Jackson Allen's Blog, page 16

Scifi Author Interview: Aman Nòlem

Happy to introduce a new semi-regular segment on Inkican beginning with our friend, Aman Nòlem: scifi author interviews! I’m fascinated by the journeys that each scifi author undertakes to bring their personal story to life. Aman comes from Catalan, and it was wonderful to catch his perspective on life, the universe, and Philip K. Dick. Read on – this was a fun interview to do!

I’m not sure how much people will enjoy these scifi author interviews, so I’m grateful to Aman Nòlem for agreeing to be my cyber-guinea pig! Let me know what you think on Mastodon – should I continue doing the author interviews?

In the meantime, let’s learn more about Aman Nòlem – off we go on our scifi author interview:

So Aman – Tell Us About You

Brief bio (2-3 sentences): Aman Nòlem (he/they) is obsessed with the far and distant future, a future full of unknown creatures, AIs and sentient robots as they travel from the a Mediterranean island to unexplored. deep space.

What Are You Working On?

I’m working on Venonta Vivo!  Venonta Vivo is a small participatory writing experiment available in both Catalan and English. The idea is to create a serial story updated every Sunday, with a short chapter and a poll published each week to decide the direction of the story. The plot is independent in each language. Follow the inner journey of Omni, who is in charge of the most important human project, as they experience outer space.

That’s Interesting – How would that work for readers?

Every week I published a short new chapter with a poll at the end with three or four options or subjects. The reader after finishing the weekly chapter got the chance to decide the direction of the story, guiding it with their vote. That forced me to have no full control on the tale and gave me a chance to experiment my creative writing skills with unpredictable paths. The plot is independent in each language.

Neat, thanks Aman! What got you into writing sci-fi?

I have always been interested in all those distant worlds that I could see on tv and read in books since I was a child. I remember playing on the stairs of our family flat, trying my brother to pilot the scientific ship through space. I could drive that rocket, made of two stair treads, for hours but he was short on patience and soon changed the game to dinosaurs.

I think my first remembering of a scifi TV show is Star Trek (in black & white), but I’m pretty sure that’s a self-implanted false memory injected in my bain afterwards. I do remember though being blown away by Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Dune (both the Lynch movie and the book it’s based on). Herbert created a work so dense and intriguing that I could only read a chapter by day. So intense, full of subplots and rich characters, but Ridley Scott’s movie was the one that touched me inside. The solitude and inability of connecting with others that it permeates, impacted me. 

The Process

How do you make up cool worlds for your stories?

I mainly try to imagine how it would be to explore new worlds and travel far away. I rarely sit down in front of a blank page and start typing, but imagine first what it would be about. Even when I get less inspired, I try to dream about a subject. I normally can’t remember my dreams, but the relaxation of being inspired by the hidden images in my brain makes me come up with a central idea, and think it through for a while. Then, it’s easy to start writing a scene, when you have a main plot to tell.

I’m also interested in the part of ourselves that we share with a futuristic robot. I’m intrigued by those androids that are more human than the humans. One of the film scenes that made me cry for the first time is when HAL9000 is losing its memories totally terrified. Evidently, the idea that has impacted the most, though, is when in Blade Runner, the replicants behave and feel way more than all the humans that come up on screen. Humans are portrayed as beings lacking emotions, bored of being alive. I like to explore what would react and think, a machine that has all the elements and programming to feel and to pass as a human being.

Do you have a favorite character you’ve written?

I have a special care for Omni, a character that shows a great interest in human behavior. She is a really advanced sentient being and, at the same time, very naive. The inspiration for this character, unsurprisingly, is myself. I try to shape up what would be to inhabit my specific skin. I think it’s a common feeling, especially when we define ourselves as grown ups to get lost in pretending to be a real human. I usually study random people in public spaces and try to figure out how they relate to each other. I think this is an interesting way to explain how we are alone and unable to truly communicate with each other, even surrounded by big crowds.

Do you have a main idea or a message you hope your readers take away from your books?

I can’t help writing dystopian tales. In the end, the message I would like to share is the love for oneself and for the planet. In my first short tale I explain how humanity ruined a unique second chance to recover from past mistakes. I would love to think my vision is unique because of my roots and background. I come from a small place quite unknown but, at the same time, so popular that it has been overpopulated for more than fifty years. We seem to have forgotten to take care of our planet, our immediate environment and we seem to not care about devastating everything behind us. This mixed with a sense of complete disconnection of people around us, even if we have a powerful to get in touch at all times, is the background and fertile land to grow universal stories (filled sometimes with strange alien forms).

Are there any gadgets or inventions in your stories that you think could actually exist one day?

The printer of humans. That should be a reality, maybe a way to immortality. Imagine being able to send a small can with your conscience on a long trip to the other side of the universe, print there a new human body, and implant back yourself into it. Or even, store you for a period of time and reprint you into a new-born being and revive your conscience into it.

Can you tell us about how you write your stories?

I have changed my method during all these years. I like to experiment with characters and plots. The latest novel I’m preparing is being written in a more standard way: plotting the whole arch and dividing the chapters in small plots.

If you could visit any world from your books, where would you go?

I think instead of visiting a specific world, I would love to visit whole galaxies. Why just stop on a planet when you could explore the universe? I dream to meet new life forms, even if it would be scary, a chance to try to get a new point of view on everything; making interstellar maps, as a futuristic explorer, stepping for the first time on unknown places and face unthinkable challenges.

The Profession

Who are your favorite sci-fi writers?

I remember being dazzled by Frank Herbert’s Dune, impressed by the Heechee saga by Frederik Pohl, but my favorite author by far is Philip K. Dick.

No kidding, what do you love about Philip K. Dick?

I’m not completely sure, because he could explain in a way I fully understand the overlapping universes he created. Also, I really loved his direct style and sense of humor mixed with the uncertainty of not knowing what is real and what is not.

What’s your funniest ‘Author’ story?

The publishing director of a column I wrote for a local newspaper got confused with my pen names and ended up calling me «CiberSpace, the man you wonder whether he is a man or a woman».

The Future

What do you think the future of sci-fi looks like?

I see a rebirth of the gamebooks and cyberpunk stories. I’m not sure if I imagine a mix of genres (or it is me asking secretly for it).

Last thing for our scifi author interview, Aman – tell me something you think we should know about

When I started writing Venonta Vivo, I pretended to make a «choose what’s happening next» serial to challenge myself into keeping the story surprising and interesting. I couldn’t help but start the tale in English and in Catalan at the same time. Quickly, both branches of the plot split into two different planes of existence, creating alternative versions of the story.

Thanks for speaking with me, Aman Nòlem – I know it wasn’t easy being my first scifi author interview! This was a super-fun conversation and I learned a lot. More to come soon, stay tuned!

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Everything I Hated About: Starship Troopers

I’m introducing a new book review series to the blog post – kicking it off with Everything I Hated About Starship Troopers. You’ll get an in-depth look for what I enjoy (or not) about a famous science fiction story. Even the best stories have something to hate about them, just as the worst stories have something to love (Looking at you, Krull). The previous series (‘Great moments in bad storytelling’) left me a little cold, so this seems to be a more friendly way to review different scifi stories. Make sense? Cool, let’s do this.

Main thing to remember when talking about ‘everything I hated’ is – I don’t hate Starship Troopers. Wouldn’t necessarily call it a favorite, but I did enjoy the Big Ideas and cool tech that Heinlien introduced us to back in 1959. Starship Troopers won the 1960 Hugo, and deserves careful consideration by any professional author.

What’s It About?

To kick us off, here’s a brief Starship Troopers (ST) synopsis – Rico joins a military unit called “Rasczak’s Roughnecks” to fight against Skinnies on a distant planet. Flashing back, we see Rico’s decision to join the military despite his parents’ disapproval. He undergoes intense training and faces challenges, including the death of his mother in an alien attack. Rico fights in the disastrous Battle of Klendathu and later joins Officer Candidate School. Along the way, he reconciles with his father and meets up with his friend Carmen. Eventually, Rico becomes a second lieutenant and leads his own platoon, “Rico’s Roughnecks,” into battle.

So that’s what ST is about. I LOVE ST for it’s depictions of mecha fighting suits (Long before anyone knew what a mecha was). I also love it for its science-appropriate discussion about LEO mechanics. Nobody’s trying to drop a Star Destroyer or the Enterprise into atmosphere … that’d be stupid, right? Anyway …

It’s important to NOT judge the book by modern standards of writing and style. That said, ST had some missed opportunities in terms of ‘show don’t tell,’ pathos, and character development. In fact, as a writer, Heinlein’s style is a masterclass in ‘what not to do’ that we can all learn from.

What Did I Hate?

Heinlein’s toxic masculinity – I get it, ST is a product of its times. Yet, you’ll note Heinlein’s remarkable disinterest in treating his characters like people. They’re McGuffins, moving the plot forward, and that’s about it. He spends an entire chapter talking about the feelings you get after a deserting soldier kills a young child. But how did Rico feel about seeing his friends die in combat? We never know. He doesn’t seem to know or care what a soldier might feel after their first taste of violent death or loss, Rico seems completely ambivalent to seeing close friends die in awful ways. If Hemingway could write about the pointlessness of war in 1929 (Farewell to Arms) – couldn’t Heinlein have demonstrated *a little* understanding of the human response to death and destruction? That’s thing one …

Uneven Pacing – ST spends nearly half the book in Boot Camp, discussing the minutiae of basic training in the future (Hint: It looks a lot like basic training in the present). Then he gallops through the second half of the book, discussing Rico’s combat diary, promotion to officer (and more dreary minutiae there), and finally one last big battle where Rico gets injured and as a result, he can only tell us what he knows from a hospital bed. My editor notes would be simple: GET TO THE POINT. Worldbuilding – however engaging – has to take a backseat to WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD YOU’VE BUILT. Skip to the good part – let’s see the fireworks show – don’t kill me with details about the history of pyrotechnics.

Wooden Characters – If you described Rico the protagonist, you could only say four things about him. He’s male, he’s South American, he’s an adult, and he likes girls. That’s it. Tall, short, skinny, fat, bullied in school, likes music? Nobody knows! He’s a McGuffin, there to tell you about the ST world and to remind you how to feel about things like children but not about parents (Literally, a single chapter about how bad they felt when an anonymous child is killed but TWO SENTENCES about losing his mom. Like, yeah.). No curiosity about the alien races they’re killing, except to refer to them as ‘bugs’ or ‘skinnies.’  Again, fifties, I get it – but no curiosity? No efforts to feel some kind of empathy? Okay … maybe it’s just me.

ST doesn’t feel like a story – it feels like a lecture. One of those ‘sit down, son – lemme tell you how a carburetor works’ chats that make your brain leak out your ears. Again, it’s Heinlein, so cool. But if I had to tell a story about haptic systems and future warfare? I’d spend more time on how they work, how they feel, what it’s like.

But that’s just me.

Anyway – wrapping up. I know Starship Troopers is a classic, but this is my moment to talk about everything I hated about the book. Now I feel better.  I hope you do, too.

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Sci-Friday #205 – That Time Coke Went Back to the Future

Oh, the 80s – it was a simpler era, like that time Coke went ‘Back to the Future’ to promote Cherry Coke. Nobody seemed to care! Until now. Come for the bad effects, stay for the Victoria Jackson cameo! Take a look:

For legal purposes, this isn’t a rip-off – it’s a ‘pastiche.’ One gets you sued, the other gets you laughs. 1985 America was going ‘Back to the Future’ crazy (it was the highest-grossing movie in 1985 – beating out Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, and The Goonies). Coke wisely found a way to capitalize on the interest without actually paying for it.

They probably greenlit the project by saying ‘Coke meets Back to the Future and we don’t have to pay licensing!’ I’m not sure if this commercial factored into Coke’s decision to drop Kenyon & Eckhardt as an advertiser, but it certainly couldn’t have helped. Science fiction has long held an uneasy relationship with merchandising and product tie-ins.

So yeah, there was that time Coke went back to the Future. I hope you enjoyed this cheezy scifi discussion. Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend!

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New Free Scifi Audiobook – Call of the Void

Thanks for waiting for an update from me – happy to announce a new free scifi audiobook – Call of the Void! I’m sure you know that Call of the Void is my first short story. It’s so exciting to bring it to life as an audio, ASMR-enabled adventure for readers of all ages.

Join Ryan, a seasoned rescue scout, as he embarks on a mission to save a troubled teenager named Jason stranded on a distant planet. Ryan, haunted by his own past mistakes, understands the complexities of Jason’s predicament. As he navigates treacherous terrain and battles against time, Ryan confronts his fears and confronts the harsh realities of life on the edge. This audiobook explores themes of redemption, resilience, and the profound human connection that transcends the vast expanse of space. Join Ryan on a heart-pounding adventure as he races against the clock to bring Jason back from the brink and find hope in the darkest of places.

Ready to jump into this new space drama? Listen for free, right here:

As a new free scifi audiobook, one of the things I love the most? We’re getting better at telling stories to you, our readers. Do you want to taste-test the story? We put a teaser up front. Do you like music with your stories? We included an orchestral soundtrack to immerse you in Ryan’s adventure. One way or another, you’re going to love this new free scifi audiobook and I love that Jeremiah and I can bring this to you.

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Sci-Friday #204 – Titanic SciFi

I’m sharing something I learned this week for Sci-Friday – a scifi connection to the Titanic. You may not know about it, either – let’s discuss! First off, here’s more info on  John Jacob Astor IV and his scifi novel ‘A Journey in Other Worlds‘ published back in 1894:

“The book offers a fictional account of life in the year 2000. It contains abundant speculation about technological invention, including descriptions of a worldwide telephone network, solar power, air travel, space travel to the planets Saturn and Jupiter, and terraforming engineering projects — damming the Arctic Ocean, and an adjustment of the axial tilt of the Earth (Terra) by the Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company.

The future United States is a multi-continental superpower. European nations have been taken over by socialist governments, which have sold most of their African colonies to the U.S., while Canada, Mexico, and the countries of South America have requested annexation. Space travel is achieved through apergy, an anti-gravitational energy force.

Jupiter proves to be a jungle world, with flesh-eating plants, vampire bats, giant snakes and mastodons, and flying lizards. The Americans discover a wealth of exploitable resources: iron, silver, gold, lead, copper, coal, and oil.

Saturn, in contrast, is an ancient world of silent spirits. These beings provide the explorers with foresight of their own deaths. One of the spirits, a deceased bishop, tells the voyagers about the icy world Cassandra, which orbits the Sun beyond Neptune and is home to the souls of unworthy Earthlings.”

It’s interesting to read about this – Astor’s scifi story predates Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars by 17 years. In fact, many scifi novels of that era influence our science fiction today. Across the Zodiac (1880) is an early science fiction novel, said to be the progenitor of the sword-and-planet genre. For that novel, Greg created what may have been the first artistic language that was described with linguistic and grammatical terminology. It also contained what is possibly the first instance in the English language of the word “astronaut“.

But why would a wealthy magnate like Astor write anything, much less a scifi novel? Astor’s passing on the Titanic was the subject of many apocryphal stories and my Google-fu hasn’t come up with much information. I’d welcome any insight from a historian about the life and times of John Jacob Astor IV.

So yes – the Titanic has a fascinating connection with scifi! I hope you enjoyed this historical scifi discussion. Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend!

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Some Scifi Gift Suggestions

Need some scifi gift suggestions for an upcoming graduation, Bar Mitzvah, or wedding? I came across a treasure trove of scifi, space, video games and geek memorabilia that you’ll want to dig through. F’rinstance – if you’re into video games, you might be interested in Allan Alcorn’s ‘Pong’ prototype, sold back in 2022 for $270K.

Space Gifts

Or are you a space nerd? Check out Gene Cernan’s Apollo 17 Flown Lunar Surface-Used EVA-1 Cuff Checklist, sold for $375K last September. If you don’t have ~$400K to burn, maybe you’ll want Neil Armstrong’s Signed Rogers Commission (Challenger Disaster Investigation) ID Badge, sold for $20K in October. For the discerning bargain hunter, there’s the STS-41-D Mission Chart – the first mission of Space Shuttle Discovery, launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on August 30, 1984 – yours for only $138.

Geeky Stuff

Maybe you’re into geeky war artifacts. Here’s Paul Tibbets’s Flown Cigarette Case from the Enola Gay. What if you’re into spy tech? You can purchase your very own 1935 Enigma I cipher machine used by the German military in WWII. This piece is a a literal steal, the Germans wouldn’t let one go without a fight – yours for only $212,500. You may also be interested in the SSTR-1, also known as TR-1 – act now, they’re going fast (actual piece was sold in 2023 for $920)!

Scifi Gifts

‘Bah – I came here looking for *real* scifi gift ideas!’ I’m with you friend, that’s why I want to tell you about a hand-written letter by Charles Babbage. Or how about some Ed Wood scifi stuff? Would the the premiere issue of Wired magazine with Bruce Sterling on the cover interest you? Maybe  the printers’ proof test sheet of the first Star Wars movie poster? The options are endless!

One of these days, I’ll be rich enough to buy something like this off of my book sales. Until then, a scifi man can dream …

Write on!

 

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Sage Scifi: Toxic Influencers

If you can understand why I’d say ‘no’ to a protein shake made with one drop of poison, you can understand why I’m talking about toxic influencers. All the mental gymnastics in the world can’t change the fact that vitality and venom don’t belong in the same sentence. Solarpunk, green tech, sustainability, and even science fiction have to deal with toxic influencers. That won’t work for sage scifi.

What is sage scifi? It’s scifi culture that looks beyond the obvious, recognizes both emotional and intellectual truths, and pursues holistic, empathetic community behaviors. Sage Scifi is how we’ll make the world better for ourselves and everyone else.

I think we can all agree that influencers exploiting insecurities is manipulative. We can also agree that motivating people by making them feel bad is devious and abusive. ‘I don’t understand, Jackson – what does this have to do with Sage Scifi?’ Let me explain.

First, the backstory – In the world of writing and selling books, its necessary to understand marketing and sales concepts. You can’t understand marketing and sales without learning about human psychology. You can’t read about these topics without reading about how people exploit psychology to promote their personal agenda, sometimes to egregiously unscrupulous ways.

But Wait, There’s More!

Toxic influencers millions exploiting insecurities and be called out for it – we see articles like that all the time. Salon did a breakdown of Aaron Rodgers as a vice president. Politics aside, they made a salient point about the strategy of appealing to insecurity when promoting a product or idea.

Advertisements that suggest you’re less popular, lesser-than if you don’t buy in ‘are misleading and set a dangerous precedent … There is no need to prey on insecurities or capitalize on stereotypes and unrealistic expectations.’ We know it’s bad, so why are we letting it happen? We’re better than this.

Scifi is Guilty, Too

Remember the ‘Sad Puppies?‘ Perfect example of science fiction culture wars. Wikipedia breaks down what happens pretty well, so I’ll just summarize. “Sad Puppies activists accused the Hugo Awards ‘of giving awards on the basis of political correctness and favoring authors and artists who aren’t straight, white and male.'” True or not true, fair or not fair – the Sad Puppies acted as toxic scifi influencers, trading on insecurities of white, male authors and scifi fans who felt they were being unfairly overlooked for recognition. What has happened to the Sad Puppies since 2017? We’ll get to that.

All Of This Has Happened Before

I’m old and ugly enough to know this has all happened before. Culture wars, stoking insecurities, are part and parcel of influencer marketing – we saw that in the 60s and 70s with issues like civil rights and the Kanawha County textbook controversy. Using culture wars to advertise your product has been going since the Cola Wars and stale 90s-era ‘battle of the sexes’ TV shows like Roseanne and Home Improvement.

Toxic Influencers exploit insecurities, tribalism and culture wars because they work. Even on people who reject authority are susceptible to exploitation and manipulation. You see it every day ‘reel’ social media (TikTok, IG, YouTube). Influencers suck you into their version of ‘good’ by seeking and stoking your insecurities. As a cishet man, I don’t get this as much as others do, but I still feel it. Women on Facebook are literally *trained* to prey on new moms to buy their pyramid scheme garbage. I asked Mastodon for more detail and Sax Brightwell provided it. 

Women on Facebook preying on new moms to buy their pyramid-scheme garbage for postpartum weight loss … above and behind it all, the shrieking desire to escape the clawing desperation of late capitalist working class existence no matter how many relationships you have to burn to ashes to do it.

Fat-shaming, digging into the vulnerabilities. No inner growth, no compassion, no progression. Grim Minority Report-style futures, shameless grabs for your attention, your attachment, your friends, and/or your money. What happens next? Who cares, I got your money, sucker!

We’re Better Than This

The dirty little secret of influencers? Your insecurities are *their* insecurities. You know that, right? They aren’t psychologists or FBI profilers – they didn’t study your insecurities at college. They know what makes you feel insecure because they feel the exact same way! Sad part is, they use that knowledge to push you into buying something. If they can get you to commit to purchasing things, then they win.

Our world is run by people deprived of human confidence and connection. Broken coffee cups that were never accepted as children, and their concept of acceptance is to make everyone else feel as broken as them. We’re better than this.

We have to be better than this. The Sad Puppies of 2017, where are they now? The culture wars of the 90s – where did that get us? What toxic influencers never talk about, and what we need to realize is that there’s no ‘there’ there. Did the Sad Puppies create their own awards system? Did they create an egalitarian scifi community based on noble principles? No, of course not. There’s no fun in building a Jenga tower, only in knocking it over!

Compassion and kindness aren’t just altruistic, they’re armor! You can’t capitalize on an insecurity, you can’t be a toxic influencer to someone who practices kindness and compassion. You can’t exploit my weaknesses if I accept them. If we know and accept that our unique values and perspectives, no one can use them to polarize us. Does all that sound familiar? It should.

We all learned it from the same guy, Mr. Rogers. That strategy helps people feel seen and heard – mutual acceptance balances individualism and community. I know you’re a fragile human being with vulnerabilities and regrets. That’s okay, I’ve got vulnerabilities and regrets, too. Let’s support each other with kindness and compassion. I like you just the way you are. Granted, that’s a big pivot from trends in ‘lifestyle marketing,’ but Sage Scifi says ‘I think we’re enough and strong enough to live without that.’

You aren’t promoting a lifestyle – are you even marketing?

So my answer to the above question is: ‘Shut up, you aren’t helping.’ I talked about some of this before – the perks of being a nonfluencer, not playing the real Hunger Games: ‘play the game, or go hungry.’ I believe whatever connection I make to my readers happens at the personal level, based on mutual respect. It takes more time, more precision, to do this correctly. Hopefully this discussion informs my decisions on marketing, promotion – it probably *won’t* feel smooth or professional. Sorry about that. I’m taking care to engage with people in an authentic, ethical way.

Sage Scifi is about saying ‘no’ to toxic influencers. I don’t need to be reminded about my insecurities, or exploited for my vulnerabilities. I’m a human being and I’m working on liking me for who I am and using that love to move forward. I hope you can use this to say ‘no’ to toxic influencers. After all, I like you just the way that you are.

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Sci-Friday #203 – Don’t Worry – Ectolife Isn’t Real … Yet

For this Sci-Friday, let’s enjoy a quick scifi and darktech product called Ectolife. Rest assured, as skeevy as it sounds, the Ectolife isn’t real. At least, not yet. Take a look and then let’s discuss:



Okay so this is clearly some darktech scifi and I don’t blame you for feeling weird about it. I feel weird, too. The use of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) for pediatric and neonatal babies and dramatic improvements in technology and safety have broadened their scope. Ectolife is clearly an example of that kind of technology.

Could it work?

Could it work? No. USA Today interviewed Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, assistant professor of biological law at Durham University in the U.K and co-director of Gender and Law at Durham. Her assessment is simple: “Complete ectogestation is highly unlikely in the near future …  “Little is known about how we would replicate the very early stages of a human pregnancy outside of the womb.”

Could the technical challenges be resolved? Eh, maybe. Doctors have tried. Experiments in extracorporeal neonatology have resulted in some ‘eh, maybe’ results by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2017.

But, so what? Ectolife is a non-starter almost from the beginning. Have you noticed the sheer, visceral reaction the public has to this potential technology? Anyone foolish enough to attempt it would put their investment, not to mention their lives, at risk. Investors are loath to fork over billions for a biotech company knowing the pitchfork-and-torch crowd might appear at any time.

Sure, Ectolife is a darktech scifi fantasy. The main point is, this creepy vision illustrates the value of scifi – our imagination lets us choose our reactions before our reactions choose us.

I hope you enjoyed this darktech scifi adventure with Ectolife. Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend!

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Free Scifi Wallpapers – Concept Art for ‘Call of the Void’

Happy Thursday – enjoy some free wallpapers, courtesy the upcoming ‘Call of the Void’ audiobook coming to Youtube!

I’ve been busy doing background stuff for the past few days, so it’s nice to get out in front and show you what I’m working on. As I’m sure you know, Call of the Void was my first short story and it’s available for free when you join the Inkican Crew. Meanwhile, it’s fun to put the story out there as an audiobook and visualize Ryan and Jason and Carlo as if they were real people in a real-life drama.

Other updates include submitting short stories and manuscripts for representation. My hope is to have some really cool, exciting news to share when my stories find their purchase on the rocky hillside of publication. Watching the news makes me ever more glad I never got into TikTok:

No sympathy for TikTok or people complaining about it going away. You knew – or at least you should have known – how toxic and dangerous that site is. Plenty of people on Reddit explained it all to you. When the chickens come home to roost, you might find yourself at the bottom of the pecking order. Let this be a lesson to all of you – your platform matters.

I hope you enjoy these free scifi wallpapers. Mason and Moxie say hello, I need to get back to work. Write on!

PS – Oh, uh, and Happy Pi Day. There’s a 3.14% chance I’ll make a joke about that.

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Notes from Eugene – 03/12/2024 – Groceries and Gun Violence

Armed Subject(s) ARREST – Even grocery store trips can be lethal on the wrong Tuesday in Eugene. There you are, mild-mannered citizen, SNAP card clutched in hand, when the yelling starts. “He’s gotta gun, he’s gotta gun!”

Your discombobulated brain spends vital seconds wondering Is it real? Was it live, or Memorex? Then your stomach drops to the floor, a half-second ahead of the rest of your body. It’s your turn, it’s finally happening. American mass shootings – our ghastly national pastime – has come to town and you’ve got a front-row seat.

Fire up your video with shaking fingers. Maybe you’ll record some vital footage, maybe you’ll record your good-byes. Who knows? You force yourself into the grocery shelves wondering: can a can of Campbell’s soup can be used as a ranged weapon? You didn’t know you’d be caught debating whether $4.99/pound is a good deal on beef.  Too bad you aren’t in housewares – there’s cheap kitchen knives that might come in handy. Your bladder feels like emptying itself, but not right now, chum. We’re facing eternity with a dry pair of pants.

Here’s where the silly, lethally hilarious drama reaches its climax. There was no gun. Not a real one, anyway. One of our young, local free-range humans painted over the orange-tipped barrel of his favorite airsoft machine pistol to play Juvenile John Wick. From ten feet away, you wouldn’t know that it wasn’t a suppressed H&K MP5 with live ammo, but one of the baggers did. He knew the guy, stupid but relatively harmless. Cops arrived, AR-15s in hand, to hear the angriest bagboy in Oregon telling his neighbor he came ‘this close’ to getting shot. A brief search revealed that the gun was fake, but the folding knife in his pocket was real. Bye-bye, raw little Rambo. Hope the community service and probation were worth it.

This isn’t about politics. This is just about what it feels like to live with this every day.

Walk home from the grocery store instead of taking the bus. Five miles, kind of a hike, but so what? You’re in no condition to ride in a large public bus with a dozen hapless bodies. The angry hornets nest of panic, rage, and shame need time and space to calm themselves down. Nobody wants to meet a tear-stained, glaring man carrying four bags of groceries in hand. No one wants to hear him muttering ‘you weren’t ready. Next time. You need to be ready. Next time.’

Unless you’ve trained yourself to inhuman levels of hypervigilance, hours or days in simulated battle to mentally prepare yourself to charge into the fire, you aren’t going to react the way you want to. No Bruce Willis-style, everyman superhero stupidity. Harlan Ellison was right – Genuine, mindless violence is very important. There’s no knowing when or where it will strike. There is no escape.

 

The post Notes from Eugene – 03/12/2024 – Groceries and Gun Violence appeared first on Inkican.