Science Fiction Writers's topics - tribe.net

short story writing books- X post

2008-04-17T17:10:49Z

Hello out there!
I am looking for a great book on writing short stories. I have a friend who is very good and whose birthday is coming up. There is always room for improvement and he loves to read. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance. Oh BTW, the birthday is soon so if I need to order something let me know quick. Thanks again!

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

PSA: For US-based SASEs

2008-03-16T00:40:28Z

Given that snail-mail submissions/SASEs tend to have a several-month turnaround, here's the USPS list of new postage prices effective May 12, 2008:

http://www.usps.com/prices/welcome.htm?from=bannercommunications&page=prices

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

A plot grid

2008-02-23T02:59:29Z

Although most budding novelists display exceptional writing skills, I have learned that their most failure has been in weaving together an appealing plot - good beginning, middle and end.

I recall from a few decades ago a "novelist's grid" published in Playboy Magazine. Some of this was satire, but the fact was that the grid was a perfect step by step process for any novelist to formulate a plot. If anyone can find that grid and post it herein, s/he will be doing many writers here a great service.

The satirical intent therein wasn't that the author was attempting to make all novels appear like Danielle Steele. Certain humorous elements were incluced such politically-correct gimmicks as displaying villans as "neo-nazis," which hacks in the TV industry in particular continue including to this day. (There is nothing whatsoever wrong with showing the demographic group of true villans as who they are (Islamic radicals, inner-city thugs, or political demagogues of any stripe.)

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 1 reply

BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

2008-02-02T15:53:57Z

It gives me immense pleasure to announce the publication of my urban fantasy novel, BLACK MAGIC WOMAN.

It’s in most bookstores, and available online from Amazon and other dealers.

Here are 13 things you didn’t know about BLACK MAGIC WOMAN -- both the plot and the book itself.

1. The hero (well, one of them), Quincey Morris, is the great-great-grandson of the
Texan who died at the end of the original DRACULA. Contending with
supernatural evil has become something of a Morris family tradition.

2. The book was released in the UK and Australia on January 8th. The North
American release date was pushed back to January 29th because of a problem at
the North American printer.

3. African “muti” magic sometimes involves the use of human organs – which must be “harvested” while the victim is still alive.

4. "White" witch Libby Chastain, Quincey's partner in the investigation, is
bisexual, and a devout practitioner of what she calls "serial monogamy."

5. Jim Butcher, author of the "Dresden Files" novels, was kind enough to read
the manuscript pre-publication. As quoted on the book's cover, he calls BLACK
MAGIC WOMAN "the best manuscript I've ever been asked to read."

6. Quincey Morris is terrified of snakes, having almost died from
snakebite as a young boy. If only he knew….

7. Simon R. Green, author of the John Taylor 'Nightside" novels, was sent an
advance reading copy of BLACK MAGIC WOMAN and said, "This is a novel that's packed with story and engaging characters, and I can't wait to read the next one."

8. "White" magic cannot be used to do harm to somebody -- which doesn't mean
that you can't use it sometimes to kick somebody’s ass, as Libby Chastain knows full well.

9. Waterstones, the largest UK bookstore chain, has designated BLACK MAGIC
WOMAN as its featured SF/Fantasy title of the month. It's got its own display
in each of their 300-some stores. And if that ain’t freakin’ awesome, I don’t know what is.

10. It’s possible to drive off a bunch of zombies without having to “kill” them. All you need is the right magic – and a skilled magician to use it.

11. The South African national police really does have an Occult Crimes
Investigation Unit, although my character, Garth Van Dreenan, is not based on any
real person.

12. Vampires really do hate sunlight. A lot.

13. When you make a deal with the devil, the notes come due in brimstone.

Thanks for indulging me, everybody. I hope I've piqued your interest and that
you'll take a look at my novel. I'm kinda proud of it.

Justin
www.justingustainis.com

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On the Air

2008-02-01T22:43:36Z

I will be doing a phone interview tonight as part of the "Jordan Rich Show Book Club, Winter 2008 edition."

The interview will occur at around 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, February 2 (the show runs from midnight to 5 a.m.). It can be heard on

http://www.wbz.com/pages/6202.php

where you can click on the blue "Listen Live" button in the upper right.

I was at the WBZ studio in Boston for my first appearance on the Jordan Rich Show in October 2002. At that time Jordan invited me back when I had a book published -- so, here I am! The second volume in my series is due out later this year.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Winter Workout

2008-01-30T22:21:31Z

G'day,

I'm doing a slush reading marathon. You're invited. It's called the Winter Workout, the link for the place to respond is at the bottom. Or you an send me a message through Tribe's message service.

Cheers,

How it works:
Everyone who sends me a science fiction, fantasy, or urban fantasy novel between 10pm ET on February 4th, and 8am ET on February 6th will get at least one full chapter (up to fifty pages) read and critiqued by me. Many, will get theirs back the same day. To do this I will be reading for twenty four straight hours. My goal is to pass the mark i made last year which was 19 first chapters and critiques. To do this, if I am still reading after one chapter or fifty pages I will send the writer an email that says "Still Reading after one." or something similar.

Last time i picked up two clients out of this, and have one more resubmission in my inbox waiting to be read.

Writers should note that I use the same four part critique form for everyone. The sections are: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Rest.

Everyone should add my domain to their spam filters immediately. When you submit you will get an auto-response telling you it has been received. Anyone who does not follow the submission guidelines on my website will be rejected without being read. www.Onyxhawke.com

Notes:
If i get the same size response or larger as last year, I will not get to everyone on that Wednesday. I will still read everything. Everyone who has submitted things to the regular submission inbox will be read between now and 2/6. My replies may start very soon after midnight as I read and type pretty quickly.

Most importantly: go spread the word, the more submissions i get, the happier I'll be.

Edit: the email address for submissions for the Winter Workout is: ww@Onyxhawke.com

http://onyxhawke.livejournal.com/38388.html

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

"ROSE" my new short novel in progress

2008-01-03T02:12:54Z

Here is the synopsis:

"Rose is a fifteen year old girl in suburban America in 1999, trying to cope with the fact that she can't relate to anyone else in the world.
On her first day of high school, however, she sees a boy that apparently no one else can see. So she is faced with a question: Is the boy real or imaginary?
Over time, he tells Rose things about his past and her future that may change her life forever.
And so begins Rose's journey of mystery, suspense, fantasy, love, and sacrifice. A Moment in Time begins..."

It is mainly fiction, but obviously has some sci-fi/fantasy elements. I started writing "Rose" earlier this year in creative writing class, and just took off with it from there. The book will have three parts when all is said and done. Part 1 is done (50 pages), and Part 2 is about there as well (its past the 70 page mark already). Everyone who has read it so far (about five or six friends and family members) loves it, which is a first for me. Writing from a girl's perspective isn't nearly as hard as everyone seems to think. Maybe it's because I don't currently have a girlfriend, but finding the inspiration to write romance scenes has been tough.

As for posting Part 1, I am kind of wary, since whatever you post on here is automatically owned by Tribe (right?). But if you would like to read it, I can always email it to you.

Also, I'm wondering where some good sci-fi/fantasy short novel publishers can be found. I searched on google and got a storm of crap.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 2 replies

Acceptance to Unspeakable Horror anthology

2007-12-31T20:51:59Z

To round out an extraordinary publishing year...

This morning I got word that my story "Memento Mori" was accepted to the anthology Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, to be published by Dark Scribe Press.

I've posted my publications tally for 2007 over at
http://hurricanecountry.blogspot.com/2007/12/tally-ho.html

Blessings to you all for 2008. Happy New Year and beyond!

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

what kind of projects are you all working on?

2007-12-27T18:09:02Z

just wondering what everyone else is up to in terms of writing. feel free to update us all on any developments and so forth. i've been working on a sci-fi/action novel titled "A Moment in Time: Section 41" for four years now. its almost 99,000 words long, my lengthiest title yet! i'm damn proud of it, and it just keeps getting better. i want to one day make it into a movie, where i would write and direct, obviously.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 20 replies

Why....

2007-12-26T13:07:44Z

... is this place such a ghost town?

Since when don't writers write??

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 12 replies

Book contract signed (really, this has been an extraordinary week!)

2007-12-26T06:35:43Z

I've just signed a contract with Aisling Press for Appetite, the second volume in my Deviations series. (The first volume, Covenant, is available at http://www.aislingpress.com and elsewhere. I've got vendor links up at http://home.earthlink.net/~emalcohn/deviations.html .)

And I've made arrangements to be on the Jordan Rich Show (WBZ Newsradio 1030 Boston) on Saturday, February 2, 2008. The show will focus on fiction authors and will run from midnight to 5 AM Eastern time. We plan to do an interview by phone around 12:30, and will firm up details as we get closer to the air date. The show is broadcast nationwide and is accessible on the Web at
http://www.wbz.com/pages/6202.php

I was a guest on Jordan's show in October 2002 (I lived in Boston then, so was over at the studio), and we spent a great hour talking about science fiction with each other and with listeners who called in. Afterwards, he invited me back when I had a book published.

Here I am... :-)

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 3 replies

Free Writing Class

2007-12-25T00:08:01Z

I'm not sure who might be interested but I thought I'd post this anyway!

www.fmwriters.com is a great site. If you're looking for some help getting a novel started then the owner is starting a great class that starts the frist of Jan. It's 2 years long, an assignment a week, but it's great for anyone looking to give their writing an extra jump. I've taken the class two times.

tell us if you decide to join up! I talked myself into signing up again! (now to find an idea.... hmmm)

www.fmwriters.com/community...cboard.php

You will have to join fmwriters.com to post and join the class.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

So how do _you_ avoid...

2007-12-24T07:13:42Z

Writing badly gendered characters?
By this i mean writing "Men with tits" and "Women with dicks" ?

As a reader, and an agent i really have to say this is one of the characterization failures that annoys me most. I'm not talking about writing homosexual characters, just ones that don't act like the vast majority of their gender.

So what do you do to make sure your characters behavior matches their official gender?

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 5 replies

New member

2007-12-24T07:11:58Z

Hi. Just getting acquainted. I'd like to eventually swap stories or chapters to critique with a few other writers. But for now I'm looking around--you know, typical newbee.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 9 replies

WHat a Bore... another new-be

2007-12-24T07:09:17Z

Just checked into theis shuttle and interested in opinions, strong beliefs and ideas of what it takes to take your baby to the end.
I'm a writer. have 6 under my belt and have yet to get anything pubed at this time.
I can write (in my and my proofer's opinion) but seem frozen when it comes to actually sending my new borns out.
Have a terror that strikes me of having my work stolen. (I have no fears or rejection at all, as I've seen it in the past in other writing forms I've done but heard so many horror stories of lost works, I don't know where to go next.) I can accept an honest opinion on my work as what it is and look at every comment with an open mind.
Any ideas on how to go from a finished, proofed and polished piece to the next step of sending it out.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 7 replies

TriggerStreet.com now accepting short stories and novels

2007-12-24T07:04:13Z

Up until recently, TriggerStreet was accepting only short films and screenplays. Since then, they've added plays and now short stories and books to their site.

From their e-mail to me:
"Since its inception, TriggerStreet.com has been the place to go if you wanted to find exposure and feedback for your Screenplays and Short Films online. Now, in addition to being able to upload your Short Stories to the site, a section we launched earlier this year, you can now also upload Books that you have written."

Normally a member must submit a couple of reviews of others' work before submitting their own, but there is currently a "free" period (meaning no previous review is needed) for short story and book uploads.

Creative Commons has a post that pretty much encapsulates what TriggerStreet is about, at
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/4419

I haven't used the site, myself, but I became interested in it after seeing Kevin Spacey (who founded it) interviewed on the Charlie Rose PBS show a while back.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 3 replies

who are you sending to

2007-12-24T07:01:40Z

So I've just tried http://www.andromedaspaceways.com/issue1.htm

Who have you been sending your short stories to??????????//

Patrick

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 5 replies

Alternative "print" outlets?

2007-12-24T06:59:53Z

(please excuse me if I need to read me of the posts, but...)

For Deborah in New Mexico and other new authors worried about loosing control of the work and dwindling Sci-Fi markets, is there a service yet that allows authors to show previews of their work and then charge a nominal fee for a complete download of the work?

It seems like this would be the ideal way to "Sneak Preview" something to a likely audience and then only release the contents perhaps a chapter at a time when each is desired. I cannot tell you how many times I began a book and got two to three chapters in before being sidetracked onto something else. If this sort of thing is happening to many other readers out in the market, wouldn't it be better to get paid for a few chapters than nothing at all?

I am no computer programmer, so I can only suggest methods for secure content distribution, download or password protecting electronic documents, I can't write the code to make it work.

If such a service as this is already available, or presently in the works (Amazon.com has an e-book device in development I hear), please forgive my uninformed observation.

I suppose we all must change with the times and suspect the days of the paperback novel may be waning.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 2 replies

Just got an acceptance to Helix

2007-12-22T11:42:21Z

My story "Prometheus Rebound" has just been accepted to Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly. I don't know which issue it will be in, but it will be available for free perusal when it goes live. I'll post a link when it's up.

That now makes four stories forthcoming, joining "Identity Theft" in The Drabbler #10, "Hermit Crabs" in Electric Velocipede #14, and "Arachne" in Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (Scriblerus Press, June 08). "Arachne" will be a reprint, having originally appeared in Aboriginal Science Fiction's Nov./Dec. 1988 issue.

Grinnnnnn.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 2 replies

A new story

2007-11-09T22:00:05Z

So if anyone want to correct my spelling or gammer, "I LOVE YOU!"
Also welcom comments,
Or just injoy reading it.

Patrick

The world I

Civics Awareness Class:
Q18: What does doing your part, and pushing your dream, look like to you?

Wow, what a question! The only way I can think of to answer it is to start with a description of my day. A very good day, if I say so myself.
My name is Jack O'Donner and this is a typical day for me in the late 21st century. I am wakened, as usual, by the doorbell and the alarm clock going off at exactly the same time. This feels good, because it means that the day is starting right on schedule.
The sunlight is coming through the window of our second-story bedroom. The peach-colored drapes look their best at this time of day. The air controller has added a scent called “After the Rain”. It feels like a good morning.
Rolling over, I pull my computer monitor to me. In the bed beside me, my wife is doing the same. First, I pull up the picture of our front door. It shows that the school prep company has already sent two workers to help in getting our children ready for their day. The young man and woman are holding up their IDs to the camera, even though I know both of them by sight. I check with the security program to see if the system has a positive match on the ID verification and facial-recognition. It does, so I type in the door-open code.
Looking over to my wife’s monitor, I see that she has split her screen so that she can check on both of our children at the same time. Although both have alarm clocks, neither has moved to get out of bed.
I track with the hall camera as the child-care workers come into my residence, switching to the children’s rooms as they go into those. As I watch, the workers, a tall African-American woman for Jill, and a shorter Asian man for Sam, go to the beds and begin gently shaking the children to wake them up. That, of course, means that it is time for me to get up too.
I got into my bathroom and push the all-male button under the label “Gender”. If I forget, the computer will warn any females at the security company, but since I work in the field myself, I try to be helpful to the watcher. I know personally how difficult their work can be.
By the time I finish showering and dressing, the child-care workers have my children out of the house. Being a good parent, I check their schedule for the day. They are eating breakfast at a restaurant that specializes in before-school meals. Then they go to a children’s morning center to shower and get changed into school clothes. I look quickly through their class schedule, since my wife keeps a closer watch on that part of the parenting. Let’s see, when classes are over, child-care workers pick them up for an after-school meal. Both have full after-school activities and assigned workers to take them. The TV and games are programmed for their evening at a children’s center, then bedtime workers take them for showers and put them into their night clothes before bringing them home and to bed. So now that I've done my parental duties for the day, it is time to get myself to work.
My robot car has not arrived by the time I am outside. The company we are using needs to make some improvements, as this is the third time this month. As I wait, I look around and see that a new camera has been installed near the rail station. Good, they are on top of things. It had been one of my neighbors who had pointed out that there was a point right next to the station that the two cameras at the intersection didn't quite cover.
My car arrives. I always try to guess if it’s one that I've used before. I make my guess and then order the vehicle number up on the display. I’m wrong again. Oh, well.
I push my palm down on the reader. "Work, please". It’s so nice that the computers know where everyone works, lives and shops, so that you don't have to remember all of those addresses yourself.
I am glad to see that the city has at last added the cameras it needed, so that there are no longer any blind spots on the road between my apartment and work. I'm one of the residents who wrote and complained about that, more than once.
Of course, there are no such worries inside any of my company’s buildings. After all, when your motto is "Perfect security is our goal", you have to have the latest in surveillance technology.
My job is to review surveillance recordings that have been flagged as matching computer-generated profiles. This week I'm on the Pedophile Alert Team. The computer first uses a program that calculates what part of the child's body an adult is looking at. It does this using the pupil size, reflected lighting and pupil orientation of the adult’s eye, and the distance of the adult from the child.
Next, the computer uses a complex formula that takes into account how long the adult watches each part of the child's body; what activity the child is involved in at the time; and what relationship the adult has to the child.
The computer is pretty good, and I usually agree with its recommendations. Especially on the First-timer hits, as all that they do is put the adult on a higher Watch List. Second-timers I'm a little more cautious on, as a citation requires that the adult come in for an interview. So I try to see if there are any extenuating circumstances before I pass the program’s recommendation on. Any hits after the Second go to a higher level than me.
There are only six hits this morning. Just one is a Second, and that is at a hospital where the child has had a minor injury, so I overrule the program. All in all, a very stressful job, but it has only taken me about an hour and a half. This means that I have time to work on my project.
Each worker is encouraged to use any spare time they have to work on projects that the company puts out. I usually work on recommendations on how to make us more productive.
The subject of the day is "How to increase our membership". Sadly, over 15% of households are still not under Full Security Coverage. The company wants worker input on how to convince the holdouts of the safety and peace to be gotten through friendly observation.
I think at this point that we’ll only get higher coverage when the state makes security 100% mandatory. Still, California is one of 15 states where people with no major criminal records, and not working in law, medicine or education have the option for partial privacy. Attempts to change the law are getting closer to success, but still fall far short of the 2/3rds majority needed. So for now, it’s just ads and persuasion for those who still cannot see the desperate need for personal security.
I open up a file that I'd already started working on. It is just a string of ideas that might be turned into slogans or catchy visuals.
This all kind of brings me back to the original question, "What does doing your part, and pushing your dream, look like to you?" My job is more than just a job. Besides being useful to society, it also through these special projects gives me a chance to pursue my dream, which is nothing less than perfect safety. Not just safety from crime and accident, which we have already made great headway in, but also from the mental disorders that can cause us to hurt ourselves and the ones we love.
Oh, I know there remain some old-fashioned ideas about privacy, which are ridiculous in a world where our every expense and all of our movements are recorded and tracked. Yes, I know that there is still some irrational fear of abuse by governments or corporate powers, but remember that they will be watched just as closely or more than you are. Still, with the right forms of public education and awareness, I believe that these fears can be addressed. I read on-line the other day of small towns that have reached 100% voluntary participation. Of course, they’re nowhere near the size of our city, but it gives me hope.
After all, a person does need something to strive for. Why not perfect security?

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Dissonance Theory

2007-11-02T18:18:40Z

I wrote a story that was turned into a screenplay
for the apple insomnia festival
below is a link to the video
and the original story
you guys might find it interesting
it has a scifi-philosophical bend toward it

http://edcommunity.apple.com/insomnia_fall07/item.php?itemID=545

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&Mytoken=71BEDB11-2F67-4455-A6425DFCF9463D5B9946567

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 1 reply

Interview

2007-10-30T02:56:56Z

Just a little crow... I was down at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading on Saturday (which was wonderful) and was interviewed by Brad Stager, Program Director of the WUSF Radio Reading Service. Part of that interview is near the end of a two-minute audio slide show now up at WUSF.org. Links and a still shot are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30268343@N00/1801181630/

More photos and details about the festival are up at:

http://deviationstrilogy.blogspot.com/2007/10/from-panel-to-st-petersburg.html

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Apple Insomnia Film Festival

2007-10-14T21:55:49Z

did anyone participate in this?

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Acceptance to String Theory Anthology

2007-10-13T06:56:15Z

My story "Arachne," originally published in Aboriginal Science Fiction (November-December 1988), has been accepted for reprinting in the String Theory Anthology forthcoming from Scriblerus Press, the publishing arm of the Banyan Institute.

http://www.banyancollege.org/scriblerus/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=6&Itemid=35

Wrote editor Sean Miller:

"I'd love to discuss with you what it is about your piece that we appreciate so much, and I'm hoping that as we approach publication, we'll have the chance to do so. But for now, due to time constraints, we can only offer you this somewhat generic approbation and welcome."

Grinnnnnnnn.

The anthology is scheduled to go to press in May 2008. My blog entry "Weaving Without a Loom" ( http://hurricanecountry.blogspot.com/2005/07/weaving-without-loom.html ) describes my process of writing that story (the photo of the spider up top is before my "good camera" days).

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

In Print!

2007-10-10T03:53:45Z

Advance copies of my novel Deviations: Covenant made their debut at Necronomicon, Tampa's annual science fiction/fantasy/horror convention. More info is at

http://people.tribe.net/0563a508-c05e-4e85-9680-ba4966fb1d2c/blog/f9c40b4c-61f3-43c8-a4c8-01ba616fb132

I brought back copies to have at several local promotional events I'm doing this month. Aisling Press ( http://www.aislingpress.com ) will release Covenant on November 28. Copies can be pre-ordered at discount through Aisling, and also through Barnes & Noble.

I'm trying to figure out if it's all hit me yet, since I've now launched into Sales Mode. :)

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Anyone going to Necronomicon in Tampa this weekend?

2007-10-04T05:14:19Z

I'll be on a dark poetry panel Saturday morning and will also be publicizing my novel Deviations: Covenant.

I'll have advance copies there (which I haven't seen yet). Covenant is available for pre-order at discount from Aisling Press -- http://www.aislingpress.com -- and is now also listed on Barnes & Noble. Street release is scheduled for November 28.

Back in the 80s my story "Lazuli" (Asimov's, Nov. '84) got me on the final ballot for the 1985 John W. Campbell Award for best new sf writer of the year, and "Moments of Clarity" (the first Full Spectrum anthology, Bantam Books, 1988) reached preliminary ballot for a Nebula Award, given by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

Covenant is my first published novel (I started trying to sell novel-length work more than 30 years ago), so "excited" doesn't begin to describe how I feel right now. :)

I've also got a few local bookstore and library events planned, and I'll be at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading at the end of the month.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

A Place for Short Stories Writers -- help!

2007-10-03T01:27:58Z

Hi There,
my name is Stefano (the real one).
With a group of writers friends we put together this website: alpha.dublit.com
dublit is on online community of writers, readers & listeners of short-form literature.

I need some help to get the website bootstrapped with some good quality content... who wants to help?
In case the idea thrills you we are looking for beta testers. We don't have money to pay you but we can give you one of our kickass t-shirts ;-)

The idea is.. sign up on alpha.dublit.com, click on submit audioshort and read one of your best stories (there is an online recording tool), done! At this point people can listen, rate, review your story.

Thanks for any writing contribute!!

Stefano

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Drabble Contest: A last-minute quickie!

2007-09-29T16:19:46Z

This contest started on August 1, but I just learned of it today. Its deadline is (*cough!*) tomorrow.

The Tenth Between Kisses Drabble Contest
http://www.samsdotpublishing.com/betweenkisses/DrabbleContest010.htm

A "drabble" is a very short story containing exactly 100 words...no more, no less. Its title is limited to 15 words, no more.

Deadline: 2400 hours Central Standard Time on 30 September 2007

See the website for more info.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Need short (short) original angel stories or quotes

2007-09-18T15:34:50Z

I'm working on a project and would like to have 12 to 20 three to five sentence long angel stories. If the project were successful I would buy more. Willing to pay .50 per story accepted. If you’re interested contact me for more details.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

Speculative History writing

2007-09-13T16:32:04Z

Hi guys,

I'm putting together a speculative history ezine. If anyone is interested in in submitting some articles, they can contact me. I'll send you a grammatically unsound brief of the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Thanks.

Rusty

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 0 replies

strong ending

2007-09-12T22:06:25Z

What do you think is a strong ending to a story? Is it when everything is resolved and explained? When everything just ends ubruptly? Or when the conflict is resolved but the characters still have purpose and are left with things to do? Or is it something totally different? I ask this for two reasons. First, I am getting to the end of my first story I have written in years. Second, I have read a ton of books lately that had unsatifying endings. Either everything is all roses and sunshine and there is no troubles left in the world or the other extreme where the major conflict is resolved and then the words: THE END! I just wanted to get some opinions.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 6 replies

happy birthday edgar rice burroughs

2007-09-01T12:38:37Z

It's the birthday of one of the most popular pulp fiction writers in American history, Edgar Rice Burroughs, born in Chicago (1875). He had read Darwin's book Descent of Man, and he was fascinated by the idea that human beings were related to apes. He began to wonder what might happen if a child from an excessively noble, well-bred family were somehow left in the jungle to be raised by apes. The result was his story "Tarzan of the Apes," which filled an entire issue of All-Story magazine in October of 1912. It was one of the most popular issues the magazine had ever published, and within six-months, Edgar Rice Burroughs was a full-time writer producing about 400,000 words of short stories every year.

Burroughs went on to write all kinds of stories, from science fiction to adventure, but Tarzan was his most popular character and one of the most widely recognized fictional characters of all time. When the first Tarzan movie came out in 1918, as a silent film, it was one of the first movies ever to gross more than $1 million. There have since been more than 40 Tarzan movies, as well as comic strips, radio serials, and TV shows. When asked why he though Tarzan was so popular, Burroughs said, "[Tarzan] provides escape from the narrow confines of the city streets ... from the restrictions of man-made laws, and the inhibitions that society has placed upon us. We would each like to be Tarzan. At least I would; I admit it."

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happy birthday ray bradbury

2007-08-22T11:19:04Z

It's the birthday of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, born in Waukegan, Illinois (1920). When he was 12 years old, a traveling carnival came to town, and Bradbury met a magician named Mr. Electrico, who talked to him about reincarnation and immortality, and those ideas excited Bradbury so much that he withdrew from his friends and devoted himself to his imagination. He said, "I don't know if I believe in previous lives, I'm not sure I can live forever. But that young boy believed in both, and I have let him have his [way]. He has written all my stories and books for me."

One night, Bradbury was out for a walk when a policeman pulled up on the side of the road to ask what he was doing. He said, "I was so irritated the police would bother to ask me what I was doing — when I wasn't doing anything — that I went home and wrote [a] story." That story became a novella called "The Fireman" and eventually grew into his first and best-known novel, Fahrenheit 451 (1953), about a man named Guy Montag who lives in a future world in which books are outlawed and burned wherever they're found. Montag is one of the firemen whose job it is to burn the books. One night he takes a book home that he was supposed to destroy and reads it. The act of reading persuades him to join an underground revolutionary group that is keeping literature alive.

Ray Bradbury said, "I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."

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Shameless plug: Covenant is now available from Aisling Press

2007-08-22T07:47:01Z

More detail is at
http://people.tribe.net/0563a508-c05e-4e85-9680-ba4966fb1d2c/blog/a7bc6c85-e87a-4219-8d10-a42e1c08215d

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My Pi-Con Schedule

2007-08-07T19:45:01Z

Tell me we met on Tribe if you come.

www.pi-con.org

Pi-Con Schedule
music: Lonely - Anita Baker
Friday:
5pm
GoH Interview:
Wherein I interview C.E. Murphy

6pm
How to Write Pages 1-5
Kabongo(M), DeCandido, Osborne

Saturday
10am
Shamanistic Druids
Kane, Kabongo, Murphy, Mach
11am
Myth and Folklore in Fantasy
Laity, Harvey(M), Kabongo
3pm
Flirting
Harvey, Kabongo, Ferrett, Mach, Snyder
4pm
Pitch 10 minutes to an Agent
Kabongo
5pm
Cliches That Need Banning
Kabongo, Green, K. Williams, Mach, Silva
7pm
Urban Fantasy
Harvey, Kabongo, Murphy

8pm, run to the nearest place that serves good dead animal and order without speaking

Sunday
11am
Critiquing that Counts
Kabongo, Mach
Noon
Coming Full Circle
Kabongo, Murphy

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happy birthday aldous huxley

2007-07-26T12:04:43Z

It's the birthday of writer Aldous Huxley, born in Surrey, England (1894). Huxley wanted to be a scientist like his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley. But when he was 17 years old, he came down with a disease of the eyes, which rendered him almost blind. So Huxley decided to become a writer. His first successful novel was Point Counter Point (1928), which was an extremely ambitious book, with numerous characters and a complex interweaving structure. So Huxley decided that his next book would be something light. He had been reading some H.G. Wells and thought it would be interesting to try to write something about what the future might be like. But once he got started, he got caught up in the excitement of his own ideas. He wound up writing a much more serious book than he'd intended.

The result was Brave New World (1932), about a future in which most human beings are born in test-tube factories, genetically engineered to belong in one of five castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. There are no families; people have sex all the time and never fall in love, and they keep themselves happy by taking a drug called "soma."

Brave New World was one of the first novels to predict the future existence of genetic engineering, test-tube babies, anti-depression medication, and virtual reality. When George Orwell's 1984 came out a few years later, many critics compared the two novels, trying to decide which one was more likely to come true. Huxley argued that his imagined future was more likely, because it would be easier to control people by keeping them happy than it would be by threatening them with violence.

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Just had a poem accepted to Asimov's

2007-07-25T14:02:43Z

I got the good news via email yesterday. Asimov's has a poetry backlog, so it may be some time before the piece appears. But it will be my second poem in there, following my first one back in 1983 ("Wings," mid-Dec., reprinted in the anthology Burning With A Vision (Robert Frazier, Ed., Owlswick Press, 1984) & the 1984 Rhysling Anthology (Science Fiction Poetry Association), which contains nominees for the best sf/f poetry of the year). Asimov's also published two stories of mine, one in '84 ("Lazuli," Nov., which got me on the final ballot for the John W. Campbell Award) and one in '86 ("The S.O.B. Show," Dec., a spoof of the planetarium field, in which I did volunteer work for 5 years. The title, in which S.O.B. stands for Star of Bethlehem, is trade slang for the Christmas show).

It's good to be back! :D

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Science Fiction Poetry Association Contest: Sonnets

2007-07-14T14:42:56Z

The Science Fiction Poetry Association's second annual poetry contest is open to submissions July 7 - August 24. This year's focus is the sonnet -- on a speculative topic of your choice (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, horror, science, astronomy, or surrealism, etc.). Sonnets include those in the Italian/Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and Spenserian forms. There is no fee to enter, and one can submit up to three sonnets.

1st Prize: $80, SFPA web site publication, and a year's membership (or extension) to the SFPA , and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening, and a set of MYTHIC anthologies, (MYTHIC and MYTHIC 2) signed.

2nd Prize: $40, SFPA web site publication, and a year's subscription to Tales of the Talisman, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening.

3rd Prize: $20, SFPA web site publication, and a year's subscription to Dreams and Nightmares, and a copy of Aberrant Dreams I, The Awakening.

You can find more info about the contest at
http://www.sfpoetry.com/2007poetrycontest.html

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happy b-day dean koontz

2007-07-09T14:02:06Z

It's the birthday of author Dean Koontz, born in Everett, Pennsylvania (1945). He's the author of more than 70 supernatural and science fiction thrillers, including The Bad Place and Mr. Murder. The turning point in his career was in 1969, when his wife told him that, if he wanted to try to be a writer, he could quit his job and she would support him for five years. He published 18 novels in those first five years, and his career was on its way.

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A new story

2007-07-09T13:21:47Z

Water and Air
Patrick Spatz

"Another race of dry land dwellers," said Tyiieye, "that sounds very interesting."
Cairun thought his friend was about as much interested in his first contact project as one of the sand drifts passing by the front porch. Only years of friendship were keeping Tyiieye from drifting off to his nearby work bench and back to his own pet project, water flavoring. As it was, the room was already nearly overpowering with its assortment of odd colors and flavors.
Tyiieye pushed a blue ink bubble out of his second mouth then broke it with one of his eight tentacles and watched the patterns it made as it slowly dispersed in the water.
"Wouldn't the Great Wings be more fitting to make first contact? After all, when they're not flying in the air they live on dry land."
"Tools." answered Cairun. He was rewarded by seeing Tyiieye slide just a little further out of his shell as his eyes become more fixed on Cairun. New tools of almost any kind always got Tyiieye's attention. He seated his own body back a little further in the first chamber of his shell relaxing a bit more. "They rely on them even more than we do, and they have lots of them."
"How do you know this?" asked Tyiieye.
"The First Speakers tried to make contact once before."
Cairun rubbed one tentacle along the outside of his shell, his worried mode returning somewhat as he thought about this next part, "They said it didn't work out very well."
Tyiieye pulled part way back into his own shell, only in a tense posture unlike Cairun's relaxed one. "If the First Speakers couldn't reach them, what possibility would we have?"
"We've reached the First Speakers already and asked just that question. They believe, since we are wholesale tool users like this new race, we would be best to reach them. Of course no one knows alien tool use like you Tyiieye."
Tyiieye pulled himself up straight, "Well, if the First Speakers think we should, and you believe I can be of help, it is my place to serve."
##
Doctor Barbara Johnson was a rarity, a teacher who didn't like classrooms. Give her a Psychology lab, or better yet a field trip, even a one on one with a student, and she was happy as a clam in it's shell. She had long ago come to accept that many of her days would be spent like this one, in the classroom. Her six foot one frame never seemed to fit well into a professor's desk or chair. Her bright red hair and too freckled face gave anything but a scholarly impression to her students on the first day of class. Fortunately, team teaching meant she could camp out in the back of the class while her partner handled the first day introduction. Unlike Barbara, Doctor James Hallaway loved the front of the class and looked like it. Short, dark haired, with olive colored skin he was a handsome man. Around campus the two of them had become known as the Odd Couple of Doctors.
Stepping up to the white-board James wrote "Psychology lab 402A." Waited for students to check their lab sheets and dove in. "The first thing some of you may have noticed is that there are nine females, and nine males in this room. So first, no! This is not a dating service." There was a ripple of laughter through the room.
Barbara shook her head. It was an old joke, but it always seem to work. She made a note on her paper, "Find new jokes for James." Then she brought her eyes back to the front of the class.
"However,"James continued "for the next six weeks you are going to learn more about each other than any dating service would ever provide. You are going to live together, study together, play together, and yes sleep together. That's sleep together as at the same time, not as in the same bed." That got another round of quiet laughter.
"Barbara," James pointed to her with one hand, "That's Doctor Johnson, and I have picked you very carefully. You all need the same psychology credits, and you all need to earn some money this summer quarter, and last of all you all have experience in recording your dreams."
James spoke as he wrote on the white-board, "Because," and he underlined the words he'd written "Dream to dream communication. Is what this project is all about.”
##
"Almost half land and half water." Tyiieye read the writing off the seaweed held in front of him. "Well no, a bit more water than land, still it seems like a very unlikely balance to form naturally."
"Not really," answered Cairun. He was only half listening to his friend. Most of his attention was on a last check of everything, and everyone in the room. Five other adepts of differing ages and shell races were gathered to attempt this first contact. The room had smooth walls carefully constructed to help boost mental power. Mud filled the chamber floor giving everyone a soft place to sit. Each adept was spaced evenly around the room. All was almost ready. "True all the other worlds we know of are either water rich, or water poor. But it's a large universe. Even the rare must happen a lot."
"What's my part again?" asked Tyiieye.
"I'll try to make contact. If the First Speakers are right, they'll most likely ask about our tools. They live like us, surrounded by tools, so we should be able to show you some of theirs. Try to help me explain things in terms they can understand based on what we can show you."
Tyiieye seem sceptical, but he said. "Ok, I'm ready."
Cairun lead Tyiieye to his place about halfway inside the circle, then stationed himself in the center. Each of the adepts were carrying glow balls. These they now set against the wall. At once, Cairun felt the power levels increase in the room. Dozens of times he'd done this, went reaching out to older wiser races, but this was the first time for a young newly contacted race. He was not surprised when contact proved difficult. He could feel the alien minds trying to find other minds. Cairun focused on one of the stronger ones, but contact slipped away from him.
There was a startled call from the corner of the room, "It's me." cried on of the adepts.
Cairun turned to face the adept, and realized that she and not he had made the contact. This had never happened to him before, but he'd heard of it happening to other leaders, and he'd trained for it. "Hold on," he said. "Think about the new you and the new place you are in." He noticed that the adept was one of the two females on his team. He had felt that the alien mind might also be female. That might be more important to the aliens than to his race. It was said that the Great Wings had been like that in the beginning. "Can you tell me what's happening to you?"
The adepts's voice was filled with awe, and her tentacles moved randomly through the water. "I'm a monster."
##
"I'm a monster," thought Teresa. "A big eyed blue-green sea monster. Oh this is wonderful." The dream haze made the sight of octopus arms growing out of her baby-doll PJs funny rather than frighting. The room was filled with a blue-green light which proved it was all a dream because she always slept with the lights off and the shades pulled. She could clearly hear the ticking of her old fashioned alarm clock. This was the best dream she'd ever had.
"We're not a dream," said a strange female voice. "You and I are together, but very far apart."
This made Teresa laugh. A dream telling her that she was not a dream. As if she could be turned into some kind of octopus, with a nautilus shell no less. As if her dorm room had somehow been magically changed into a beautiful undersea cave. She drew breath to laugh again, only no air came, only water.
Two sets of primeval instincts began to fight with one another. Human instincts knew you couldn't breath water. Water was the source of danger. A different instinct said when there's danger in the water, burrow into the mud and wait. Human instincts knew there was no waiting for breath. Breathing came before all else, only mud turns out to be even harder to than water to breath.
When Teresa woke screaming from her dream, so did six other students.
##
"There have been deaths in the program before." admitted Cairun, "but never on one of my teams."
Tyiieye pushed himself back and forth nervously along the floor of Cairun's cave. "I've felt the urge to dig in and hide when I've been scared of course. Who hasn't? But to try to breath mud. I don't think I could make my gills do that if I tried."
"Mixing species instincts is a very dangerous and difficult thing. We masters spend years learning to control it. It never should have been thrust upon an apprentice. I should have stopped it, broke the contact at once."
"Now, now," said Triieye placing one tentacle on Cairun's shell. "You must not blame yourself. We must move on. I'm sure she'd want us to." Triieye let a long stream of soothing yellow ink into the water. "Now," he said moving back, "what's our next step?"
Cairun pushed himself up higher on his shell and took a deep breath of water. "Tomorrow we're forming a circle to contact the Great Wings. Not only do they breath air, but they have a very strong male-female identity. I think that was part of our problem, our female human wanted a female contact. I don't mind admitting that having an older more experienced race making the next try will take a load off my mind. One death on this project has been one too many."
##
"It's there, it's right there in black and white." said Doctor Hallaway tapping the EKG printout. All traces of Barbara' s early boredom were gone, she was every bit as lost in the project as her partner. They were in Barbara's office, mostly because Barbara never felt comfortable in James's office. She felt any place that clean wasn't for working in, it was to show off for visitors. Her office on the other hand always looked used and usable. Not that either of them had spent much of the last three days in their offices. Setting up the dream lab had been a hands on job, but now they'd hit pay dirt.
"Seven students in all," said James "starting with Teresa Morre, and spreading from room to room like a chain reaction."
"Six women and one man." Barbara mused looking over the data. "Do you suppose that has a significance, or just random chance?"
"Which ever," said James, "it'll show up in future cases and we can deal with it then."
Barbara stopped reading and looked at James, "You think there will be more cases like this one?"
"I dearly hope so. Because if not, we are going to have the Devil's own time convincing anyone on this data alone."
He picked up a hand full of hand written dream descriptions. "There's a lot of different details here. So much so, that it's hard to rule out coincidence where they match. We need a larger data base."
Barbara sat back in her chair, "What about the dream content? Do you suppose that has any significance by it's self?"
"No." James said shaking his head. "The whole team went swimming yesterday. Teresa herself swam over a mile in laps. It's no wonder she's seeing bug-eyed sea monsters in her dreams."
##
Edward Baker didn't usually dream of flying like a bird, but he knew a lot of people did. He had a good idea this wasn't going to be a normal dream. He really hoped some of the other students were sharing it, he had missed out on the last one. Far below him a great ocean stretched out as far as he could see, except for one small island group. They were green and gray gems on a field of blue velvet.
Edward suddenly realized he was not alone in the sky. It wasn't a bird at all beside him, it was a flying dinosaur. Feeling himself over he realized he was a being just like his new company. "I'm a flying teradactyle!" No, that wasn't right he corrected himself. Terodactyles had only one tail, and he had three. Also he thought they'd had scales, not soft fur like what now covered his new body.
"Never where those ancient beasts anywhere near as large brained as I am," said a voice inside Edward's head.
With a start Edward realized that the thought had come from the being flying next to him. "You can talk?" He asked.
"You wouldn't be here if I could not," answered the flying being.
"Ok, I'll go for it. Why am I here?"
"To talk, of course." answered Edward's host. "How else can we learn, and share?"
Edward thought he could hear, or maybe the better word was feel some of the other students. A number of them like Edward were life long science fiction buffs. This was going to be fun. "Ok, lets start with those islands down there.
Are we near a continent now, and if so how far out to sea are we?"
"Those are the tip of a great mountain range that runs from pole to pole. Those islands and a thousands more like them are the only land that comes above the sea covering this world."
This answer surprised Edward, "But if you spend so much of your time in the water or in the air how would you ever evolve the use of tools, let alone fire?"
"Our race uses few tools, and fire not at all. Few races do."
This brought a strong reaction from over half the students. Disbelief was strongest. One even voiced the words, "Far fetched." another, "Oh come on!"
Other students complained they didn't know what they were talking about. This ignited an argument so multi-sided that all concentration was lost in a matter of seconds. Edward awoke thoroughly disgusted with his fellow students.
##
"Tools, they want tools!" Tyiieye waved a different household instrument in each of his eight tentacles. "We've got to be the next one to contact humans. No one can show them as many tools as we can."
"I don't know," said Cairun slowly, remembering the beginning of the project when he had trouble getting Tyiieye interested. Now it seem he needed to slow his old teacher down. "Yes, we can show them tools," he took one of the house glow balls off it's perch, "and light, but not fire. The rest of the team feels the same way. Fire is the biggest prize of all. Humans really feel you need to have control over it to be intelligent."
"Fire," muttered Tyiieye seating himself slowly. "Why fire? From everything I hear about it, it's horrible stuff."
"We're not sure. It may have something to do with showing courage. Races that have to deal with it think it's pretty terrifying. One thing's for sure, the Downless Ones are the only race we know of that has regular interaction with it. We're thinking they might be the next to try."
"The Downless Ones, they're younger than we are. Anyway aren't' they hopelessly afraid of this fire stuff?"
"As I said, showing courage may have a lot to do with this. Like you said, the Downless Ones are the youngest race in our mind link. They're very eager to be helpful."
Cairun blew a nervous bubble of white ink before reaching for a sheet covered in writing and drawings that he'd been working on. "Just in case the Downless Ones don't have any success, I've been working on a plan that might show we have tools, as well as overcome the water to air problem. I'd like you to look at these plans."
##
"The whole team! We got the whole team!" James was like a kid with is first blue ribbon at the science fair. His gaze darted back and forth along Barbara's desk. Looking first at the EKG strips, then to the written reports and back again. "I'd hoped we'd get more this time, but the whole team, wow!"
Barbara sat slowly stirring her coffee, "More than just the whole team." James looked at her with a puzzled expression. She went on, "I was taking a nap myself during the first shift. I saw the whole thing."
"You too? Oh this is great! Can you write it down? I should have gotten you to do it before you read the others. Then again maybe having one done afterwards isn't such a bad idea. I hope I don't get the dreams, or we'll have no control subjects left at all."
Barbara wished she could share James's unreserved enthusiasm, but a problem was bothering her, and bothering her a lot. "James, have you given any thought to the content of these dreams?"
"What?" James looked up from his reading.
"I said; have you given any thought to the dreams' content?"
"Well, no, not much anyway," answered James. "I suppose we could do a survey. This sounds like something out of a science fiction book somewhere, maybe they've all read the same one."
Barbara shook her head. "I've already checked. Only about half are SF readers, and James, I've read Science fiction since the first grade. I've never read, or dreamed anything like this before."
"Barbara," James's voice was slow and cautious, "where are you leading to with this?"
Barbara looked into her coffee stirring it slowly. "It wasn't like any other dream I've ever had, and a lot of the students said the same thing. James, what if it wasn't just the students and I?" Barbara didn't want to be the first to use the word alien. "I don't know, what if there was something else?"
James reached over and took Barbara's coffee away to get her whole attention. "Barbara, we are on the verge of being the first to prove that dreams can be linked between one sleeper and other. Now, if we can demonstrate that link, we can get published in one of the very few more open-minded credible scientific journals. We'll have to have a lot of proof and it'll be a fight, but it can be done. Aliens trying to use our dreams to contact us and say 'Hi there Earthlings.' That'll get published in the National Enquirer, and you might as well apply for job there, because it will be the only place that will have us until Hell freezes over."
James didn't often use profanity; when he did it meant he felt very strongly about something. What was worse Barbara realized that he was right, dead right. "Can't we even talk about it between ourselves?"
"Sure," James smiling with relief, and let Barbara reclaim her coffee. "But next time, warn me first, so I can check all the doors and windows."
##
Speakerleg push one eye-stock above the river water looked around quickly and then retreated down the canyon wall a few meters. This late in the dry season the plant life was parched and dying, and the sun beat down a the slow moving water. Speakerleg found a patch of river weed under which to hide from the sun and wait. Holding on with four legs and one claw he rubbed his two smaller claws against his second large claw. The sound calmed him as he waited for the word for the attempt to reach Earth to begin. Those-That-Spoke-First had already taught the brotherhood much about the planet Earth and it's people.
Speakerleg's people were the newest members of the brothers of minds-across-stars, and he was one of the junior members of his peoples leadership. Yet because of fire, it would all come down to him and his personal courage. When the time came others from three planets would be there in mind link to help him, "So," he said aloud. "Nothing can go wrong." Speakerleg one of it's younger leaders. He wanted badly to succeed. He decided to spend the time reviewing what he could tell Earth about his own planet if contact was made.
This planet would seem the most alien to Earth. Here it is not the abundance of water, but the lack of it that is the main difference. In fact it lacked much of the atmosphere that Earth has. Its' main continents are dead things, Its' highest mountains rise almost into space. There are no great oceans, but there had once been. At the bottom of the dry abysmal plains the atmospheres' pressure reached half that of Earth at sea-level. Where the deep ocean trenches had been, there are still remnants of a salty sea.
There are rivers. Great rivers far surpassing Earths' Amazon in both age and size. Starting in among the ice that covers much of the continents, they soon fall over the continental shelf in spectacular falls of which earth has no like. The rivers then cut deep steep canyons on their way to the small Sea, which they also enter in drop-offs.
For the most part the rivers' centers are deep and fast moving. But along the edge the water is slower moving and filled with life. The life climbs up the canyon walls, both above and below the water line. Rain falls back down to the river below, after being fed by clouds that form between the canyon's walls. Almost everything is adapted to a world that runs horizontally rather than vertically. Speakerleg's own people were no exception to this rule.
The word came, it was time to start. Speakerleg poked his eye stalks above the surface of the calm water, and looked around thoroughly before allowing his shelled body to follow. His eyes returned into the water to check again that his retreat was clear down the wall to the roots of the weeds below. Speakerleg move a bit higher up the sheer canyon wall to get a better view of what was coming.
Farther upstream and high on the canyon wall lighting had sent sparks and hot stones falling. The sparks had fallen into the growth that held to the canyon wall well above the water line. It was dry and readily caught fire. Those that lived nearby had sent word. Speakerleg had been picked because he was both nearest and bravest. It would be his job to show the rest, that his race might be young, but they could do their part to aid the older minds.
Speakerleg could feel the first of the winds that the fire made as it sped along the cliff wall. The heat and the wind were frightening. Everywhere along the canyon walls small animals fled for safety. In the distance the fire could be seen as a yellow wall. The smoke filled the canyon behind it. Speakerleg waited; he had never been this close to a wild-fire before, but other of his people had dared come much closer to the red and yellow death. He knew just how long he could stay and still make it to safety below the surface. This would show that his people understood fire. They knew it was no demon that would chase them with a mind of its own. It was like the water, air, and stone, only, well... more so.
He could feel the minds of his clan join together, calling to him, "Yes now is the time!" he sent to them. Together they reached across space to their Friends-Of-The-Shallow-Sea. Cairun and his group, joined Speakerleg and his people, as one they reached out to the sleeping humans.
Within seconds Speakerleg vision was over laid with the sights of humans in there beds on the far away Earth. Some were link and they appeared with their eyes open watching him. Speakerleg held out a small hook and rope used to clime over some of the more difficult parts of the cannon wall, "Behold, we have tools." Some mines recognized the tool at once, others just seemed to think of it as, a tool.
Speakerleg shuttered once to help control his body, then when to the next step. "More important, behold," He brought his eyes full to focus on the fire wall closing rapidly on his position. "We know and understand fire!"
Speakerleg knew that he was fighting a fear implanted in his body long before the first of his people learned speech. What he hadn't count on was that it was even older and stronger in humans. The fear and panic that hit him was like a blow. It knocked him off the wall. Fortunately he was only a few feet above the water, even so his legs were running even as he fell through the air. All intelligent thought was gone all he could think of was get far far away from the fire.
Far away many of human dreamers woke up screaming, and convinced that what they been through was not entirely a product of their imagination. Doctor Barbara Johnson was one of them.
##
Three PHDs in the same room at the same time was not all that unusual in a college, but at the offices of SETI it was. At Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, Doctor Balmorr was usually the only instructor in a room full of under-grads. He really wished it marked a more pleasant occasion. What he had to tell Doctors Hallaway and Johnson was not easy.
Balmorr put down the reports Hallaway and Johnson had brought him to read. Then he opened a door in the lower corner of the desk he was sitting at. "These," He said putting a stack of folders down on the desk. "are most of the reports that unpaid observers have brought into us so far this year. Since the Air Force gave up on Project Blue Book, we've ended up getting most of the UFO sightings, and so forth. I am not allowed to let these out of this office, except to take them to a warehouse, to which only I have the key. The only reason our director does not order them destroyed altogether is that we're a government contractor and that would be against regulations."
Balmorr opened one of the folders on his desk and flipped through it slowly. There was a longing in his voice when he continued. "There is nothing in these files that would be the least bit damaging for the public to see. What would be hurt is our budget. God knows it's not much, but it's all we've got. I'm speaking from experience here. We once had a director who had assigned some students to reading through these files. They were looking for any pattern that might tell us anything we should know that maybe our electronics were missing."
Balmorr stopped at one page and smiled to himself. "Some of the students had a good laugh at one or two of the reports here. As I said before, we get them all. Some of these stories got all over the campus, and even into one of the local newspapers. At our next budget hearing a congressman wanted to know how we could spend government money investigating a woman who said her cat was having sex with aliens dressed like rats."
"Funny, right?" There was a hard note in Balmorr voice now, as he looked straight at Hallaway and Johnson. "Our budget was reduced 25% that year and we got a new director. Now maybe that would have happened anyhow, but our new director isn't taking any chances. Anything that isn't computerized and untouched by human hands goes into this file, and is never seen again."
The moment of anger passed and Balmorr looked again at the papers in his hand. "There are in fact a lot of nuts in these files. Yet I would have liked to see some of them looked into. When you called and said you wanted to see me. I was hoping that you might be able to use them. If you did though, I would have to ask you not to say where you came by them! "
The silence in the room lasted an uncomfortably long time.
##
The cave in which Cairun was building his great machine was a madhouse of workers and machines. Two large balloons full of air were being filled by pipe from the surface and large seaweed baskets were being woven by workers on a large table. Cairun had spread out a diagram of the project on a smaller table near by. He tried to wait patiently while Tyiieye read the latest revision.
"Surely you don't plan to include fire?" Tyiieye couldn't believe what he was seeing on the drawings. "Not after what happen to the Downless Ones."
"The trick seems to be able to keep it small. Air trippers have claimed to see it on the top of seaweed. We believe the thing to do is get it really dry. Even if that part doesn't work thought everything else should." Cairun pointed to part of the drawings. "Air trippers have been using air-bag riding for a sport for years. I take most of this from them. They usually just hold onto the bag until they reach the top, take a quick look around, then drop using a jellyfish skin to slow themselves down.
For a few seconds, Cairun push drawing around, "Ok here's what we're going do to. Where going to make much bigger balloons. I'll ride on top of one, then you and the acolytes will be in a baskets underneath.
"You want me to go up there?" Tyiieye looked hard at Cairuns' drawing to decide if this were a joke.
"It's perfectly safe. You'll be under the surface at all times, and you'll have these jellyfish skins. People midwater jump all the times these days. I've tried it, it's really fun!"
"Son, your idea of fun, and my idea..."
Just them there were shouts of alarm from the far side of the cave. One of the balloons had slipped it's rope and tipped upward. The air came gulping out, rose to roof and stopped. Works from all over the cave ran to catch the ropes. Despite being one of the farthest away, Cairun was one of the first there.
By the time Tyiieye reached his friend, the balloon had been pulled right side down again. "Looks like you lost about half your air," he said. "Will that slow you up much?" he asked trying not to sound too hopeful.
"Oh, replacing the air won't take that long," answered Cairun. "The real problem will be trying to get it off the roof." He said pointing to the pocket of air above them.
Tyiieye stared upward. It looked as if the surface of the sea and been brought down to them. The idea got him thinking. "Could we do something like that to fill one of the smaller cave completely with air?"
"I suppose so," answered Cairun, "But why?"
"Well it seems to me that bringing a small piece of the surface to you in this case would be a lot faster, and safer than trying to go to it."
Cairun stared at the trapped air, then back down to his drawing, and at last around the busy room. "But, we, I mean, we couldn't just..."
Tyiieye reach out and took the plans out of Cairun's tentacles. "Lets just try it the easy way first. If it works, I'm sure someone will want to build this air-wagon thing." Tyiieye did not add, 'Unfortunately'.
##
Barbara made ready for bed slowly. It had been a depressing day. After their trip to SETI, James had all but begged her to drop the whole thing. She had promised to do nothing for at least six months, giving him time to publish, and their research on dreams to hopefully stand on its' own. She was not sure though that she would not end up giving him a lot longer. It would take a lot of courage to stand up to the kind of ridicule that her ideas would bring. Worse than the ridicule was the fear that she just might be dismissed altogether, as just an other nut. Dismissed not only in this idea, but in anything she might ever do again. She was not sure she had that kind of courage; she was not even sure she wanted that kind of courage.
Barbara pulled back the cover of her newly made bed and paused for a moment. The sheets showed an eerie blue in the light from the fish tank. They looked as if they were underwater too. "Sleep," She whispered. "even that is not an escape any more, is it Doctor Johnson?" Then she lay down and tried hard to think of more pleasant things.
Barbara dreamed that she was he. Or was it he dreaming that he was she? Barbara laughed in her sleep, and an image of a butterfly danced across her/their dream. This caused Tyiieye some confusion and for a moment contact was lost.
When contact came again, Barbara reached out for it, and it became clear almost at once. She/they were in a small cave, the top part of which was filled with air/gas. She felt as if she was standing on a ledge just over a pool of glowing water, which filled most of the rest of the room. It took her time to realize that it was not the water, but the things in it that were glowing.
They were stranger even than the picture that one of the girls had tried to draw. They looked like octopi with larger chambered shells and insect-like eyes. Each carried a ball of white light. There were maybe a half dozen such beings in the large pool beneath her. Barbara refused to panic. She knew that she was not in a room of true "air", but she would not let that get to her like Teresa did. If necessary, she would breath water. Besides, her real body was safe back in her bedroom.
"So what do we do now?" She asked. "Talk, or make hand signals, or tap in Morse code?"
"Yes." Came the reply inside her head, which the teacher side of her noted wasn't quite fitting to the question.
Stopping to think Barbara realized the voice she had heard had been her own. "You're totally telepathic then, you can read each others thoughts, not just send words back and forth."
"Yes." Came the slow repose again. They were not quite sure Barbara realized, if her idea of telepathic and their's were the same thing; also the concept of being totally telepathic bothered them. It was not quite right.
Barbara had thousands of questions to ask. But one was more important than all the others. "What is it you need from me?"
"You will tell Earth we are here. You will tell them, how do you say it, `Hi?' Then they can help you find more like yourself, and we can grow together."
"They'll put me in a padded cell, that's what they'll do!" Desperately Barbara tried to think of a way out of her growing fear. "Is there anything you can do, or tell me that will prove that you exist?"
"How does one prove one exists?" was the reply. "No."
Barbara fought for control of the rapidly deteriorating situation. "I will not go back to freshman philosophy. There has got to be something I can give people to save my credibility."
"You can give away these images." Said the voice inside her head. "Surely that will be proof we are!"
It was too much. These poor beings had no idea of what they were asking. They had no idea how useless such an act on her part would be even if she could pull it off, how destructive it would be to her just to try.
"No, I can't. I was willing to try when you only might have been trying to reach us. But now that I know you've reached me I can't." Even to her that sounded wrong. But it wasn't. "I mean, if I tried to tell people that it was just possible that maybe there was something to a group of test subject's dreams, that just maybe had something to do with extra terrestrial intelligence. A few just might believe enough to look into it. But if I tell them I've been contacted, and personally asked to say Hi, to Earth for them, no one at all will believe me! Hell, I don't even believe it myself!"
Barbara sat down on a rock hard. She should have been surprised that it hurt a little to do so, but in her worst nightmares she could feel pain, as well as see and hear, and this was worse than her worst nightmare come true. She felt not only as if she was betraying these beings before her, but also all of the human race. And this made her afraid, afraid that despite of the uselessness of it, despite the hurt it would do her, she still might try. It was a fear every bit as real as any physical threat. And the others felt it too. They were not going to make the same mistake they had made on their first attempt at contact.
In the next instant she awoke in her darkened bedroom, listening to her fish tank bubble softly in its pale blue light. For the first time since Barbara was a broken-hearted freshman in love, she turned her head into her pillow and wept uncontrollably at the injustice of the universe.
Tyiieye and the others recovered slowly from the contact. It was like nothing they had experienced before. The contact itself had been strong, but the images and fears at the end made no sense at all. The older, more experienced race of the First Speaker would surely help them out now. Somehow, someone had to explain to him what was the meaning of all of that fear. Somebody had to know! Didn't they?
##
Speaker One was not surprised to feel the presence of his counter-part and friend. He had known that the members of the Great Wing had been listening. He broadcast his agreement to meet with his friend, their leader.
A moment later the image of the winged leader was there beside him. "Earth," he said. "Your forefathers had a very similar problem to the one we have today. It was Us."
There came the watery equivalent to laughter. Speaker One sent images and emotions of the past and present becoming one because they were so akin to each other. His message was also filled with doubt.
"Use words my old friend." Said the mind of the Wing Leader. "There will be other races that will someday want to know what was said here. I think they will be unhappy if we can not tell them in words."
"Yes, a similar problem," Replied Speaker One. "and now you think it is time that we came up with a similar solution?"
"We do!" Was the reply. "I have taken the voice of all the wings on this, and by far most feel it must be done. If I know you old friend, you have already heard the sounding of your people. I can tell by the flavor of your voice that they too agree. Is it that you have some doubts?"
The great creator turned on one side so as to see the image of his winged friend better. "Have we given any thought as to what this will do to the humans?"
"Yes. At least many of my people talked about it at length. I think we can count on it to upset them, as it did us those hundreds of years ago. Still my people would not go back. We have seen too much. We have grown, and we are glad we have grown. Earth too will thank you. Oh, maybe it will be at some later time. Not at first to be sure, especially not its leaders. But one can not be beautiful to all who look upon you."
Speaker One sighed. "You are right of course. The tides of change comes upon all, whether or not they are ready for it." The First Speaker made up his mind. "Gather those who know the art, let the flight and song begin. Today poor Earth will feel the slap of a mighty wave of change."
##
Not all the beings living on the two planets joined in the mind work. There were some few that thought it wrong, so would have nothing do to with it. There were the young that had not yet learned the way of power dreaming. However, most danced, or flew, or sang in a meditation of unison. When the dream was formed they sent it across space in less time than it would take to express it.
The dream found the American continents in darkness. All who slept there, or on the day side of the world received the dream. Almost half of those that were awake saw it too, mostly as an image superimposed across their earthly reality. Only the shortness of the dream kept it from causing any major accidents. As it was, several minor ones were attributed to it later.
To almost all, the dream brought the same picture. A whale-like being with four eyes, two on each side, swimming beside a flying being that looked like a pterodactyl with bat ears. They swam out of the sunrise to hover over a sign that welcomed visitors at the main entrance of the university. Two humans stood next to the sign, dressed only in their night clothes. Doctor Hallaway stood stunned beyond response. Doctor Johnson was nearly in tears with joy and awe. Then the dream left as quickly as it came.
As the dream faded Speaker One turned to the image of his friend and smiled "There, that ought to do it!"

THE END

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 3 replies

happy 100th b-day robert heinlein

2007-07-08T14:13:33Z

It's the 100th birthday of one of the writers who helped invent modern science fiction: Robert Heinlein, born in Butler, Missouri (1907). He wrote more than 50 novels and collections of short stories over a span of four decades.

He said of his childhood, "Once I found out about reading I was all in favor of it." He especially loved dime novels and the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne. But he didn't plan to become a writer. What he wanted was to be an officer in the Navy. But after serving for five years, he got discharged because he'd caught tuberculosis. The disease left him weak enough that he had a hard time working a job.

He wasn't sure what to do to make ends meet, and then he saw an ad in a pulp fiction magazine offering $50 for the best story by an unpublished author. So he sat down and in four days he had written a story called "Life-Line," about a machine that can predict a person's death. He decided it was too good for an amateur contest, so he sent it to Astounding Science Fiction magazine, and they accepted it. It came out in 1939, and Heinlein would publish 28 more stories in then next three years.

At the time, most science fiction stories were full of gimmicks and imaginary machines that had no relationship to actual science. Heinlein was one of the first science fiction authors to look at the world the way it was and try to imagine how it might actually look in the future. And he tried to make sure that all the imaginary technology in his stories could really work. He wrote about things like atomic bombs, cloning, and gay marriage years before they became realities. And he was one of the first writers to imagine how space travel could actually be accomplished.

He's best known for his novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), about a boy who is born during the first manned mission to Mars, who is raised by Martians, and who then returns to Earth to become a preacher. Stranger in a Strange Land was also the first book to describe a waterbed.

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 2 replies

Just got an acceptance...

2007-06-30T01:19:11Z

My short story "Hermit Crabs" has just been accepted over at Electric Velocipede "for publication in a future issue."
Wrote editor John Klima in his e-mail, "I'm blown away."
Grinnn.

I don't know yet when publication will actually occur, but I'll pipe up when it does. I learned about EV through Lisa Mantchev, who has an excellent story forthcoming there. (I was lucky enough to read her draft.)

posted in Science Fiction Writers - 5 replies