Guy Stewart's Blog, page 57

Slice of PIE: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, and Poverty

Using the Programme Guide of the World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki Finland in August 2017 (to which I will be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Programme Guide. I wrote this some time ago (August 2017), yet it seems even more relevant today. I also added a few new thoughts at the end.
Fantasies of Free Movement: A number of recent works have explicitly linked the trope of transportation in SF to issues of migration and home, ranging from the strange topologies of Dave Hutchinson's "Fractured Europe" series, to the "death of the majority" in Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota, or the more contemporary parable about seeking refuge found in Mohsin Hamid's Exit West. What do such works do to help us explore the opportunities and challenges of a free-movement world? In a time of (seemingly) closing borders, where in fantastika can we find grounds for hope? And what questions remain under-explored?
Niall Harrison – moderator and member of the WorldCon 2o17 teamNicholas Whyte – science fiction fanRosanne Rabinowitz – contributed to anthologies: Jews vs Aliens, Horror Uncut: Tales of Social Insecurity and Economic Unease, Something Remains and Murder Ballads. Her novella “Helen's Story” was shortlisted for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award.Teresa Romero – no information on her and she only participates in this eventJohn-Henri Holmberg – Swedish author, critic, publisher and translator, and a well-known science fiction fan
This is truly a fantasy that only the wealthy might even be able to imagine…
I can’t respond to Dave Hutchinson’s series, but having read Ada Palmer’s first book, I am of the belief that the kind of movement she postulates will ONLY be possible for the mega-wealthy.
In fact, it may be embarrassing how little of the world’s population even have an INKLING of what such a world would look like. According to the two articles below, one seventh of the world’s population has to walk some six kilometers to get drinkable water. Hilary Clinton made it a cause de célébrité. Based on a wild guess, Christine Negroni of AIR&SPACE magazine says that perhaps six percent of the world’s population has flown at all…
That means that 94% of the Earth’s population would have little to no idea what such a concept as “freedom of movement” is (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement) as a purely physical concept.
Politically out of the 197 regimes on this planet, one in four are considered “not free”. Of the other three fourths; one third are only partly free. In 2016, the “free world” was made up of less than half the countries on Earth…
While science fiction writers have for decades attempted to both entertain and cast a light into the future and explored possible futures, I am increasingly bothered that those futures seem to be more for the wealthy and less for the poor. For some reason “the poor” seem to have vanished miraculously – from Gene Roddenberry’s wildly optimistic United Federation of Planets of which Deanna Troi says, “…Poverty was eliminated on Earth, a long time ago. And a lot of other things disappeared with it - hopelessness, despair, cruelty...
And to which Samuel Clemens replies, “Young lady, I come from a time when men achieve power and wealth by standing on the backs of the poor, where prejudice and intolerance are commonplace and power is an end unto itself. And you're telling me that isn't how it is anymore?”
To virtually every other story I’ve read recently, though Kameron Hurley created a new definition of “poverty” in her THE STARS ARE LEGION the author doesn’t talk about poverty, nor do they deal with the powerless. In 2013, Charlie Jane Anders sparked a discussion about how science fiction writers deal with poverty (read the original article and the comments here: http://io9.gizmodo.com/where-is-the-science-fiction-about-ending-poverty-472693273) I’ve got a few books to check out because of the Anders article, but I can just note that her debut novel isn’t about poverty but about teen love, magic, and technology. Nothing wrong with that, but I simply note that here for effect.
So…my rant is over. The reason I feel strongly about this is that “some” people in the comment section of Anders’ article claimed that there is no poverty anymore and that it’s just a matter of distribution. I would direct them to the nearest Calcutta slum; or possibly the Chicago projects; or even Mary’s Place in downtown Minneapolis to have a little chit chat with someone who lives on the streets. I know students who live in a family car. I personally know two boys who were born in the back of a van in which the family lived because there was no way for them to afford the trip to the hospital or to live anywhere else (may I also point out that they were born 21 years ago in 1997 during the reign of the Democratic Party…which prides itself on taking care of the poor…which, in this case, it didn’t.). When attempting to interview for a job (I might point out that this incident occurred in the Golden Age of Barack Obama), they were told “No.”
The reason given was that they were “urban hillbillies”…
Another problem is that if you present your main character as one who has no power; who is disenfranchised; who is marginalized…then the story can’t go anywhere because without power – or even a tool with which to leverage power – nothing will happen in a story. Even when a novel begins with a slave or the poor, it usually turns out that they were some sort of royalty and actually DO have power (Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper”; Heinlein’s CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY; even Ada Palmer’s TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING and Gordon R. Dickson’s WAY OF THE PILGRIM gives a slave a fulcrum with which to change his world.) [I find it ironic that someone living in poverty would have been unable to add anything to the conversation on poverty...as they would not have been able to attend WorldCon...]
So, how DO we empower the impoverished?
Program Book: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/worldcon75/en/w75/scheduleResources: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/29/drinking.water/index.html,http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/how-much-worlds-population-has-flown-airplane-180957719/, http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2017Image: https://i0.wp.com/somaliainvestor.so/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Poverty--scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1714&ssl=1

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 453

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. Regarding Fantasy, this insight was startling: “I see the fantasy genre as an ever-shifting metaphor for life in this world, an innocuous medium that allows the author to examine difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity. Honor, religion, politics, nobility, integrity, greed—we’ve an endless list of ideals to be dissected and explored. And maybe learned from.” – Melissa McPhail.
F Trope: a sorcerer who is dead but his “soul” lives on trapped somewhereCurrent Event:http://www.alunajoy.com/2012-mar18.html  Martin Jönsson stared at the blog and said, “You’ve read this stuff?” He scratched his scruffy blonde beard – little more than rough peach fuzz
Vukosova Gavrilović, long-time friends and NOT girlfriend, smirked. She learned the Swede phrase for her buddy’s newly sprouted beard was duniga skägg. She considered teasing him, but the look on her face warned her that he probably wasn’t in the mood tonight. Instead she said, “I read it. What about it?”
“It like, says that people can soak up ancient energy and transport it from place to place!”
Vukosova shook her head. Her friend was a philosophy major – she wished him luck in finding a job as something more than an intelligent garbage collector. She was a physics major, and if her freshman grades and undergrad presentation were any indication, she may have just written herself a ticket to the Cooperative Lunar Colony Fusion Research Center after she graduated. The CLCRFC – better known by its euphemistic name, The CooL Co. FuR Center and what NASA insisted on calling ClickerFick in its press releases – was every physicists dream. Nuclear fusion was a hop, skip and a jump away from becoming practical. All they needed to do was solve one or two containment issues...she yanked her attention back to Martin and said, “We’ve been soaking up energy and taking if from place to place since the evolution of the first life form.”
He finally looked up from the screen that showed some wackoid Egyptian goddess background overlain with a the foolish ranting of someone who was certain they’d been able to imbue and ancient Egyptian site with energy sucked up in their souls from Atlantis. He said, “This is amazing! It sounds like what you guys are doing in that science class you’re taking!”
She sighed and said, “It’s called Elementary Nuclear Fusion – and it doesn’t have anything to do with storing energy. It’s about creating energy.”
He frowned then said, “I had some science classes in high school...”
“That was last year, wasn’t it?”
“Hey! Just ‘cause I’m a prodigy doesn’t mean I don’t deserve respect!”
“You were a prodigy in acting, Martin! Now you couldn’t shake a stick at an T-comp without breaking into a cold sweat!”
He stood up abruptly, snapping the cover in his computer. “Shows how much you know! I’m gonna see if I can soak up some fusion energy from...from…”
She smirked and said, “Idfu – it’s on the east bank of the Nile in east central Egypt.”
He glared, “You think you know everything just because you’re a physics major! But there’s another world out there, too. One you can’t see! It inhabits the same realm as your gravitons.”

“Gravitons are real!” Vukosova exclaimed.
“Yeah? Show  me one!”
“Well, you can’t just open your eyes and see one! You need special equipment…”
“And then can you see one?”
“Well...not exactly. But we can see evidence that gives a strong indication of the properties and the effects of...”

“So your gravitons are as imaginary as my negative Atlantean energy.”
“They aren’t the same...”
Martin turned away and stalked out of the dining hall. He stopped just before he slammed the door and shouted, “We’ll see whose god is more powerful! The trapped sorcerers of Atlantis and Ancient Egypt or the trapped gravitons of the Unified Field Theory!”
She blinked in surprise as he finished his rant and stomped away. She muttered, “I didn’t know he knew anything about the Unified Field Theory!”
Name Source: Sweden, SerbiaImage: http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/6255CaernarfonCastle_pic1.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: An Alien Invasion May Already Be UNDERWAY!!!!

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
So, I spent the morning chopping down the invasive tree/bush known as the common buckthorn…For my money, it is not only annoying, it is an horrendous MONSTER! (https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/106777038_10156827573131324_1338251936212348319_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=9q9yeayXZNAAX8wacF5&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=0578f6e378467324c0b4b97446be1500&oe=5F25001B
Oddly, this got me to thinking about a favorite set of novels from my young adulthood. I was a pretty freshly minted science teacher. I could teach lots of the sciences, but my interest had always been in biology.
David Gerrold, of STAR TREK fame (“The Trouble with Tribbles” in particular), wrote a unique alien invasion novel (actually a series), that detailed how the Chtorr had begun their invasion by wiping out a substantial portion of Humanity through a viral attack.
The survivors began to find weird plants, animals, and “stuff” all over. The “worms” are only the most voracious members of the “invasion suite” – but they are terrifying: “…they range in size from as small as a dog to as large as a bus…They have two double-jointed ‘arms’…with incredibly sharp claws. Their bodies are covered with symbiotic ‘fur’, each strand of which is a distinct lifeform and acts as a sensory input.”                  
This is a sort of invasive species on steroids.
Yesterday, I spent the morning attacking an invasion of a European plant called “common  buckthorn”, whose scientific name is Rhamnus cathartica. It was brought here as an “ornamental shrub” from “from the central British Isles south to Morocco, and east to Kyrgyzstan.”
It blends in and is seemingly innocuous, though its scientific name hints at one of its uses in herbal medicine: “The seeds and leaves are mildly poisonous for humans and most other animals… [causing] stomach cramps and laxative effects…[suggesting a] common name purging buckthorn…”
It’s a nasty thing that grows leaves before most of the rest of the northern species of trees and grows fast. Local animals don’t graze it; though birds eat the seeds. As well, the plant contains a chemical called an “emodin”. It made me think of Imodium when I first saw it and while this over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medication STOPS diarrhea, emodin causes it. Animals that try and eat the little hard, black berries drop them all over the place – spreading them everywhere.
This is just one example of a particularly obnoxious plant that is insidiously taking over vast swaths of North America. The species is naturalised and invasive in parts of North America. Rhamnus cathartica has a competitive advantage over native trees and shrubs in North America because it leafs out before native species. Of the annual carbon gain in R. cathartica, 27–35% comes from photosynthesis occurring before the leaves of other plants emerge. Soil in woodlands dominated by R. cathartica was higher in nitrogen, pH and water content than soil in woodlands relatively free of R. cathartica,[15][18] probably because R. cathartica has high levels of nitrogen in its leaves and these leaves decompose rapidly.
"Rhamnus cathartica is also associated with invasive European earthworms (Lumbricus spp.) in the northern Midwest of North America. Removing R. cathartica led to a decrease of around 50% in the biomass of invasive earthworms.
"Soils enriched by extra nitrogen from decayed buckthorn leaves and…Invasive earthworms (which in MN means ALL earthworms…)…need rich litter, break [buckthorn leaves] down rapidly, destroying beneficial fungi and exposing bare soils in the process. These soils provide ideal conditions for buckthorn germination and seedling growth but many native trees and shrubs need the beneficial fungi and will not reproduce without it…it is particularly prevalent in the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.”
Why can’t we fight it with 21st Century science? “Numerous potential biocontrol insects for common and glossy buckthorn were screened for host-specificity and impacts. Early on, glossy buckthorn biocontrol was eliminated from consideration due to lack of promising agents. Research continued on common buckthorn.  After 11 years of searching for a biocontrol insect that is both host-specific and damaging to common buckthorn, we concluded that we do not have any promising agents at this time so we ended the project.”
So, while I’ve always laughed at the labels that say “Non-GMO” (because Humans have been genetically modifying organisms since the first Mayan crossbred the first corn plant to get bigger seeds – by hand and by century: (https://i.redd.it/mbe42vdt49841.jpg),  I’m surprised that we haven’t tried to modify some kind of bug to take care of it. It does have an economic impact here; it certainly has an impact on the timber industry in other states – but none of the states affected by buckthorn are LUMBER-producing states, so…we don’t do it.

It's kind of creepy to realize that some sort of alien Chtorr could set up an alien ecosystem and we might not even notice it. What if biological invasion is a LONG-TERM proposition? What if some sort of AI ship or landcraft landed and proceeded to introduce various species across their normal boundaries, weakening the entire ecosystem. Then instead of the dramatic “red” invasion of the War Against the Chtorr, you’d have something virtually unstoppable.
How would we even know?
How about the first starship to reach an Earth-like world finds that the lifeforms are incredibly…familiar; and that the survey shows that a number of the species they find on the planet are what we would call “invasives” or even “introduced” – and as far as that goes, pheasants are “introduced” in Minnesota rather than invasive, because “some people” released them for hunting purposes…
So, I have a scenario where one of the new colonists is from around here – or find out where the most invasive species reside – is on the bio-survey team. They can’t find anything of Human-level intelligence. Then another, farther-reaching mission finds and makes a First Contact, and their “home world” has species very familiar on Earth…in fact, their biology is suspiciously Earth-like…
Foundation: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/index.html#:~:text=Minnesota's%20natural%20resources%20are%20threatened,land%20or%20in%20the%20water., https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/natural_resources/invasives/terrestrialplants/is-bmp.pdfReference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr#A_Matter_for_Men_(1983), https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_cathartica, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emodin, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.htmlImage: https://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/medium/145919.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: An Alien Invasion May Already UNDERWAY!!!!

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
So, I spent the morning chopping down the invasive tree/bush known as the common buckthorn…For my money, it is not only annoying, it is an horrendous MONSTER! (https://scontent.ffcm1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/106777038_10156827573131324_1338251936212348319_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=9q9yeayXZNAAX8wacF5&_nc_ht=scontent.ffcm1-2.fna&oh=0578f6e378467324c0b4b97446be1500&oe=5F25001B
Oddly, this got me to thinking about a favorite set of novels from my young adulthood. I was a pretty freshly minted science teacher. I could teach lots of the sciences, but my interest had always been in biology.
David Gerrold, of STAR TREK fame (“The Trouble with Tribbles” in particular), wrote a unique alien invasion novel (actually a series), that detailed how the Chtorr had begun their invasion by wiping out a substantial portion of Humanity through a viral attack.
The survivors began to find weird plants, animals, and “stuff” all over. The “worms” are only the most voracious members of the “invasion suite” – but they are terrifying: “…they range in size from as small as a dog to as large as a bus…They have two double-jointed ‘arms’…with incredibly sharp claws. Their bodies are covered with symbiotic ‘fur’, each strand of which is a distinct lifeform and acts as a sensory input.”                  
This is a sort of invasive species on steroids.
Yesterday, I spent the morning attacking an invasion of a European plant called “common  buckthorn”, whose scientific name is Rhamnus cathartica. It was brought here as an “ornamental shrub” from “from the central British Isles south to Morocco, and east to Kyrgyzstan.”
It blends in and is seemingly innocuous, though its scientific name hints at one of its uses in herbal medicine: “The seeds and leaves are mildly poisonous for humans and most other animals… [causing] stomach cramps and laxative effects…[suggesting a] common name purging buckthorn…”
It’s a nasty thing that grows leaves before most of the rest of the northern species of trees and grows fast. Local animals don’t graze it; though birds eat the seeds. As well, the plant contains a chemical called an “emodin”. It made me think of Imodium when I first saw it and while this over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medication STOPS diarrhea, emodin causes it. Animals that try and eat the little hard, black berries drop them all over the place – spreading them everywhere.
This is just one example of a particularly obnoxious plant that is insidiously taking over vast swaths of North America. The species is naturalised and invasive in parts of North America. Rhamnus cathartica has a competitive advantage over native trees and shrubs in North America because it leafs out before native species. Of the annual carbon gain in R. cathartica, 27–35% comes from photosynthesis occurring before the leaves of other plants emerge. Soil in woodlands dominated by R. cathartica was higher in nitrogen, pH and water content than soil in woodlands relatively free of R. cathartica,[15][18] probably because R. cathartica has high levels of nitrogen in its leaves and these leaves decompose rapidly.
"Rhamnus cathartica is also associated with invasive European earthworms (Lumbricus spp.) in the northern Midwest of North America. Removing R. cathartica led to a decrease of around 50% in the biomass of invasive earthworms.
"Soils enriched by extra nitrogen from decayed buckthorn leaves and…Invasive earthworms (which in MN means ALL earthworms…)…need rich litter, break [buckthorn leaves] down rapidly, destroying beneficial fungi and exposing bare soils in the process. These soils provide ideal conditions for buckthorn germination and seedling growth but many native trees and shrubs need the beneficial fungi and will not reproduce without it…it is particularly prevalent in the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.”
Why can’t we fight it with 21st Century science? “Numerous potential biocontrol insects for common and glossy buckthorn were screened for host-specificity and impacts. Early on, glossy buckthorn biocontrol was eliminated from consideration due to lack of promising agents. Research continued on common buckthorn.  After 11 years of searching for a biocontrol insect that is both host-specific and damaging to common buckthorn, we concluded that we do not have any promising agents at this time so we ended the project.”
So, while I’ve always laughed at the labels that say “Non-GMO” (because Humans have been genetically modifying organisms since the first Mayan crossbred the first corn plant to get bigger seeds – by hand and by century: (https://i.redd.it/mbe42vdt49841.jpg),  I’m surprised that we haven’t tried to modify some kind of bug to take care of it. It does have an economic impact here; it certainly has an impact on the timber industry in other states – but none of the states affected by buckthorn are LUMBER-producing states, so…we don’t do it.

It's kind of creepy to realize that some sort of alien Chtorr could set up an alien ecosystem and we might not even notice it. What if biological invasion is a LONG-TERM proposition? What if some sort of AI ship or landcraft landed and proceeded to introduce various species across their normal boundaries, weakening the entire ecosystem. Then instead of the dramatic “red” invasion of the War Against the Chtorr, you’d have something virtually unstoppable.
How would we even know?
How about the first starship to reach an Earth-like world finds that the lifeforms are incredibly…familiar; and that the survey shows that a number of the species they find on the planet are what we would call “invasives” or even “introduced” – and as far as that goes, pheasants are “introduced” in Minnesota rather than invasive, because “some people” released them for hunting purposes…
So, I have a scenario where one of the new colonists is from around here – or find out where the most invasive species reside – is on the bio-survey team. They can’t find anything of Human-level intelligence. Then another, farther-reaching mission finds and makes a First Contact, and their “home world” has species very familiar on Earth…in fact, their biology is suspiciously Earth-like…
Foundation: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/index.html#:~:text=Minnesota's%20natural%20resources%20are%20threatened,land%20or%20in%20the%20water., https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/natural_resources/invasives/terrestrialplants/is-bmp.pdfReference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr#A_Matter_for_Men_(1983), https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnus_cathartica, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emodin, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/woody/buckthorn/index.htmlImage: https://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/medium/145919.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 452

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 (Literature) Trope:https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HiddenDepths/LiteraturePLUS https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlienInvasionCurrent Event: https://www.tor.com/2020/01/02/the-25-most-anticipated-science-fiction-fantasy-books-of-2020/
Wokie Cooper stared at her best friend and said, “That’s the best you can do?”
Abas Bashir’s lips thinned as he looked down at her, “It is not ‘the best I can do’ – because it’s not fake.”
Wokie laughed and slugged his shoulder. Unmoved, he continued glaring down at her. She leaned back and scowled. Finally she said, “So, you think it’s real…”
“I don’t ‘think it’s real’, it’s a recording of the landing of six alien spacecraft in northern Minnesota.”
She shook her head, sighed, and sat down on the lab-stool-at-the-coffee-bar. PC’s – Professor Caffeine’s – was their favorite spot. Fitted out like a cross between a chemistry lab and a morgue with a projection of posters from cheesy and not-so-cheesy scifi movies from the early 21st and late 20th Centuries. Currently projecting was an exploding White House from the movie “Independence Day”. She leaned forward, swiped through the 3D projection hovering over his tablet, laying it out as an old-fashioned computer screen, albeit with a .6 meter diagonal. She said, “Look closely and tell me what you see.” She pulled up an image on her own tablet then posted it at a 90 degree angle to to his image. “So, why do your supposed ‘alien invaders’ spaceships look like this?”  https://scifanworld.com/assets/photos/original/64/5e/2c/303-the-invaders-88-1368976996.jpg

“They aren’t space ships,” he said.
Wokis sniffed, “What are they, then?”
Abas shook his head, “With that kind of prejudicial attitude, I might as well not even bother.” He reached for his tablet.
She put her hand over his, trying to sound more sincere than irritated. She succeeded as she said, “All right. I will suspend judgement until you’ve presented your case.”
He pursed his lips, rolled his eyes, and smiled a bit. “Fine. I know exactly how I sound. I know I’ve got every hokey scifi media presentation from “The Man From Planet X” to “Invasion” – you know, the Russian one…”
“You have to see it with the original Russian soundtrack to really get it, though.”
He gave her a dirty look. “I’ve got better things to occupy my mind…”
“What? Making up alien invasion conspiracy th…”
“The ships aren’t space ships. They’re a sort of…do you remember when we went to that STAR TREK marathon and the episode called ‘Discovery’ used something called a ‘pattern enhancer’ for their transporter system?”
She wanted to say that that was ridiculous, but instead, said, “Yeah, I do!”
“They act as enhancers for a sort of gate.”
“You mean, like the TV show STARGATE?”
He gasped, held his breath and let it out slowly. “The Stargate was a portal that would enable rapid transportation to other stargates located cosmic distances away. This is sort of like that. I need to get instrumentation to detect superstrings because a ‘tame’ superstring is the only object in the universe that could generate the energy necessary to…”
“…make the jump from some other planet or galaxy to ours.” She frowned, adding, “How would they be able to target Earth?”
His eyes grew wide…
Names: ♀American/Liberian; ♂ American/Somalian References: https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/a-brief-history-of-the-alien-invasion-movie/Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg/220px-Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #2: Isaac Asimov “& Me…”

It's been a while since I decided to add something different to my blog rotation. Today I’ll start looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”
I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most 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!
Without further ado, let’s start with Isaac Asimov…
Obviously, I never met Asimov, though another science teacher presented me with a condolence muffin when he passed away. The friend wasn’t a writer, nor did he even read science fiction, but he knew the importance of Asimov’s work.
In his career, Asimov wrote so much MORE than science fiction: “…wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards…hundreds of short stories…the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels…mysteries and fantasy…popular science books…[books on] chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, history, biblical exegesis, and literary criticism.”
He wrote, “Since February 1941, I have never written a piece of fiction that has not, in one way or another, seen print.”
A search of the www gave me NO clear number of how many short stories he wrote, noting only “hundreds…” So, I went to the wiki site that listed his SS bibliography (see link below) and counted them. While I’m pretty sure I missed some, my final number of everything listed there brought me to 403. That’s in addition to 500 books…and, as a headline noted, “Isaac Asimov published more than 500 books in his lifetime but never suffered from writer's block.”
While he didn’t ever write a writing book, Leibowitz was able to pull the following from Asimov’s writings. Once I wrote these down, I was surprised by how MUCH of this advice I followed.
a) Work on multiple projects at the same timeb) Write whenever you have time – even if you don’t have much of it.c) Just. Start. Writing.d) Keep writing – even when you’re not.e) Enjoy your writing.f) Cultivate a clear and colloquial style.g) Never stop learning.h) Learn from other people’s writing.
As far as “Work on multiple projects at a time” – I’m editing and plan on finishing a novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY and finally have it laid out so that I can work with it. I’ll be editing and submitting one of the most serious stories I’ve ever written, “The Murder of Automotive Technician #47369”; I’ve finished a “Christian” science fiction story that illuminates my new awareness of both the privilege of my race and gender, and the call my faith has for me to give it all up, in fact to be very much prepared to GIVE MY LIFE (not just in an intellectual way, but physically; as in DIE for what I believe. Very few people I know have that kind of commitment to their faith in Christ, even though our example in the Bible is filled with physical sacrifice, from Jesus onward in history) which needs and edit before I send it out with trembling hands; I intend to rewrite a novel, OUT OF THE DEBTOR STARS in which the main character is an Ojibwe-white man. My guide for this will be THE ASSASSINATION OF HOLE IN THE DAY, a book of Ojibwe poetry, and Writing the Other (Conversation Pieces) (Volume 8) by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, in which they say, “…one of the students [at a writing workshop] expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong—horribly, offensively wrong—and so it is better not even to try. This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual orientation, and age differ significantly from their own.”
I’m in the middle of writing a short story for kids with the tentative title, “Into the Underground with Straw Shoes and Torches!” about the discovery of the Manjanggul Lava Tube on Jeju Island in South Korea. I was there and there’s a major story that has had very little exposure to people not on the island. Again, I want to tell the story from a child’s point of view; a girl’s point of view; a Korean’s point of  view; and the point of view of a Korean girl’s view in 1946…
The potential there for a severe strike-out is HUGE, but I won’t be able to see if I can do it unless I try. I managed to do a reasonable job with several stories I’ve had published there, but the current climate of publishing for both speculative fiction and children’s fiction is to NOT support Shawl and Ward’s concern, in fact, it appears to me that the publishers and writers in these groups would rather first point a finger and cry out, “cultural appropriation by a bofwhig!”
We’ll see. I’m planning on referencing Shawl and Ward in my cover letters and see if that makes any difference! At least I know that I have some things in common with Asimov – hopefully not what he’s currently being panned for (sexism, orientationism, religionism, nuclear powerism)…
Last of all, I will continue to take deeply to heart the most important point listed above: “Never stop learning.”
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov_short_stories_bibliography, https://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/advice-for-beating-writers-block-from-an-award-winning-author-of-500-books.html, Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Short Stories – Advice and Observation #1: Isaac Asimov “& Me…”

It's been a while since I decided to add something different to my blog rotation. Today I’ll start looking at “advice” for writing short stories – not from me, but from other short story writers. In speculative fiction, “short” has very carefully delineated categories: “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories by word count; Novel 40,000 words or over; Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words; Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words; Short story under 7,500 words.”
I’m going to use advice from people who, in addition to writing novels, have also spent plenty of time “interning” with short stories. The advice will be in the form of one or several quotes off of which I’ll jump and connect it with my own writing experience. While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do most 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!
Without further ado, let’s start with Isaac Asimov…
Obviously, I never met Asimov, though another science teacher presented me with a condolence muffin when he passed away. The friend wasn’t a writer, nor did he even read science fiction, but he knew the importance of Asimov’s work.
In his career, Asimov wrote so much MORE than science fiction: “…wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards…hundreds of short stories…the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels…mysteries and fantasy…popular science books…[books on] chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, history, biblical exegesis, and literary criticism.”
He wrote, “Since February 1941, I have never written a piece of fiction that has not, in one way or another, seen print.”
A search of the www gave me NO clear number of how many short stories he wrote, noting only “hundreds…” So, I went to the wiki site that listed his SS bibliography (see link below) and counted them. While I’m pretty sure I missed some, my final number of everything listed there brought me to 403. That’s in addition to 500 books…and, as a headline noted, “Isaac Asimov published more than 500 books in his lifetime but never suffered from writer's block.”
While he didn’t ever write a writing book, Leibowitz was able to pull the following from Asimov’s writings. Once I wrote these down, I was surprised by how MUCH of this advice I followed.
a) Work on multiple projects at the same timeb) Write whenever you have time – even if you don’t have much of it.c) Just. Start. Writing.d) Keep writing – even when you’re not.e) Enjoy your writing.f) Cultivate a clear and colloquial style.g) Never stop learning.h) Learn from other people’s writing.
As far as “Work on multiple projects at a time” – I’m editing and plan on finishing a novel, MARTIAN HOLIDAY and finally have it laid out so that I can work with it. I’ll be editing and submitting one of the most serious stories I’ve ever written, “The Murder of Automotive Technician #47369”; I’ve finished a “Christian” science fiction story that illuminates my new awareness of both the privilege of my race and gender, and the call my faith has for me to give it all up, in fact to be very much prepared to GIVE MY LIFE (not just in an intellectual way, but physically; as in DIE for what I believe. Very few people I know have that kind of commitment to their faith in Christ, even though our example in the Bible is filled with physical sacrifice, from Jesus onward in history) which needs and edit before I send it out with trembling hands; I intend to rewrite a novel, OUT OF THE DEBTOR STARS in which the main character is an Ojibwe-white man. My guide for this will be THE ASSASSINATION OF HOLE IN THE DAY, a book of Ojibwe poetry, and Writing the Other (Conversation Pieces) (Volume 8) by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, in which they say, “…one of the students [at a writing workshop] expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong—horribly, offensively wrong—and so it is better not even to try. This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual orientation, and age differ significantly from their own.”
I’m in the middle of writing a short story for kids with the tentative title, “Into the Underground with Straw Shoes and Torches!” about the discovery of the Manjanggul Lava Tube on Jeju Island in South Korea. I was there and there’s a major story that has had very little exposure to people not on the island. Again, I want to tell the story from a child’s point of view; a girl’s point of view; a Korean’s point of  view; and the point of view of a Korean girl’s view in 1946…
The potential there for a severe strike-out is HUGE, but I won’t be able to see if I can do it unless I try. I managed to do a reasonable job with several stories I’ve had published there, but the current climate of publishing for both speculative fiction and children’s fiction is to NOT support Shawl and Ward’s concern, in fact, it appears to me that the publishers and writers in these groups would rather first point a finger and cry out, “cultural appropriation by a bofwhig!”
We’ll see. I’m planning on referencing Shawl and Ward in my cover letters and see if that makes any difference! At least I know that I have some things in common with Asimov – hopefully not what he’s currently being panned for (sexism, orientationism, religionism, nuclear powerism)…
Last of all, I will continue to take deeply to heart the most important point listed above: “Never stop learning.”
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov_short_stories_bibliography, https://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/advice-for-beating-writers-block-from-an-award-winning-author-of-500-books.html, Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 451

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.
H Trope: ghostsCurrent Event: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/31105/cold-spots-glensheen-mansion
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jaykay.jeyanth/SEC6qwqjaRI/AAAAAAAACT4/ssJashvCkWk/s1600/ghost_goo010%5B6%5D.jpg

My daughter and I were talking about camping today. A few days ago, I had scribbled a question a few days ago: “Are there English-type mansions in Minnesota?” Also, she, her husband, and young son are ALSO headed to Duluth soon!
I mentioned that we might someday head north through the city of Duluth because I had frequently passed the Glensheen Mansion on Lake Superior and I related to her its grisly past – which had happened the year I graduated from Golden Valley Lutheran College. I remember the hoopla and the delicious chill it sent down our backs whenever we talked about it.
But what if me and a couple of friends headed north and to Duluth a few days after the news of the double murder – pillow suffocation and a bludgeoning with (shades of CLUE!) a candlestick. Of course, because of the place is swarming with police and detectives (zillions of dollars in inheritance is now up for grabs by relatives – and of COURSE there’s a will, handwritten, from three days before the murders!
Yeah!
This is a prime setting for ghosts peering, lost from the window.
But what if the ghosts of Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse Velma Pietila turned up on the campus of the University of Minnesota, Duluth where me and my friends are staying, sleeping on the floor of some summer school friends?
And what if we were laying in the dark, gazing up at the stars on the Griggs Football Field late at night and suddenly a ghost hovers over the field, reaching out to us as the air around chills. I can see my breath and a voice before us breathes lightly, “It’s not who they think, son. Not who they think.”
A second ghost appears, this one an older woman, though not as young as Elisabeth – and she’s obviously been murdered, her head bashed in; blood still stains her face and dress. She raises one hand, palm to you and softly hisses, “Stop them. Stop them.” The ghosts dance around you in a tighter and tighter circle then disappear…                                              Image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OCWXw6InF70/TKigMBk87NI/AAAAAAAAAy4/tL7MhIfL9CM/s1600/2212_1025142570.jpg

POSSIBLY (REALLY) IRRITATING ESSAY: STUPEFYING STORIES – WHAT Are They Trying To Do?

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
What brand is Stupefying Stories? Why have I come repeatedly to Stupefying Stories? Why do I write for Stupefying Stories? Why do I read (some REALLY AWFUL!) slush for Stupefying Stories?
A teensy bit of background.
I met Bruce Bethke, who is the owner, operator, and inventor of the website, some three decades ago because he’d run an ad looking for members to join a writing group that, at the time, was made up of himself, Phillip C. Jennings, and Gerri Balter. I joined and learned a lot; but ultimately I got married and focused, with my bride on building a relationship and a family. My writing fell to the wayside. Several years later, I saw Bruce in 2005 at the Minnesota Science Fiction Convention (MiniCon 40, I think; Terry Pratchett was the GOH (AMAZING speaker!), and Bruce and I reconnected. He was parenting a blog called The Ranting Room and I started following it and eventually writing for it. We corresponded more and rekindled the friendship we’d started in the 80’s; both of us had changed and in the early 2010’s our lives intersected in moments of terror…first Bruce’s wife, and around a year later, my wife received breast cancer diagnoses. Since then, I’ve been involved with Stupefying Stories pretty much since its inception in 2012. I still write for it occasionally, I’ve proofed some of the issues of the magazine, and was in the first one and then “collected” in FIVE STARS (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1938834356/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i9) I continue to work with Bruce’s publishing company, RAMPANT LOON PRESS (https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Store-Rampant-Loon-Press/s?i=digital-text&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cp_30%3ARampant+Loon+Press&qid=1592661624&ref=sr_pg_2) in the hope that they will publish my Young Adult SF series beginning with HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES: Emerald of Earth…
At any rate, in an email, Bruce let me know he’d posted this: http://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2020/06/status-update-19-june-2020.html
It’s a loaded essay and guaranteed to draw ire and fire from people who don’t believe he’s correct enough, (though not in the way a LONG DISTANT PAST co-writer Bruce shared a project with ended up doing and sometimes still does). I’d have other comments on his essay, too, but my hide is far too thin to weather such I-n-F…
I wanted to touch on this: “…sharply defining the Stupefying Stories brand, making it clear what we hope to deliver to readers and what exactly our vision of science fiction is. I’ve always been too much of a literary omnivore to do that, but it’s finally time I did.”
I responded to him privately first, and I’m posting this now as an adaptation of my email:
While the stories in Stupefying Stories may deal with serious subjects and dark lives and even have grim endings (the story I know best leaps to mind: “Teaching Women To Fly” (If you’re interested, you can find it in FIVE STARS), and those who critiqued it consistently expected everything to come out “sweet” in the end. I didn't want it to come out sweet because LIFE ain’t sweet. Reflecting though, I realized that while it didn't come out all roses for Celia, her son would be integrated into a subjugated culture of indigenous people and that same culture got a bit of revenge by feeding off the hopes of the “superior” culture...hmmm...) -- it has NEVER taken itself too seriously.
Stupefying Stories and Bruce himself use humor to touch on difficult subjects. HEADCRASH is actually pretty dark. So is his novelization of the movie script of WILD, WILD WEST. I mentioned long ago that the novelization was funnier than the movie, but the theme of the movie (and the original) seemed to be looking at the impact of merging of the life of the old (Civil War) by the new (wildly...um...speculative technology. It was startling for me to realize then that the devices I use in my everyday life might be – nah, WOULD HAVE BEEN considered impossibly speculative (read WITCHCRAFT) in 1920).

In WILD, WILD WEST, the consequences inherent in that merger of stolid, dark past and wild, wild future should have precipitated clear conflict in the movie. But, because it was the result of a six writers independently creating (adding up the Story by/Screenplay by people who are all listed separately) mongrel of a script, it ended up not saying ANYTHING. I seem to recall Bruce saying he wrote the novel based on one of the original scripts…(but I’m retired now, so I’m not sure that’s true…)
The Stupefying Stories brand has appeared to me to intentionally look at serious solutions to serious problems – without taking itself too seriously.
While that is EXTREMELY too subtle for many, I think the people who read Stupefying Stories both as short story collections, in novel form, and on the webpage are looking for that kind of mental issue breaker.
The problem thus far, has been a perceived inconsistency of publication (of course the average consumer and writer is completely uninterested in the people behind the product. For them, life is “gimme, gimme, gimme, NOW!” When instant gratification of every whim isn’t granted, they CAN get all huffy and obnoxious and stomp off to find something “better”...which they won't...because most of what I see in the SF/F takes itself far too seriously.)
Just one example is SFWA. While the paucity of POC has existed oh, since Hugo Gernsback and Isaac Asimov and all the rest, the hue and cry to bring in writers of color has only reached a feverish pitch in the past two years. Prior to that, WOMEN had only barely been accepted into the hallowed halls of science fiction (they made better inroads in fantasy, but still…). Now that being friends and publishers of POC/GLBTQ/GQ is popular and our culture is attempting to make it NOT a crime to be associated with “them” by offering sweeping protection so everyone feels safe talking (some sincerely, some not-sincerely)...
The abrupt shift honestly, makes me feel ill. (Before you judge me, go to my FaceBook page and skim through my Friends…then pack your PNOC pre-judgement back up again). Don’t get me wrong, there were pioneer publishers and editors who, rather than jumping on the current band-surfboard, were trying to swim against the riptide of racist policy, and they cut the current for the rest who are now swimming in their wake. But the surfboard is crowded now with less-than-earnest-trend-followers. My biggest fear is that it will be a "thing" and once it's not trendy anymore, US and state congressfolk, various Departments, and society as a whole will ignore making real change -- the way they ignored the Emancipation Proclamation 157 years ago, the Civil Rights Act 56 years ago, and why nothing changed in Minneapolis, where I live, 53 years ago, and oddly enough, five years ago ago (https://www.startribune.com/north-minneapolis-echoes-of-the-unrest-in-1967/351540861/) -- back when a DFL controlled country and state -- cried out for change and that change STILL didn't happen...
Stupefying Storieshas always been about making readers think – not with easy, obvious, symbolism, but really THINK about what a story means…and all the while, Stupefying Stories has never ONCE taken itself too seriously.

Try it out, sit back and mull, and I think you’ll see what I do.           
Resource: http://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/Image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HFPRJShj1So/WqLttiFPWkI/AAAAAAAACF4/GOX7WmPAuzwpCxXf9O9flgvkJhKz7ZatQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/ss_banner_newb.jpg

POSSIBLY (REALLY) IRRITATING ESSAY: STUPEFYING STORIES – How Do I Love Thee/Let Me Count The Ways…

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019 (to which I be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I would jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. But not today. This explanation is reserved for when I dash “off topic”, sometimes reviewing movies, sometimes reviewing books, and other times taking up the spirit of a blog an old friend of mine used to keep called THE RANTING ROOM…
What brand is Stupefying Stories? Why have I come repeatedly to Stupefying Stories? Why do I write for Stupefying Stories? Why do I read (some REALLY AWFUL!) slush for Stupefying Stories?
A teensy bit of background.
I met Bruce Bethke, who is the owner, operator, and inventor of the website, some three decades ago because he’d run an ad looking for members to join a writing group that, at the time, was made up of himself, Phillip C. Jennings, and Gerri Balter. I joined and learned a lot; but ultimately I got married and focused, with my bride on building a relationship and a family. My writing fell to the wayside. Several years later, I saw Bruce in 2005 at the Minnesota Science Fiction Convention (MiniCon 40, I think; Terry Pratchett was the GOH (AMAZING speaker!), and Bruce and I reconnected. He was parenting a blog called The Ranting Room and I started following it and eventually writing for it. We corresponded more and rekindled the friendship we’d started in the 80’s; both of us had changed and in the early 2010’s our lives intersected in moments of terror…first Bruce’s wife, and around a year later, my wife received breast cancer diagnoses. Since then, I’ve been involved with Stupefying Stories pretty much since its inception in 2012. I still write for it occasionally, I’ve proofed some of the issues of the magazine, and was in the first one and then “collected” in FIVE STARS (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1938834356/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i9) I continue to work with Bruce’s publishing company, RAMPANT LOON PRESS (https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Store-Rampant-Loon-Press/s?i=digital-text&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cp_30%3ARampant+Loon+Press&qid=1592661624&ref=sr_pg_2) in the hope that they will publish my Young Adult SF series beginning with HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERES: Emerald of Earth…
At any rate, in an email, Bruce let me know he’d posted this: http://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/2020/06/status-update-19-june-2020.html
It’s a loaded essay and guaranteed to draw ire and fire from people who don’t believe he’s correct enough, (though not in the way a LONG DISTANT PAST co-writer Bruce shared a project with ended up doing and sometimes still does). I’d have other comments on his essay, too, but my hide is far too thin to weather such I-n-F…
I wanted to touch on this: “…sharply defining the Stupefying Stories brand, making it clear what we hope to deliver to readers and what exactly our vision of science fiction is. I’ve always been too much of a literary omnivore to do that, but it’s finally time I did.”
I responded to him privately first, and I’m posting this now as an adaptation of my email:
While the stories in Stupefying Stories may deal with serious subjects and dark lives and even have grim endings (the story I know best leaps to mind: “Teaching Women To Fly” (If you’re interested, you can find it in FIVE STARS), and those who critiqued it consistently expected everything to come out “sweet” in the end. I didn't want it to come out sweet because LIFE ain’t sweet. Reflecting though, I realized that while it didn't come out all roses for Celia, her son would be integrated into a subjugated culture of indigenous people and that same culture got a bit of revenge by feeding off the hopes of the “superior” culture...hmmm...) -- it has NEVER taken itself too seriously.
Stupefying Stories and Bruce himself use humor to touch on difficult subjects. HEADCRASH is actually pretty dark. So is his novelization of the movie script of WILD, WILD WEST. I mentioned long ago that the novelization was funnier than the movie, but the theme of the movie (and the original) seemed to be looking at the impact of merging of the life of the old (Civil War) by the new (wildly...um...speculative technology. It was startling for me to realize then that the devices I use in my everyday life might be – nah, WOULD HAVE BEEN considered impossibly speculative (read WITCHCRAFT) in 1920).

In WILD, WILD WEST, the consequences inherent in that merger of stolid, dark past and wild, wild future should have precipitated clear conflict in the movie. But, because it was the result of a six writers independently creating (adding up the Story by/Screenplay by people who are all listed separately) mongrel of a script, it ended up not saying ANYTHING. I seem to recall Bruce saying he wrote the novel based on one of the original scripts…(but I’m retired now, so I’m not sure that’s true…)
The Stupefying Stories brand has appeared to me to intentionally look at serious solutions to serious problems – without taking itself too seriously.
While that is EXTREMELY too subtle for many, I think the people who read Stupefying Stories both as short story collections, in novel form, and on the webpage are looking for that kind of mental issue breaker.
The problem thus far, has been a perceived inconsistency of publication (of course the average consumer and writer is completely uninterested in the people behind the product. For them, life is “gimme, gimme, gimme, NOW!” When instant gratification of every whim isn’t granted, they CAN get all huffy and obnoxious and stomp off to find something “better”...which they won't...because most of what I see in the SF/F takes itself far too seriously.)
Just one example is SFWA. While the paucity of POC has existed oh, since Hugo Gernsback and Isaac Asimov and all the rest, the hue and cry to bring in writers of color has only reached a feverish pitch in the past two years. Prior to that, WOMEN had only barely been accepted into the hallowed halls of science fiction (they made better inroads in fantasy, but still…). Now that being friends and publishers of POC/GLBTQ/GQ is popular and our culture is attempting to make it NOT a crime to be associated with “them” by offering sweeping protection so everyone feels safe talking (some sincerely, some not-sincerely)...
The abrupt shift honestly, makes me feel ill. (Before you judge me, go to my FaceBook page and skim through my Friends…then pack your PNOC pre-judgement back up again). Don’t get me wrong, there were pioneer publishers and editors who, rather than jumping on the current band-surfboard, were trying to swim against the riptide of racist policy, and they cut the current for the rest who are now swimming in their wake. But the surfboard is crowded now with less-than-earnest-trend-followers. My biggest fear is that it will be a "thing" and once it's not trendy anymore, US and state congressfolk, various Departments, and society as a whole will ignore making real change -- the way they ignored the Emancipation Proclamation 157 years ago, the Civil Rights Act 56 years ago, and why nothing changed in Minneapolis, where I live, 53 years ago, and oddly enough, five years ago ago (https://www.startribune.com/north-minneapolis-echoes-of-the-unrest-in-1967/351540861/) -- back when a DFL controlled country and state -- cried out for change and that change STILL didn't happen...
Stupefying Storieshas always been about making readers think – not with easy, obvious, symbolism, but really THINK about what a story means…and all the while, Stupefying Stories has never ONCE taken itself too seriously.

Try it out, sit back and mull, and I think you’ll see what I do.           
Resource: http://stupefyingstories.blogspot.com/Image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HFPRJShj1So/WqLttiFPWkI/AAAAAAAACF4/GOX7WmPAuzwpCxXf9O9flgvkJhKz7ZatQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/ss_banner_newb.jpg