Guy Stewart's Blog, page 121

JOURNEY TO THE PORTRAIT’S SECRET #82: July 31, 1946

[image error]This series is a little bit biographical and a little bit imaginary about my dad and a road trip he took in the summer of 1946, when he turned fifteen. He and a friend hitchhiked from Loring Park to Duluth, into Canada and back again. He was gone from home for a month. I was astonished and fascinated by the tale. So, I added some speculation about things I've always wondered about and this series is the result. To read earlier SHORT LONG JOURNEY NORTH clips, click on the label to the right, scroll down to and click OLDER ENTRIES seven or eight times. The FIRST entry is on the bottom of the last page.
[Establish that Charlie’s dad’s place is right about HERE – or not too far.]
Edwina Olds, Lieutenant, WACS (ret.), “Ed” by choice, barked, cleared her throat then said, “I do, and we could probably take them all on.” She jerked her chin to one side, “But we now have a bigger problem.”
Both boys said together, “What?”
“We’re running out of gas,” she gestured through the windshield, “And there’s not a gas station within miles.” She paused, “And the tank is almost empty.”
Tommy Hastings let his head roll back. Freddie Merrill leaned to the window and said, “There’s got to be a gas station somewhere! If we run out of gas, we’ll never get home! Then the Communists will get us…”
Tommy and Ed said at the same moment, “Socialists.”
"I don’t care! They’re going to get us!”
“They’re not going to get us. We’ll do something.”
What? What are you going to do? You just said they could beat you up! Kill us! What are we going to do to get rid of them?” Freddie stood up in the cab, banging his head and subsided into cursing her, and Tommy, and Communists, and Socialists, and his father. Tommy knew that if he didn’t stop him, Freddie was gonna start crying – and then he’d stop talking altogether and sulk until they got back home.
Tommy punched Freddie.
In the side of the face because he couldn’t reach around to punch him in the nose.
Freddie’s head bounced off the window and he turned to take a punch at Tommy.
“Stop it!” Ed bellowed. It hurt Tommy’s ears it was so loud.
After a few seconds, Freddie said, “You really were a drill sergeant!”
“I wasn’t a drill sergeant, but I had to break up more than my fair share of unruly seamen fighting. If I didn’t someone else would have, and I was old enough to be some of their mothers, so most of the boys didn’t argue with me. They just broke it up and slunk off before I could assign them duty.”
“You’re not old!” Freddie protested.
“Thirty-four if I’m a day, son.”
“Wow...” Freddie sighed, deflated.
“Sorry to disappoint you, boy, but you’re sittin’ in a truck with a grandma driver. A wrinkled old woman...”
As the truck rumbled into the night, Tommy suddenly said, “Look!” a moment later, he shouted, “Stop, Ed! Stop!”
The truck slowed as Ed applied the brakes. She turned to Tommy, the scowl dark on her face in the green dashboard light, and said, “What in heaven’s name…”
“Back there! FAIRLAINE’S CREAMERY!” Freddie spun around, searching the darkness.
“What’s that?” Ed said, turning her gaze to the back window of the truck.
“We hitched a ride with them on our way up! They have a farm off down the road…”
“I doubt they’d have enough gas...”
“They transport milk! They have one big truck! We rode from here to Duluth in it!”
There was a long silence, then Ed settled down and with a huge grinding of gears, back the truck up slowly until the creamery sign with an arrow pointing right, shone bright in the headlights. She turned to Tommy, “You positive about this?”
“Absolutely!”
“Well then, let’s see if we can fill-er-up!”

Image: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4590961346_9204d91345_m.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 242

[image error]Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
Fantasy Trope: magicCurrent Event: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/magicandspellwork/f/Is_Magic_Real.htm
Jakob Josef-Büchel fingered the crest of his grandfather’s homeland then looked up at the piece of it that rested in the box in his lap. With his cell phone tucked between his shoulder and cheek he said, “I just got a box with a golden horn with a gold strap on it.”
Kiena Onorio said, “Sounds cheesy. Just throw it away…”
“I don’t think it’s something I can throw away.”
“Why not?” You have boat loads of junk at your house from your fancy-pants family. You must the only one who celebrates being from the smallest country on Earth.”
“I wouldn’t talk! Kiribati’s awfully small.” Kiena snorted. He knew there was no way she could argue. Instead he said, “How about we settle the argument once and for all?”
“I’ll be over in a minute,” she said. He lived across the street, on Embassy Row on the island nation of New Zealand. She scaled the wall between their compounds, waving at the security guard who watched her. She hated the fact that he thought the two of them were having sex. He wouldn’t have cooperated even if they were the last couple on Earth. He was deeply in love with…
She reached his window and said, “What do you have in mindtwo stones of red coral, one fruit of the non-tree, one old coconut, the first leaf of a seed nut, and the strong green leaf of an old tree”
“A contest,” he said, holding up the horn. She blinked in surprise. The way he’d described it made it sound like it was a cheap movie prop. But the solidity of it, even from across the room, made her feel vaguely uneasy.
She stepped back. “What are you talking about?”
He made a face then said, “What something from Kiribati that you know of that’s supposed to be magic?”
“Magic?”
He held up the horn easily, tossed it in the air, caught it and said, “Yeah. This thing’s supposed to have magical powers. We can figure out who’s got the best country by having a magic contest.”
“I don’t believe in magic,” she replied.
“Right. Is that why you keep make all those little pictures of us together then burning them with an incense stick – because you don’t believe in magic?”
"How do you…” He lifted his chin to the telescope on the veranda of his room. She’d always assumed it was there because his mother was a world renowned amateur astronomer as well as an ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Cameroun. “You didn’t think I liked space, did you?”
She could see where the conversation was going, so she said abruptly, “There’s this old legend that involves two stones of red coral, one fruit of the non-tree, one old coconut, the first leaf of a seed nut, and the strong green leaf of an old tree.”
“Sounds like a lot of crap to me,” Jakob said, laughing.
“The Kiribati stuff is supposed to help me establish a kingdom. What’s that stupid horn supposed to do?”
“When it is blown, the way I hear the story when I was little, it will revive the Kingdom of Bohemia with me as King.”
She shrugged. “So?”
He grinned, “Maybe you’ve heard of the Third Reich, then?”
Names: ♀Kiribati; ♂ Liechtenstein  
Image: http://orig02.deviantart.net/49d1/f/2007/001/4/d/holy_magic_by_derlaine8.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO!!!!!

[image error]Using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #3297. The link is provided below…
Hard SF for Teens
Hard science fiction isn’t just for adults. Kids today are more tech savvy than ever and fiction featuring real (or at least possible) science for teens is gaining steam. However, how hard should a hard SF novel get for young adults? What hard SF is getting it right? Who should we be reading? How can teens effectively pick through those old SF classics that they would find compelling today?
Steven Gould (m), Jennifer Brozek, Fonda Lee, Marissa Meyer, William Campbell Powell
Except for the moderator, I didn’t recognize any of the names on this list, so my first question is “What are these people doing here?”
Your first question should be, “So what if you don’t recognize any of the names? You’re almost sixty years old! What would you know about hard SF for teens?”
I’ll look into the answer to the first in a second. The second I’ll answer right now: I’ve been a middle school and high school teacher for 34 years. I know what kids are reading because I SEE what they’re reading. I talk to them about what they’re reading. I teach summer school classes to the gifted and talented – THEY are the true future of hard SF – and I see and talk to them about what they’re reading. I’d be willing to bet that I have a pretty dang good idea of what they are and are not reading. I worked at Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago, tried to order a set of the Heinlein classics and put them in the Teen section…and they were repeatedly moved back to the “regular” science fiction section because the brick and mortar giant DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THEM AS BEING FOR TEENS, a cursory skim through the twenty-six pages of “hard science fiction for teens” on Amazon didn’t net a single Heinlein book.
So who are these people and what are they doing here?
Steven Gould is described by Booklist as writing “novel[s] straddle the line between YA and adult fiction; its lead character is a teen, but the story has many adult-themed elements”. He also has a couple of the YA “beasts” of his own. Perfect!
 Jennifer Brozek seems to be well-experienced short stories and anthologies – but I’ll say right up front, that is not where and how most teens read. As an author of several RPGs as well as a BattleMech YA novel, she absolutely has the experience. But…not so much with the “beast” itself. And short stories isn’t the usual direction teens take in their reading. The ones I know want to be immersed in story; they want to escape the harsh reality of the here-and-now.
Fonda Lee has a novel, though nothing else published (Internet Speculative Fiction Database).
Marissa Meyers is the author of the best-selling LUNAR CHRONICLES (which consistently remained in the top three spots when my book came out last summer.)
William Campbell Powell is the author of a YA novel.
So all of them are more-or-less qualified to comment on YA hard science fiction.
However, I didn’t see that any of them are intimately involved with their target audience. I didn’t note that they TALK to young adults – though Mr. Campbell Powell and Mr. Gould each have two teens, and Ms. Meyers and Ms. Lee are still very much young adults themselves. However, this is not an absolute qualifier. I have two beasts of my own and they are notoriously opinionated – in my favor.
I would have loved to be there for the discussion and I’ve added books by all of them to my list of “to-reads”. However, the fact remains that I have not SEEN their books on the check-out lists of the high school I work in, and that, in the long run, is where we have to win middle and high school students over to the science fiction camp.
As for the Heinlein books – I love them and collect them, but the loving is more in the memory than in the re-reading. I find their prose clumsy and (also) very privileged “white folk”. Sorry, there’s no other way to write that; which in my own personal book disqualifies them as having any relevance for teenagers today. They live in a diverse world in which HALF of all Americans will speak Spanish as a main language by the year 2050, and it’s nearly impossible to advise kids what to take in school and college to prepare for their future career – because that career may not exist yet.
Maybe that’s what we need to do as SF writers for YA – imagine careers (and games, which is what Fonda Lee has did in her novel) that might be there when they arrive.
That’s my mission. I wonder what the mission is for these others. Tell me if I did OK; read my hard SF novel for YA – a link to it is posted on your right.
(DANG! I need to get to one of these World Cons…someday!)
Program Book: http://sasquan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ConGuide.toupload.pdfImage: http://orig10.deviantart.net/211b/f/2012/355/9/a/shoulder_soldier_by_blazbaros-d5fhpun.png

PIE POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO!!!!!

[image error]Using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #3297. The link is provided below…
Hard SF for Teens
Hard science fiction isn’t just for adults. Kids today are more tech savvy than ever and fiction featuring real (or at least possible) science for teens is gaining steam. However, how hard should a hard SF novel get for young adults? What hard SF is getting it right? Who should we be reading? How can teens effectively pick through those old SF classics that they would find compelling today?
Steven Gould (m), Jennifer Brozek, Fonda Lee, Marissa Meyer, William Campbell Powell
Except for the moderator, I didn’t recognize any of the names on this list, so my first question is “What are these people doing here?”
Your first question should be, “So what if you don’t recognize any of the names? You’re almost sixty years old! What would you know about hard SF for teens?”
I’ll look into the answer to the first in a second. The second I’ll answer right now: I’ve been a middle school and high school teacher for 34 years. I know what kids are reading because I SEE what they’re reading. I talk to them about what they’re reading. I teach summer school classes to the gifted and talented – THEY are the true future of hard SF – and I see and talk to them about what they’re reading. I’d be willing to bet that I have a pretty dang good idea of what they are and are not reading. I worked at Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago, tried to order a set of the Heinlein classics and put them in the Teen section…and they were repeatedly moved back to the “regular” science fiction section because the brick and mortar giant DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THEM AS BEING FOR TEENS, a cursory skim through the twenty-six pages of “hard science fiction for teens” on Amazon didn’t net a single Heinlein book.
So who are these people and what are they doing here?
Steven Gould is described by Booklist as writing “novel[s] straddle the line between YA and adult fiction; its lead character is a teen, but the story has many adult-themed elements”. He also has a couple of the YA “beasts” of his own. Perfect!
 Jennifer Brozek seems to be well-experienced short stories and anthologies – but I’ll say right up front, that is not where and how most teens read. As an author of several RPGs as well as a BattleMech YA novel, she absolutely has the experience. But…not so much with the “beast” itself. And short stories isn’t the usual direction teens take in their reading. The ones I know want to be immersed in story; they want to escape the harsh reality of the here-and-now.
Fonda Lee has a novel, though nothing else published (Internet Speculative Fiction Database).
Marissa Meyers is the author of the best-selling LUNAR CHRONICLES (which consistently remained in the top three spots when my book came out last summer.)
William Campbell Powell is the author of a YA novel.
So all of them are more-or-less qualified to comment on YA hard science fiction.
However, I didn’t see that any of them are intimately involved with their target audience. I didn’t note that they TALK to young adults – though Mr. Campbell Powell and Mr. Gould each have two teens, and Ms. Meyers and Ms. Lee are still very much young adults themselves. However, this is not an absolute qualifier. I have two beasts of my own and they are notoriously opinionated – in my favor.
I would have loved to be there for the discussion and I’ve added books by all of them to my list of “to-reads”. However, the fact remains that I have not SEEN their books on the check-out lists of the high school I work in, and that, in the long run, is where we have to win middle and high school students over to the science fiction camp.
As for the Heinlein books – I love them and collect them, but the loving is more in the memory than in the re-reading. I find their prose clumsy and (also) very privileged “white folk”. Sorry, there’s no other way to write that; which in my own personal book disqualifies them as having any relevance for teenagers today. They live in a diverse world in which HALF of all Americans will speak Spanish as a main language by the year 2050, and it’s nearly impossible to advise kids what to take in school and college to prepare for their future career – because that career may not exist yet.
Maybe that’s what we need to do as SF writers for YA – imagine careers (and games, which is what Fonda Lee has did in her novel) that might be there when they arrive.
That’s my mission. I wonder what the mission is for these others. Tell me if I did OK; read my hard SF novel for YA – a link to it is posted on your right.
(DANG! I need to get to one of these World Cons…someday!)
Program Book: http://sasquan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ConGuide.toupload.pdfImage: http://orig10.deviantart.net/211b/f/2012/355/9/a/shoulder_soldier_by_blazbaros-d5fhpun.png

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 241

[image error]Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote, website, podcast, etc) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes of them.
SF Trope: The Arcology + gravity modification (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Arcology)
Current Event:http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/612531/Did-parallel-universe-open-up-Hundreds-see-floating-city-filmed-in-skies-above-China
Amar Shamarki Shimbi shook her head and said, “We can’t modify gravity at that level – not to suspend an entire city secretly over the Chinese Republic!”
Renz Villanueva snorted, “You don’t have to try and hide it from me – everyone knows the East African Federation is experimenting with large scale gMod!”
“I don’t have to hide anything because I don’t know anything.” Renz stared at her, chin down, eyes up. “I don’t! I’m a nobody...”
“I hardly think the daughter of the president of the EAF is a nobody...”
“My MOTHER is a somebody. Daddy’s even somebody because he can do whatever he wants as long as he doesn’t embarrass Mom – and what he chooses to do is stump for free education from pre-K through bachelor’s degree for every EAF,” she said it like someone would say “eef”, “who wants it.”
Renz shook his head and got back to work on their joint “gravity sword”. He straightened up, “You think we can really make a flowing forcefield strong enough to fight with?”
“If we can build a working lightsaber, we won’t have to apply for grants anymore and we can work on figuring out how to really modify gravity – on a large scale!”
“I have to admit, it’ll be fun playing…”
“Who said anything about playing?” Amar exclaimed. “If we can tune these suckers right, they’re going to be real, honest-to-goodness lightsabers!”
He hummed, “They aren’t going to make cool noises like the ones in the movies. The sound comes from the fighter’s connection to the spiritual plane.”
She harrumphed and went back to her laptop, clicking on the story about the supposed city supposedly floating over Shanghai, China. She played the video again, made a strangled sound and leaned forward. Muttering in Somali, she tapped keyboard until she’d managed to zoom in on a tiny speck on the video. “No,” she breathed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was…”
Names: ♀Somalia; ♂ Philippines     
Image: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VTxw9t2dGLI/hqdefault.jpg

WRITING ADVICE (Part3): What Happened When I Read Ursula K. LeGuin’s Newly Revised Book, STEERING THE CRAFT: A 21st Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story (September 2015) Guy Stewart #30

[image error]“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one
ever becomes a master.” Ernest Hemingway
In September of 2007, I started this blog with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book -Writers and Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors, publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right” and I’m busy sharing that with you.
While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
“Any shift of POV…to another is a dangerous one. It’s a major change of voice…The shift will affect the whole tone and structure of your narrative…A writer must be aware of, have a reason for, and be in control of, all shifts of viewpoint character…I feel like writing the last two paragraphs all over again, but that would be rude. Can I ask you to read them over again?” (p 70)
Then I am a danger-loving daredevil in my next book, VICTORY OF FISTS.
As I pointed out before (in Part2), I flipped from first person to limited omniscient every other chapter.
Quite likely, this is what kept me from finding a home for the book until I sent it to my agent, Karen Grencik who eventually sent it to daring Canadian publisher, Lea Schizas at MuseItUp…both of them loved it enough to both represent it and publish it.
That still doesn’t diminish the fact that I wrote against the advice of one of the most respected and significant writers of speculative fiction.
As for changing the voice of the narrative…wow. I go back and forth from an intimate narrative of a young guy trying to redirect his urge to punch people in the face by writing poetry (and reading about other warrior-poets in history like King David, Sri Aurobindo, and Muhammed Ali) as well as trying to keep his ex-best-friend at bay – and you read about what’s happening INSIDE him.
Then I go back to a movie point of view where you read about what’s happening TO him.
Then I go back.
But this was the best way to write the story! There wasn’t any other way to achieve what I wanted. While LeGuin doesn’t exactly give her nod of acceptance, she DOES note that if you are going to break the rule, then do it intentionally and “be aware of, have a reason for, and be in control of, all shifts”.
Ultimately, my success or failure in trying this will be determined by the young people who read my book – and by the adults who CHOOSE books for young people to read. I’ll keep y’all posted!
Another issue that I’ve worked on harder since reading the book, “By crowding I mean keeping the story full, always full of what’s happening in it; keeping it moving, not slacking or wandering into irrelevancies; keeping it interconnected with itself, rich with echoes forward and backward. But leaping is just as important. What you leap over is what you leave out, which is infinitely more than what you leave in…Some say God is in the details, some say the Devil is in the details. Both are right…go ahead and crowd in the first draft…Then in revising consider what merely pads or repeats or slows or impedes your story and cut it. Decide what counts, what tells, then cut and recombine until what is left is what counts. Leap boldly.” (p 118)
Powerful words. Very powerful.
Before reading the book, I noticed that when I write short stories, they tend to be very close to 6000 words long. Whatever I try, I can’t seem to make them shorter. The problem with this is that it’s so close to the 7500 word limit usually assigned to short stories. Longer than that gets you into the almost un-sellable novelette (up to 17,500 words) and the practically suicidal novella which is from 17,500 up to 40,000 (which can be a middle grade novel!
With this advice though, I started to look at what I can leave out and what I can include and while I haven’t submitted any stories using this rule, I have finished two and I’m working on a third. The question now when I write is, “What do I leave in to make the story vivid enough – yet continue to move the story forward?”
If I cut too much, then the story fades from being engaging to being something someone “watches” – rather like a typical sitcom on TV. It’s not that the form CAN’T be engaging, it’s just that it’s so much work to write an engaging story that keeps not only the current plot moving forward, but also contributes to moving the story arc forward (Joss Whedon did this incredibly well in the FIREFLY series; Anne McCaffrey did this in the original Pern stories in ANALOG in the late 1960s as well).
I am working on a series of short stories set in different futures – one in which Humanity has split into a “genetically purist” line and a “genetically experimentalist” line and there are no aliens; the other in which Humanity has pulled into huge arcologies on Earth in order to let the land recover and here are aliens. I hope I’m beginning to learn this skill.
So, what have I learned in the three parts of this series? I can’t apply every single suggestion from the book, so what IS the takeaway?
1) Keep the story going somewhere.
2) Use language well.
3) Point to a higher purpose.
4) Take responsibility!
5) If you’re going to break the rule, KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!
6) Story is events that make it seem like time passing that leads to change.
7) Plot is action, usually conflict, that connects the events logically and ends in a climax.
8) Decide what matters so that every word counts, leaping over the other stuff BOLDLY.


I will keep you informed of how I apply these eight points as I continue to grow as a writer.
(Part1) http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2015/12/writing-advice-what-happened-when-i.html
(Part2) http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2016/01/writing-advice-what-happened-when-i.html
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Ernest_Hemingway_Writing_at_Campsite_in_Kenya_-_NARA_-_192655.jpg

Short Article on MuseItYoung & MuseItYA...A Blog Of My Publisher!

Check out the article below! It's just a few musings from other writers in the publisher I work with! I'm the FOURTH writer down!
http://museituptweenyoungadultbooks.blogspot.ca/2016/01/saturday-morning-musings-what-inspires.html

Proof Copy due; New Semester at school; Mom is sick! Sorry!

Sorry!Had to finish final PROOF COPY of VICTORY OF FISTS..Also, had to take mom to hospital.AND first week of new semester at school...I'll get back to the regularly scheduled posts on Sunday!

Slice of PIE: Certainly Not For the Money – Why Do I Write Short Fiction?

[image error]Using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #3219 . The link is provided below…
Certainly Not For the Money: Why We Write Short Fiction – Why do we put ourselves through the angst of writing short fiction? It certainly isn’t the money. Why else would we do it? Mark J. Ferrari (m), Mur Lafferty, Sarah Pinsker, Stefan Rudnicki, Rick Wilber
I have a strange philosophy that springs out of being a teacher and guidance counselor for the past thirty-five years...
I need to lay some groundwork first. I live in a large suburb of Minneapolis, not so large that I can safely have nothing to do with how things are done in the city. If I choose, my voice can be heard at school board meetings, city council meetings, and in the “local” paper – which is a version of a larger corporate paper that prints a sort of template of news with stories for the different communities rearranged to bring “our” local news to the headlines.
Twenty years ago, I wrote these words for that paper: “At the very bottom of this criticizable heap are the schools. Because schools don’t produce tangible products, it’s easy to criticize and hard to defend them.”
While that’s certainly true today, the sense that as a teacher I have never produced a single, tangible student who is “educated” or “helped”. A person who works for Microsoft can point to a program or a piece of hardware and say, “I worked on…part of the project!”
My brother can point to our local Target store and say, “I supervised the remodel of that store!”
My sister can say, “We helped these people walk again at our clinic!”
All I can say is  “I’m a guidance counselor; or I taught ninth grade physical science for eleven years…” Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got some first rate friends who were once students of mine; some of them produce tangible products even! But because the nature of education is to “produce” a graduate, and the team that takes part in that education consists of first and foremost, the student, then in huge part, the parents; followed by relatives, and a bewildering host of teachers from pre-school through 12th grade; there is nothing for me to show off or say, “I did this for this student…”
To combat this in my life, I mow the lawn and snow blow the driveway. These two acts are important to me because when I’m done mowing the lawn, I can turn around and say, “The lawn is mowed. See!” When I’m doing snow blowing the driveway, I can turn around and say, “See! The driveway is now clear!”
When I write a short story, I can say, “See, the story is done. I can send it out.” It’s a product that has been completed in a relatively short time and I can point to it if it gets published and say, “There it is. Read it if you’d like.”
Novels are NOT like that! I have one out right now that took well over a decade to write and sell. I have a second one coming out at the end of next month that took EIGHT YEARS to sell and after a year invested writing it.
Because of my day job, I desperately need to be able to produce something that doesn’t require so much time to become a tangible object that I grow old waiting to see it! I need to produce something that IS tangible.
And so I write short stories; and I enjoy writing them as well. I like the freedom to focus on a single moment that defines the life of my character – and that’s because I am rarely present at the defining moment in the lives of the students I work with.
Program Book: http://sasquan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ConGuide.toupload.pdfImage: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KbNUiOpysmee5gpTBHvUKYiDvt6I46CIXDKv64IjbWeR6Z
K0jnFVVTh6enZoV9UBNw=h900

LOVE IN A TIME OF ALIEN INVASION -- Chapter 38

[image error]On Earth, there are three Triads intending to integrate not only the three peoples and stop the war that threatens to break loose and slaughter Humans and devastate their world; but to stop the war that consumes Kiiote economy and Yown’Hoo moral fiber. The Braiders accidentally created a resonance wave that will destroy the Milky Way and the only way to stop it is for the Yown’Hoo-Kiiote-Human Triads to build a physical wall. The merger of Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo into a van der Walls Society may produce the Membrane to stop the wave.
The young experimental Triads are made up of the smallest primate tribe of Humans – Oscar and Kashayla; the smallest canine pack of Kiiote – six, pack leaders Qap and Xurf; and the smallest camelid herd of Yown’Hoo – a prime eleven, Dao-hi the Herd mother. On nursery farms and ranches away from the TC cities, Humans have tended young Yown’Hoo and Kiiote in secret for decades, allowing the two warring people to reproduce and grow far from their home worlds.
“We had nearly fallen into stagnation when we encountered the Kiiote.”
“And we into internecine war when we encountered the Yown’Hoo.”
 “Yown’Hoo and Kiiote have been defending themselves for a thousand revolutions of our Sun.”
 “Together, we might do something none of us alone might have done…a destiny that included Yown’Hoo, Kiiote, and Human.” (2/19/2015)
Fax, my Kiiote best friend, growled low in his throat and said, “What, you think I’m ugly?”
The conversation stopped dead as the choppers swung over what looked like an abandoned farm, then passed on. “That’s gotta be my uncle’s farm,” I said, “But where is everyone?”
Fax sniffed the air. Kiiote hated being compared to Earth canines, but the fact of the matter was that scent was how Kiiote communicated; scent was how they established hierarchy in the Pack. He could also identify organic substances – like poisons and explosives – from a kilometer away. He said, “There’s only residual Human scent here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that as far as I can tell, no one’s been here for a long time.” He yipped when I smacked him, and he spun around, stretching into his humanoid shape. He opened his mouth in a snarl then froze. “There’s fresh Human scent coming from that way!” He started off through the snow.
“Retired,” referring to our leader, Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh (ret), “Told us that we were to go to the barn near the farmhouse.”
“But…”
“‘But’ what?”
Fax paused, gesturing with a paw. “There’s a light in the window. The Human Leader made is seem as if this place was abandoned. Why would there be a light?”
I had no idea, but it seemed strange. None of the others had any cause to go into the place, but it had belonged to my uncle. Who knows, maybe my parents were dead and he was my only surviving relative? Even if he was an android. “I don’t know, but we should check it out.”
“He told us to ignore the house and go into the barn!”
“It’s my house, I can do what I want to!”
“It’s not...”
I left him, cutting over the rough ground until I got to the driveway and went up to the house. It didn’t look as run down up close as it had from a distance. Fax suddenly pressed against my leg and jerked his head to one side. I could see the sill of the window faintly lit. I stepped up to the wall, turned my back to it then slid along it until I was standing right next to it. I made a face, then leaned a bit forward.
“Reflection!” Fax sneezed.
I widened my eyes then stepped back and strode out into the snow, staying out of the direct light, then looked at an angle. I could see a faint reflection in the glass. Not enough to see details – but enough to see that it was Human dressed in something dark. A moment later, a second shadow moved as well, dressed in white, not as tall as the first.
“Can you smell anything?”
“Like what?”
“Human.”
“No. Metal. Oil. Machine smells along with another smell, like iron blood, but not. Like false iron blood.”
Strange, but that’s what I would imagine an android to smell like. I said, “My uncle. It’s the android who took my uncle’s place!”
“Who’s the other?” Fax said.
“What’s it smell like?”
He rose up into his humanoid form, opening his mouth to taste the air as well as smell it. He panted, his breath a white cloud between us. After a moment, he said, “Not of your world or ours.” He drew a deep breath, “Not of the Herd World, either. Something different. Of another world I’ve never learned of.”
“Something besides us?”
Fax snarled, “You didn’t think the Universe held only Kiiote, Yown’Hoo, and Human, did you?”
Image: http://mountpleasantgranary.net/blog/images/MP-Christmas-decorations-3.jpg