Guy Stewart's Blog, page 58

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 450

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: Magic is Evil, at best relatively neutral. Often The Corruption. There is a good chance it's directly obtained through a Deal with the Devil, powered by Blood Magic or involves Human Sacrifice and Forsaken Children. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkFantasy)Current Event: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/07/16/former-brazilian-president-practiced-black-magic-ex-wife-says/
Martina Felipe el Bueno scowled at the ancient video tape cassette where it rested under glass that perfectly screened out UV and cosmic rays and lowered the intensity of visible in near vacuum. She said something in Spanish.
“Why don’t we just use English. I can’t even understand your Peruvian accent,” said Álvaro Villa softly.
“Fine,” she said. “The problem remains, whether we say it in Spanish or English – or even Spanglish – the occult rites of a former national leader are there for the viewing. But we can’t see them.”
“Why does it bother you so much?”
“The tape is a century old and preceded the collapse of his government before it accomplished anything.”
“You’re saying if he didn’t do the animal sacrifices, he’d still be in power?”She laughed, “No, he’d still be dead. I don’t think even Brazil is ready for a zombie president.”
“That’s for sure.” They stood side-by-side, staring at the artifact.
“I got in touch with you because I think we can get the images off this, but I think we need to merge science and magic.”
His breath caught in his chest. He’d heard of it from abuelo. “Oil magic?”
Martina nodded, paused, then said, “The college has a supply.”
“It’s illegal for any of us to even touch it,” Álvaro said. “Even if we touch it, we would be instantly expelled right after we were arrested, tried and sentenced.”
“If we do it physically, I suppose you’d be right.”
“What other way is there to steal oil?”
“Magic,” Martina whispered. “Black magic.” Álvaro barked a laugh and Martina spun to face him, snarling, “What do you know about black magic?”
He held his hands up in surrender and said, “Nothing – as in ‘magic is fine in dumb stories like THE GOLDEN COMPASS, but this is real life’. Abuelowas my favorite person on Earth, and when it came to story-telling, he was the best. But he was old – his generation used ‘it’s magic’ to explain something it didn’t understand.” He shook his head, “First time he saw a cell phone 3D projection when I was talking to my girlfriend one night, he said, ‘esto es la magia negra’.”
“What if I told you a way to use the sacrifice of black gold to create a magical field we would protect the cassette…”
Names: ♀ Peru; ♂ Brazil Image: http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/6255CaernarfonCastle_pic1.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Can This Story Be SAVED? #26 “Forever Thirteen” (Submitted Once Since September 2018, Revised 0 times)

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, In April of 2014, I figured I’d gotten enough publications that I could share some of the things I did “right”. I’ll keep that up, but I’m running out of pro-published stories. I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, but someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. Hemingway’s quote above will remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales, but I’m adding this new series of posts because I want to carefully look at what I’ve done WRONG and see if I can fix it. As always, your comments are welcome!
ANALOG Tag Line (Which they don’t do anymore!):What if someone who’d tried to kill you multiple times then wanted to be your friend?
Elevator Pitch (What Did I Think I Was Trying To Say?)The girl is unique in that she’s three seven years younger than she really is after “skipping rope” with a cosmic string; and the alien robot what caused the skip now wants to be her friend.
Opening Line:After thirteen years in space, Emerald Marcillon was still thirteen years old.
Onward:She held her breath and wished it would change.
“What you need to do,” said Zechariah Clarence Brewpub, “is to try and look at it from an adult perspective.”
She glared up at him, then looked through the armored glass and force screen at theknife-footed LEMUR IIa robot in the shuttle bay of the SOLAR EXPLORER. Finally, she said, “You don’t have to go in there. I do.”
Zech nodded. “We have it almost as bad.”
“What?”
“We have to watch you risk your life to save all of Humanity.” He patted her shoulder.
They’d been the same age once. Even though he was twenty, two meters tall, and a Jump star now, he was kinder than anyone she knew.
“Sorry,” she said, then leaned on him for a second.
He knelt, hugged her, then headed for the airlock. The door closed and sealed with a thud and hiss. Emerald glanced at the vid pickup, acknowledging eight thousand pairs of eyes watching her and Inamma then went through the airlock leading into the shuttle bay.
The robot had taken a Human name even though it was an alien intelligence chip, and probably the sole survivor of an invasion of the Solar system sixty-five million years ago.
Emerald sighed. What was her thirteen years compared to that?
“Your coming here is the most foolish thing you have ever done, Human,” it said.
“Hello to you too, monkey breath. Is that compared to trying to hide from you on an open beach in the Yucatan?”
It paused before saying, “No. That was the most foolish thing you have ever done.”
“What do you want, Inamma? You called me here.”
“Two things.”
Emerald scowled. The crew of SOLAREX had thrown countless resources into communicating with Inamma. It seemed to finally understand that Humans were not the People – saurian aliens evolved on Venus who spread like an ancient plague of locusts. She said, “The artifacts.”
“Of course.”
“No,” she said bluntly.
“Also, ‘of course’,” said Inamma. “The second thing is that I want for us to be friends.”
Emerald stared at the six-legged robot who had taken a hundred Human lives and had tried countless times to take all of them. “You must be kidding.”
“I have no sense of humor. All Humans know this.” Emerald abruptly felt the weight of the crew behind her and the mass of Humans expanding into the Solar system. In a small voice, Inamma said, “You will effectively live forever, Emerald of Earth.” She stared in horror. “When we crossed the threshold of the cosmic string, and you became eleven again, you were changed as much as I. You are now effectively immortal.”
For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. Time seemed to stop again. The cosmos held its breath.
What Was I Trying To Say?Something about how despite our differences, in the end we may discover we’re more alike than different? I’m actually not even sure. This one vanished into my files – notice that after entering it into a contest, I never sent it anywhere else.

The Rest of the Story:Part of the reason for THAT is that it’s the climax of a seven book series that started with Emerald’s parents being murdered by this alien amalgam of tech from far beyond Earth and a robot used by NASA to effect repairs on space hardware: “Evolving from Lemur I, Lemur IIa is an extremely capable system that both explores mechanical-design elements and provides an infrastructure for the development of algorithms (such as force control for mobility and manipulation, and adaptive visual feedback).”
I wrote this before the 2020 protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd sixteen miles south of where I live and eight blocks north of Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Book Store and Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Book Store. While I suffered not at all primarily due to my white privilege; the book store was burned to paper ash (they have started a Go Fund Me Page if you are interested: https://www.gofundme.com/f/let-us-help-save-uncle-hugo039s)
What I was trying to say then suddenly achieved new relevancy to my life today. In this fictional world I created, I have a Human teenager and an effectively ageless alien artificial intelligence chip that has taken over a Lemur IIa and has been slaughtering everyone who came into contact with Emerald – because she knows the location of crates of artifacts that the alien believes would allow it to reconstruct itself. It would do that in order to complete its mission – the annihilation of the entire Human population. It wishes to do this because it’s under the mistaken belief that Humans are the descendants of The People who swept out of our Solar system 65,000,000 years ago to invade and conquer the rest of the universe.
Now that AI realizes that Humans are the end result of the destruction of the People by the invasion fleet – and not who IT came to annihilate. We are, after a fashion, “innocent”. Emerald is its connection to Humanity, and now it realizes that, after dragging her over a cosmic string and “de-aging” her, it has also caused the alteration of her DNA to a point that she is not only younger, but doomed to be…(ta da!) “Forever Thirteen”!
With the new understanding, it wants her help to find the artifacts…to…what?
No idea yet, but that’s where I was going with this piece of flash.
End Analysis:As a synopsis of the series, it’s fine. But as a story in and of itself? Bleh!
Can This Story Be Saved?The way it is? Nope. It’s not even really a story, though it attempts to be one with a teensy bit of character interaction and a gram or two of conflict. But what do you expect from a piece of flash!?
HOWEVER, there might be something I can do with this…I dunno. But I want to try. I’ll keep you posted!
Reference: https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/systems/system.cfm?System=5Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 449

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: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TranshumanAliensCurrent Event: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200504114131.htm
Igaluk Abumayaleh-Jawai and Godly Freego have been taken for minor crimes and sentenced to months of indenture aboard the cloudwhale Polyakov.
Both have other plans and reluctantly joining forces and plan an escape on the “longest night of the century”, when normal Night and an eclipse of the star HD 23127 will result in a double night – nearly thirty hours.
A “sparkling” airshow celebration will allow for perfect cover, but the two have to overcome their distaste for each other – Iggie is only mildly modified (though technically not Human by Imperial standards); Freego is so highly modified that Iggie thinks they’re a caricature of a Human, and certainly obvious. Their punishment will be far more severe if they’re captured; but they’re going to have to work out their differences FIRST – among them the deeply ingrained belief that all Humans are by nature superior…and that all Transhumans are by nature superior…it is, in a real way, carrying racism to the stars.
Names: ♀ Inuit;[image error]Anagram                      Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg/220px-Ariane5_VA221_liftoff2.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: Can This Story Be SAVED? #26 “Forever Thirteen” (Submitted Once Since September 2018, Revised 0 times)

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, In April of 2014, I figured I’d gotten enough publications that I could share some of the things I did “right”. I’ll keep that up, but I’m running out of pro-published stories. I don’t write full-time, nor do I make enough money with my writing to live off of it, but someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what I write. Hemingway’s quote above will remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and sales, but I’m adding this new series of posts because I want to carefully look at what I’ve done WRONG and see if I can fix it. As always, your comments are welcome!
ANALOG Tag Line (Which they don’t do anymore!):What if someone who’d tried to kill you multiple times then wanted to be your friend?
Elevator Pitch (What Did I Think I Was Trying To Say?)The girl is unique in that she’s three seven years younger than she really is after “skipping rope” with a cosmic string; and the alien robot what caused the skip now wants to be her friend.
Opening Line: After thirteen years in space, Emerald Marcillon was still thirteen years old.
Onward:She held her breath and wished it would change.
“What you need to do,” said Zechariah Clarence Brewpub, “is to try and look at it from an adult perspective.”
She glared up at him, then looked through the armored glass and force screen at the knife-footed LEMUR IIa robot in the shuttle bay of the SOLAR EXPLORER. Finally, she said, “You don’t have to go in there. I do.”
Zech nodded. “We have it almost as bad.”
“What?”
“We have to watch you risk your life to save all of Humanity.” He patted her shoulder.
They’d been the same age once. Even though he was twenty, two meters tall, and a Jump star now, he was kinder than anyone she knew.
“Sorry,” she said, then leaned on him for a second.
He knelt, hugged her, then headed for the airlock. The door closed and sealed with a thud and hiss. Emerald glanced at the vid pickup, acknowledging eight thousand pairs of eyes watching her and Inamma then went through the airlock leading into the shuttle bay.
The robot had taken a Human name even though it was an alien intelligence chip, and probably the sole survivor of an invasion of the Solar system sixty-five million years ago.
Emerald sighed. What was her thirteen years compared to that?
“Your coming here is the most foolish thing you have ever done, Human,” it said.
“Hello to you too, monkey breath. Is that compared to trying to hide from you on an open beach in the Yucatan?”
It paused before saying, “No. That was the most foolish thing you have ever done.”
“What do you want, Inamma? You called me here.”
“Two things.”
Emerald scowled. The crew of SOLAREX had thrown countless resources into communicating with Inamma. It seemed to finally understand that Humans were not the People – saurian aliens evolved on Venus who spread like an ancient plague of locusts. She said, “The artifacts.”
“Of course.”
“No,” she said bluntly.
“Also, ‘of course’,” said Inamma. “The second thing is that I want for us to be friends.”
Emerald stared at the six-legged robot who had taken a hundred Human lives and had tried countless times to take all of them. “You must be kidding.”
“I have no sense of humor. All Humans know this.” Emerald abruptly felt the weight of the crew behind her and the mass of Humans expanding into the Solar system. In a small voice, Inamma said, “You will effectively live forever, Emerald of Earth.” She stared in horror. “When we crossed the threshold of the cosmic string, and you became eleven again, you were changed as much as I. You are now effectively immortal.”
For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. Time seemed to stop again. The cosmos held its breath.
What Was I Trying To Say?Something about how despite our differences, in the end we may discover we’re more alike than different? I’m actually not even sure. This one vanished into my files – notice that after entering it into a contest, I never sent it anywhere else.

The Rest of the Story: Part of the reason for THAT is that it’s the climax of a seven book series that started with Emerald’s parents being murdered by this alien amalgam of tech from far beyond Earth and a robot used by NASA to effect repairs on space hardware: “Evolving from Lemur I, Lemur IIa is an extremely capable system that both explores mechanical-design elements and provides an infrastructure for the development of algorithms (such as force control for mobility and manipulation, and adaptive visual feedback).”
I wrote this before the 2020 protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd sixteen miles south of where I live and eight blocks north of Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Book Store and Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Book Store. While I suffered not at all primarily due to my white privilege; the book store was burned to paper ash (they have started a Go Fund Me Page if you are interested: https://www.gofundme.com/f/let-us-help-save-uncle-hugo039s)
What I was trying to say then suddenly achieved new relevancy to my life today. In this fictional world I created, I have a Human teenager and an effectively ageless alien artificial intelligence chip that has taken over a Lemur IIa and has been slaughtering everyone who came into contact with Emerald – because she knows the location of crates of artifacts that the alien believes would allow it to reconstruct itself. It would do that in order to complete its mission – the annihilation of the entire Human population. It wishes to do this because it’s under the mistaken belief that Humans are the descendants of The People who swept out of our Solar system 65,000,000 years ago to invade and conquer the rest of the universe.
Now that AI realizes that Humans are the end result of the destruction of the People by the invasion fleet – and not who IT came to annihilate. We are, after a fashion, “innocent”. Emerald is its connection to Humanity, and now it realizes that, after dragging her over a cosmic string and “de-aging” her, it has also caused the alteration of her DNA to a point that she is not only younger, but doomed to be…(ta da!) “Forever Thirteen”!
With the new understanding, it wants her help to find the artifacts…to…what?
No idea yet, but that’s where I was going with this piece of flash.

End Analysis:As a synopsis of the series, it’s fine. But as a story in and of itself? Bleh!
Can This Story Be Saved? The way it is? Nope. It’s not even really a story, though it attempts to be one with a teensy bit of character interaction and a gram or two of conflict. But what do you expect from a piece of flash!?
HOWEVER, there might be something I can do with this…I dunno. But I want to try. I’ll keep you posted!
Reference: https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/systems/system.cfm?System=5Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAYS: FRIGHTENINGLY CLOSE ENCOUNTER…[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Past Tense” (two parts) (Season 3)]

NOT using the panel discussions of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, CA in August 2018 (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…

Today is June 7, 2020. I wrote this review in February of 2019. While it was relevant THEN, it is even more relevant today, as I sit in my comfortable, suburban home in Minneapolis -- the flash point of awakening civil unrest that has swept around the planet. I post this because my deepest hope is that this time, history will change. THIS time, we will embark on a future that might possibly resemble in some way, the future the original series of STAR TREK shows. I did not march; but that does NOT mean I don't care. I need to do what fits my personality. I need to do something that I can do effectively that might lead to systemic changes in our society. Until then, read and if you like STAR TREK, watch these two episodes.
My wife and I just finished watching the two part episode and to say that it scared the bejeezis out of me would be to phrase it mildly.
From Wikipedia: “[In Past Tense (part 1 and 2] The crew of the Defiant is thrown back in time to 2024 on Earth. The United States of America has attempted to solve the problem of homelessness by erecting ‘Sanctuary Districts’ where unemployed and/or mentally ill persons are placed in makeshift ghettos.”
Written in 1994 some time, it includes the use of Internet podcasting (which didn’t really catch on until 2004) as well as the eerily prescient idea of “Sanctuary Districts” (https://americasvoice.org/blog/what-is-a-sanctuary-city/).
Even in the 90s, it was a real suggestion “…an article in the Los Angeles Times described a proposal by the Mayor [Richard J. Riordan (R)] that the homeless people of that city could be moved to fenced-in areas so as to contain them, in an effort to ‘make downtown Los Angeles friendlier to business.’…” to put aside part of downtown Los Angeles as a haven, nice word, a haven for the homeless.’…‘That was what [our fictional] Sanctuary Districts were, places where the homeless could just be so no-one had to see them, and literally there it was in the newspaper. We were a little freaked out.’” (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Past_Tense,_Part_I_(episode))
But it never happened, and the episode was written thirty years before the fictional Bell Riots took place in San Francisco’s Sanctuary District A. This social shift is part of the original Star Trek timeline and, as Captain Sisko notes, “It was a watershed event…” in that it precipitated a reevaluation of how society, in particular, American society treats the mentally ill and homeless.
Only that’s  five years from now, and the Bell Riots took place on October 2, 2024. There are already rumblings every which way that have made this far more possible in OUR future than it could have appeared from Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe’s 1994. Things are very, very different in 2019.
The theme running through this episode is that the Sanctuary Districts were a total surprise to everyone. From the wealthy “Interweb” magnate, Chris Brynner to the mentally ill Grady who was living in the District; and from Vin, the guard and Lee, the social worker – none of them had any idea how the Districts happened. They just…grew. No blame, no “The Republicans…” or “The Democrats…” or “The Unions…”. The Sanctuary Districts just happened.
For me, this is more frightening than if they had been planned by an evil government (take your pick of who you define as evil, every government has been defined as evil by someone in the country at some time…)
I’ve heard it said that the actor who play’s Captain Sisko is a deep thinker. In the episode, because he knows that the future of (at least) the United States hangs in the balance, he yells at Vin, the guard who keeps coming across as a tough guy, disdainful of and in his mind, superior to the “dims” and the “gimmes” of the District.
As I watched it, it appeared that Avery Brooks was doing more than acting; doing more than just “getting into his part”. Holding a shotgun under Vin’s chin, Brooks-Sisko-Bell shouts, “‘You don't know what any of this is about, do you? You work here, you see these people every day, how they live, and you just don't get it!’”
“‘What do you want me to say? That I feel for them? That they got a bad break? What good would it do?’”
“‘It'd be a start! Now, you get back in that room and you shut up!’”
Vin hangs his head. He knows Bell is right. He knows he’s just given up; and he clearly has no idea how he got to be this way.
Lee confesses to Dr. Bashir that, “‘…[I] processed a woman with a warrant on her for abandoning her child because she couldn’t take care of him and left him with a family she worked for. [I] felt sorry for her and didn’t log her into the system which would have alerted the police, instead [I let] her disappear into the Sanctuary. [My] supervisor almost fired [me] when the incident was revealed. [I don’t] know what happened to the woman but [I] think about her all the time.’ Bashir explains that it's not her fault the way things are.” But she clearly has given up on the system.
If you haven’t watched this episode in a while, take the time to do so.
Then do something. I guess it really doesn’t matter WHAT you do. As
Congress, no matter the stripe, isn’t interested in doing anything for the “unwashed masses”; nothing substantial that is purely beneficial for the majority of Americans and has nothing to do with personal profit or gain; that’s all about making life better for most of us. Like lowering health care costs and forcing pharmaceutical companies to just charge us 20% over cost for all drugs of any kind – from aspirin to Glybera (“…first approved in October 2012 for familial lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a rare genetic disorder that disrupts the normal breakdown of fats in the body…[the] drug was never approved in the US, but would have cost more than $1.2 million per year. It will not be marketed any further in Europe by drug maker uniQure as it has become evident that it will be a commercial failure.” https://www.health24.com/Medical/Meds-and-you/News/7-of-the-most-expensive-treatments-in-the-world-20180129)
As Brooks-Sisko-Bell notes, “It'd be a start!”     
Image: https://media.agonybooth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/02042353/pastense1_528-2.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 448

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: Haunted Castle/MansionCurrent Event: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/31105/cold-spots-glensheen-mansion
“No! Really! I saw the ghost!” said Enzo Solem. His wild hand waving came more from the passion of his French forebears than the stolid formality of his Norwegian. First generation from both sides, he’d been born and raised just north of the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior.
He also had a wild passion for the paranormal.
Weayaya Aguirre sighed. Enzo was her best friend but sometimes he bugged the living daylights out of her. Shaking her head, she said, “Why can’t you just accept that the world is the world and that’s all there is?”
He stared at her incredulously and exclaimed, “You work here, too! How can you say that? You’ve seen the apparitions just like I have!”
Shaking her head, Weayaya – Wee-ah to the rest of the staff at the Glensheen Mansion – said, “I’ve told you a dozen times that I don’t know what you saw that night. I saw some kind of heat shimmer from the furnace.”
“And I’ve told you two dozen times that I talked with Elizabeth Congdon!”
“A woman who’s been dead for half a century?”
“She’s not dead...” he scowled. “Exactly. Her spirit is trapped here because her son suffocated her under a pillow and then banged the night nurse over the head with a candlestick.” Wee-Ah sucked in her lower lip and bit it gently to keep from responding how she wanted to respond. He added, “All I’m asking is that you come with me tonight. It’s the night of June 26...”
“You want to see her ghost, right?”
“Nope.”

Wee-Ah frowned and looked at him. This was not the answer she’d expected. “What?”
“I want to see the ghost of her son. He confessed to her murder and was sent to jail, getting out five years later. His ex-wife, Elizabeth Congdon’s sociopathic adopted daughter never gave him any of the money she inherited from her mother’s murder. He killed himself five years after his release from prison – though I’ve heard people whispering that Congdon’s daughter did him in.”
“So you want to see if the ghost of one of Congdon’s ex-son-in-laws comes back here?”
“Yep. Marjorie died in prison in 2022, five years before the fiftieth anniversary of her adoptive mother’s murder.”

“And you think that that is significant...how?”
“It’s obvious! Marjorie-originally-Congdon is buried in the family mausoleum.” Wee-Ah nodded. That much was true. “It’s now half a century after her mother’s murder by her second ex-husband Roger Caldwell.” Wee-Ah nodded, not even realizing she was encouraging him. He went on excitedly, “So I figure the psychic energy will be so powerful that not only will Roger’s ghost appear, so will Velma’s; her third husband Wally was murdered as well as hisex-wife; plus some old guy she defrauded of all his money in a nursing home in Arizona. His same was also Roger, though his last name was Sammis. Her first husband – with whom she’d had seven children – was Dick LeRoy and he died the same year she did – 2022. So it’s 2027, fifty years after someone murdered Elizabeth Congdon. I would say that Marjorie Congdon LeRoy Caldwell Hagen has some serious psychic reckoning coming.”
Wee-Ah found herself nodding in agreement before she could think things through. That was how she found herself kneeling in the bushes near the Congdon family stone marker in the Forest Hill Cemetery on this dark and stormy night, cold summer rain dribbling down the back of her hastily donned poncho.
Enzo leaned over to her and whispered, “It’s five minutes to midnight…”
Names: ♀ Sioux, Spanish; ♂ French, NorwegianImage: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OCWXw6InF70/TKigMBk87NI/AAAAAAAAAy4/tL7MhIfL9CM/s1600/2212_1025142570.jpg

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: Circular Time Travel

Using the Program Guide of the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland in August 2019 (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 Program Guide. The link is provided below where this appeared Saturday, August 17, at 10 am…
Revolutions In an Era of Advanced TechnologyHow do revolutions (e.g. overthrowing government) occur in an era of advanced technologies? Are orderly regime changes jeopardized with growing asymmetries in weaponry, surveillance, and political power? Are current political processes up to the challenge?
Kathleen Hunt: lawyer, fan of fantasy & science fiction, instructor.Marguerite Kenner: editor at Cast of Wonders, Escape Artists, lecturer, lawyerMaria Farrell: Writer, taught politics and policy on Oxford University, appeared as technology policy expert on NBC, BBCKlaus Æ. Mogensen: futurist, science writer, fiction writer, magazine editor, Institute for Futures StudiesCatherynne Valente: bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction for both adults and children
I’m going to start out by saying that at the end of May in the opening of the second decade of the 21st Century, I am a lifelong resident of Minneapolis and its northern suburbs. I was born in and lived my first five years in the core of the city, not far from where the city’s heart is currently being torn out by civil unrest sparked by the concatenation of fifty years of unchanged history of police brutality – perpetrated by a few, but responsible for all – institutionalized poverty; 20% unemployment; COVID-19; public servants (aka politicians) openly antagonistic to each other, dismissive of ideas and accomplishments of those with other viewpoints; authority tolerant of abuse within and outside its ranks; violently polarized population, dismissive of ideas and accomplishments of those with other viewpoints; and violently polarized nations…
Worse than all of these is déjà vu (Definition: "...the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. The phrase translates literally as 'already seen'".) 
In my city, an eerily similar event occurred fifty-three years ago in 1967. Nearly sixty years ago, when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act as an amendment of the Fourteenth Amendment, when the advancement of technology has leaped ahead, the advancement of politics and race have been at a virtual standstill.
Sixty years ago, the height of technology included the typewriter as we know it (for those of you who have no idea what this is, it’s like a keyboard that makes noise); and the very FIRST: laser (iow, the thing that makes your DVD player play); robot (not as smart as your Roomba); satellite that passed phone messages (I don’t even know what to say here); GPS (that thing you use to find the nearest open Perkins); computer game (for young people <30, that’s a nonsense statement); email (see previous parentheses); color TV (see previous two sets of parentheses); and ATM (though this has become a vanishing technology)…
We live in a future where transplanting organs is boring, straightening teeth is invisible, paper books are serially obsolete, Encyclopedia Britannica ceased paper publication a decade ago and is entirely online, a crewed space station that has been in orbit for 22 years goes completely without remark most of the time, and news is instantaneous, riotous, and rarely verifiable as fake news is easy to create and facts have more to do with consensus than occurrence.
While men, women, and children battle the authorities (not only police, but the politicians of all parties, who support the police implicitly or tacitly, and are entirely incapable of altering the paradigm of brutality), the largest nation on the planet has removed the civil rights of a city it promised it would never do and every religion on Earth is persecuted somewhere (including atheism). Little has changed and racism is still rampant, not just in my city, but on Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_by_country
While racism is in the spotlight, it has always existed; now that it’s close to my home (literally; closer to my foster daughter’s home and the homes of colleagues…) it invokes despair and discouragement.
Were Martin Luther King, Jr. (Why does NO ONE note that “…[when] [Rev. Michael King, Sr.] returned home (The trip [to Germany] ended with visits to sites in Berlin associated with the Protestant reformation leader, Martin Luther.[20] While there, Michael King Sr. witnessed the rise of Nazism.[20]  in August 1934, and in that same year began referring to himself as Martin Luther King Sr., and his son as Martin Luther King Jr.[20][22][17] King's birth certificate was altered to read ‘Martin Luther King Jr.’ on July 23, 1957, when he was 28 years old.[23][20][21]”? Were Martin Luther King, Jr to step out of a time machine on Lake Street in South Minneapolis at this moment, he would be unable to tell that he’d leaped forward in time a half century into the future.
He would probably weep, then join the protesters.
Revolution requires great PEOPLE, not advances in technology. With great people, great minds, and great leadership, real change might be affected. Ultimately, revolution will not happen because of “advanced technology”; rather revolution will happen because of advanced PEOPLE…and by that I do not mean “the singularity” will POOF! make everything all right. In fact, I don’t think “the singularity” will even happen, certainly not the way its proponents expect it to happen (as far as I can tell, most proponents appear to think that they’ll be excluded from this paradigm shift because they’re such forward thinkers and stupid people like me will be done away with…

The Singularity is "a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, called intelligence explosion, an upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a 'runaway reaction' of self-improvement cycles, with each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an 'explosion' in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence."
The Singularity will happen when “an upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, with each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an "explosion" in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence.”
Then, apparently, POOF! everything will be awesome. Whatever…
What needs to happen is a "singularity" of heart and action. Something small has happened here -- normal people, intensely committed to change of MIND leveraged by people making choices. The mythical "technological singularity" requires NOTHING of us. It'll "just happen" when trillions of dollars are invested in Artificial Intelligence.

Perhaps the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. would have something to say to that "upgradable intelligent agent" when they meet, spirit plasma to electric plasma...
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964, https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/technology-in-the-1960s,  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52854037, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_persecution, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularityProgram Book: https://dublin2019.com/whats-on/programming/programme-schedule/Image: https://www.nobelprize.org/images/king-13174-portrait-medium.jpg

Slice of PIE: The TRUE Meaning of the Life of Pi…

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…
My wife and I recently re-watched the movie version of the turn of the century philosophical novel written by Yann Martell. Various interpretations of “what it means” range from “[A] head-scratching combination of dense religious allegory, zoological lore, and enthralling adventure tale, written with warmth and grace.” to “an elegant proof of God, and the power of storytelling.” to  “…Life of Pi sucks…”
Clearly, Yann Martel did exactly what an author is supposed to do: elicit intense emotions.
For myself, I haven’t read the novel, but based on my quick reading of the Wikipedia entry, the movie closely follows the book with the exception of “…another blind castaway, a Frenchman, who boards the lifeboat with the intention of killing and eating Pi, but is immediately killed by Richard Parker…”
For me, the story is a fantasy, no less real that JRR Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT because according to Melissa McPhail, fantasy is “…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.” (https://melissamcphail.com/exploring-tropes-the-ultimate-evil-dark-lord/, blog post from October of 2012).
Despite its fascinating premise, a sort of story-within-story one of which is something approaching realistic in which survivors from the sunken cargo ship, “Tsimtsum, a Japanese freighter that is transporting animals from their zoo to North America” are in a lifeboat and the cook murders and cannibalizes two of them, then makes peace with the boy Pi until starving and with ultimate irony, the boy kills and eats him.
The fantasy comes when the humans are replaced by animals – a hyena, a zebra, and an orangutan…the hyena kills and eats both the zebra and the orangutan. A tiger, suddenly emerging from hiding…kills and eats the hyena,” leaving Pi alone to come to an eventual peace until they run aground in Mexico and the tiger vanishes. (The Frenchman perhaps assumes the identity of the whale who destroys Pi’s supplies and precipitates another disaster…)
Psychologically, the most profound event in the movie (and perhaps the book, I’ll add it to my growing pile of “things I should read”) is totally glossed over as a motivation for what happens. If the orangutan does in fact represent his mother, Pi not only witnesses  the brutal murder of his mother and her horrific consumption by the cook (and it’s virtually guaranteed that he eats all of the flesh RAW); but it creates in him a rage so huge that the animal he assigns to that rage is a Bengal tiger.
A Bengal tiger ranks among the largest cats today, and is considered to be a of a group of animals so impressive that their images are invoked to save other creatures less worthy of rescue. Among these “charismatic megafauna” are the African elephant, the Humpback Whale, the bald eagle, the giant panda, penguins, and other animals guaranteed to create a sigh or a “wow!” from humans targeted to support environmental concerns. It does seem logical that people are less inspired to “Save the Royal Marstonian Snail!” or “Save the Lobed Star Coral!”, than they are to “Save the Bengal Tiger!”
At any rate, while a truly magnificent animal, it too is on the Endangered Species list and while Pi imagines(?) it killing and devouring the hyena, he imagines not only himself as a Bengal tiger, but he sees in himself that thoughtless response (aka animal instinct) and sees himself as an animal, slaughtering the cook, who is a hideous murderer and cannibal.
Here, despite all the glowing reviews, I wonder if Yann Martel’s purpose was to show that Humans are indeed simply animals. Just under the surface of our civilized manners, in fact hiding our true nature from ourselves (religious, areligious, brilliantly scientific, or functionally illiterate) we are little more than one of many kinds of killing machines – from virus to Spinosaurus.
In fact, despite the howls against the cruelty of Humanity by proponents and members of the National Wildlife Federation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute, PetPedia, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature; every one of the earnest individuals who serve, agree with, and support their conservation efforts – stand on the shoulders of Humans who slaughtered their way to planetary dominance.
There is no escaping that, not even, Yann implies, in the middle of the ocean. Here is a boy who goes from being a vegetarian, skips lightly over pescatarianism, and lands with both feet firmly on outright cannibalism.
The person telling the story, revealed both at the beginning and the end as a highly civilized, moral Human, one Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, who is married with two children and living (of ALL of the common sense and pacifistic countries), CANADA!
Yet, unless you sit and think about it, you don’t connect this soft-spoken man hosting a guest as the man-after-the-boy who deliberately and possibly in a blind rage, killed and ate another Human being.
Ultimately THE LIFE OF PI isn’t about God as the author Yann claims in the introduction when he writes, “This book will make you believe in God.”
Critic Cath Murphy goes on to say, “It’s a big claim to make. If asked which book was responsible for the highest number of Road to Damascus moments, most people would probably suggest the Bible, or the Koran, or even The Tao of Pooh.

“Yet this is the claim made by Yann Martel in the prologue to his Booker Prize winning, best-selling, world changing novel Life of Pi…Silly is the word which came right into my head when I tried to sum up how I felt about this book. [Yann] might have overstated the power of his tale to inspire religious belief.”
It's my thought that the book is about us and any lofty ideal we try to espouse. It appears to me to be a consideration of just how close Humanity remains to being nothing but a tribe of amoral, spiritless, sometimes-thinking animals…
How’s THAT for “examin[ing] difficult, even controversial, subjects with impunity”?                                                             Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi_(film), https://litreactor.com/columns/your-favorite-book-sucks-life-of-pi, https://awionline.org/content/list-endangered-species, Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Life_of_Pi_2012_Poster.jpg

IDEAS ON TUESDAYS 447

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.
Popular Fantasy Story/Series: Harry Potter, et alTrope: Allergic To EvilCurrent Event: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/20/satan_dinosaur_chickens_hell/
Andre Xavier Xavier, a Bryshwyn of Bryshwyns, the turban on his head release more than its usual curl of very pale, very curly hair. The curls sprang out all around.
As well, a line of monks striding in loose exercise uniforms keeping cadence happened by at that moment. Andre used a vulgar word that made even Raven Zoe Jefferson, a Nobody of Nobodys blush in embarrassment. The lead monk called a different cadence and they set off at a faster pace. Zoe said, “If I’d shouted that, I’d be in the gym for the next forty hours.”
“That’s not true!” Andre exclaimed.
Fendwyri  Alyn Wader, whose family enabled music to communicate in addition to entertaining, walked by and said, “Of course it is, Bryshwyn! If it wasn’t for our kind, the Vacancy would be permanently filled with evil.”
“I thought you were allergic to evil, Wader?” Andre shot at the older boy.
Fendwyri spun around, eyes narrowing to slits as he shot back, “Aren’t you late to meditation?”
“Aren’t you?” The musician opened his mouth to snarl a reply then turned and ran.
Andre muttered the first syllables of another enablement.
Zoe kicked him in the shin, turned and sprinted after Fendwyri, snapped, “No more!” She passed the older boy who, once he thought he was out of their reach had slowed down to a jog. Now he exclaimed and tried to speak an enablement over her, so she spun, swept his feet out from under him and sprinted into the Canis Abbey proper, barely out of breath. She skipped to a halt, then strode to the front, plopped down on the bench then lifted her eyes to contemplate the slowly turning obsidian sphere hanging from the Abbey’s vaulted ceiling. No one noticed her because as she sat, Andre and Fendwyri came in.
The whispers started at the back of the nave and swept forward. Zoe ignored them until the older boy abruptly appeared next to her. She didn’t know if he enabled the floor to carry him faster than he could walk, but it didn’t matter as, glaring down at her, he whispered, “That’s the last time...”
The air around them grew cold and squeezing her eyes tightly closed, she only assumed her breath exhaled in a white cloud. A booming voice said, “All students will be seated and silent during meditations.” It was a standard warning. The University surveillance system could easily have generated it. However, it would not have added, “Masters Wader and Xavier and Mister Jefferson will please report to the commissariat following meditations.”
There was a faint rustle – though with the building now all ears no one dared actually speak – as everyone moved at the same time. Zoe kept her eyes closed as someone passed in front of her and sat down and someone dropped down next to her on her other side. She opened her eyes, but focused on the sphere instead of trying to look left or right.
The knees on either side of her gave them away as the colors were obviously Wader Green and Xavier Sable. Her own colors were Poor Girl Whatever. Instead of fear though, anger welled inside of her. What right did these two boys have placing her in between their familial feud? What right did either of them presume that she would be on “their” side in an arguments. Fendwyri was nice enough to her when they were alone. She considered Andre a good friend.
Her real enemy lived up the hall from her in the women’s dorm – Semolina Nyanchi Fieldthwaite. The girl with the amazing hair and the attitude to willingly flaunt it. The source of her control over enabling the growth of anything from snowflakes to Tower Trees, she was also a member of a family that had once shared the power of filling the Vacancy.
Now she just annoyed Raven and constantly made snide remarks. She tried focusing on the sphere again, finally and slowly calming her turbulent head games, when a cry went up from outside, “Syzhin devils!”
The assembly leaped to its feet as the land raid siren began its mournful wail, echoing even to the depths of the University; everyone rushing to defend the battlements against the scourge of the world.
Names: ♀ Popular African American name, Australian Capital Territory, Common African American last name; ♂ Popular American name, Brazil Image: http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/6255CaernarfonCastle_pic1.jpg

WRITING ADVICE: What Went RIGHT #47…With “Cockroach, Gecko, Wasp, Tiger” (Submitted 13 times with 3 revisions, sold to Nebula Tales Magazine #4, August 2019)

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.
 Faulkner once wrote, “The best fiction is far more true than any journalism.” And Tea Obreht thought that “The best fiction stays with you and changes you.” These are my goals…
As you can see above, it took me two years to sell this story. I think there were several reasons, but let’s start with my summer vacation in August of 2018…
Yeah, seems unlikely, I know. So, let’s go even farther back in time to here:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/CyqsWRUJDVMpbHX34Zt3aIJjntUg3QVaCql-fq4FVzWWA8OZdzp-cEzha7B58hoCfQN9BGZavIudpzHKhgqNWnH09QJ4ctrzS2F6INcYThis illustration was for John Brunner’s March 1973 short story, “Who Steals My Purse”. It’s about repurposing IBMs to drop tools, seeds, and other necessities onto an unnamed (read “Viet Nam”) southeast Asian country fighting a US/Soviet Union-backed war. Brunner looked at the effect of a massive humanitarian effort on the “little guy”. It was not nice…
My son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids took me all over South Korea, visiting dozens of museums and battlefield memorials, and history displays. I absorbed it and when I returned, decided to set up a series of stories about the future of the South Korean space program. The first story I sold was “Kamsahamnida, America”. (I’ll details the writing and selling of that one sometime in the future.) When I returned from South Korea, I did a huge amount reading about South and North Korea and their relationship with each other.
I read Brunner’s story, took notes, and then began the story that started as “What the Cockroach Said”, integrating a new technology of paper robots (https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/02/army-has-made-robot-cockroach/125766/) and an message to a North Korean woman in a work camp whose father had displeased the ruler of the Hermit Kingdom. It began:
“Baek Pi Ji-woo stepped from railroad tie to railroad tie, bundled in her well-worn, quilted Russian jacket, and heavy boots with hard soles. Frigid winds lashed around her. Pausing, she looked up to the distant, pine wrapped, snow blown mountains. She could turn off the rail, walk away, to disappear into the forest. She would tire eventually, lie down, fall asleep in the snow, and never wake.
“Exiled because her father had been executed, a fierce tiger to the end, proud to plot the overthrow of the dictator Kim Jong-Un.”
When she returns to her apartment, she finds a cockroach that speaks to her in too-formal Korean with a southern accent. Shortly, she’s visited by a Russian gecko, then a Chinese wasp. All offer her enticements to either carry a message, rebel against the Kim Dynasty, or resist revolution, and maintain the status quo. Of course, the main character does what she wants to: follow in the steps of her father.
I thought the idea was interesting and I’d never seen it in my reading, so the writing went smoothly (I wrote it in he middle of a Minnesota winter; the Korean peninsula experiences similar weather as we are on the 45th Parallel and Pyongyang is on the 35th…) and I polished it and sent it to a magazine known for taking chances – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It was bounced by CC Finaly, but with “…it didn’t win me…” which is, to all who know these kinds of things, one step below acceptance!
That’s why when I sent it to Clarkesworld…and Escape Pod, Daily Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Compelling SF, Apex, If This Goes On Anthology, Metaphorosis, Deep Magic, Diabolical Plots, and Uncanny…I was startled that it didn’t sell; not because I’m such a great writer but because it was about something we typically don’t talk about: What do Koreans think about the war – which they refer to as 625 (South) and The Patriot’s War (North)? It was ABSOLUTELY a proxy war – followed the spectacularly unsuccessful Vietnam War…
I’ve made another attempt to look at the Reunification of the Koreas – and bluntly state why the world would view that as a negative – in another story that’s out on submission to ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact. In that story, one of the characters briefly notes, “‘I can easily name governments that would like to see your homeland one united slag heap.’ Thatcher lifted her very large, paw-like hand and flexed each claw out, counting, ‘Taiwan, Japan, Cuba, Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria, Canada, India, Australia, America, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and New Zealand – oh, and the ones scattered in the deeps like Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, the Philippines, and Indonesia all have reason to fear a united Korea. It would mean economic ruin for the rest of the world. 625…’”
So, when this story finally found a home in an odd little magazine, I was thrilled.
What went right? First I wrote fast and I wrote according to the brilliant observations of Lisa Cron, which she shared in her book, WIRED FOR STORY. (I also did a series of posts you can read if you click on CRON AND KOREA to the right there under Labels.)
Second, I was persistent. I can’t say this is my strong suit, but I really believed that this story had something to say.
Third, I really believed that this story had something to say. I should add here that maybe the very fact that I was trying to say something, albeit with less skill, put off editors. I don’t know. There’s a lot I need to learn still about trying to “say things” with my writing.
But, I’ll leave that for a future post.
References: The MOST popular SF magazines -- https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2020/01/27/science-fiction-and-fantasy-magazines-in-2020-readership-is-healthy-but-revenues-arent/#7517e2a94ef3Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9f/22/3b/9f223b1e57a36e14db3eb13715fbe3f9.jpg