is it that's lacking that would make this movie just our cup of tea?
The mere presence of sword-fighting and a quest or action-task, villains blacker than black and heroes whiter than white doesn't preclude some interesting stories.
I think in a word, the answer is angst. I'm a big fan of angst. That's what a writer calls internal conflict.
These characters are living their lives entirely on an external level -- all the conflict is external.
What little internal conflict is hinted at has nothing to do with the external conflicts.
Therefore there's no apparent reason for these particular challenges to appear in those particular lives at that exact time. There's no SUSPENSE. No INTRIGUE.
Beyond that, I have major problems with the theme sets used in movies and books like this.
There's this dragon sleeping under a mountain and his powers have been stolen.
Yes, it was done to him by civilization that bankrupted itself building prisons for him and his powers because he rampaged and nearly destroyed them.
But they discover the dragon, and INSTANTLY (without deliberation, council meetings, even a flicker of a handwaving argument) decide they have to either keep him imprisoned, re-imprison him, or destroy him.
There's this villain who tells us right off he didn't DESERVE to be kept a vampire, and when the King hears he's after the Dragon's powers, he mounts a military campaign to destroy him.
Nobody ever considers the bad-guy's side of things, wonders if the bad guy is really the bad guy? Wonders if WE aren't really the bad-guys.
Not one little thought is expended trying to find another way other than destruction.
What if marriages were conducted that way? Where would we be?
What if international affairs were conducted that way? (well, they are sort of)
Why do the good guys have to KILL the bad guys? That's not satisfying to me. Real triumph is to make the bad guys INTO good guys while they're trying to make the good guys into bad guys because they don't think they're bad guys.
Maybe everybody ends up gray-guys?
Bottom line: I don't buy into the concept that destruction resolves conflict.
So for me, films and stories such as this one don't work.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com
I'm in the middle of watching a visual feast called Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon. I've seen about a third of it, so this isn't a review.
It's a movie with a D&D plot. There's the ragtag band of heros -- an over-the-hill King whose swordsmanship is rusty, a woman wannabe-mage wife of the King who contracts a curse while casting a spell, an Amazon dominatrix stronger than superman, a comic-relief character who isn't powerless, and so on, the usual.
This is a sequel, so they backfill previous stories real quick -- I haven't seen the prequels.
There's an old dragon asleep under a mountain, his powers siphoned off and imprisoned in a flask somewhere. There's the bad-guy who's gone after the Dragon's powers to cure himself of a curse (of vampirism) that should have been lifted, but wasn't because the caster of the curse died before fulfilling his promise.
What's WRONG with a story like this? There's plenty of aliens and part-aliens, lots of great stuff to look at, fabulous POWERS to play with, eye-candy gallore, shoulders and tushes to die for, eyes to pant over, and real women, heroic women with big problems -- and net-net, the thing is dullsville squared.
WHY? What is it that's lacking that would make this movie just our cup of tea?
The mere presence of sword-fighting and a quest or action-task, villains blacker than black and heroes whiter than white doesn't preclude some interesting stories.
I think in a word, the answer is angst. I'm a big fan of angst. That's what a writer calls internal conflict.
These characters are living their lives entirely on an external level -- all the conflict is external.
What little internal conflict is hinted at has nothing to do with the external conflicts.
Therefore there's no apparent reason for these particular challenges to appear in those particular lives at that exact time. There's no SUSPENSE. No INTRIGUE.
Beyond that, I have major problems with the theme sets used in movies and books like this.
There's this dragon sleeping under a mountain and his powers have been stolen.
Yes, it was done to him by civilization that bankrupted itself building prisons for him and his powers because he rampaged and nearly destroyed them.
But they discover the dragon, and INSTANTLY (without deliberation, council meetings, even a flicker of a handwaving argument) decide they have to either keep him imprisoned, re-imprison him, or destroy him.
There's this villain who tells us right off he didn't DESERVE to be kept a vampire, and when the King hears he's after the Dragon's powers, he mounts a military campaign to destroy him.
Nobody ever considers the bad-guy's side of things, wonders if the bad guy is really the bad guy? Wonders if WE aren't really the bad-guys.
Not one little thought is expended trying to find another way other than destruction.
What if marriages were conducted that way? Where would we be?
What if international affairs were conducted that way? (well, they are sort of)
Why do the good guys have to KILL the bad guys? That's not satisfying to me. Real triumph is to make the bad guys INTO good guys while they're trying to make the good guys into bad guys because they don't think they're bad guys.
Maybe everybody ends up gray-guys?
Bottom line: I don't buy into the concept that destruction resolves conflict.
So for me, films and stories such as this one don't work.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Saturnalia and alien religions
I think it was Linnea Sinclair who talked about religion for aliens on this blog. I hope I'm not repeating the same discussion.
History repeats itself. Victors like the conquered to worship the conquerors' gods. Which makes sense, at least in the world of Greek and Roman myths, because obviously the winners' gods were superior (given that both sides prayed for victory).
I've always been fascinated by the way Christmas was deliberately celebrated at the time of, and gradually in place of, the older Saturnalia.
If we (humans) were conquered by reasonably benign aliens, I wonder whether our new overlords would try to be equally clever and considerate. Would they give us a bigger, longer, more amusing, more colorful event to celebrate in late December? (Assuming December remained December).
When I consider how divided humankind has always been over religion, I wonder whether humanity as a whole would react violently or with secret relief. What do you think?
Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I wish you great happiness, good health, and good friends.
All the best,
Rowena
History repeats itself. Victors like the conquered to worship the conquerors' gods. Which makes sense, at least in the world of Greek and Roman myths, because obviously the winners' gods were superior (given that both sides prayed for victory).
I've always been fascinated by the way Christmas was deliberately celebrated at the time of, and gradually in place of, the older Saturnalia.
If we (humans) were conquered by reasonably benign aliens, I wonder whether our new overlords would try to be equally clever and considerate. Would they give us a bigger, longer, more amusing, more colorful event to celebrate in late December? (Assuming December remained December).
When I consider how divided humankind has always been over religion, I wonder whether humanity as a whole would react violently or with secret relief. What do you think?
Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I wish you great happiness, good health, and good friends.
All the best,
Rowena
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Merry Christmas
I just can't think about far away places or future happenings this time of year. All my focus is on the here and the now. We're having Christmas at home this year for only the fifth time in our entire life together and we are so happy to not have to travel.
So I spent all day yesterday and will spend most of today in the kitchen. Both of our sons are home and although that is a bit alien its nice. And we did have some aliens in our kitchen last night. No wait, that was just the lobster the dh cooked for his own birthday feast. I had to leave, the thoughts of putting anything alive in boiling water just creeps me out.
I'm as decorated as I can get. My shopping is done. The presents are wrapped. I've got sixteen coming for dinner on Christmas Day and come Tuesday it will all be over with. So I'm going to enjoy the here and the now while it lasts.
Merry Christmas everyone
So I spent all day yesterday and will spend most of today in the kitchen. Both of our sons are home and although that is a bit alien its nice. And we did have some aliens in our kitchen last night. No wait, that was just the lobster the dh cooked for his own birthday feast. I had to leave, the thoughts of putting anything alive in boiling water just creeps me out.
I'm as decorated as I can get. My shopping is done. The presents are wrapped. I've got sixteen coming for dinner on Christmas Day and come Tuesday it will all be over with. So I'm going to enjoy the here and the now while it lasts.
Merry Christmas everyone
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Reimagining Santa
In this season we hear a lot about Santa Claus. For little kids we have to explain that all those men in red suits at the malls are just helpers, while the real Santa stays at the North Pole to get his seasonal work done. The classic animated feature shown on TV every year identifies him as a foundling child named Claus brought up by a clan of elves, the Kringles. The program offers origins for Santa's names, his toymaking elf helpers, gifts in stockings, the flying reindeer (the Winter Wizard fed them magical corn), Christmas trees, etc. For an adult viewer, elements of this story require robust suspension of disbelief, since we *know* the sources, for instance, of the names "Santa Claus" and "Kris Kringle." Still, it's fun to speculate about Santa's attributes from an SF/fantasy perspective. Clearly the reindeer have levitation abilities. How does Saint Nick visit all the children on Earth in one night? Obviously through a combination of teleportation and some device similar to Hermione's time turner in HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN. He probably has a crystal ball or other scrying instrument to show him who's been bad or good. How does he get down narrow modern chimneys or into houses with no chimney at all? Teleportation again, or maybe a portable wormhole. How can he carry all those gifts at once? He must have a Bag of Holding (from the D&D game), a sack that opens directly into a pocket dimension. Why don't satellite images reveal his workshop and village at the North Pole? (All those elves, plus the reindeer, must need a lot of infrastructure.) Either it's underground with a very well-camouflaged entrance, or he uses a cloaking device. For that matter, how does he manufacture all the gifts, even with a team of elves working throughout the year? A replicator, STAR TREK style? That would explain why he delivers name-brand toys; he uses commercial products as templates.
In American popular culture, Santa is assisted by elves, the eight reindeer of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," and Rudolf. In folklore, however, he has many different helpers, such as Black Peter (the Netherlands), Belsnickel (Pennsylvania), and Krampus (a demonic-looking creature from Eastern Europe), mostly with the task of delivering what bad kids deserve. Imagine Santa being accompanied by a soot-blackened, bearskin-clad, or cloven-hoofed sidekick who carries a whip to punish naughty children. Sounds like NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Not a type of character we're likely to see on network TV holiday cartoons anytime soon.
Maybe Saint Nick doesn't actually have to visit every child on Earth. After all, in addition to Santa's helpers, there are many different December gift-bringers throughout the world's cultures. Probably Santa shares the task of distributing presents with characters such as the Italian La Befana and Santa Lucia, Russian Grandfather Frost, Swedish Christmas Gnome, and the Three Kings. Imagine a convocation of all these figures parceling out their territories. (Are Father Christmas and Pere Noel the same person? If not, would they fight over who gets Quebec?) That could make a more entertaining Christmas special than yet another cartoon about a maladjusted reindeer.
In American popular culture, Santa is assisted by elves, the eight reindeer of "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," and Rudolf. In folklore, however, he has many different helpers, such as Black Peter (the Netherlands), Belsnickel (Pennsylvania), and Krampus (a demonic-looking creature from Eastern Europe), mostly with the task of delivering what bad kids deserve. Imagine Santa being accompanied by a soot-blackened, bearskin-clad, or cloven-hoofed sidekick who carries a whip to punish naughty children. Sounds like NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Not a type of character we're likely to see on network TV holiday cartoons anytime soon.
Maybe Saint Nick doesn't actually have to visit every child on Earth. After all, in addition to Santa's helpers, there are many different December gift-bringers throughout the world's cultures. Probably Santa shares the task of distributing presents with characters such as the Italian La Befana and Santa Lucia, Russian Grandfather Frost, Swedish Christmas Gnome, and the Three Kings. Imagine a convocation of all these figures parceling out their territories. (Are Father Christmas and Pere Noel the same person? If not, would they fight over who gets Quebec?) That could make a more entertaining Christmas special than yet another cartoon about a maladjusted reindeer.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The World Is Changing - Again
Folks:
I heard an item on the TV news this morning that Microsoft is creating a website like youtube where people can download and use videogame creating tools and then post their game for others to play.
Microsoft will be uniting the X-box and Windows platforms so that games will play on either, as I understand it. Currently game developers must compile their game for each platform.
What has this to do with alien romance?
Aha! How many Romance oriented games have you played recently?
There was an item in the news a few weeks ago that game developing companies believed they had reached saturation of the game market for boys and young men. They also noted that many women played videogames. And people running the game development companies are now actively targeting women players.
oho! A videogame, by definition (on the CNBC special on the history of videogaming) is the active fulfillment of a dream or fantasy -- people play videogames to be the HERO, to WIN, to experience what they can only aspire to in real life.
So, videogames are stories (something else emphasized on the CNBC special on videogame history). When a story was added, gaming became big business. The same happened with Dungeons and Dragons -- inventing your own story, making it real, living it, becoming part of it, trying on different personalities -- that's what we want!
Now if only I could give you the URL of this website where we can create Alien Romance Videogames.
Oh, the TV interview news item was with a Microsoft official and he said they are looking to have many people post games developed with their free tools. Then the most popular games will be chosen and published -- and he said that could make a game writer into a millionnaire.
Imagine an Alien Romance videogame making an AR writer into a millionnaire! I do think the market is big enough to do that.
Jacqueline Lichtengerg
http://www.simegen.com
I heard an item on the TV news this morning that Microsoft is creating a website like youtube where people can download and use videogame creating tools and then post their game for others to play.
Microsoft will be uniting the X-box and Windows platforms so that games will play on either, as I understand it. Currently game developers must compile their game for each platform.
What has this to do with alien romance?
Aha! How many Romance oriented games have you played recently?
There was an item in the news a few weeks ago that game developing companies believed they had reached saturation of the game market for boys and young men. They also noted that many women played videogames. And people running the game development companies are now actively targeting women players.
oho! A videogame, by definition (on the CNBC special on the history of videogaming) is the active fulfillment of a dream or fantasy -- people play videogames to be the HERO, to WIN, to experience what they can only aspire to in real life.
So, videogames are stories (something else emphasized on the CNBC special on videogame history). When a story was added, gaming became big business. The same happened with Dungeons and Dragons -- inventing your own story, making it real, living it, becoming part of it, trying on different personalities -- that's what we want!
Now if only I could give you the URL of this website where we can create Alien Romance Videogames.
Oh, the TV interview news item was with a Microsoft official and he said they are looking to have many people post games developed with their free tools. Then the most popular games will be chosen and published -- and he said that could make a game writer into a millionnaire.
Imagine an Alien Romance videogame making an AR writer into a millionnaire! I do think the market is big enough to do that.
Jacqueline Lichtengerg
http://www.simegen.com
Monday, December 18, 2006
WARNING: Contents Under Pressure
One of the things that differentiates science fiction and SFR from other fiction is the genre's inclusion of setting (or world building) as a non-removeable part of the mix. In essence, the setting often functions like a character. This is most easily seen in media SF where ships like the Enterprise or Serenity become as much a part of the storyline as the sentient characters. But it's also found in novels, such as those by Anne McCaffrey with her ships and worlds, and my own Cirrus One Station in An Accidental Goddess .
I was reminded again how and why Cirrus One Station was constructed as I was (once again) at sea, in an 85,000 ton vessel that was--when you really think about it--the only thing between me and the deep dark ocean.
I'm sure most people on a Caribbean cruise don't want to even think about how perilous a situation they'd be in should something serious happen to the ship. Sure, there are lifeboats and such, and the chances of the ship going down a la Titanic are very slim. But a cruise ship--like a space station--is still a solitary, closed environment.
And it affects how people act. Because consciously or not, people know they're stuck there until they make the next port. They're stuck with not having an item they need. They're stuck without having a certain comfort they're used to. They're stuck with other people they may not like and can't actually get away from. Sooner or later they will, yes, run into that same loud-mouth, obnoxious guy because they are on the same ship. They're in a closed environment.
It's contents under pressure. Moreso after two days at sea.
The whole issue of personal space is raised and those dynamics may change, depending on how each person handles that closed environment. Some people purposely become more easy-going. Others ramp up their rudeness factor in an effort to take control. People Day 1 at sea are not always the same on Day 2.
I watch these dynamics with interest because of what I write. And I write situations that incorporate "contents under pressure" because of all the things I've seen after more than twenty-five years of being a cruise ship passenger.
But it's not just the passengers. Ship's crewmembers and staff have to deal with even less space and more pressure. They can't leave their troubles at the office because home is their office. And it's damn hard to tell your boss to take this job and shove it when you're hundreds of miles from the nearest port.
What happens then--in both real life and in my books--are that people must face their problem and handle it. Writing guru Dwight Swain states that a successful novel has characters who "start fires they can't put out." Well, I like to take it one step further in my books and have my characters not only not be able to put out the fire, but they can't even run away from it.
I made sure Gillie couldn't run away from her issue of being an accidental goddess by making sure her ship's damage kept her on station. I put Chaz on a space station with people trying to kill her and her only hope a rescue from a man she'd been trained to hate. And then I took away their only means of escape from the station and put them directly into the hands of a man who could harm them both.
And in my upcoming (February 2007) Games of Command, I strand my characters not only in another dimension but I taunt them with plenty of ships--none of which can survive transit back to their 'normal' space and time.
Because this is SF and the setting, the world, the ship plays an important and threatening part.
Contents under pressure. Trouble confined by four walls. Death awaiting outside.
And you all thought I go on vacations for fun.
~Linnea
www.linneasinclair.com
I was reminded again how and why Cirrus One Station was constructed as I was (once again) at sea, in an 85,000 ton vessel that was--when you really think about it--the only thing between me and the deep dark ocean.
I'm sure most people on a Caribbean cruise don't want to even think about how perilous a situation they'd be in should something serious happen to the ship. Sure, there are lifeboats and such, and the chances of the ship going down a la Titanic are very slim. But a cruise ship--like a space station--is still a solitary, closed environment.
And it affects how people act. Because consciously or not, people know they're stuck there until they make the next port. They're stuck with not having an item they need. They're stuck without having a certain comfort they're used to. They're stuck with other people they may not like and can't actually get away from. Sooner or later they will, yes, run into that same loud-mouth, obnoxious guy because they are on the same ship. They're in a closed environment.
It's contents under pressure. Moreso after two days at sea.
The whole issue of personal space is raised and those dynamics may change, depending on how each person handles that closed environment. Some people purposely become more easy-going. Others ramp up their rudeness factor in an effort to take control. People Day 1 at sea are not always the same on Day 2.
I watch these dynamics with interest because of what I write. And I write situations that incorporate "contents under pressure" because of all the things I've seen after more than twenty-five years of being a cruise ship passenger.
But it's not just the passengers. Ship's crewmembers and staff have to deal with even less space and more pressure. They can't leave their troubles at the office because home is their office. And it's damn hard to tell your boss to take this job and shove it when you're hundreds of miles from the nearest port.
What happens then--in both real life and in my books--are that people must face their problem and handle it. Writing guru Dwight Swain states that a successful novel has characters who "start fires they can't put out." Well, I like to take it one step further in my books and have my characters not only not be able to put out the fire, but they can't even run away from it.
I made sure Gillie couldn't run away from her issue of being an accidental goddess by making sure her ship's damage kept her on station. I put Chaz on a space station with people trying to kill her and her only hope a rescue from a man she'd been trained to hate. And then I took away their only means of escape from the station and put them directly into the hands of a man who could harm them both.
And in my upcoming (February 2007) Games of Command, I strand my characters not only in another dimension but I taunt them with plenty of ships--none of which can survive transit back to their 'normal' space and time.
Because this is SF and the setting, the world, the ship plays an important and threatening part.
Contents under pressure. Trouble confined by four walls. Death awaiting outside.
And you all thought I go on vacations for fun.
~Linnea
www.linneasinclair.com
Sunday, December 17, 2006
50 ways to help your author
50 ways to help an author (without buying her book)
Originally I had a longer and more accurate title, but I can’t get the song “Fifty ways to leave your lover out of my head”. I’d love feedback, or additional suggestions. The idea is to share all the things that authors can do to help each other, and that authors’ friends and family could do, might like to do, but may never think of doing. For the sake of argument, all authors for the purpose of this blog will be considered female. (No sexism intended).
Help the search engines find her:
1. Google your friend.
2. Ask Jeeves about her.
3. Dogpile her.
4. A9 search her. (That’s the Amazon search engine)
5. Does Yahoo have a search feature?
Even if you know where to find your friend, her blog, and her books, “hits” help. The more visitors the search engine spiders find, the more priority the author's website gets.
6. Visit her website… not just the home page.
7. Visit her blogs.
8. Find her Amazon Connect page
http://www.amazon.com/gp/arms/directory/A/2/105-8737680-2353243#directory
This link is to the alphabetical directory by author’s last name. Click on the name (which is blue, underlined and therefore a live link) and you will go to the author’s Amazon page. From there you can:
9. Invite her as an Amazon Friend
10. Add to your list of Interesting People
11. E-mail the page (about her… to your other friends)
12. Add her posts to your plog
As you explore her Amazon Connect page, you will find:
On the left, under her picture, links to any reviews she has written.
13. Click on them. Read her reviews. If you like them, click on Helpful.
14. If you see an opportunity to comment on her review, do so if you have something nice to say.
If authors write reviews, their books are advertised free in the attribution line, and their links to their page and their books are seen by people who are interested in the products that your friend reviewed.
There’s a link to her own web site.
15. Click on that… just to bump up the site and give it traffic. Then go back to Amazon.
If the author has blogged (written a note about what she is doing/thinking/ or given an insight into her books), there is a blue link to Comment.
16. Comment! Vote that you liked her post (it’s encouraging feedback)
If the author clicked “product” as she wrote her blog, there will be a live link on her blog to one of her books.
17. Click on the cover. Give her book page traffic. Or scroll on down and see her bibliography, who your author friend’s friends are, what reviews she has written, what search suggestions she has made, what “tags” she has created for each of her books, and what tags her readers have added. See her Reminders.
18. If you live near to the author, and she has a reminder on the calendar for a booksigning near you, click on Remind Me Too. Support at a booksigning is always wonderful.
19. While checking out her friends, maybe click on the image of other authors whose books you like. Amazon often pairs up two books by different authors and suggests “Buy Both”.
When you are on a book page, without buying that book, click on links to:
20. Put it on your wish list. It’s extra, free advertising.
21. Tell a friend
Scroll down the book page to Tag this product. (or make a search suggestion)
22. Add a tag. (Loved it! Can’t wait to read it! Soooo romantic! Etc)
23. Join in the Customer discussions. Ask a question. Start a discussion. The search engines pick up on the discussions, and quote interesting responses.
If you have read her book:
24. Write a customer review. It doesn’t have to be long or scholarly. Be as generous with the star rating as you can. Try to be specific about what you liked best about the story or one of the characters. Don’t give away the ending.
25. Ditto all of the above for Barnes and Noble, E-Bay, Borders, Chapters Indigo, Waterstone’s, Amazon uk, Amazon ca, or any other bookstore chain that allows customer reviews, comments, discussions etc. Or, simply search for her name, titles, reviews.
26. If you have a MySpace page (and if you don’t, but really want to help, get one… it’s free) invite your author friends to be your friends there.
27. Write a bulletin about your friend or her book.
28. Add a comment on their profile page’s comments section. Your comment is their opportunity to say something about their book without the appearance of soliciting.
29. Review their book on your MySpace blog.
30. If her publisher has a forum, join it and ask her questions. For instance, Dorchester publishing (home of Leisure and LoveSpell authors) has
http://forums.dorchesterpub.com/
Again, your comment will be seen by hundreds, if not thousands, and it will give your friend a reason to post something interesting and quotable about her book without seeming to be self-promoting.
31. If you see a good review—on any bookselling site that allows customers and visitors to comment on reviews-- click Helpful if it is a helpful review.
Votes help both the reviewer and the author (especially the reviewer’s rankings ).
32. If you see a bad review, click Not Helpful.
33. If you see a personal attack disguised as a “review” click Report This, and tell the author. If enough people click to report ugly remarks, bad reviews come down in 50-60% of the time
If you see your favorite author’s books in a supermarket or bookstore:
34. Facing her books (if there is room, turn one so the cover shows)
35. Tell store personnel how much you like that book, or that the author is local.
36. If you don’t see her books, especially when they ought to be there, ask about them.
37. If you have a blog, publicize your friend’s upcoming signings/author talks/workshops on your blog. Mention her website URL.
38 Link to your author friend’s website or blog on yours
39. Offer a quote if asked--or volunteer if you’re not asked.
40. Do a review for her, asked or not. It doesn’t matter if some people think that you are friends. More often than not, you became friends because you like and respect each other’s talent, or sense of humor, or something you bring to your writing. People do respect recommendations
41. If you belong to readers’ group sites, or book chat sites, or special interest sites, post what you are reading. Plugs never hurt. These are also picked up on RSS feeds and the search engines.
42. Link to other writers. It drives everyone up in the search engine.
43. Ask your library to order your friend's book.
44. Join your favorite author’s yahoo group, let her know where you’ve seen her book in stores, or where you’ve seen discussions of her book, or reviews of her book.
45. Drop in on her online chat to say how you enjoyed her book. Supportive friends at chats are cool because chats can be chaotic, and typing answers takes time.
46. Put her book as a 'must read' on your own Web site, or in your own newsletter.
47. Send e-mails to your entire address list recommending the book.
48. Be her 'friend' on You Tube.
49. Offer to take a bunch of her bookmarks to conventions, or conferences, and make sure they are put in goodie bags, or on promo tables. Or simply visit her table at a convention, and sign up for her newsletter, or pick up her bookmark and tell someone else how good the book is.
50 Offer to slip her bookmarks into your own correspondence when you pay bills, taxes, etc.
51. Instead of quoting Goethe in your sig file, try quoting a line from your friend’s blurb in the week of her launch.
With thanks to the following for their help and suggestions
Kathleen Bacus, www.kathybacus.com
Diana Groe, www.dianagroe.com
Joyce Henderson,
www.joycehendersonauthor.com
Diane Wylie, author of "Secrets and Sacrifices" www.dianewylie.com
Jacquie Rogers, http://www.jacquierogers.com, http://www.myspace.com/jacquierogers.
Deborah Anne MacGillivray, author of The Legend of Falgannon Isle, www.deborahmacgillivray.co.uk Dorchester Love Spell, Kensington's Zebra Historicals
Charlotte Maclay, author of Make No Promises,
www.CharlotteMaclay.com
Rowena Cherry www.rowenacherry.com, author of Insufficient Mating Material, available 1/30/2007.
Rowena Cherry.
Originally I had a longer and more accurate title, but I can’t get the song “Fifty ways to leave your lover out of my head”. I’d love feedback, or additional suggestions. The idea is to share all the things that authors can do to help each other, and that authors’ friends and family could do, might like to do, but may never think of doing. For the sake of argument, all authors for the purpose of this blog will be considered female. (No sexism intended).
Help the search engines find her:
1. Google your friend.
2. Ask Jeeves about her.
3. Dogpile her.
4. A9 search her. (That’s the Amazon search engine)
5. Does Yahoo have a search feature?
Even if you know where to find your friend, her blog, and her books, “hits” help. The more visitors the search engine spiders find, the more priority the author's website gets.
6. Visit her website… not just the home page.
7. Visit her blogs.
8. Find her Amazon Connect page
http://www.amazon.com/gp/arms/directory/A/2/105-8737680-2353243#directory
This link is to the alphabetical directory by author’s last name. Click on the name (which is blue, underlined and therefore a live link) and you will go to the author’s Amazon page. From there you can:
9. Invite her as an Amazon Friend
10. Add to your list of Interesting People
11. E-mail the page (about her… to your other friends)
12. Add her posts to your plog
As you explore her Amazon Connect page, you will find:
On the left, under her picture, links to any reviews she has written.
13. Click on them. Read her reviews. If you like them, click on Helpful.
14. If you see an opportunity to comment on her review, do so if you have something nice to say.
If authors write reviews, their books are advertised free in the attribution line, and their links to their page and their books are seen by people who are interested in the products that your friend reviewed.
There’s a link to her own web site.
15. Click on that… just to bump up the site and give it traffic. Then go back to Amazon.
If the author has blogged (written a note about what she is doing/thinking/ or given an insight into her books), there is a blue link to Comment.
16. Comment! Vote that you liked her post (it’s encouraging feedback)
If the author clicked “product” as she wrote her blog, there will be a live link on her blog to one of her books.
17. Click on the cover. Give her book page traffic. Or scroll on down and see her bibliography, who your author friend’s friends are, what reviews she has written, what search suggestions she has made, what “tags” she has created for each of her books, and what tags her readers have added. See her Reminders.
18. If you live near to the author, and she has a reminder on the calendar for a booksigning near you, click on Remind Me Too. Support at a booksigning is always wonderful.
19. While checking out her friends, maybe click on the image of other authors whose books you like. Amazon often pairs up two books by different authors and suggests “Buy Both”.
When you are on a book page, without buying that book, click on links to:
20. Put it on your wish list. It’s extra, free advertising.
21. Tell a friend
Scroll down the book page to Tag this product. (or make a search suggestion)
22. Add a tag. (Loved it! Can’t wait to read it! Soooo romantic! Etc)
23. Join in the Customer discussions. Ask a question. Start a discussion. The search engines pick up on the discussions, and quote interesting responses.
If you have read her book:
24. Write a customer review. It doesn’t have to be long or scholarly. Be as generous with the star rating as you can. Try to be specific about what you liked best about the story or one of the characters. Don’t give away the ending.
25. Ditto all of the above for Barnes and Noble, E-Bay, Borders, Chapters Indigo, Waterstone’s, Amazon uk, Amazon ca, or any other bookstore chain that allows customer reviews, comments, discussions etc. Or, simply search for her name, titles, reviews.
26. If you have a MySpace page (and if you don’t, but really want to help, get one… it’s free) invite your author friends to be your friends there.
27. Write a bulletin about your friend or her book.
28. Add a comment on their profile page’s comments section. Your comment is their opportunity to say something about their book without the appearance of soliciting.
29. Review their book on your MySpace blog.
30. If her publisher has a forum, join it and ask her questions. For instance, Dorchester publishing (home of Leisure and LoveSpell authors) has
http://forums.dorchesterpub.com/
Again, your comment will be seen by hundreds, if not thousands, and it will give your friend a reason to post something interesting and quotable about her book without seeming to be self-promoting.
31. If you see a good review—on any bookselling site that allows customers and visitors to comment on reviews-- click Helpful if it is a helpful review.
Votes help both the reviewer and the author (especially the reviewer’s rankings ).
32. If you see a bad review, click Not Helpful.
33. If you see a personal attack disguised as a “review” click Report This, and tell the author. If enough people click to report ugly remarks, bad reviews come down in 50-60% of the time
If you see your favorite author’s books in a supermarket or bookstore:
34. Facing her books (if there is room, turn one so the cover shows)
35. Tell store personnel how much you like that book, or that the author is local.
36. If you don’t see her books, especially when they ought to be there, ask about them.
37. If you have a blog, publicize your friend’s upcoming signings/author talks/workshops on your blog. Mention her website URL.
38 Link to your author friend’s website or blog on yours
39. Offer a quote if asked--or volunteer if you’re not asked.
40. Do a review for her, asked or not. It doesn’t matter if some people think that you are friends. More often than not, you became friends because you like and respect each other’s talent, or sense of humor, or something you bring to your writing. People do respect recommendations
41. If you belong to readers’ group sites, or book chat sites, or special interest sites, post what you are reading. Plugs never hurt. These are also picked up on RSS feeds and the search engines.
42. Link to other writers. It drives everyone up in the search engine.
43. Ask your library to order your friend's book.
44. Join your favorite author’s yahoo group, let her know where you’ve seen her book in stores, or where you’ve seen discussions of her book, or reviews of her book.
45. Drop in on her online chat to say how you enjoyed her book. Supportive friends at chats are cool because chats can be chaotic, and typing answers takes time.
46. Put her book as a 'must read' on your own Web site, or in your own newsletter.
47. Send e-mails to your entire address list recommending the book.
48. Be her 'friend' on You Tube.
49. Offer to take a bunch of her bookmarks to conventions, or conferences, and make sure they are put in goodie bags, or on promo tables. Or simply visit her table at a convention, and sign up for her newsletter, or pick up her bookmark and tell someone else how good the book is.
50 Offer to slip her bookmarks into your own correspondence when you pay bills, taxes, etc.
51. Instead of quoting Goethe in your sig file, try quoting a line from your friend’s blurb in the week of her launch.
With thanks to the following for their help and suggestions
Kathleen Bacus, www.kathybacus.com
Diana Groe, www.dianagroe.com
Joyce Henderson,
www.joycehendersonauthor.com
Diane Wylie, author of "Secrets and Sacrifices" www.dianewylie.com
Jacquie Rogers, http://www.jacquierogers.com, http://www.myspace.com/jacquierogers.
Deborah Anne MacGillivray, author of The Legend of Falgannon Isle, www.deborahmacgillivray.co.uk Dorchester Love Spell, Kensington's Zebra Historicals
Charlotte Maclay, author of Make No Promises,
www.CharlotteMaclay.com
Rowena Cherry www.rowenacherry.com, author of Insufficient Mating Material, available 1/30/2007.
Rowena Cherry.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Too young, too old or just right?
While writing the third book in my Star series I've struggled with a problem. How old should a hero be? The book starts with my characters, the twin heirs of Oasis, Zander and Elle, on the day before their eighteenth birthday. Boone, Ruben's adopted son is twenty.
Then they do lots of stupid things which are typical for people that age and time passes before they are all together again. But how much time? I don't want to give away too much of the plot but lets just say they all travel in different directions due to the evil Circe.
Boone is the hero of this book and hopefully Zander will get his own story. My idea is to have Boone return at the age of twenty six. So what do you think? Is twenty-six a good age for a futuristic hero?
Suggestions are most welcome.
Then they do lots of stupid things which are typical for people that age and time passes before they are all together again. But how much time? I don't want to give away too much of the plot but lets just say they all travel in different directions due to the evil Circe.
Boone is the hero of this book and hopefully Zander will get his own story. My idea is to have Boone return at the age of twenty six. So what do you think? Is twenty-six a good age for a futuristic hero?
Suggestions are most welcome.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Creatures of Discworld
Recently I acquired a copy of THE ART OF DISCWORLD. I originally didn't plan to buy it, because I thought it would be mostly graphic art with little text, but it does contain a lot of interesting commentary in Terry Pratchett's own voice. He explains how he developed some of the many different species that inhabit Discworld. For example, he decided to make dwarfs traditionalists who maintain profound respect for their kin who dwell in deep mountain caves and work in the mines, even if they themselves have lived in the city for generations. The dwarven veneration of tradition and love for arguing about how to apply it leads some fans (according to Pratchett) to claim Discworld dwarfs must be Jewish. :) Other dwarven cultural elements include bread that can double as a weapon, a centuries-old feud with trolls, and unisex appearance. (Outsiders can't distinguish females from males, and female dwarfs who shave their beards and wear dresses are frowned upon by their peers.) In creating trolls, Pratchett questioned why folklore says they turn to stone in daylight. The answer: They evolved to live in a cold climate. Heat slows and, at extremes, shuts down their silicon-based brains. That's why all the trolls we meet act so stupid. In below-freezing environments, they become intelligent. Swamp dragons (bred by Commander Vimes' wife like show dogs) emit flames from both ends because of gases produced in their digestive tracts, a physiological feature that makes them dangerous pets. As for Uberwald (a literal translation of "Transylvania"), home of vampires and werewolves, Pratchett drew its inspiration from classic horror films. Since every vampire or mad scientist needs a servant named Igor, there must be countless Igors (and Igorinas), all highly skilled surgeons.
One feature of Discworld I especially enjoy is the diversity of the police force in the great city of Ankh-Morpork. Under Commander Vimes, the force is an equal-opportunity employer, including representatives of all the major races. In a recent book Vimes was even persuaded to hire a vampire. The female werewolf cop, who keeps her nature secret from most people, has a budding romantic relationship with one of her human colleagues.
Other topics covered in THE ART OF DISCWORLD include witches, wizards, Unseen University, the Assassins' Guild, the character of Death, and many additional places and creatures in Pratchett's world. If you're a fan of his work, don't miss this book. It's a wonderfully entertaining glimpse into the creative world-building processes of a fantasy writer's mind. Amazon.com lists it as out of print, but they offer plenty of secondhand copies, and the Science Fiction Book Club carries it.
One feature of Discworld I especially enjoy is the diversity of the police force in the great city of Ankh-Morpork. Under Commander Vimes, the force is an equal-opportunity employer, including representatives of all the major races. In a recent book Vimes was even persuaded to hire a vampire. The female werewolf cop, who keeps her nature secret from most people, has a budding romantic relationship with one of her human colleagues.
Other topics covered in THE ART OF DISCWORLD include witches, wizards, Unseen University, the Assassins' Guild, the character of Death, and many additional places and creatures in Pratchett's world. If you're a fan of his work, don't miss this book. It's a wonderfully entertaining glimpse into the creative world-building processes of a fantasy writer's mind. Amazon.com lists it as out of print, but they offer plenty of secondhand copies, and the Science Fiction Book Club carries it.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Seeing the Light
Folks:
Well, this is the Season of Lights -- a whole bunch of faiths do light at the bottom of the year!
On Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover, on the shortest day of the year they kindled a bon fire using a magnifying glass and the power of the very weak red-giant sun.
One of the essential ingredients in good world building is the anthropology and psychology.
Our fictional aliens have to be "accessible" to our human mentality if they are going to be characters. Otherwise you end up with something like C. J. Cherryh's most alien aliens who occassionally do a drive-by spaceship shooting, and can just barely communicate -- but who don't form relationships with individual humans. The most you can expect is a treaty whereby they won't shoot you today.
And we at this blog are all into "relationships" so let's look at the season of Year's Turning -- the winter solstice. Most worlds that have life will probably have an axial tilt and therefore have this metaphore built into their cultures. (OK, there will be worlds whose poles run sideways.)
Last time I talked about abstract thinking -- which includes metaphores, analogies, algebra, along with hypothesizing.
Our favorite books depict relationships between human and alien where the concept "soul mate" comes into play. That is a fated relationship, one where something abstract and intangible draws the two together because they are two halves of a whole.
So what is a soul?
Would aliens have that concept? It's really a very abstract abstraction.
Astrology would be vastly different for the natal chart of someone born in a different solar system. Or between stars -- would such a child even have a natal chart? How could you get a handle on who this person is? How mature the alien soul is?
Well, let's look at it another way. Suppose the alien civilization does have the concept Soul and even the concept Spirit -- and they come from a planet with axial tilt so they have a winter solstice. So they'd have the concept of cyclical seasons, and a winter solstice. How would they get from there to something akin to our concept of Soul?
According to most of our philosophies and religions (at least ones that didn't originate at the equator) -- the "light" Spiritual and Physical, waxes and wanes. The Sun waxes and wanes; the Moon waxes and wanes (and some say only a planet with water and a fairly large moon will develope complex land-dwelling life.)
In astrology there's the axiom, "As Above: So Below" -- that is, everything in this world is a metaphoric image of something else on a different plane of existence.
Understand this world, and you understand the "above".
The soul and spirit are of the "above;" the body of the "below."
And so if the world's light is cyclical, so too would the "light" that illuminates the soul be cyclical.
Thus the magical rite of kindling fire on the shortest day of the year is not to bring the SUN back, to initiate the growing season -- but to bring light back to the soul. "Peace on Earth; Goodwill toward Men." "A Great Miracle Happened There."
In some religions that translates into "seeing the light" -- i.e. coming to believe in the Divine, to see the Divine light.
But I submit that some people somewhere probably look at this magical process of kindling light at the darkest day of the year as the means whereby we ignite our souls to glow outward into the world and give us light to see the world by. (consider those in the southern hemisphere should do this in July for spiritual effect -- what of an alien world where they do it that way?)
"Seeing the Light" would mean to such aliens that you'd turned your spiritual headlights on so you can see to drive through the darkness and avoid obstacles and potholes. That is, you can live a smooth life if you can see where you're going.
Just imagine the range of possible misunderstandings between such lovers who had come "home for the holidays."
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Well, this is the Season of Lights -- a whole bunch of faiths do light at the bottom of the year!
On Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover, on the shortest day of the year they kindled a bon fire using a magnifying glass and the power of the very weak red-giant sun.
One of the essential ingredients in good world building is the anthropology and psychology.
Our fictional aliens have to be "accessible" to our human mentality if they are going to be characters. Otherwise you end up with something like C. J. Cherryh's most alien aliens who occassionally do a drive-by spaceship shooting, and can just barely communicate -- but who don't form relationships with individual humans. The most you can expect is a treaty whereby they won't shoot you today.
And we at this blog are all into "relationships" so let's look at the season of Year's Turning -- the winter solstice. Most worlds that have life will probably have an axial tilt and therefore have this metaphore built into their cultures. (OK, there will be worlds whose poles run sideways.)
Last time I talked about abstract thinking -- which includes metaphores, analogies, algebra, along with hypothesizing.
Our favorite books depict relationships between human and alien where the concept "soul mate" comes into play. That is a fated relationship, one where something abstract and intangible draws the two together because they are two halves of a whole.
So what is a soul?
Would aliens have that concept? It's really a very abstract abstraction.
Astrology would be vastly different for the natal chart of someone born in a different solar system. Or between stars -- would such a child even have a natal chart? How could you get a handle on who this person is? How mature the alien soul is?
Well, let's look at it another way. Suppose the alien civilization does have the concept Soul and even the concept Spirit -- and they come from a planet with axial tilt so they have a winter solstice. So they'd have the concept of cyclical seasons, and a winter solstice. How would they get from there to something akin to our concept of Soul?
According to most of our philosophies and religions (at least ones that didn't originate at the equator) -- the "light" Spiritual and Physical, waxes and wanes. The Sun waxes and wanes; the Moon waxes and wanes (and some say only a planet with water and a fairly large moon will develope complex land-dwelling life.)
In astrology there's the axiom, "As Above: So Below" -- that is, everything in this world is a metaphoric image of something else on a different plane of existence.
Understand this world, and you understand the "above".
The soul and spirit are of the "above;" the body of the "below."
And so if the world's light is cyclical, so too would the "light" that illuminates the soul be cyclical.
Thus the magical rite of kindling fire on the shortest day of the year is not to bring the SUN back, to initiate the growing season -- but to bring light back to the soul. "Peace on Earth; Goodwill toward Men." "A Great Miracle Happened There."
In some religions that translates into "seeing the light" -- i.e. coming to believe in the Divine, to see the Divine light.
But I submit that some people somewhere probably look at this magical process of kindling light at the darkest day of the year as the means whereby we ignite our souls to glow outward into the world and give us light to see the world by. (consider those in the southern hemisphere should do this in July for spiritual effect -- what of an alien world where they do it that way?)
"Seeing the Light" would mean to such aliens that you'd turned your spiritual headlights on so you can see to drive through the darkness and avoid obstacles and potholes. That is, you can live a smooth life if you can see where you're going.
Just imagine the range of possible misunderstandings between such lovers who had come "home for the holidays."
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Insufficient Mating Material -- Jan 30th 2007
Insufficient Mating Material won't be in bookstores until January 30th 2007. However, please visit my stocking stuffer webpage for a reminder that could go in a holiday stocking.
Excerpt from Insufficient Mating Material
Tigron Empire of the Djinn
ARK IMPERIAL, Operating Theater
Damn them! Prince Djetthro-Jason eyed the masked males and the unpleasant array of implements they were preparing to use on him.
I haven't told them everything, and I'm not about to. No way am I going to invite anyone to take a laser to my privates. Ahhh, Fewmet!
The "battlefield analgesia" was wearing off. During the duel that he'd begun as Commander Jason and ended--defeated--as Prince Djetthro-Jason, he'd felt almost no pain despite the damage Tarrant-Arragon had inflicted.
Now, his massively bruised thigh throbbed heavily, his neck muscles ached, and his jaw...it hurt even to think about his jaw. Perhaps worse--but less so by the moment--was the damage to his alpha-male machismo as he lay strapped down, stark naked, in his enemy's operating theater, preparing his mind for surgery without anesthetic. Also for "the fate worse than death" which was to come.
If Tarrant-Arragon had observed Great Djinn tradition, the duel they'd fought less than an hour ago ought to have been to the death.
Why hadn't Tarrant-Arragon killed him then and there? To the victor went the Empire, the Ark Imperial, and gods-Right to any female he wanted...and they both wanted the same female.
Damn it! Even if he wanted to stop, I should've fought on after he crippled my leg and shattered my bloody jaw. Why didn't I? What's left for me?
What indeed?
I'll be the Djinn equivalent of a broken thoroughbred stallion put out to stud. It's fairly obvious why Tarrant-Arragon made an excuse not to finish me off.
The Great Djinn were nearly extinct. In twenty years' time, Tarrant-Arragon's and Djinni-vera's children would need true-Djinn mates, all entitled to the silent D-prefix to their royal Djinn names. That's why!
When the "fate worse than death" had been spelled out, it had been sheer bravado to mumble that he wanted to marry Princess Martia-Djulia.
Maybe I do. Maybe I don't.
It hurt how much he still wanted Djinni-vera, who'd been the last Djinn virgin in all the Communicating Worlds, and betrothed to be his, until Tarrant-Arragon abducted her by force and took her virginity.
What consolation would it be to have Tarrant-Arragon's sexy, fashionista bitch of a sister in his power and in his bed instead?
Djetth winced at the savagery of his thoughts about Martia-Djulia. Shards of pain shot along his broken jawline.
"Well, Djetthro-Jason, are you ready to be carved up for your new identity and your new life as my little sister's glorified love slave?"
From somewhere out of Djetth's line of sight, Tarrant-Arragon taunted him, stressing the part of Djetth's real name that he'd used until his cover as "Commander Jason" was blown and he was overpowered and arrested.
Djetth did not turn his head. The pain in his face and head was intolerable enough without moving.
"Ahhh, I do believe that Our Imperial surgeons are ready to do away with that distinctive jagged scar on your cheek," Tarrant-Arragon crooned. "And screw together your jaw."
What else might they do while he was under the laser and the knife? While his face was open, might they carve out a sensory gland or two? Implant a tracking device? Use his broken jaw as an excuse to weld a mask over his head?
Prince Djetthro-Jason would be a latter-day "Man in the Iron Mask" if they realized how closely he resembled Crown Prince Tarrant-Arragon. Which he would, without his scars, his colorful contact lenses and his long, blond-dyed hair.
Djetth glanced at the treacherous, turncoat 'Rhett, who'd been his bloody useless "second" at the duel, and who was still hanging around.
What for? Damn him. 'Rhett was too much the intergalactic statesman for his own--or anyone else's--good.
If the patient lost consciousness, Tarrant-Arragon could decide that the chances for galactic peace would be better if Djetthro-Jason were neutered...one way or another. Given the secrets 'Rhett knew, 'Rhett might agree.
"No--" Djetth groaned with the unexpected agony of trying to speak. He wanted to refuse anesthetic again. How he wished there was somebody present whom he could trust!
A door swished open.
"Does he have to be in such pain?" The cause of all the trouble spoke from the doorway. She sounded on edge, as if she felt his pain telepathically.
Djinni-vera! No longer his Djinni. By conquest, by the irrevocable exchange of vows, and finally by her own choice, she was Tarrant-Arragon's.
By All the Lechers of Antiquity, how he loved her! At that moment. For coming. Mentally Djetth qualified his thoughts. Djinni-vera might not love him now, but she was honorable to the core. Tarrant-Arragon wouldn't dare do anything dastardly in front of her.
As she glided to his surgical table, Djetth looked at her wildly, helplessly, with mute appeal, hoping that she would read his mind and aid him this one last time.
Djinni-vera's amethyst eyes widened as if she had Heard him and understood. Her gaze averted, she reached out and dropped a gauzy white cloth of some sort over his monstrously inappropriate erection.
To others, her action might have looked like public modesty on her part. Djetth assumed that Djinni had read the part of his mind that was worrying about the striking tattoo that only showed up in the dark or when he was suitably excited.
Thank you he thought. Please help me. Stay.
She nodded, and took his fettered hand with her undamaged left. "You've been macho about this too long, J-J. Why won't you let them put you to sleep?"
"Careful, my love," Tarrant-Arragon said, moving possessively to her side. "You can never call him J-J again. Nor may you use any of his other damned traitor's aliases. Not J-J, not Commander Jason. Traitors cannot be seen to survive their attempts on my life. Commander Jason is officially dead, and everyone--including Martia-Djulia--must believe it. From this day forward, he's Prince Djetthro-Jason."
"What a mouthful..." Djinni began; then her changing expression told him that she must have read a thought-pun he couldn't resist. "Djetth!"
She frowned sternly.
"I know you Great Djinn males can't help thinking of sex all the time. But it's not helpful, Djetth. As long as you have your saturniid gland, you're dangerous."
Not dangerous to you, kid. You won't ovulate while you're pregnant, and probably not for a while after that, he thought back at her.
Her mouth twisted in a wry smile.
"You'd be safer if you let them remove it."
Some aspects of Royal Djinn maleness one would rather die than surrender, he rejoined, hoping she would not read his darker thoughts.
"Martia-Djulia would be better off if you couldn't have the rut-rage again, too..." As she spoke, Djinni tossed her head as if shaking off a bothersome fly.
Djetth wondered if Djinni had unexpectedly Channeled someone else's reasoning. Djinni couldn't possibly know how savagely Martia-Djulia liked to be served in bed.
"I saw Palace footage of you having the rut-rage with Martia-Djulia." The little mind-reader's voice rose in protest at the thought he hadn't meant her to sense.
You saw? You saw what, exactly? His thought question was a ploy to distract her from thinking about the rut-rage, but no sooner had he asked than he dreaded how detailed her reply might be....
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
ARK IMPERIAL, Operating Theater
Damn them! Prince Djetthro-Jason eyed the masked males and the unpleasant array of implements they were preparing to use on him.
I haven't told them everything, and I'm not about to. No way am I going to invite anyone to take a laser to my privates. Ahhh, Fewmet!
The "battlefield analgesia" was wearing off. During the duel that he'd begun as Commander Jason and ended--defeated--as Prince Djetthro-Jason, he'd felt almost no pain despite the damage Tarrant-Arragon had inflicted.
Now, his massively bruised thigh throbbed heavily, his neck muscles ached, and his jaw...it hurt even to think about his jaw. Perhaps worse--but less so by the moment--was the damage to his alpha-male machismo as he lay strapped down, stark naked, in his enemy's operating theater, preparing his mind for surgery without anesthetic. Also for "the fate worse than death" which was to come.
If Tarrant-Arragon had observed Great Djinn tradition, the duel they'd fought less than an hour ago ought to have been to the death.
Why hadn't Tarrant-Arragon killed him then and there? To the victor went the Empire, the Ark Imperial, and gods-Right to any female he wanted...and they both wanted the same female.
Damn it! Even if he wanted to stop, I should've fought on after he crippled my leg and shattered my bloody jaw. Why didn't I? What's left for me?
What indeed?
I'll be the Djinn equivalent of a broken thoroughbred stallion put out to stud. It's fairly obvious why Tarrant-Arragon made an excuse not to finish me off.
The Great Djinn were nearly extinct. In twenty years' time, Tarrant-Arragon's and Djinni-vera's children would need true-Djinn mates, all entitled to the silent D-prefix to their royal Djinn names. That's why!
When the "fate worse than death" had been spelled out, it had been sheer bravado to mumble that he wanted to marry Princess Martia-Djulia.
Maybe I do. Maybe I don't.
It hurt how much he still wanted Djinni-vera, who'd been the last Djinn virgin in all the Communicating Worlds, and betrothed to be his, until Tarrant-Arragon abducted her by force and took her virginity.
What consolation would it be to have Tarrant-Arragon's sexy, fashionista bitch of a sister in his power and in his bed instead?
Djetth winced at the savagery of his thoughts about Martia-Djulia. Shards of pain shot along his broken jawline.
"Well, Djetthro-Jason, are you ready to be carved up for your new identity and your new life as my little sister's glorified love slave?"
From somewhere out of Djetth's line of sight, Tarrant-Arragon taunted him, stressing the part of Djetth's real name that he'd used until his cover as "Commander Jason" was blown and he was overpowered and arrested.
Djetth did not turn his head. The pain in his face and head was intolerable enough without moving.
"Ahhh, I do believe that Our Imperial surgeons are ready to do away with that distinctive jagged scar on your cheek," Tarrant-Arragon crooned. "And screw together your jaw."
What else might they do while he was under the laser and the knife? While his face was open, might they carve out a sensory gland or two? Implant a tracking device? Use his broken jaw as an excuse to weld a mask over his head?
Prince Djetthro-Jason would be a latter-day "Man in the Iron Mask" if they realized how closely he resembled Crown Prince Tarrant-Arragon. Which he would, without his scars, his colorful contact lenses and his long, blond-dyed hair.
Djetth glanced at the treacherous, turncoat 'Rhett, who'd been his bloody useless "second" at the duel, and who was still hanging around.
What for? Damn him. 'Rhett was too much the intergalactic statesman for his own--or anyone else's--good.
If the patient lost consciousness, Tarrant-Arragon could decide that the chances for galactic peace would be better if Djetthro-Jason were neutered...one way or another. Given the secrets 'Rhett knew, 'Rhett might agree.
"No--" Djetth groaned with the unexpected agony of trying to speak. He wanted to refuse anesthetic again. How he wished there was somebody present whom he could trust!
A door swished open.
"Does he have to be in such pain?" The cause of all the trouble spoke from the doorway. She sounded on edge, as if she felt his pain telepathically.
Djinni-vera! No longer his Djinni. By conquest, by the irrevocable exchange of vows, and finally by her own choice, she was Tarrant-Arragon's.
By All the Lechers of Antiquity, how he loved her! At that moment. For coming. Mentally Djetth qualified his thoughts. Djinni-vera might not love him now, but she was honorable to the core. Tarrant-Arragon wouldn't dare do anything dastardly in front of her.
As she glided to his surgical table, Djetth looked at her wildly, helplessly, with mute appeal, hoping that she would read his mind and aid him this one last time.
Djinni-vera's amethyst eyes widened as if she had Heard him and understood. Her gaze averted, she reached out and dropped a gauzy white cloth of some sort over his monstrously inappropriate erection.
To others, her action might have looked like public modesty on her part. Djetth assumed that Djinni had read the part of his mind that was worrying about the striking tattoo that only showed up in the dark or when he was suitably excited.
Thank you he thought. Please help me. Stay.
She nodded, and took his fettered hand with her undamaged left. "You've been macho about this too long, J-J. Why won't you let them put you to sleep?"
"Careful, my love," Tarrant-Arragon said, moving possessively to her side. "You can never call him J-J again. Nor may you use any of his other damned traitor's aliases. Not J-J, not Commander Jason. Traitors cannot be seen to survive their attempts on my life. Commander Jason is officially dead, and everyone--including Martia-Djulia--must believe it. From this day forward, he's Prince Djetthro-Jason."
"What a mouthful..." Djinni began; then her changing expression told him that she must have read a thought-pun he couldn't resist. "Djetth!"
She frowned sternly.
"I know you Great Djinn males can't help thinking of sex all the time. But it's not helpful, Djetth. As long as you have your saturniid gland, you're dangerous."
Not dangerous to you, kid. You won't ovulate while you're pregnant, and probably not for a while after that, he thought back at her.
Her mouth twisted in a wry smile.
"You'd be safer if you let them remove it."
Some aspects of Royal Djinn maleness one would rather die than surrender, he rejoined, hoping she would not read his darker thoughts.
"Martia-Djulia would be better off if you couldn't have the rut-rage again, too..." As she spoke, Djinni tossed her head as if shaking off a bothersome fly.
Djetth wondered if Djinni had unexpectedly Channeled someone else's reasoning. Djinni couldn't possibly know how savagely Martia-Djulia liked to be served in bed.
"I saw Palace footage of you having the rut-rage with Martia-Djulia." The little mind-reader's voice rose in protest at the thought he hadn't meant her to sense.
You saw? You saw what, exactly? His thought question was a ploy to distract her from thinking about the rut-rage, but no sooner had he asked than he dreaded how detailed her reply might be....
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Tis the season
Deck the web with boughs of holly falala....
but I've got this deadline folly...
so my blog is in a hurry .....
please fogive me if I scurry falala....
la la la la
tis the season and I'm busy writing along with the other holiday things
Hopefully next week I'll be done
until then...
but I've got this deadline folly...
so my blog is in a hurry .....
please fogive me if I scurry falala....
la la la la
tis the season and I'm busy writing along with the other holiday things
Hopefully next week I'll be done
until then...
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Explaining Vampire Physiology
(I always enjoy good expository dialogue, especially about the biology of other species, so I try to write it the way I like to read it. One of my very favorites in that "vein" is Dr. Weyland's lecture on "how nature would design a vampire" in Suzy McKee Charnas' THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY. An excellent recent book that portrays an interestingly worked-out vampire species is Octavia Butler's FLEDGLING. Here's an example of information feed about the physiology and psychology of an imaginary race from one of my books. This is an excerpt from DARK CHANGELING, the first-published novel in my "alien" vampire series. Roger Darvell has just met his mentor, the vampire elder Volnar, who in this scene begins to answer Roger's questions about their species. Sylvia is a young female vampire Roger has known for a short time.)
"You started late," said Volnar. "Most of us acquire our psychic talents in our early teens -- as you did, didn't you? -- but start needing human blood soon thereafter, around sixteen."
"Children don't?" said Roger. He'd had trouble visualizing an infant or toddler feeding on a human adult.
"Of course not," Volnar chuckled. "Babies are born with two needle-like teeth -- the only time we have those absurd rattlesnake fangs beloved by Hollywood -- to feed on the mother's blood as well as her milk. You didn't, thanks to your human half. At weaning, three or four years old, we lose the fangs and switch to raw meat, milk, and animal blood."
"Makes sense," Roger said. "Growing children would need the calories in solid food."
"In early adolescence the ability to digest it disappears, when we lose our wolf-like incisors and canines, to be replaced by a more human-appearing set for drawing blood inconspicuously. It's a good thing you didn't undergo those changes, or you could never have passed for human."
"I'm still baffled about the way you manipulated me. Why this `experiment,' leaving me to flounder through those developmental stages alone? Why did you care whether a hybrid was `viable'?"
"Quite simply," said Volnar, "because we aren't replacing ourselves. Long-lived predators have to breed slowly in comparison to their prey, to avoid overrunning the food supply, but in recent centuries our low reproductive rate has become a crisis. Females more often than not go into estrus without conceiving. The incidence of miscarriages has increased, too."
Roger set down the brandy and stared at him. "You're looking for new blood, aren't you?" He winced at his unintentional pun. "You think human DNA might revitalize your gene pool."
"Exactly." Volnar smiled as if pleased at his quick comprehension. "Some of the elders consider it contamination, but I've overruled them. Including the ones who make derogatory remarks about `lap dogs pretending to be wolves.'"
Roger felt his chest tighten with anger. Though he wasn't sure he wanted to be a wolf, he didn't care for the proposed alternative.
"Some of them," Volnar continued, "cite the fable of the Ugly Duckling, which they think ends on a note of unwarranted optimism. What kind of a swan could the creature become, crippled by a barnyard fowl's conditioning?"
"Are you deliberately trying to goad me?"
"Only preparing you," Volnar said, "for the hostility you're sure to encounter sooner or later. Not that it's universal. Most of those who know about your existence either tentatively approve or are indifferent."
"The nay-sayers have a point," Roger said. "Do you happen to have read Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson?"
"Actually, no."
"Two boys are switched in infancy, half-brothers, the son of a slave woman and the son of the mistress of the house. When they reach adulthood and the truth is revealed, the young man who's grown up thinking himself a slave suddenly becomes the master's heir. One might expect a Cinderella conclusion, but that doesn't happen. The slave turned master proves utterly unfit for the station to which he was born."
"You don't have to apply that pessimistic tale to yourself. You've done better than that."
"Oh, have I? Not from my viewpoint." Roger took a deep breath, then coughed when he inhaled cigar smoke instead of fresh air. "How can you stand that blasted thing?" He wondered whether the smoke was a test of his willingness to accept Volnar's domination. When he'd cleared his throat, he said, "What you've made me is a misfit among both vampires and my human peers."
"On the contrary, you've done remarkably well, considering how you were forced to `flounder,'" Volnar said. "Not unlike Tarzan in Burroughs' novel, who, after being reared by apes, as an ape, taught himself to read and eventually functioned not only as a civilized man but as an aristocrat of the most civilized nation on earth."
"A pulp fantasy," Roger said. "Real-life feral children more often become mental and emotional cripples."
"That didn't happen to you, however," said Volnar, "so I suggest you stop wasting energy on resentment."
"But I haven't turned out like Tarzan. More like a badly socialized puppy."
"In what way?" said Volnar.
"Well, I understand that if you take a puppy away from its mother and litter mates too soon, it doesn't know how to behave like a dog. On the other hand, if you leave the separation too late, the pup can never fully adjust to life with a human master. Either way, you have a maladjusted dog."
"It's true that there are critical periods in our childhood and adolescence -- times of imprinting, as with ducklings. The adaptability of young vampires is a double-edged weapon."
Roger stood up, too restless to hold still. "Sylvia has a fear of religious objects -- that's the kind of thing you mean, don't you?"
"Yes. Her advisor was too lax. She was exposed to excessive human influences. She almost thought, in her mid-teens, that she was human. Then she drifted the other way and picked up a cluster of absurd superstitions about her nature."
"Then I'm not the only child whose upbringing you people royally fouled up." He simmered with tension, half tempted to take a swing at Volnar just to discharge it.
"Learning how you've dealt with your highly specialized problems may help us avoid mistakes with future generations." Volnar rested the cigar in an ashtray and strode to Roger's side. "Don't let anger blind you to the possibilities, young man. This stage is only the beginning. The next is to breed you with a female of our species."
Roger jerked away from the elder's outstretched hand. "What? Do you think for one minute I'd consider that? Creating another child to suffer what I've gone through?"
"He or she wouldn't suffer the `identity crisis' you've had," Volnar said, walking over to pick up his unfinished cigar. "The child will know his or her nature and destiny from the start. I'll serve as its advisor myself."
"All the more reason why I'd run miles to avoid the whole thing."
"Nevertheless, I do expect you to consider it," Volnar said. "I've contacted a young woman, born in the 1880s, who has proven her fertility. She conceived more than once but miscarried each time. With you as the sire, perhaps a pregnancy might --"
"Not interested," Roger cut him off. "I can't condone any more of your damned experiments. And what makes you think this woman would accept being forced into mating with a -- a halfbreed?"
"Not forced! Our women choose their own mates, subject to veto by the elders, to prevent inbreeding. I've already explained your background to her, and she is enthusiastic."
"She may like the idea of being a reproductive machine for you, but I don't!" He almost wanted to rush out of the room and drive away, but the need to learn as much as he could stopped him.
"Juliette doesn't fit that description in the least. She teaches English at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and writes historical romances under a nom de plume -- far from a mindless breeding machine. However, she does want a child, and her next estrus is due fairly soon. Think it over."
"I don't need to think," Roger said, baring his teeth. "I'm absolutely sure that I don't want to serve as sperm donor to a woman I've never met in support of a project I don't believe in."
Volnar said, "Aren't you curious, if nothing else?"
"What do you mean?"
"Many of our males live out their first thousand years -- or more -- without once being chosen to mate. This may be your single chance to experience fully consummated genital sexuality."
The notion disturbed Roger, though he couldn't say why; he certainly felt no physical urge for the act Volnar alluded to. "You keep mentioning estrus, as if vampire females went into heat like --"
"Dogs? Wolves?" Volnar's lips quirked in amusement. "They do, and male vampires can consummate the sexual act only when stimulated by a female in heat. Mating lasts through an entire night of repeated copulation. If an unwanted conception occurs, the woman can mentally compel her body to eject the embryo." He became more serious. "Not that this problem comes up very often anymore. We do need your genes, Roger. Your potential hybrid vigor."
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
So, well then WHAT if....????
Folks:
Linnea brought up that one thought process I will be talking about in my review column the first half of 2007 -- hypothesizing.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2007/ will show you the list of books to be reviewed the first half of the year. The columns will be posted after they have been printed in the magazine that paid for them, then posted to THEIR website -- finally on simegen.com for archive.
Hypothesizing is a cognitive function that animals don't have -- the ability to think about something that is not, might never be, should never be. It's the ability to think abstractly (i.e. do algebra).
In this blog we discussed what it is that a human could possibly see in an alien (a real non-human but intelligent person) that would be sexually and romantically attractive.
I mentioned a shapeless blob, and everyone immediately chimed in ODO -- well, yeah, I'm a serious Odo fan (STAR TREK DS-9 -- if you haven't seen it, get the DVD's from the library at least! Odo is something else!)
So for writers and readers of Alien Romance it isn't the appearance that ignites the spark.
We write about how it is that "love at first sight" can operate even with an alien (maybe one you can't even see!)
We write about that sense of soul-to-soul recognition. And we write about it emotionally.
But Linnea put her finger on exactly what it is that could be recognized over that biological gulf that could set off the total romantic attachment of "love at first sight." It's the cognitive function that has to tie all "intelligent" life in all galaxies together -- the ability to hypothesize.
It is our imaginations that unite us - even as imagination divides us. Imagined slights, insults, and the "well she thinks she's so great!" cognitive error of believing you know what another person thinks just from what they do.
So imagination would make the main axis of conflict in an Alien Romance.
Mostly we believe that those fabulous lovers we imagine in the night aren't real.
But what if they are? I mean what if they ALL are real?
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Linnea brought up that one thought process I will be talking about in my review column the first half of 2007 -- hypothesizing.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2007/ will show you the list of books to be reviewed the first half of the year. The columns will be posted after they have been printed in the magazine that paid for them, then posted to THEIR website -- finally on simegen.com for archive.
Hypothesizing is a cognitive function that animals don't have -- the ability to think about something that is not, might never be, should never be. It's the ability to think abstractly (i.e. do algebra).
In this blog we discussed what it is that a human could possibly see in an alien (a real non-human but intelligent person) that would be sexually and romantically attractive.
I mentioned a shapeless blob, and everyone immediately chimed in ODO -- well, yeah, I'm a serious Odo fan (STAR TREK DS-9 -- if you haven't seen it, get the DVD's from the library at least! Odo is something else!)
So for writers and readers of Alien Romance it isn't the appearance that ignites the spark.
We write about how it is that "love at first sight" can operate even with an alien (maybe one you can't even see!)
We write about that sense of soul-to-soul recognition. And we write about it emotionally.
But Linnea put her finger on exactly what it is that could be recognized over that biological gulf that could set off the total romantic attachment of "love at first sight." It's the cognitive function that has to tie all "intelligent" life in all galaxies together -- the ability to hypothesize.
It is our imaginations that unite us - even as imagination divides us. Imagined slights, insults, and the "well she thinks she's so great!" cognitive error of believing you know what another person thinks just from what they do.
So imagination would make the main axis of conflict in an Alien Romance.
Mostly we believe that those fabulous lovers we imagine in the night aren't real.
But what if they are? I mean what if they ALL are real?
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Monday, December 04, 2006
Where does the creativity come from?
Hey kids,
Well, it's Monday, meaning it's my turn to blog. Given I'm hip-deep in deadlines for THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES and the final galleys just arrived on GAMES OF COMMAND and I'm leaving on a seven-day cruise Sunday...you'd think I'd be fresh out of brain power.
You're right. I am. I have no idea where this blog is going to come from or go, but it's just going to happen. So fly along with me...
Which is why it's titled WHERE DOES THE CREATIVITY COME FROM?
How do we think up all this strange shhhhhtuff? (You all thought Iwas going to use another word, no?) Where is that dark room in an author's brain where characters and stories and plots reside, fermenting?
I was asked this question recently by a police detective who works outside Chicago. Not that I'm in any particular kind of trouble, mind you. I actually was asking him some questions about homicide detectives since the male protagonist in my current WIP has that career. And the detective--being by nature a question-asker or he'd not be in that biz--returned the favor and asked me: how do authors think of all this stuff?
What I told him was this: for every author it's different but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that there's not an author out there who doesn't play with What If?.
What if...a character doesn't go to work that day but stays home and witnessess her neighbor doing [fill in the blank]? What if...Trilby brings an unknown injured pilot on board her starfreighter instead of (oh-so-more-wisely) leaving him to fend on his own? What if...a cop leaving a crime scene spills coffee on himself as he's pulling his car away from the curb and--instead of going back to the station with the computer he's taking into evidence--decides to make a quick stop home to change his clothes...
...and is kidnapped by outerspace aliens and 'beamed' on board a starship.
What if?
What each author does with their What Ifs is unique to that author's style (and deviousness!). But the fact that we all use the What If is a common denominator. It's the author's tool for looking at What Is and making it into What Could Be...in a hundred different variations.
Just look at the authors on this blog. We all write in pretty much the same genre. We write female protagonists. Male protagonists. Starships and space. Aliens and vampires (which are alien to mortal humans). We write fast-paced action. We write passionate romance. You'd think we'd all be writing the same story--and each other's stories--over and over.
We're not. Because each author takes that What If into herself and makes it uniquely her own.
But where does that ability to turn what's inside into a story come from?
Feelings. At least, that's where it is in me. And, if you use Dwight Swain as a writing guru as I do--that's where Swain say it comes from, too. Feelings. I know when I'm writing well because I get all fluttery inside. I know when I'm writing really well because my hands go cold and I've been known to jump out of my chair and pace around the office (trying not to step on the cat who've I've most likely dislodged from my desk in the process).
That's why although the technical craft of writing can be taught, what makes a book really good, what turns words into a best seller is much more difficult.
Where that creativity lives in me or in you can't be pinpointed on a chart or map. If you want to be a writer, all I can do is give you the pathway that leads to it. And it's under that sign over there that says What If?.
Enter at your own risk. You might come out being an author.
~Linnea
www.linneasinclair.com
Well, it's Monday, meaning it's my turn to blog. Given I'm hip-deep in deadlines for THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES and the final galleys just arrived on GAMES OF COMMAND and I'm leaving on a seven-day cruise Sunday...you'd think I'd be fresh out of brain power.
You're right. I am. I have no idea where this blog is going to come from or go, but it's just going to happen. So fly along with me...
Which is why it's titled WHERE DOES THE CREATIVITY COME FROM?
How do we think up all this strange shhhhhtuff? (You all thought Iwas going to use another word, no?) Where is that dark room in an author's brain where characters and stories and plots reside, fermenting?
I was asked this question recently by a police detective who works outside Chicago. Not that I'm in any particular kind of trouble, mind you. I actually was asking him some questions about homicide detectives since the male protagonist in my current WIP has that career. And the detective--being by nature a question-asker or he'd not be in that biz--returned the favor and asked me: how do authors think of all this stuff?
What I told him was this: for every author it's different but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that there's not an author out there who doesn't play with What If?.
What if...a character doesn't go to work that day but stays home and witnessess her neighbor doing [fill in the blank]? What if...Trilby brings an unknown injured pilot on board her starfreighter instead of (oh-so-more-wisely) leaving him to fend on his own? What if...a cop leaving a crime scene spills coffee on himself as he's pulling his car away from the curb and--instead of going back to the station with the computer he's taking into evidence--decides to make a quick stop home to change his clothes...
...and is kidnapped by outerspace aliens and 'beamed' on board a starship.
What if?
What each author does with their What Ifs is unique to that author's style (and deviousness!). But the fact that we all use the What If is a common denominator. It's the author's tool for looking at What Is and making it into What Could Be...in a hundred different variations.
Just look at the authors on this blog. We all write in pretty much the same genre. We write female protagonists. Male protagonists. Starships and space. Aliens and vampires (which are alien to mortal humans). We write fast-paced action. We write passionate romance. You'd think we'd all be writing the same story--and each other's stories--over and over.
We're not. Because each author takes that What If into herself and makes it uniquely her own.
But where does that ability to turn what's inside into a story come from?
Feelings. At least, that's where it is in me. And, if you use Dwight Swain as a writing guru as I do--that's where Swain say it comes from, too. Feelings. I know when I'm writing well because I get all fluttery inside. I know when I'm writing really well because my hands go cold and I've been known to jump out of my chair and pace around the office (trying not to step on the cat who've I've most likely dislodged from my desk in the process).
That's why although the technical craft of writing can be taught, what makes a book really good, what turns words into a best seller is much more difficult.
Where that creativity lives in me or in you can't be pinpointed on a chart or map. If you want to be a writer, all I can do is give you the pathway that leads to it. And it's under that sign over there that says What If?.
Enter at your own risk. You might come out being an author.
~Linnea
www.linneasinclair.com
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Insufficient Mating Material and Genitalia
If you like to ponder what aliens might think of Earthling males' genitals, see the joke in the Comments on my last blog.
If you don't like the jokes I like, you won't be interested in Insufficient Mating Material, in stores from January 30th 2007.
For more dignified reading, scroll down to Susan Grant's cool excerpt.
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2006/11/empires-dreams
My Favorite Earthling (instalment #4)
The third instalment of Susan Grant's masterly new alien romance was posted on October 28th.
Since then, the blog has been pretty active, so I'm sharing my day this week.
Hunky human hero, Jared Jasper --real estate mogul, brother of a feminine US Senator (who happens to have married an alien)-- is exploring an alien spacecraft that crashed onto his family ranch. As he sits in the pilot's seat, a video communication screen turns on, and he realizes that the enemy aliens may have seen him.
Excerpted from MY FAVORITE EARTHLING
by SUSAN GRANT
copyright Susan Grant 2006
MARCH 2007
ISBN 0373771924; HQN books
This uncorrected excerpt may contain errors and other text not found in the final printed novel and is not for sale. Please don’t share the text with anyone without first receiving permission from the author to do so.
Chapter Four
Whoa, baby. Jared sat up straighter in the pilot seat as the striking alien woman appeared onscreen. Heavy, dark, and long, her hair whipped like Medusa’s snakes around her shoulders and breasts as she turned to face him.
Shouting something, the woman shoved a hand through her wild mane of hair. A thick, intricately jeweled band glittered on her upper arm. This was no shopping mall purchase. The workmanship was exquisite and matched the earring dangling from her left ear. The chick was buff, sculpted muscles flexing. She wore a black jumpsuit that was so formfitting it looked painted on. Jutting nipples pushed up against the fabric by one unforgettable pair of breasts as her chest literally heaved.
So much for any doubts as to the two-way feature of the ship’s TV. She could see him, no doubt about that. Her eyes had opened wide at the sight of him, her mouth forming a luscious circle of surprise.
The moment hung in freeze-frame. He didn’t move. He had the wildest impression of having startled a rare and beautiful mythical being like a mermaid or fairy: a few seconds of unforgettable eye contact before she escaped forever.
“Jared,” Evie whispered. “Put your eyeballs back in your head.”
He lifted a finger to his lips. He didn’t want to scare the woman away.
The alien woman must have taken his gesture as if he were telling her to be quiet. Wielding a knife she stormed the screen. So much for thoughts of a fairy or mermaid; she looked more like an avenging warrior princess off the pages of a Manga comic book.
“Uh oh,” Evie said. “Now she’s pissed.”
“Actually, a little more than pissed. Given half a chance, she’d probably cut out my heart and eat it for dinner.”
This is the face of your enemy.
And this was the face of hers, he thought. Against his better judgment—and Evie’s—he stayed put.
The woman stopped inches from the screen to finish telling him off, but he couldn’t understand a word she said. “What we need is a little closed-captioning.” Lights blinked on the arm rests. “Maybe one of these is a translator.”
“What if it starts the engines? What if it makes it fly?”
“Don’t panic. The tech may be a lot more advanced than what we have, but some things stay the same. Controls on a seat are usually for convenience or comfort items.”
He tapped them one by one, figuring he’d keep trying until he found one that translated. It was worth a shot. Cavin had a translator implanted in his brain for two-way language understanding, so likely there was something similar in the cockpit. Down the bank of lights he went. “Talk to me, baby. Talk to me...”
The alien warrior-chick reared back, startled. A spark of fear in her eyes disappeared almost as quickly as it showed up.
“Earthling,” she spat.
“You got that right.”
“Trespasser. Barbarian!”
Jared coughed out a laugh. “There’s only one barbarian around here, and it’s not me. Look at you. We stopped dressing like that a thousand years ago. Daggers are pretty much passé, too. So, is this a retro fashion trend, or are all of you Coalition types this primitive?”
Evie hissed. “Jared, you're going to start a war.”
“We’re already in a war,” he whispered back. “I'm just adding a little fear and awe.”
“I will see you brought to me in chains, Earthling!” the alien chick yelled to him.
“I haven’t had an offer that exciting in a while. Do I get to see you in chains, too?”
The woman’s mouth dipped in a sneer as she looked him over from head to boots. Stripped naked, he doubted he would have felt more exposed to her scrutiny. “I’d rather cough up blood.’
“Nice.”
“Jared,” Evie warned. “Don’t make me come down there and get you.”
“I’ve got to go,” he told the alien woman. “But I’d like to chat more sometime. I have to admit, the chains thing really got my imagination going.”
Her mouth tightened. She had very expressive eyes, Jared noted. In them, it was very easy to see every detail of his excruciating death should she get her hands on him which was something that would never happen because he’d fight to the death to keep her people from taking over his world. Even if every Coalition woman was as hot as she was.
“Jared?” Evie interrupted. “You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?” he whispered back.
“Staring at each other.” Evie’s face was centered in the open hatch above, framed by blue sky. Her hair swung just above his head.
“I’m not staring at her. I’m contemplating her contemplating my death.”
“Who are you talking to?” Warrior-chick demanded.
“My staff. And some members of my harem.”
Evie made a sound that was strangely close to the one Warrior-chick made.
“Who are you?” the woman asked.
“You don’t know?”
“Careful, Jared.”
I know what I’m doing, he told Evie with a frown.
He leaned forward. “You can call me The Prince.”
“Oh, jeez,” Evie muttered. “I can’t listen to this anymore.”
“You are a prince?” Warrior-chick’s chin came up as she asked the question, her nostrils pinching.
“I’m the Prince. And my message to you is this: if your people come back for another try at landing on Earth, we’ll be waiting. A billion more guys like me, waiting.” Trash talk. But sometimes the most effective weapons were psychological. “Mess with Earth and your defeat will become your reality. Got that? Now, have a nice day, baby.”
Jared pushed free of the pilot seat’s glove-tight hold. He pulled himself out the hatch and slammed it closed behind him. “What the hell just happened?” He rubbed a tired hand over his face. “I need a shave.”
“What just happened? I don’t know, Jared, you tell me.” Evie dropped down next to him on the fighter-craft’s invisible wing. Side by side, they sat, lags dangling. “Who are you? Because whoever you were in that cockpit, I didn’t recognize him.”
“It’s not someone you’d know unless you flew on my wing in an F-16. It’s how I deal with the stress of combat; it’s how most of the guys do, I think. Maybe it’s why we have the call signs, to differentiate who we are inside the cockpit from who we are outside of it. An alter ego. But when I leave the unit, he stays behind. Ol’ Prince is not exactly family friendly.”
“He’s a jerk.”
“But he’s perfect for dealing with uppity Coalition bitches.” Jared shifted his focus to the closed hatch. He couldn’t believe the argument had actually turned him on. “What a woman, huh? Totally not my type, but...wow.” He thought of her hair whipping around her shoulders, pictured her naked, that long hair stuck to her damp skin, letting tantalizing peeks of her breasts and stomach show through, skin that was damp from having sex with him, not from pumping iron. Or maybe they’d do it after they worked out...and before...and...
“Jared.”
Evie’s voice jolted him out of a fantasy of the alien woman bent over a table, her lush breasts in his hands as he thrust into her. By now he had such a hard-on that he hunched over, grateful he was wearing thick sweats. What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn’t in high school anymore. “Say again?” he said with a trace of hoarseness in his voice.
Evie’s dark eyes sparkled. “Chemistry. I said it was amazing that you can feel it across light years of space.”
“Chemistry?” He choked out a laugh. “I have a few ideas on what to call it, but it’s not that.”
“Denial.”
“Sanity.”
“Jared, you’re so unromantic.”
“She’s the enemy.”
“So? Woo her over to the dark side. Use the force.”
He pulled out his cell phone to call Cavin and brief him on what they’d discovered. “Force or no force, Miss Sunshine lives in a galaxy far, far away. After our little conversation today, I’m doubly determined to keep it that way.”
~~~*~~~
Shooting Star release
Shooting Star is now out. And to celebrate I'm giving away a computer bag from Coldwater Creek. Visit my website at www.cindyholby.com to enter
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Darkover Con
Over Thanksgiving weekend (as usual) we attended Darkover Grand Council, a cozy little con held every year just north of Baltimore. It includes many writing-oriented panels. With one other author, a man, I had a session on romance in SF and fantasy. The subtitle of the panel was, in part, "Does it belong there?" I expected to have to spend at least a little time defending my affirmative answer to that question, but my fellow panelist and everyone in the small audience had a completely positive attitude toward SF/paranormal romance.
I talked a little about the prehistory of the genre, such as myths, fairy tales, the Gothic romance, and mid-20th-century works such as DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE, and THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR. I also mentioned some SF novels that could be marketed as romance if they were published today, such as Marion Zimmer Bradley's SPELL SWORD and Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah's FIRST CHANNEL. Vampire romance was discussed, naturally, and I cited Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA as the major precursor of that subgenre. A point was brought up about early SF in which the love story is often a minor subplot and the heroine just a prize for the victorious hero, versus newer fiction in which the love story is fully integrated into the plot and the heroine is a strong character. From there it's a short hop to true cross-genre SF or fantasy romance.
We spent most of the hour exchanging recommendations and discussing our favorite books. Catherine Asaro, J. D. Robb, and Lois McMaster Bujold were highly praised. Since my reading experience lies mostly in fantasy and the supernatural, I talked about Mercedes Lackey's fairy tale retellings and various "Tam Lin" adaptations such as Pamela Dean's TAM LIN and Diana Wynne Jones' FIRE AND HEMLOCK. And of course vampire fiction! It was a pleasure to meet a group of SF fans who showed enthusiasm for stories that, like ours, emphasize character development and relationships.
I talked a little about the prehistory of the genre, such as myths, fairy tales, the Gothic romance, and mid-20th-century works such as DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE, and THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR. I also mentioned some SF novels that could be marketed as romance if they were published today, such as Marion Zimmer Bradley's SPELL SWORD and Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah's FIRST CHANNEL. Vampire romance was discussed, naturally, and I cited Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA as the major precursor of that subgenre. A point was brought up about early SF in which the love story is often a minor subplot and the heroine just a prize for the victorious hero, versus newer fiction in which the love story is fully integrated into the plot and the heroine is a strong character. From there it's a short hop to true cross-genre SF or fantasy romance.
We spent most of the hour exchanging recommendations and discussing our favorite books. Catherine Asaro, J. D. Robb, and Lois McMaster Bujold were highly praised. Since my reading experience lies mostly in fantasy and the supernatural, I talked about Mercedes Lackey's fairy tale retellings and various "Tam Lin" adaptations such as Pamela Dean's TAM LIN and Diana Wynne Jones' FIRE AND HEMLOCK. And of course vampire fiction! It was a pleasure to meet a group of SF fans who showed enthusiasm for stories that, like ours, emphasize character development and relationships.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Converting a Novel to a Screenplay
Folks:
On a writer's list I'm on, one of the professional writers asked for advice for where to find books on screenwriting because he wanted to convert one of his novels to a screenplay.
As it happened, this is a subject I've been focusing on lately, so here is my answer.
Syd Field, the great screenwriting teacher, states categorically (in SCREENWRITING) that a novel is NOT a movie and shows you how and why that's so.
That incontrovertible fact is the reason so many writers are bummed when they see their work made for the screen, small or large. Scriptwriters always end up changing the THEME of the work, because they aren't you and can't "have" your idea from scratch.
So they do violence to your idea to conform it to the commercial marketplace. (i.e., they make the protag's motive revenge because audiences understand that better than what you used which the screenwriter just didn't understand. That is, "revenge" is a higher concept than your novel's concept. It is understood more easily by more people. So with big bucks riding on it, the protag's character gets warped into vengeful.)
Doing the conversion yourself, though, unless you comprehend the hard fact of the nature of the difference and the reasons writers assigned to convert a novel fail, will guarantee your screenplay will never sell.
Your novel must BECOME a screenplay or script for TV (very VERY different markets, and not just a different way of laying out the type on the page, but differing in content and where climaxes have to go by page number and the kind of character work you can do.)
Creating characters for a script is to creating novel characters as Japanese Brush Painting is to Rembrandt.
They're both highly advanced art forms -- but they are different SKILLS. The Japanese artist's eye is trained to "see" differently. The scriptwriter's "eye" for character is trained to "see" differently from the novelist's.
For a script to sell, the characters must be OUTLINES, vivid and identifyable archetypes, not individuals.
Why?
Because films cost too much to make.
To sell the script, you must attract the best name actors, and those actors will judge your script by how well they can fit themselves inside the outline of your characters. If you fill in all the colors, tones, and dimensions (as Rembrandt) you leave no room for the actor's SELF, and the script will not sell, or if it does, the actor will warp the character to suit himself and the director.
That's not art -- it's business. It's all about the cost difference per minute of entertainment delivered via the novel and the film.
I do intend to convert some of my novels to scripts, and am working through a course on screenwriting now.
I have lots to learn, but if you've learned and internalized the NOVEL paradigm, you can learn any paradigm used for storytelling.
That is, you have to understand intellectually, just how you accomplished the structuring of your original story -- the more you rely on your innate "talent," the more likely you are to fail at the converting of your own novel to a screenplay.
You have to know and understand the story-structure mechanism in a coldly analytical way to be able to accomplish this conversion trick.
If you can turn your "talent" instinct on and off, you can do it.
I highly recommend SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder and the brand new board software (also titled SAVE THE CAT! ) that lets you lay out your material in the standard Hollywood format on electronic 3X5 cards (that grow to whatever size you need as you make notes). Both book and software include the precise beat-sheet which is the key to success in selling your screenplay. (Mention my name if you email Blake.)
See my Amazon review of the book. I'm vetting the software now. It's amazing. It's not on amazon yet. You can get it on blakesnyder.com though.
http://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009/rereadablebooksr/
I also have two review columns in the New Age Magazine column I do focusing on the esoteric reasons for the difference between novel and screenplay. I use SAVE THE CAT! as the basis of comparison. Those two columns will be posted on my own site in February and April. Blake Snyder wants to link to the April review because he thought I explained it well.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2007/
The real trick of this head-spinning conversion problem is to realize that a great novel concept is NOT a saleable film concept. The concept needs to be recast from the inside out to become a movie.
And then you have to use the beat sheet to structure the script precisely from that filmable concept - NOT from anything in the novel itself.
The novel's material and climaxes are all in the wrong places -- the character arcs and the character formulations are all wrong. The description is all wrong. The details are all wrong. It all has to be redone from scratch, as if you'd never written the novel and are just burning to tell this story in screenplay form.
Read Syd Field's (he's very repetitive, but that emphasizes the points) opus SCREENWRITING where he explains the how and why of this novel/screenplay conversion process.
You can probably get his books from the library, but I bought 3 of his books and filled them with underlines and post-it notes.
However, my desk reference as I work on scripting a story is SAVE THE CAT! with its complete beat sheet. That beat sheet and accompanying explanation is well worth the price of the book. You can download a copy of the beat sheet without explanation on blakesnyder.com then use it in notepad or Word to structure your story into screenplay format.
Remember, you can't take the novel you've written, it's characters and their conflicts, and just take the words and reformat them into script form scene by scene.
You have to "have the idea" for the novel over again from scratch, casting it in High Concept form, or it just has no chance in today's flooded script market.
You probably already know more about screenwriting than you do about novel writing -- because you've probably seen more movies than you've read books, so you can "sense" the formula behind movies. You always know what's coming when watching a film, don't you? That's unconscious. To write a film, you have to make that gut knowledge into conscious knowledge.
Read SAVE THE CAT! where those current best selling script formulas are revealed in detail. Pick one and re-have your Idea in Concept form. (you don't get ideas for movies, you get concepts -- and there is a very important difference -- but it's all just storycraft.)
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
On a writer's list I'm on, one of the professional writers asked for advice for where to find books on screenwriting because he wanted to convert one of his novels to a screenplay.
As it happened, this is a subject I've been focusing on lately, so here is my answer.
Syd Field, the great screenwriting teacher, states categorically (in SCREENWRITING) that a novel is NOT a movie and shows you how and why that's so.
That incontrovertible fact is the reason so many writers are bummed when they see their work made for the screen, small or large. Scriptwriters always end up changing the THEME of the work, because they aren't you and can't "have" your idea from scratch.
So they do violence to your idea to conform it to the commercial marketplace. (i.e., they make the protag's motive revenge because audiences understand that better than what you used which the screenwriter just didn't understand. That is, "revenge" is a higher concept than your novel's concept. It is understood more easily by more people. So with big bucks riding on it, the protag's character gets warped into vengeful.)
Doing the conversion yourself, though, unless you comprehend the hard fact of the nature of the difference and the reasons writers assigned to convert a novel fail, will guarantee your screenplay will never sell.
Your novel must BECOME a screenplay or script for TV (very VERY different markets, and not just a different way of laying out the type on the page, but differing in content and where climaxes have to go by page number and the kind of character work you can do.)
Creating characters for a script is to creating novel characters as Japanese Brush Painting is to Rembrandt.
They're both highly advanced art forms -- but they are different SKILLS. The Japanese artist's eye is trained to "see" differently. The scriptwriter's "eye" for character is trained to "see" differently from the novelist's.
For a script to sell, the characters must be OUTLINES, vivid and identifyable archetypes, not individuals.
Why?
Because films cost too much to make.
To sell the script, you must attract the best name actors, and those actors will judge your script by how well they can fit themselves inside the outline of your characters. If you fill in all the colors, tones, and dimensions (as Rembrandt) you leave no room for the actor's SELF, and the script will not sell, or if it does, the actor will warp the character to suit himself and the director.
That's not art -- it's business. It's all about the cost difference per minute of entertainment delivered via the novel and the film.
I do intend to convert some of my novels to scripts, and am working through a course on screenwriting now.
I have lots to learn, but if you've learned and internalized the NOVEL paradigm, you can learn any paradigm used for storytelling.
That is, you have to understand intellectually, just how you accomplished the structuring of your original story -- the more you rely on your innate "talent," the more likely you are to fail at the converting of your own novel to a screenplay.
You have to know and understand the story-structure mechanism in a coldly analytical way to be able to accomplish this conversion trick.
If you can turn your "talent" instinct on and off, you can do it.
I highly recommend SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder and the brand new board software (also titled SAVE THE CAT! ) that lets you lay out your material in the standard Hollywood format on electronic 3X5 cards (that grow to whatever size you need as you make notes). Both book and software include the precise beat-sheet which is the key to success in selling your screenplay. (Mention my name if you email Blake.)
See my Amazon review of the book. I'm vetting the software now. It's amazing. It's not on amazon yet. You can get it on blakesnyder.com though.
http://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009/rereadablebooksr/
I also have two review columns in the New Age Magazine column I do focusing on the esoteric reasons for the difference between novel and screenplay. I use SAVE THE CAT! as the basis of comparison. Those two columns will be posted on my own site in February and April. Blake Snyder wants to link to the April review because he thought I explained it well.
http://www.simegen.com/reviews/rereadablebooks/2007/
The real trick of this head-spinning conversion problem is to realize that a great novel concept is NOT a saleable film concept. The concept needs to be recast from the inside out to become a movie.
And then you have to use the beat sheet to structure the script precisely from that filmable concept - NOT from anything in the novel itself.
The novel's material and climaxes are all in the wrong places -- the character arcs and the character formulations are all wrong. The description is all wrong. The details are all wrong. It all has to be redone from scratch, as if you'd never written the novel and are just burning to tell this story in screenplay form.
Read Syd Field's (he's very repetitive, but that emphasizes the points) opus SCREENWRITING where he explains the how and why of this novel/screenplay conversion process.
You can probably get his books from the library, but I bought 3 of his books and filled them with underlines and post-it notes.
However, my desk reference as I work on scripting a story is SAVE THE CAT! with its complete beat sheet. That beat sheet and accompanying explanation is well worth the price of the book. You can download a copy of the beat sheet without explanation on blakesnyder.com then use it in notepad or Word to structure your story into screenplay format.
Remember, you can't take the novel you've written, it's characters and their conflicts, and just take the words and reformat them into script form scene by scene.
You have to "have the idea" for the novel over again from scratch, casting it in High Concept form, or it just has no chance in today's flooded script market.
You probably already know more about screenwriting than you do about novel writing -- because you've probably seen more movies than you've read books, so you can "sense" the formula behind movies. You always know what's coming when watching a film, don't you? That's unconscious. To write a film, you have to make that gut knowledge into conscious knowledge.
Read SAVE THE CAT! where those current best selling script formulas are revealed in detail. Pick one and re-have your Idea in Concept form. (you don't get ideas for movies, you get concepts -- and there is a very important difference -- but it's all just storycraft.)
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
Monday, November 27, 2006
Debunking Authorly Urban Legends
Eons ago, when I was in college (or it might have been grad school), I remember listening to a professor expounded on what L. Frank Baum really meant to say when he wrote the Wizard of Oz. It had something to do with repressed homosexual urges and a fascination with bestiality…well, you can figure out the rest. It was, to my way of thinking, really off the wall. And of course, L. Frank was dead and couldn’t walk up to the professor and pop the man one in the eye for his far-fetched statements.
But the prof said all this with such authority. Because he was a learned prof and therefore, knew more than the poor little author did.
I laughed about it then. Being a poor little author myself, I’m not laughing about it now.
Thankfully, Linnea Urban Legends are rare (at least, I’ve not been pointed to a great many of them). But there are a few out there that readers have directed me to. And since I’m still alive and kicking, I’d like to debunk a few of those before some learned prof stands up in class fifty years from now telling people what Linnea Sinclair really meant when she wrote her books—and have it all be so very wrong.
These are a few things (paraphrased and clipped for brevity) I’ve seen reviewers, bloggers et al state they "know" about me and my writing:
1 - McMaster Bujold is obviously Sinclair's SF antecedents. The opening scenes of Finders Keepers owe a great deal to Shards of Honor.
Answer – This is really embarrassing to admit but I’ve never read Shards of Honor. I know I should read Bujold but I haven’t. Slap me silly for not keeping up with my required reading but don’t make assumptions as to where I get my storylines from. Try asking me. So any conclusion that I’ve ripped off Bujold’s work is pure bunk.
2 – I just finished Gabriel’s Ghost. Having read An Accidental Goddess, Gabriel’s Ghost is proof that the author gets better the more she writes.
Answer – Thanks for the backhanded compliment. Check the publication dates. Gabriel’s was written before Goddess. So I guess I’m going downhill. It must be age and an increasing lack of tolerance for alcohol.
3 – Gabriel's Ghost was written by someone whose SF influences are movies and TV series… It's clear from Linnea Sinclair's skills that Gabriel's Ghost is not the product of a writer who doesn't read. [Therefore] Gabriel's Ghost is the result of a canny calculation... poised to pull an audience... ignorant of...nanotechnology, quantum states, posthumans, the singularity and other staples of post-1980s prose SF. [Gabriel's Ghost is] a romantically charged SF novel that sticks to humanoid aliens and media-SF technology.
Answer – And you say that like it's such a bad thing...
Okay, if I'm reading it right, the reviewer here had decided that because my book didn’t focus on quantum states and singularities, that it was a deliberate concoction on my part to garner a non-scientifically oriented audience ("dominated by women and girls"). Wow. I had no idea I was so smart, marketing-wise. How come Madison Avenue isn’t banging down my door? Fact is, Gabriel’s Ghost is what it is. No, I didn’t sit down one morning and say, hmm, the next book I’m writing will be geared towards women unfamiliar with nanotechnology. I wrote Sully and Chaz’s story with nary a thought to marketing or audience. I write ALL my books that way. I write my character’s stories. Period. Please don’t assume nefarious behind-the-scenes machinations on my part. If you want to know why I wrote a book, ask me.
And finally…
4 – ICK! The book has romance!
Answer – Yep, it does. The corollary to ICK is "It’s shelved in science fiction!" as if my books infect those around them on the shelves with some disgusting malady. The Urban Legend associated with this is that somehow Linnea Sinclair browbeat or bribed the powers that be at Bantam to shelve the books in science fiction, or that the author is in any way responsible for a book’s shelving. WE ARE NOT. I AM NOT. No one ever asked me where my books belong. If you have an issue with those who like romance and romantic subplots in their novels, do not demean, denigrate or damn those of us who do…and those of us who write it. We don’t put you down for what you like to read.
There are a few more but they’re pretty much variations on the above themes.
Point is this, and I’ve already said it several times above: ask me. Ask any author why they wrote the book they did, why their characters are such, why the plot took the twist it did. I’ve been blessed with some wonderful interviews—on line, in print, and in radio and television—where people took time to ascertain the facts and not just throw assumptions and accusations together. Ask.
And by the way, to the blogger who complained that Sully was a typical alpha male, he’s not. For one thing, I don’t write to archetypes. But if I did, Sully would be more gamma (poet, monk and warrior).
Just wanted to clear that up.
~Linnea
But the prof said all this with such authority. Because he was a learned prof and therefore, knew more than the poor little author did.
I laughed about it then. Being a poor little author myself, I’m not laughing about it now.
Thankfully, Linnea Urban Legends are rare (at least, I’ve not been pointed to a great many of them). But there are a few out there that readers have directed me to. And since I’m still alive and kicking, I’d like to debunk a few of those before some learned prof stands up in class fifty years from now telling people what Linnea Sinclair really meant when she wrote her books—and have it all be so very wrong.
These are a few things (paraphrased and clipped for brevity) I’ve seen reviewers, bloggers et al state they "know" about me and my writing:
1 - McMaster Bujold is obviously Sinclair's SF antecedents. The opening scenes of Finders Keepers owe a great deal to Shards of Honor.
Answer – This is really embarrassing to admit but I’ve never read Shards of Honor. I know I should read Bujold but I haven’t. Slap me silly for not keeping up with my required reading but don’t make assumptions as to where I get my storylines from. Try asking me. So any conclusion that I’ve ripped off Bujold’s work is pure bunk.
2 – I just finished Gabriel’s Ghost. Having read An Accidental Goddess, Gabriel’s Ghost is proof that the author gets better the more she writes.
Answer – Thanks for the backhanded compliment. Check the publication dates. Gabriel’s was written before Goddess. So I guess I’m going downhill. It must be age and an increasing lack of tolerance for alcohol.
3 – Gabriel's Ghost was written by someone whose SF influences are movies and TV series… It's clear from Linnea Sinclair's skills that Gabriel's Ghost is not the product of a writer who doesn't read. [Therefore] Gabriel's Ghost is the result of a canny calculation... poised to pull an audience... ignorant of...nanotechnology, quantum states, posthumans, the singularity and other staples of post-1980s prose SF. [Gabriel's Ghost is] a romantically charged SF novel that sticks to humanoid aliens and media-SF technology.
Answer – And you say that like it's such a bad thing...
Okay, if I'm reading it right, the reviewer here had decided that because my book didn’t focus on quantum states and singularities, that it was a deliberate concoction on my part to garner a non-scientifically oriented audience ("dominated by women and girls"). Wow. I had no idea I was so smart, marketing-wise. How come Madison Avenue isn’t banging down my door? Fact is, Gabriel’s Ghost is what it is. No, I didn’t sit down one morning and say, hmm, the next book I’m writing will be geared towards women unfamiliar with nanotechnology. I wrote Sully and Chaz’s story with nary a thought to marketing or audience. I write ALL my books that way. I write my character’s stories. Period. Please don’t assume nefarious behind-the-scenes machinations on my part. If you want to know why I wrote a book, ask me.
And finally…
4 – ICK! The book has romance!
Answer – Yep, it does. The corollary to ICK is "It’s shelved in science fiction!" as if my books infect those around them on the shelves with some disgusting malady. The Urban Legend associated with this is that somehow Linnea Sinclair browbeat or bribed the powers that be at Bantam to shelve the books in science fiction, or that the author is in any way responsible for a book’s shelving. WE ARE NOT. I AM NOT. No one ever asked me where my books belong. If you have an issue with those who like romance and romantic subplots in their novels, do not demean, denigrate or damn those of us who do…and those of us who write it. We don’t put you down for what you like to read.
There are a few more but they’re pretty much variations on the above themes.
Point is this, and I’ve already said it several times above: ask me. Ask any author why they wrote the book they did, why their characters are such, why the plot took the twist it did. I’ve been blessed with some wonderful interviews—on line, in print, and in radio and television—where people took time to ascertain the facts and not just throw assumptions and accusations together. Ask.
And by the way, to the blogger who complained that Sully was a typical alpha male, he’s not. For one thing, I don’t write to archetypes. But if I did, Sully would be more gamma (poet, monk and warrior).
Just wanted to clear that up.
~Linnea
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Empires, Dreams
Stayed up late last night, I did.
Empire Of Dreams was absolutely fascinating, to me, and to those with whom I watched it. I'm sure each one of us took something different away from it.
The insight that I appreciate most (at this moment) was the fact that the actor inside Darth Vader's helmet was pronouncing --and acting-- from one script, and Luke was reacting to another.
Now that really was the ultimate in saying one thing and meaning another... or of not being on the same page! I suppose it wasn't really much different from script management for Who Shot JR...? But it seemed deeper to this viewer.
I knew that Darth Vader's voice had been dubbed in later, but how cool it was to hear the difference in soundtrack when the original actor spoke. What a difference the "right" voice makes! Or the right howls. Wasn't it fascinating that Chewbacca originally had lines? Talking of Chewbacca, I greatly enjoyed the revelation that some of the movie makers were worried about the Wookie's lack of underwear. I'd noticed that uncivilized omission only the night before.
On Thursday night I tried to watch The Empire Strikes Back. I have it out from the library too, but it's a VCR and in almost unwatchably bad condition. Imagine my joy when it was on TV on Friday night. I was very pleased to see swordmaster Bob Anderson's name in the credits as a stunt double. (Recently I blogged about the account I'd read in By The Sword of why a genuine swordsman, not an actor, had to perform Darth Vader's fight with Luke.)
The music was something else I'd never really thought about--apart from the "declarative" Imperial theme for whenever Darth Vader stalked across the screen, like the wolf theme in Peter And The Wolf, only much more wicked.
How fascinating that the composer had recently finished the score for Jaws, where the
antagonist got the catchy, sinister theme music! What a twist for those of us accustomed to the Bond theme... the Here Comes The Hero refrain. When the movie music is really, really good, I don't notice it much, apart from the theme tunes. It's amusing what a difference a good orchestra makes to an aerial dogfight, isn't it?
I've watched a lot of The Making Of... documentaries, but I don't think I've grasped how much goes into making a great movie quite as vividly as I did last night, watching Empire Of Dreams.
What did you like best?
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
Empire Of Dreams was absolutely fascinating, to me, and to those with whom I watched it. I'm sure each one of us took something different away from it.
The insight that I appreciate most (at this moment) was the fact that the actor inside Darth Vader's helmet was pronouncing --and acting-- from one script, and Luke was reacting to another.
Now that really was the ultimate in saying one thing and meaning another... or of not being on the same page! I suppose it wasn't really much different from script management for Who Shot JR...? But it seemed deeper to this viewer.
I knew that Darth Vader's voice had been dubbed in later, but how cool it was to hear the difference in soundtrack when the original actor spoke. What a difference the "right" voice makes! Or the right howls. Wasn't it fascinating that Chewbacca originally had lines? Talking of Chewbacca, I greatly enjoyed the revelation that some of the movie makers were worried about the Wookie's lack of underwear. I'd noticed that uncivilized omission only the night before.
On Thursday night I tried to watch The Empire Strikes Back. I have it out from the library too, but it's a VCR and in almost unwatchably bad condition. Imagine my joy when it was on TV on Friday night. I was very pleased to see swordmaster Bob Anderson's name in the credits as a stunt double. (Recently I blogged about the account I'd read in By The Sword of why a genuine swordsman, not an actor, had to perform Darth Vader's fight with Luke.)
The music was something else I'd never really thought about--apart from the "declarative" Imperial theme for whenever Darth Vader stalked across the screen, like the wolf theme in Peter And The Wolf, only much more wicked.
How fascinating that the composer had recently finished the score for Jaws, where the
antagonist got the catchy, sinister theme music! What a twist for those of us accustomed to the Bond theme... the Here Comes The Hero refrain. When the movie music is really, really good, I don't notice it much, apart from the theme tunes. It's amusing what a difference a good orchestra makes to an aerial dogfight, isn't it?
I've watched a lot of The Making Of... documentaries, but I don't think I've grasped how much goes into making a great movie quite as vividly as I did last night, watching Empire Of Dreams.
What did you like best?
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Life in the real world
I know I've missed some of my days. My only excuse is the holidays are upon us. With several deadlines such as books, getting the house decorated, getting my invitations for my party out, decorating my mother's house I've just been too frazzled to concentrate on anything at all.
But as my mind searches for conventient ways to do the decorating, such as wouldn't it be nice if your tree could just pop up out of the floor fully decorated? I've wondered...will our Christmas traditions survive into the future? You read historicals all the time with Christmas scenes (Let me recommend my own Windfall) but are there ever any holiday celebrations in our futuristics? Anyone ever read a book about a futuristic Christmas?
As our civilization moves out into space the Christmas story will go with it. But it will be interesting to see what the celebration will become.
Ideas anyone?
But as my mind searches for conventient ways to do the decorating, such as wouldn't it be nice if your tree could just pop up out of the floor fully decorated? I've wondered...will our Christmas traditions survive into the future? You read historicals all the time with Christmas scenes (Let me recommend my own Windfall) but are there ever any holiday celebrations in our futuristics? Anyone ever read a book about a futuristic Christmas?
As our civilization moves out into space the Christmas story will go with it. But it will be interesting to see what the celebration will become.
Ideas anyone?
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Living with Technology
Nobody in our family has a Playstation 3. (Our youngest son got a Nintendo Wii, which seemed to be less chaotic in its launch, not to mention more reasonably priced.) I got some amusement from reading the newspaper accounts of long lines camping out overnight for the Playstation. The hysteria became unfunny, though, when police had to quell outbreaks of violence at some locations. At least one store in this part of the state decided not to sell the system on launch day at all. What struck me most about the stories, however, was the account of a homeless woman walking along one of the waiting lines begging for change. She was quoted as saying she couldn't understand why people would be so silly as to sleep outside when they didn't have to and pay such an exorbitant amount of money for a "toy." Cue irony.
So, I pondered, how can I use this squirm-inducing story as a blog topic? Well, how about the role of high-tech in our daily lives? As a family, we've never been early adopters. (A statement that doesn't necessarily apply to our grown sons.) We tend to acquire the Next Big Thing after it's been tested on the market for a while. I can't comment on video games because I've never played them, but I can't imagine that even for something I really, really wanted I would stand in line on the first day or pay above retail price. (Who ARE these people who buy "flipped" Playstations on the Internet for thousands of dollars when they could get a new one at list price by waiting a few weeks?) And I'm not one bit interested in HDTV. The cheapest television at Best Buy plays programs just fine by my relaxed standards, and quantum levels better than the sets I watched as a kid. (Remember that extinct subspecies, the TV repairman?)
Some high-tech products, however, have changed my life so much for the better that I can hardly imagine how I lived without them. Remember when missing a TV program meant waiting for the rerun? When you couldn't see an old movie unless it was revived in your town's theater or broadcast on the local TV station? (How did film studies classes manage, I wonder?) When missing a phone call meant hoping they'd call back? When you couldn't get money while the bank was closed unless you could find a store willing to cash a check? (Before ATMs and universal acceptance of credit cards, each of our military moves involved serious preplanning and juggling to avoid being stranded with no means of buying daily necessities such as food until our newly opened local bank account in our new city of residence issued us checks the stores would accept.) When there was no Internet to use for requesting library books, ordering postage stamps, transferring funds between your bank accounts, buying products your local store didn't have in stock, reserving plane tickets, finding directions for a trip, or getting quick information on any topic? I can't guess what stage my writing career would have reached at this point in my life if I hadn't had the Internet to seek out writers' guidelines or communicate with publishers and fellow authors, not to mention that most of the publishers that have released my books wouldn't have existed in the first place (since they're e-pubs). The very existence of the computer has improved my writing to an unguessable degree, because not having to re-transcribe a whole manuscript for each set of changes means I'm far more willing to rewrite. I can tinker with a sentence over and over, without having to decided whether a contemplated small change is worth retyping a page. E-mail is a great boon, combining the best features of snail mail (you can think about what you want to say at leisure and revise it) and the telephone (you can usually get a fast reply) without the disadvantages (postal mail -- often not timely enough for the situation; phone -- you have to worry about disturbing the person and catching him/her at home or waiting for him/her to call back, plus you have to pay extra to talk to someone on the other side of the country or the world).
Good grief, there was a time when we didn't have a MICROWAVE! And, before that, there was an era when cars didn't have seat belts, or any music systems other than the radio. Also, while this doesn't exactly qualify as high-tech, packaged foods didn't bear lists of ingredients and nutritional content. To cite a high-tech advance in that area, consider the bar code. Although at first it was odd getting used to not having price tags on most groceries, soon it became pleasant to be able to move through the checkout line faster.
And then there's the cell phone. A mixed blessing, some people might say. :) I carry one and would hate to be deprived of it, but I don't use it for casual conversation, and I don't keep it turned on unless I've arranged in advance for somebody to call me for a particular purpose. In my worldview, the cell phone exists to make OUTGOING calls. When we need it, though, we REALLY need it. Before it existed, you'd have to search for a pay phone if your car broke down, or just to call home if you were delayed or make contact with a child who had to be picked up from an after-school activity. (It's often been remarked that high-tech devices such as this make a writer's job harder in some respects. If the heroine of your suspense novel carries a phone in her purse, how do you arrange for her to be stranded with no means of calling for help?) Remember how expensive our first hand-held calculators were? Today we can buy a smaller, far more versatile one in the supermarket stationery aisle for under $20. As an electronically published author, I'm waiting for a hand-held e-book reading device that's as cheap, durable, user-friendly, and ubiquitous as a calculator.
What wonders does the future hold? Already I'm seeing TV commercials for disk-shaped robots that vacuum or scrub the floors. I wouldn't think of paying the current price for them. Eventually, though, the day will come when they're as cheap and commonplace as computers are today. Then I'll get one. Will we ever see housecleaning robots that look, talk, and behave like human beings? Would we want them to? If they appeared too human, we'd have to consider the ethical quandary of whether they deserved individual rights, and as far as having cheap, unobtrusive domestic labor is concerned, we'd be back where we started. And as these new conveniences enter our lives and transform from luxuries to necessities (some public schools, not to mention colleges, already seem to assume that all students have computer access), what is our responsibility for ensuring their availability to everyone, not just the middle- and upper-class educated elite?
Nothing terribly original in these musings about the advantages and challenges of high-tech, but hey, it's a holiday. :) Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it!
So, I pondered, how can I use this squirm-inducing story as a blog topic? Well, how about the role of high-tech in our daily lives? As a family, we've never been early adopters. (A statement that doesn't necessarily apply to our grown sons.) We tend to acquire the Next Big Thing after it's been tested on the market for a while. I can't comment on video games because I've never played them, but I can't imagine that even for something I really, really wanted I would stand in line on the first day or pay above retail price. (Who ARE these people who buy "flipped" Playstations on the Internet for thousands of dollars when they could get a new one at list price by waiting a few weeks?) And I'm not one bit interested in HDTV. The cheapest television at Best Buy plays programs just fine by my relaxed standards, and quantum levels better than the sets I watched as a kid. (Remember that extinct subspecies, the TV repairman?)
Some high-tech products, however, have changed my life so much for the better that I can hardly imagine how I lived without them. Remember when missing a TV program meant waiting for the rerun? When you couldn't see an old movie unless it was revived in your town's theater or broadcast on the local TV station? (How did film studies classes manage, I wonder?) When missing a phone call meant hoping they'd call back? When you couldn't get money while the bank was closed unless you could find a store willing to cash a check? (Before ATMs and universal acceptance of credit cards, each of our military moves involved serious preplanning and juggling to avoid being stranded with no means of buying daily necessities such as food until our newly opened local bank account in our new city of residence issued us checks the stores would accept.) When there was no Internet to use for requesting library books, ordering postage stamps, transferring funds between your bank accounts, buying products your local store didn't have in stock, reserving plane tickets, finding directions for a trip, or getting quick information on any topic? I can't guess what stage my writing career would have reached at this point in my life if I hadn't had the Internet to seek out writers' guidelines or communicate with publishers and fellow authors, not to mention that most of the publishers that have released my books wouldn't have existed in the first place (since they're e-pubs). The very existence of the computer has improved my writing to an unguessable degree, because not having to re-transcribe a whole manuscript for each set of changes means I'm far more willing to rewrite. I can tinker with a sentence over and over, without having to decided whether a contemplated small change is worth retyping a page. E-mail is a great boon, combining the best features of snail mail (you can think about what you want to say at leisure and revise it) and the telephone (you can usually get a fast reply) without the disadvantages (postal mail -- often not timely enough for the situation; phone -- you have to worry about disturbing the person and catching him/her at home or waiting for him/her to call back, plus you have to pay extra to talk to someone on the other side of the country or the world).
Good grief, there was a time when we didn't have a MICROWAVE! And, before that, there was an era when cars didn't have seat belts, or any music systems other than the radio. Also, while this doesn't exactly qualify as high-tech, packaged foods didn't bear lists of ingredients and nutritional content. To cite a high-tech advance in that area, consider the bar code. Although at first it was odd getting used to not having price tags on most groceries, soon it became pleasant to be able to move through the checkout line faster.
And then there's the cell phone. A mixed blessing, some people might say. :) I carry one and would hate to be deprived of it, but I don't use it for casual conversation, and I don't keep it turned on unless I've arranged in advance for somebody to call me for a particular purpose. In my worldview, the cell phone exists to make OUTGOING calls. When we need it, though, we REALLY need it. Before it existed, you'd have to search for a pay phone if your car broke down, or just to call home if you were delayed or make contact with a child who had to be picked up from an after-school activity. (It's often been remarked that high-tech devices such as this make a writer's job harder in some respects. If the heroine of your suspense novel carries a phone in her purse, how do you arrange for her to be stranded with no means of calling for help?) Remember how expensive our first hand-held calculators were? Today we can buy a smaller, far more versatile one in the supermarket stationery aisle for under $20. As an electronically published author, I'm waiting for a hand-held e-book reading device that's as cheap, durable, user-friendly, and ubiquitous as a calculator.
What wonders does the future hold? Already I'm seeing TV commercials for disk-shaped robots that vacuum or scrub the floors. I wouldn't think of paying the current price for them. Eventually, though, the day will come when they're as cheap and commonplace as computers are today. Then I'll get one. Will we ever see housecleaning robots that look, talk, and behave like human beings? Would we want them to? If they appeared too human, we'd have to consider the ethical quandary of whether they deserved individual rights, and as far as having cheap, unobtrusive domestic labor is concerned, we'd be back where we started. And as these new conveniences enter our lives and transform from luxuries to necessities (some public schools, not to mention colleges, already seem to assume that all students have computer access), what is our responsibility for ensuring their availability to everyone, not just the middle- and upper-class educated elite?
Nothing terribly original in these musings about the advantages and challenges of high-tech, but hey, it's a holiday. :) Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it!
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