Jackson Allen's Blog, page 28

Now Available: World War Four – Scifi Short Story

I’m pleased to announce that World War Four is now available on your favorite e-book platform. It’s a simple comic-tragedy with a contemporary punchline. Here’s the description for World War Four:

Red alarms blind the last human on Earth. Joe, NASA’s Long Sleep subject, stumbles from his cryo-pod on atrophied leg muscles. Pods prohibit clothing – that’s why Joe is stark naked deep in the heart of Cheyenne Mountain. Where was a human? Where was a terminal?

“What’s happening? Is it really 2122?” Joe yells to TOX – his social AI, the constant companion throughout temporal transit.

“Absolutely!” TOX responded, programmed to be cheerful no matter how bad the situation. “Beautiful day in the neighborhood. We’re looking at clear skies in the mid-70s with an allergy index of ‘mild.’ We’ve also got one hundred percent chance of ICBM strike in the next twenty minutes!”

Today was the first day of the rest of Joe’s life. All he can do before the end is try to understand why.

Buy World War Four now! It’s available at the stores below:

         

I’m grateful for your support and I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading this story – can’t wait to see what you think!

Dear Jackson: Face Everything and Recover

Today’s wake-up call comes in the form of this letter – Dear Jackson, face everything and recover. Up and at ’em, wipe the sleep outta your eyes. When you started out, you wanted to re-invent your life. Jackson, without the demons and baggage. Jackson without the regrets and self-loathing. Writing, creating, making, doing – those would be your destiny, instead of self-destruction.

Now here you are a little farther on the path and the uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are getting to you. I need you to look deep inside and remember what you used to say to yourself: “May I always remember that the power within me is far greater than any fear before me. May I always have patience, for I am on the right road.”

Sit up straight, look at me! I mean, I get it: Life is fragile right now. You’re unsure, lots of scary stuff happening outside. All that ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ in the world doesn’t cover the mean reds of bad economy, poor safety, and shaky well-being. Getting harder to justify banging away at the keyboard while the sky grows dark outside and you face the possibility of another novel that hasn’t achieved success.

I know what you’re afraid of. You’re almost done with this draft of Mike.Sierra.Echo and there’s a little voice inside going ‘what if this is the moment when everything gets better?’ while another one is screaming ‘what if this is the moment where you think everything was supposed to get better and it doesn’t?’ The fear has been pushing its way inside your mind for the past few months and it’s killing your work. Now is the time to talk about the acronym of fear: Face Everything And Recover.

How to Face Everything and Recover

People have their own suggestions on what you should do and I already know what you’re going to say:

Vent to someone you love and trust! – You’re still looking for this personMeditation is key – You need to do this moreExercise: The Anti-Drug – you’re already doing this, so check.Go for walks in nature! – Check.Get a therapist!!! – you already have one so, like, check.Having a journal to express your emotions and anxieties – gee, like maybe this blog? You’ve been slipping. Time to get it out of you.Believe in yourself, don’t lose confidence!! – You still need to work on this – you don’t believe in yourself as much as you should.Love yourself and those around you – as you process whatever demons, fears, regrets, disappointments, don’t forget to practice self-love. Accept your humanness. See the wrongs, admit them honestly, and become willing to set these matters straight.

But skip all that and talk to me – do  you remember what you said before? ‘When you feel down about the world, all you can do is go back to your values. In ten years do you want to be the person who said ‘sorry,’ or do you want to be the person who said ‘not on my watch?’ Remember that? Here you are less than a month later, with a gut punch in your ribs and your back on the ropes. Destiny has no patience for timid men.

Who owns your life – them or you? If it’s your life, are you taking inventory or are you doubling down on why this is everyone else’s fault, problem, responsibility to fix? Is that going to make things better? Look, all you can do is be you, and nobody is going to answer the big questions for you, or live with the consequences. This is what you asked for, chum.

You knew this was going to be a heartbreaker but nobody said it would only break your heart once. It’s not about how many times you get hit and keep moving forward, like Rocky said. You’re going to finish this book and guess what, maybe nobody will care about it. But you’ll still be able to say “I finished Mike.Sierra.Echo. I finish what I start out to do, that means I’m worth something to me.”

You’re going to get up and try your hardest because that’s what really matters right now. You’re not going to give up because that’s what really matters right now. You’re going to remember that you matter, you’re worth it, and you deserve to be happy – that’s what really matters right now. You’re going to finish this book because that’s what really matters right now.

Now sit down, get to writing, and don’t let me hear about your fear. Let me hear how you faced everything and recovered. That’s what winners do. That’s what heroes do. That’s what guys named Jackson Allen do.

Write on.

Sci-Friday #174 – The Wacky World of THX

Yay, celebrate surviving to Friday with this look at the wacky world of THX. THX began in 1982, when George Lucas and his company, Lucasfilm, were preparing to release Return of the Jedi, the third film in the Star Wars trilogy. To fix the problem, Lucas established a quality standard for commercial theaters that would use the best technology to consistently translate filmmakers’ work to the theater. Four movie theaters in the United States fully installed THX sound systems, becoming the first THX certified theaters. To introduce the new system, James A. Moorer created an ear-catching sound called the Deep Note. THX was dedicated on May 20, 1983, and the first trailer and Deep Note premiered on time with the release of Return of the Jedi in theaters five days later.

THX certification of an auditorium entails specific acoustic and other technical requirements; architectural requirements include a floating floor, baffled and acoustically treated walls, non-parallel walls (to reduce standing waves), a perforated screen (to allow center channel continuity), and NC30 rating for background noise You can watch the THX 2002/2003 demo disk below. Take a look:



Of course, THX became so meta that people started to make fun of it – check out this Simpson’s parody. To this day, THX and other eardrum-bursting sound technologies are the reason I get a migraine every time I go to the movies. But so what? I want to feel the rumble of the Millennium Falcon in my chest cavity, too. Earplugs for me, Sci-Friday for everyone.

Thanks to Wikipedia (Don’t forget to donate) for this background info on THX. I hope you enjoyed this moment of scifi and movie tech nerdery! 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! 

Superhero Shrink – Behind the Scenes

Passing these pictures along as a behind the scenes look at Superhero Shrink. Jeremiah Jones is an AMAZING voice talent – here he is at work, making Superhero Shrink live and breathe:

What makes a voice actor so important? According to Backstage, “personality type is also key for the voice actor. Aside from the dedication and persistence it takes to develop the requisite skills, one must be willing to put your abilities on the line to be judged in a very personal way. The voice actor is someone willing to step into the spotlight and let it all hang out. It’s someone who can easily incorporate direction adapt on the fly. Excellent collaborative skills, improvisational instincts are a plus. There’s a lot more that a good psychologist could isolate here, but the point we’re making is simply that voice acting takes a certain kind of person. What you don’t have naturally, you will have to cultivate to the best of your ability.”

I saw all of those things happen in real time with Jeremiah. He’s dedicated and persistent, willing to take risks in his voice work and also takes feedback like a pro. He demonstrated excellent collab skills and is willing to step into the spotlight where other people cannot. He’s a natural, he’s got ‘it,’ and I’m grateful to be working with him. Check out his performance in Superhero Shrink and stay tuned for the next installment in Superhero Shrink: Climate Change.

Lots of cool stuff going on this week – I’m in the home stretch of ‘Mike.Sierra.Echo,’ but I also want to make time to stay in touch with you. Write on!

 

February 2023 – Free Scifi and Cyberpunk Wallpaper Dump

Happy to share some cool new free scifi and cyberpunk wallpapers with you! My work with MidJourney continues and it gives me great pleasure to pass along some of the awesome things the AI art is helping me to make. Take a look:

 

It’s important to note – MidJourney is not doing all of this by itself! One of the reasons humans can never be replaced by AI artists is, well, they kind of suck. Hours spent with the AI confirm that some things it does well, other times you’re like ‘ya just don’t get it, do ya?’ It’s times like those that you need a human. My hope is one day to have the budget for a professional.

As I note on the main portal page – these pictures are from Mike.Sierra.Echo – it’s a middle-grade scifi adventure that explores the real-world challenges of building this extra-terrestrial technology. Scientists have been researching space elevators since the 1800s, but there are still many unsolved problems.

A derelict space station is on its way to destroy the space elevator, Mike’s father’s plans, and the future of human space travel. It’s time for Mike, along with his trusty artificial intelligence sidekick, to step up and be the hero his mother knew he could be.

I hope you enjoy these wallpapers – I’m working on more. Can’t wait to see what you think of them.

Write on!

Superhero Shrink – Audiobook Available

Hooray – Superhero Shrink is now available as an audiobook in stores! Hours of work go into producing an audio short story *after* you actually write it. Here’s Jeremiah’s thread on Reddit where he talks a little more about that process. I’ll say what I said on Reddit here: “You did a great job and you’re a wonderful talent to work with. Really enjoyed the drive and energy you brought to the job. Thank you for this amazing performance! :)”

Superhero Shrink is still available for free on Youtube – if you’d like to support me, please purchase the book at any of these fine retailers:

  

Gotta go – more Mike.Sierra.Echo to write!

Sci-Friday #173 – “Star Wars” directed by Stanley Kubrick

Let’s put the ugly stuff of the week behind us with this satire of “Star Wars” directed by Stanley Kubrick – a brilliant mash-up of 2001 with Star Wars: A New Hope. Take a look:



Fun fact – Stanley Kubrick *loved* Star Wars. In fact, he could never understand why George Lucas gave up his talents as a filmmaker to run Lucasfilm and Skywalker Ranch. But never mind all that. It’s unlikely that SW:ANH would have enjoyed the same emotional punch if it started with a ‘cosmic ballet’ scene like 2001 did. One could argue that the loud, noisy sounds of the Blockade Runner’s capture by the Star Destroyer made the scene all the more terrifying.

Still, it’s fun to contemplate what might have been and not take things too seriously. That’s the whole point of science fiction, after all. I hope you enjoyed this moment of Star Wars humor! 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! 

 

Sage Scifi: Make Progress Feel Possible

Ran across this post by Tom Bottelsen and it encapsulates one of the ‘must haves’ for science fiction: sage scifi should make progress feel possible. Here’s what he said: “If you look at all the other science fiction writers, they always view the world as getting to this post-apocalyptic, dystopian, horrible nightmare … Star Trek is the only universe where they said, ‘we fixed it, we solved it’ … [Star Trek] is the only one that has hope.”

This mindset’s been in scifi my entire life, and I’m doing more work to distill the audacious, the hopeful into Mesh and Mike.Sierra.Echo.  At the same time, I have to make sure I don’t fall down some weird rabbit hole of tribalism (“Inkican Crew is all powerful!”) or fanaticism (Cult of Mac, anyone?) about my stories. Striking that balance as a single person has been part of this journey.

I’m grateful to know that other inspirational people have wrestled with this idea. Jim Henson said it best: “I decided that there are many situations in this life that I can’t do much about: acts of terrorism, feelings of nationalistic prejudice, cold war, etc. So what I should do is concentrate on the situations my energy can affect.” How do you translate that idea into ‘making progress look possible?’

Keep It Simple: Hope

My solution, so far, is to simply imagine a world where the problems *have* been fixed or show what people fixing problems look like. In Mesh, a community of people get together and say “This guy’s trying to take over the world, and we’re going to stop him!” In Mike.Sierra.Echo, Mike’s family works in rocket shipping and in a hundred years climate change is a solved problem. I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the mechanics of how to fix global warming because I don’t know how to solve the hard problems.

What am I trying to do? What is my hope? Inspire the people who can, to feel like they can. I want my scifi to be sage, to make progress feel possible.

Creating hope requires effort – you have to avoid extreme thinking, resignation, and isolation. Instead, you must work toward being engaged, performing acts of service, exercising your sense of humor, being mindful, and deciding to be determined.

This is a lot easier said than done. If you want to talk about hope, you must also talk about how to avoid pitfalls of toxic positivity, virtue signaling, and commercializing human issues. I’m still trying to figure that out – sometimes I screw up along the way. When I do, I have to reset and start over. Painful, but necessary. This work reminds me that at the end of the day – all I can do is try to make progress, because I feel it’s possible.

Wrapping this up for now because I’ve got more work to do on Mike.Sierra.Echo. I hope this post helps you feel progress is possible for you, and that sage scifi can help you on your journey.

Write on! I don’t do comments on this site, too much effort to moderate.

PSA: I don’t do comments on this site, too much effort to moderate. So … if you want to talk about this –

Discuss on Reddit

New Audio Short – Superhero Shrink – Now Available

Excited to share a new audio short – Superhero Shrink – now available on Youtube and soon to be out there on 24symbols, Anyplay, Apple, Audible, Audiobooks.com and everywhere else you find audio books!

Dr. Christopher has a very difficult, unique job. He’s a psychiatrist who works with superheroes. Some legendary warriors come with baggage and his job is to help ‘keep ’em flying.’ How are you supposed to save people who are supposed to be saving us? Half-serious, half-dark comedy, ‘The Superhero Shrink’ is “‘The Avengers’ Meets ‘Ordinary People,’” an honest look at the people behind the masks.

You can listen to Superhero Shrink on YouTube – if you’d like to purchase it for your audio book collection, I’ll have links available shortly. Very excited to bring together some awesome voice talent, audio production, and scifi to create a unique ASMR-style experience for listeners – I love producing audio shorts.

Quick word about Jeremiah Jones – we found each other on Reddit and he’s proven himself to be a capable, professional VO artist. I’m glad I got to work with him and if you’re looking for solid VO talent, you’ll be glad you worked with him, too! Find him on Instagram and you’ll never look back: @jeremiahjonesvo.

Superhero Shrink is already up on Brain Tacos and I’ll update as soon as the titles are available in your favorite audio short store. Thank you so much for being part of this journey!

Sci-Friday #172 – Honoring Bill Moon – NASA’s First Asian-American Flight Controller

Today, Sci-Friday is honoring Bill Moon – NASA’s first Asian-American flight controller. Moon started at NASA when he was just 23 and at 27 was a flight controller for Apollo 11. He is the son of two Chinese immigrants and grew up in rural Mississippi. Bill Moon would go on to be the lead the Electrical, Environmental, and Communications controller for Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 and would then work on every manned spaceflight mission after that. Take a look at the video below and let’s talk about why this is worth celebrating:

Landing on the Moon was no mean feat for NASA, but unfortunately, NASA was full of mean feet. “Prior to Apollo 11, his coworkers had a daily game where they would compete to be the first to step on his foot as soon as he arrived to work. Whoever successfully did so would be proclaimed that day’s ‘first man to walk on the Moon.’ The winner would wear a special paper hat they made specifically for the game. Moon would later recount that though he always laughed and played along with the game, he secretly hated it and it filled him with dread that ‘men of the intelligence level required to derive enjoyment from such an infantile exercise were responsible for the lives of astronauts.'”

I hope you enjoyed this deep dive on the inspiring story of Bill Moon – NASA’s first Asian-American flight controller! 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!