Radcon 7 and Norwescon 39 Panel Schedule

It's con season again! I'm so excited to announce my panel schedule for Radcon 7 (Pasco, WA) and Norwescon 39 (Sea-Tac, WA March 24-27). These are some really awesome topics at two of my most favorite cons. I hope to see you there!

Radcon Feb 12-14, 2016

The Science of Believing

Lots of people believe in things that are, or aren't, real. Not everyone can be right, but everyone thinks they are. As humans, we cling to our convictions as if they were life preservers. Why do we believe things, even when those things are strange or unpopular? And why is it so hard to face being wrong? Science has studied these questions and come up with interesting answers. Come learn about cognitive dissonance theory, cognitive biases, the levers of influence, and mental shortcuts that leave all of us ready to defend our beliefs, sometimes even to the death.

Fri 1:45-2:45p – Rm 2205 

With: Peter Jones, Rory Miller

Empaths, Synesthetes, & Other Super Powers

What does science tell us about empathic abilities, synesthesia, and other multi-sensory ways of perceiving - and interacting with - the world? Explore the benefits and challenges experienced by people with these "super powers". Be ready to share. Excellent opportunity for writers crafting a character with one or more of these traits.

Fri 5:30-6:30p – Rm 2201

With: Alma Alexander, John Alexander, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Tamra Excell

Polyamory Revival

Polyamory is returning to mainstream consciousness with hit shows like "Polyamory: Married and Dating" on Showtime and feature stories in major news outlets. Learn how polyamory is from times of old, how agriculture and property ownership changed family dynamics, and how certain polyamory models are especially empowering for women. Enjoy the discussion, and walk away with suggested readings to further your knowledge on this fascinating subject.

Fri 8:00-9:00p – Rm 2201

With: Amanda Baldwin, Bruce Kenoyer II, Craig Jackson, Kevin Wiley, Tamra Excell

50 Shades of Consent

With the success of books like 50 Shades of Grey, more people than ever are reading about BDSM. But when writing about it, what are some misunderstandings or common errors to avoid? How can writers present it in ways that are safe, sane, and consensual?

Fri 9:15-10:15p – Rm 2201

With: Amanda Baldwin, Craig Jackson, Peter Jones, Rhiannon Louve

Mind Control

Your villain runs a creepy cult. Your protagonist chooses to remain in an abusive relationship. Your antagonist is a manipulative con artist. A side character is a cult exit counselor. What can transform an intelligent skeptic into a Koolaid-drinker? No magic, truth serums, hypnotic chants, or hand-waving required. Learn the real science behind cults, cons, and coercion for writing realistic mind control.

Sat 11:15-12:15a – Rm 2201

With: Peter Jones, Rory Miller

Reading: TBA (Theogenesis Gimmick?)

Sat 12:30-1p – Rm 2211

Surviving the Post-Apocalypse with Disabilities

Survive a post-apocalyptic world with disabilities, both mental and physical, visible and invisible. How do you find food when you have difficulty walking? How do you defend yourself against mutants and rogues while managing PTSD triggers? What will you do without ready access to medications that stave off chronic pain, heart disease, depression, or attention difficulties? Might some disabilities actually become hidden strengths in a world where society has been turned upside down? The panelists are personally experienced with disabilities and will discuss their plans to stay alive through whatever may come. Bring your survival instinct and prepare to prevail.

Sat 5:30-6:30p – Rm 2205

With: Bill Holden, Eytan Kollin, John McDonald

Diversity in Fiction

Our world, and our fandom, is expanding. How is a simple SF/F author to keep up? Come talk with a panel of authors who know a thing or two about inclusive writing. Find out how to go about, why to go about it, and when to go about it (Hint: The answer is now!).

Sun 10:00-11:00am – Rm 2203

With: Alma Alexander, J Tullos Hennig, Kaye Thornbrugh, Peter Jones

Geek Boys vs. the Feminists: An Empathetic Look at Gender in the Geek Community

Through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, geeks banded together against an oppressive world that mistreated them and refused to understand them. They created acceptance and friends where previously they had only experienced bullying and ostracism. Now those geeks feel oppressed by a new threat: feminism. Except, the threat isn't new. And it isn't a threat. Male geeks and feminist geeks have more in common than we have different. Let's discuss the intersectionality of the geek cause with the feminist cause, and why inclusion, not busty body armor, should be the common interest that holds the geek community together.

Sun 12:30-1:30p – Rm 2201

With: J Tullos Hennig, Tim Martin

The Psychology of hackers and gamers; a male/female perspective

With the advent of Gamergate and the press a portion of the gaming community has garnered, people are looking at the anti-social aspect of gaming and of hacking. What are these issues, which are real and which are myths? Come join us for what promises to be a lively discussion.

Sun 1:45-2:45p – Rm 2207

With: L James, Meg James, Peter Jones, Tim Martin

Norwescon March 24-27, 2016

The Future of Accessibility

As much as we might want a future where every injury can be healed, chances are there will always be some things beyond our ability to fix, and situations where tried-and-true will remain the best course. So how might one navigate micro gravity with a leg cast? Would a paraplegic still use a wheelchair, or would exo-skeletons or bionic legs be standard practice? Could robots replace service animals? Let's talk.

Thur 9:00-10:00p – Cascade 3&4

With: Pat MacEwen (M), Sar Surmick, Dr. Ricky

Invisibile Disabilities

Not every disability is apparent at a glance, nor is anyone's personal health anyone else's business. From mental illness to chronic disease to a variety of syndromes and impairments too lengthy to list, we'll discuss the difficulties of living with chronic health conditions, the stigmas associated, what progress has (or hasn't) been made in reforming public perception, and strategies on getting other people to mind their own blasted business.

Fri 12:00-1:00p – Cascade 10

With: Gregory Gadow (M), Cheryce Clayton, Michael 'Tinker' Pearce

Magic Rumble

Join our pros as they each are given a magical system and debate which would reign supreme.

Fri 5:00-6:00p – Cascade 3&4

With: Grant T. Riddell (M), Peter Orullian, Logan L. Masterson

Creativity & Disabilities

Whether your problems are physical or psychological, there's no denying that being creative and creating art is difficult to almost impossible when a disability stands in your way. Come learn how different artists and writers work with, past, or through their personal disabilities and limitations to create their art.

Fri 6:00-7:00p – Cascade 10

With: Kevin Mathews (M), Liv Rainey-Smith, Mark Chapman, Spencer Ellsworth

Consensual Non-Monogamy 101

What is consensual non-monogamy? Is it polyamory or swinging or polygamy or relationship anarchy? Why would anyone want more than one partner? What important advice is there for starting out? How do you do you minimize hurt feelings? Can you? How do more conservative family members react to these plural relationships? Should you, shouldn't you? What are the pros and cons?

Fri 7:00-8:00p – Evergreen 1&2

With: Sar Surmick (M), Sheye Anne Blaze, Wednesday Phoenix, Burton Gamble

A Culture By Any Other Name

Many alien cultures bear a strikingly humanized feel to them. Yet, does creating alien cultures too foreign in design make them too hard to be relatable? The pitfalls, pros, and cons of alien cultures is discussed.

Sat 12:00-1:00p – Cascade 10

With: Jason Bourget (M), Caroline M. Yoachim, Kim Ritchie, Lawrence M. Schoen

Reading: Theogenesis Gimmick (forthcoming in the Truth in Paradox anthology by Onyx Path)

A young woman finds out what happens when you click one of those "One Weird Trick!" ads and finds herself awakened to a puzzling world filled with gods and magic.

Sat 1:00-1:30p – Cascade 1

Sex & Gender Fluidity

We are used to thinking about people in binary terms, but reality is nowhere near that simple. Join our panelists as they discuss what we know -- and do not know -- about the biology of sex and gender.

Sat 8:00-9:00p – Cascade 5&6

With: Sar Surmick (M), Amber Clark, Wednesday Phoenix, Gregory Gadow

A Thousand Words

Literature may be the art of beautiful words, but sometimes great writing comes from--or cooperates with--great images. Come hear how writers use drawings, photographs, and maps for inspiration, worldbuilding, character development, and more.

Sun 11:00-12:00a – Evergreen 3&4

With: Brenda Carre (M), Nina Post, Gregory A. Wilson

The Human Element: PTSD in Science Fiction

Be it the rigors of space travel or the weight of destroying an entire species, protagonists in science fiction take those fights home with them. Join our panelists as they discuss the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder in science fiction.

Sun 3:00-4:00p – Cascade 5&6

James C. Glass (M), Sar Surmick, Robert J. Sawyer

Touch of Tides - Crossed Genres

I am exceptionally excited to announce that my story, Touch of Tides, was just published in Crossed Genres magazine. Please check it out, and while you're there, read the other two stories by DeAnna Knippling and Michael Ben Silva III.

In Touch of Tides, a xenobiologist explores the oceans of Europa. Mara has synesthesia, meaning her senses are crossed -- what she feels on her skin she also sees with her eyes. Her passion is studying Europan life, hands-on. Until she finds something dangerous.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

I swim with no light, artificial or natural. A solid ice shell, seven kilometers thick, floats above me in this single ocean that covers the entire moon of Europa. All I can hear is liquid gurgling in my ears and I taste residual salt that leaks in around my gill breather.

My name is Mara. I am naked except for my equipment belt and a molecule-thin coating of nanoscale to protect me from the chill. The other biologists at my barnacle wear full wetsuits when they dive, relying on augmented reality. My gill could report water conditions, geolocation data, and radar sight, if I let it distract me.

I prefer to let the touch-colors lead...

- See more at Crossed Genres.

Crossed Genres also gave me the spotlight interview, in which I answer questions about Touch of Tides, synesthesia, autism, and more.

I am particularly proud of this one, because it is my first hard science fiction story. I spent a lot of time researching, asking experts, sketching, and even doing math, to make sure the details of the story were realistic. Science is very central to the plot, and all of this could actually happen. (Meaning all my other stories are completely impossible, I guess.) It also marks my first pro-rate sale.

I wrote it for you. Please enjoy reading it.

Build a Bigger Berry

You're in a restaurant supply grocery store, the kind with walk-in freezers and where you can buy 5 lb boxes of strawberries. The produce refrigerator, in which you're standing, smells like old broccoli. As you lift the box of strawberries to place on the cart, the lid pops open, and the biggest strawberry you've ever beheld falls to the gray concrete floor.

What do you do?

* Actual Size. Not part of this complete breakfast.
or, "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this!"

Nothing could be less interesting than a strawberry falling on the floor. Or so it seems. Yet the circumstances  for this event can shape important elements of story: the stakes, character development, plot, worldbuilding, and theme. The first three are essential, but if a writer does her job right, a minor strawberry-fumble scene should convey all five.

Stakes & Tension

This true story (which actually happened to me) only became interesting because of two factors:

1) A strawberry the size of my fist,
2) a floor of the sort my mother taught me never to even walk on without washing my feet afterwards.

The stakes were raised. Not a small berry, a big one. Not a clean floor, a nasty one.

Circumstances had set up a dichotomy for me. A difficult choice. I became fascinated with how I would meet this challenge. In order for your plot to be interesting, your choices must be interesting.

To increase stakes, you can tweak the circumstances. Is the strawberry large or small? Ripe or rotten? Is the character is starving? Was she commanded by the king to find the largest strawberry ever, on penalty of death? (The king will never know it hit the floor... right?)

Character Development

"I'm going to give you the choice I never had."
 Lestat, Interview with a Vampire

Choice defines character. Once you've given them a quirky laugh and a lopsided hat (characteristics), ultimately, your character is made by the choices they make.

If your character picks up the berry with a look of wonder, it tells us she is mesmerized by large berries.

If it's a normal berry and she picks it up, maybe she is a spendthrift and can't let anything go to waste. Or maybe she doesn't care about cleanliness.

If she leaves it on the ground where someone else can step on it and make a mess or even get hurt, maybe she's thoughtless or reckless.

If she puts the strawberry back in the box and places it on the shelf so she can buy a different box, we have all kinds of subtle, and potentially negative, indicators about her personality.

The results of one decision will still leave motives and personality vague, so a series of choices across scenes can compound to paint the broader picture.

Plot

A series of decisions constitutes plot. Events can occur randomly or coincidentally, but preferably, the result of the first choice should have consequences to start your plot-chain, each event a result of a previous decision.

Or better, events can be created by choices made by your other characters. Your characters should all have independent and preferably opposing desires. As they attempt to achieve their goals, they work against one another. That's how the plot thickens.

What if she picks up the strawberry, takes it home, and all is well until her child eats it without washing, and gets e. coli?

Or she leaves it in the fridge for three weeks and the whole box spoils, and that starts an argument with her partner?

What if she puts it back on the shelf and someone she admires spots her irresponsible behavior?

What if she leaves it on the ground and someone is injured by slipping on it?

What if she simply cannot stop thinking about the strawberry, and it turns into a blog post?

This is why readers read. This is what constitutes story.

Worldbuilding

Other details about each experience can show elements of your world without an info dump. In my example, the strawberry fell in a normal grocery store in the ordinary world. Or did it? ...

Show the rules of the magic or tech or culture through the decision and its consequences.

Maybe it's a magic strawberry and the character shrinks and has to live on it under the produce shelf where it's rolled until it gets all moldy and is carried off by a rat.

Maybe the character has a curse that she must eat every strawberry she sees, and a second geas binding her to never eat anything that touches the ground. Talk about raising the stakes.

Maybe it's a genetically engineered strawberry that kills germs. Maybe the floor is kept clean by robots. Maybe her species doesn't even need food and it's just a plastic strawberry.

You can give hints as to the behavior of your world through simple scenes like this. Just remember to keep the stakes and tension high by not eliminating all strawberry-floor problems with advanced technology.)

Theme

Why write a strawberry falling into the floor and not a beer spilling in a bar, or a dagger being pressed into the chest of an enemy, or a horse running away?

The props, events, and choices in the scene can reverberate and reinforce, either consciously or subconsciously, a larger, overarching feeling or meaning. Berries can represent many things: life, growth, food, color, freshness, waste, rot, fertility, goodness, sweetness, health, youth, agriculture, consumerism.

A scene with a strawberry, then a horse, then a memory about grandma's farm may conjure a theme of farming, youth, or health. Or all three.

A scene with a strawberry, then a rose, and then a wild sexy romp with a stranger shifts the theme to passion, hedonism, sensuality.

If you want to go with consumerism and decay, have another scene with an overflowing garbage can and a pile of unwanted Christmas presents.

Theme is how we make a story more than entertaining. It gives the story meaning.

Conclusion

If you've written a scene that's fallen flat, maybe you just need to tweak a few subtle elements to raise the stakes, to make the choice hard, to reveal elements of character, to build your world, and reinforce themes.

Just build a bigger berry.

Radcon 6A Madcap Recap

Okay, false advertising. Radcon 6A was not actually madcap, nor is this post. But sometimes a title presents itself and refuses to dislodge itself.

Weather-permitting, Radcon has marked the first of spring for me since my college days in the late 90's. Mid-February is often the first day of warm sun in Eastern Washington, turning the winter's average 20's chill to a nice 50-something. That tradition carried on even after I moved to Seattle, where the winter is a bit warmer, but the sun more scarce. There have been disappointing exceptions, especially the year an icy wind tossed around a thick layer of gravel-sized dust particles all weekend. Yuck.

This year, however, did not disappoint. On our drive, the car reported an outside temperature of 54 degrees, and the sun shone a little too brightly to make for a comfortable drive. I found myself wishing I'd packed more short-sleeved shirts. As soon as we reached the hotel, I stripped out of my boots and thick thigh-high socks to free my feet of the swelter.

This year, the theme for me seemed to be "Growing Old". This was my 18th Radcon, and I've not missed a one since 1995, not even the year I had a kidney infection and had to sit out most of the con. This was my ninth Radcon since moving to Seattle, which means I reached an equilateral point - as many Radcons living away from the Tri-Cities as local.

Radcon used to be a river of familiar faces rushing down the hallways. Each year, there are fewer and fewer, and this time, I realized I can no longer identify Radcon by its people. Some held a hint of familiarity, yet changed so much by age. Most were entirely new faces, a young generation of Tri-Citian geeks. They will never know that I once attended CBC across the street and traveled to NorWesCon with my Sci-Fi Club friends. They will never know that I bounced excitedly through the halls LARPing with my Camarilla friends or that I ran tabletop games and was in a fake secret-society and helped put on the LAN party every year, or that I wore glitter or that people asked me what I was on when I was stone cold sober. They're too busy making their own friends and having their new experiences, which for me are well-tread adventures.

I stopped to chat with very few people, because even of those I recognized, many did not recognize me, and I had long forgotten their names, if I ever knew them. I was happy for the familiar faces I did see, and the people I was able to reconnect with. Those I expected to see, and didn't, I miss with a deep remorse. I am old enough to know that you cannot recapture time.

I am old enough to know nostalgia can be an intense sad feeling of loss.

But I've always complained about being too old, even back at my first Radcon, age 20, when my now-adult son was just a baby. Of course I didn't know what I was talking about then. And I'm sure I don't know what I'm talking about now.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm the one who changes, and even then, not much. Perhaps that is what growing old is -- realizing how little is new.

If being jaded is a result of having too much life experience, there's a flipside to that coin. One I rather enjoyed. Now I don't just know stuff, I've done stuff. Lots of stuff. I'm wise and more confident, and that makes me awesome.

It means this year I got to be on panels, and what a rush that was.

My reading Friday night was sparsely attended, and by sparse, I mean three people. Quite a far cry from my first reading last summer, in which my and Michael Montoure packed the Wayward. But as I learned from another author, Laurel Anne Hill, audience size will vary. Earlier that day she'd spoken to a crowd of 500-700 students. Just a few hours later, we (and our partners) were each other's audience. I greatly enjoyed hearing her story.

After that, I sat on my first panel, Stop Thief!, about piracy and other intellectual property topics. There I met Peter "Frog" Jones and Jim Burk. We didn't agree on everything, and I learned a few new things, and I think our audience learned even more. A question was asked about how to detect online piracy and what to do about it, which requires a far more technical answer than I could offer in person. I promised a detailed post on the subject, so stay tuned.

Roland and I took Friday night pretty easy, which set a pattern for the rest of the con. We had drinks at the Grizzly Bar (yes, that is its real name) and wandered around a bit and then went to bed.

I had two panels the next day. As I guessed, I was sorely outclassed in the Worldbuilding for Planets panel. CJ Cherryh and Hugh Gregory know a ton of science, and when CJ builds, she starts with the geology and astrophysics, and moves up. I have a completely different approach -- I start with the story idea and then research the science to see how I can build a planet to suit. That left me little room to interject.

I learned a valuable lesson that how I introduce myself at a panel will set the tone for the rest of the hour -- a character template of who "Luna Lindsey" is that can open or close doors. Even if I don't have the kind of experience I'd like, it's good for attendees to see a variety of opinions. I will always have something I can highlight, which will direct the conversation towards things I know more about. In this case, I truly love worldbuilding in general, and while I've not completed any sci-fi stories written off-earth, I've been working hard at a couple of hard-sf worlds. I should have made that the focus of my introduction.

I put that hard-earned knowledge to good use later.

Either way, I learned lots of fun things about astrophysics from Hugh and CJ, and even managed to say one or two things.

Directly afterwards, I paneled on Sex, Love, and Writing in a Changing World. That was a really fun one. I got to meet Tamra Excell and Christine Morgan, and got to re-meet Jim Burk and Peter Jones. In this case, I got to rely not only on what I've read and written on the topic, but on my own life experiences. My fellow-panelists were from a wide variety of backgrounds, which I quickly learned makes for the most interesting panels. The attendees had lots of questions and there was never a dull moment.

The next stop was an interactive panel not previously on my schedule -- Image This! hosted by Tim Morgan. The concept is simple - an author (in this case, me) reads a story while artists sketch, as inspired. In the second hour, attendees are shown a painting, and write a story. Thankfully, I had two other stories with me, both of which I've read before and are visual enough to sketch. The Metro Gnome and Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out. Since I couldn't fill the whole hour, another attendee read from his work, which was quite well-written. (I didn't catch his name.) As always, I loved reading aloud. It was a special thrill to see the drawings my words inspired.

The second half was not on my schedule, so I was only able to stay for the first picture. The writing side was fun, but it was even more fun to see what other stories people came up with, all based on the same image. I've done similar activities in writer groups, where we all write a story with the same title, or write to a specific theme. It just goes to show that an "idea" is less important than its implementation, and every writer can have something new to say.

I would love to see this activity at more cons, and I hope Radcon does it again next year.

I met up with my friend Jenboi and with Roland and we hit the parties. We spent most of the time at the SpoCon room party. My favorite con party is the mellow kind, with low-volume music and a small crowd, with places to sit and talk. The SpoCon party did not disappoint, and we conversed until 3 am.

The next day I had only one panel late in the afternoon, so we took it even more easy. Why Horror? was late enough on a Sunday that we could have a small, intimate discussion. Once again, we had a wide variety of panelist backgrounds - Devi Snively is an academic with a background in film and was the Media GOH. Ron Leota authors games and runs a podcast. Eric Morget is a voice actor and indie film maker. Yet despite this, we all had one interesting thing in common -- a religious and sheltered past. I had a lot of fun doing this panel.

Several of the panels generated lots of interest in my writing. I also met a few people who had seen my bookmark and become interested in Emerald City Dreamer just from that. I also ran into a few people who had read my Sucker Punch analysis on this blog.

It's all very encouraging. I hope I was entertaining and informative to those who listened to me, and thanks to Radcon for giving me this opportunity. Being a panelist was everything I dreamed and more, and I hope I can do it again and again.

Radcon 6A Panel Schedule

I am honored to be on the panel schedule for Radcon 6A, this coming weekend, February 15-17th, 2013, in Pasco, WA.

I consider Radcon my home con. Not to jinx it, but I've attended every Radcon since my first in 1995. Though I no longer live in Eastern Washington, I make the long trek through the mountains back to Mordor, each year, and not even a pain-wracking, can-barely-move kidney infection has stopped me. It's a good con, "medium sized" by the old standards, but with cons like PAX exceeding 70,000 attendees, I suppose it's a small gathering.

Since my youthful days, when I still held the illusion that being a writer was glamorous and could get you lots of money and free stuff, I dreamt of being a panelist at Radcon. Now that day has arrived.

My schedule begins with a reading Friday evening at 5pm. I am currently planning to read my two recently published stories, Beyond Earth's Summer and Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out. If there's time, I may There will definitely not be time to read a passage from Emerald City Iron.

Then I'm on four panels over Saturday and Sunday about various writing and fiction topics. I'm greatly looking forward to it, and I hope when I'm up there, I will actually have something interesting to say. If you're there, stop by and see me!

Fri Feb 15 5:00:pm	Fri Feb 15 5:30:pm	Luna Lindsey reading
Small Press		Luna Lindsey reads from her favorite writing.
Lindsey, Luna

Sat Feb 16 12:00:pm	Sat Feb 16 1:00:pm	World Building for Planets
2201		How do you create a world for your characters to interact in? This panel will cover everything to creating planets to finding names--stressing the importance of building a solid world and keeping it solid.
Lindsey, Luna Gregory, Hugh Morrigan, Muffy

Sat Feb 16 1:00:pm	Sat Feb 16 2:00:pm	Sex, Love and Writing in a Changing World
Fan Room		Alternate sexuality is one of the final, vastly unexplored elements of science fiction and fantasy. Where has it been touched upon, and why so few times? Is it time to examine it, or should it stay in the shadows?
Burk, Jim Lindsey, Luna Jones, Peter Morgan, Christine Tamra, Excell

Sun Feb 17 11:00:am	Sun Feb 17 12:00:pm	Stop Thief!
Small Press		With the increasing popularity of ebooks comes the increasing opportunity for scam artists to take credit for the work of others. As a fan, how do we stop and address these issues? As an artist and author, how can you protect yourself and your intellectual interests? Join our panel of experts as we discuss what measures are available for both fans and authors.
Burk, Jim Lindsey, Luna Jones, Peter

Sun Feb 17 2:00:pm	Sun Feb 17 3:00:pm	Why Horror (and beyond)?
2207		Our symbiotic relationship with genre films that feature elements of dread - why do we like them? And how do they reflect our society?
Lindsey, Luna Leota, Ron Snively, Devi

Beyond Earth's Summer on Penumbra Rising Talent

I am pleased to announce that I was published as January's Rising Talent in Penumbra eMag. The January 2013 theme was Ray Bradbury to celebrate the life of the great science fiction author who passed on last June.

In addition to my short story, I was asked to write an essay about Ray Bradbury. The story itself tells of the last woman on earth, and her desperate struggle to find meaning on a lonely planet.

Please read my essay and story, Beyond Earth's Summer. It's free.

Guest Post at JoUE

I've written a guest post over at the Journal of Unlikely Entomology, wherein I discuss the making of the story, Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out.

It begins...

When I wrote Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out, I was delirious with fever, caused by what doctors want me to believe was a common flu, but what I am convinced was a medical conspiracy to test a new strain of Black-Death-Hell-Anthrax-Ebola-Pox. It was more than a fever. My perception twisted into weird little skews and everything felt grotesque and creepy. You know that feeling you had while watching Eraserhead? That was an actual symptom of this "flu".

I knew it wasn't wise to work on my novel in this state. Instead...

Continue...

Where Have All the Batteries Gone (Song)

Where Have All the Batteries Gone
to the tune of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"
by Luna Lindsey

Where have all the batt'ries gone, long time passing?
Where have all the batt'ries gone, long time ago?
Where have all the batt'ries gone? Gone to robots every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the robots gone, long time passing?
Where have all the robots gone, long time ago?
Where have all the robots gone?  Gone to mine ast'roids, every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the ast'roids gone, long time passing?
Where have all the ast'roids gone, long time ago?
Where have all the ast'roids gone?  Mined to lith'ium, every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where has all the lith'ium gone, long time passing?
Where has all the lith'ium gone, long time ago?
Where has all the lith'ium gone?  Gone to batt'ries, every one...
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

RIP Ray Bradbury

I was greatly inspired by Bradbury as a child.  I remember taking an SAT test in 1992, and recognizing a passage from Dandelion Wine they'd used.

Our family had tapes with the Bradbury 13 dramatizations done by BYU in 1984.  Just last month I wanted to share them with the kids, found them, and listened to some of them on vacation.

Some of these stories had huge impacts on me, especially a "Sound of Thunder", about time travel and the effects even small changes could have.  "The Wind" terrified me, and kept me up late, listening to the wind in Eastern Washington, afraid it might get in.

On Twitter today, someone pointed me at these audio productions done in the 1950s, and clearly inspired the later Bradbury 13.

I never got around to reading the Martian Chronicles, but I saw the poorly-made movies.  And obviously Fahrenheit 451, one of the greatest dystopian novels of all time.

He is one of the three greatest classic SF authors, those who founded and popularized science fiction.  They taught literary snoots that sci-fi had something important to say; that as a genre, it could rise above the pulp rubbish.  Of these three -- Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury -- Bradbury was the last alive.

Now they are all gone, and it is up to the generations of new guards to try to fill their shoes; to try to grasp, here in the shadow of a possible mind-boggling singularity, what the future may hold.  To intuit what dangers there may be, that we might warn of them.  To cast about for hope that we may promise it.  It is a tall order, when much of what they foretold has come true.

If you're a writer, or just want to know more about Bradbury's life and creative mind, "Zen in the Art of Writing" is short and very good.

Nothing is more inspiring and mystic to me than reading biographies and seeing documentaries on the lives of old sci-fi writers.  Zen falls into that category.  It is easy to imagine him sitting at a typewriter in 1953.  It is hard to imagine him predicting a future where technology might make it possible for there to be no books.

Thank you Ray, for being on my dad's shelf as I grew up.  If only I could write half as well as you.  You changed the world; you changed my world.  Your words will outlive us all.

Science Realism in Fiction

I came across a great article last week about the science in science fiction.  It was written by Jenny Cabotage, who is both a fantasy writer and a biologist.  As a scientist who "knows better", how does she handle slightly unrealistic science in the spec fic she consumes?

She sits back and enjoys the ride.

That conclusion took me a while to come to.  Even as a kid, I reveled in finding technicalities in the science fiction I consumed.  Remember, this was the late 80's and 90's, when our TV scifi diet consisted of Star Trek and Quantum Leap.  Scientific errors were low-hanging fruit.  Explosions would never be very large in oxygen-free space, we could never upload a virus into an alien ship and expect it to be compatible, and if you go back in time and even breathe, you will change the future.

Or my biggest pet peeve: Why is the evil guy always ugly??

Maybe that's why I loved reading classic SF so much.  Isaac Asimov, a biochemist himself, always wrote stories that seemed at least plausible.  Even those I considered far-fetched, like the famous "stars" who recorded their dreams to sell as mass media, become more possible as time wears on.

As I learned to write, I promised myself I would never make the cardinal mistake of Star Trek aliens, where each race was basically a human with advanced makeup and appliances.  Aliens won't be humanoid.  They'll be weird!

As I got even older, I noticed that even fictional aliens who weren't humanoid tended to be modeled after earth animals.  You've got the stereotypical reptile race, the ape race, the insect race, the lion or cat race, the cute mammalian race, and the fish people.  Also lame.  Can't these people think of anything more interesting?

Then I learned about certain concepts of character development.  The reader must sympathize with the characters.  They need to feel connected.  They need to relate.  And it's really hard, if not impossible, to make a reader relate to a gelatinous blob with purple dots that thinks in binary and can merge with another of its species and come away as a different creature.

(Perhaps this is why Star Wars seemed so refreshing.  The cast of aliens is brilliantly diverse, and Lucas manages to make us relate to them.  The bad guys are still ugly, though.  And they speak with British accents.)

I think back to some of the scifi that went way too far away from my human values, my human desires.  For some readers, that scifi might have been thought-provoking, but for me, it was as unrealistic as too-human SF.  Or worse, I found the ideas distasteful.

To use Asimov again, and I'll try to do this spoiler-free, I hated how he "ended" the Foundation series in Foundation and Earth.  (More books have been written since, by other authors, and I've not read them yet, so I don't know if they fixed what I hated.)  Instead of leaving me feeling like they'd saved the universe, I felt like they made a huge mistake.  And more importantly, the novel failed to complete the promised plot arc that the previous books established.  The ending seemed to come out of nowhere.  The goal shifted and all the things I'd been made to care about were deemed unimportant.

Note that I read this when I was like, 17.  And haven't read it since.  Who knows what I'd think now.  The point is, that many humans have a certain set of values, and for some, Asimov violated those values in Foundation and Earth.  He failed to convince me that I should agree with the aliens, yet his humans went right along with it.

Are there aliens out there with weird and crazy values?  Yes.  Maybe those aliens are even right, even if their values are deplorable.  And we should explore them in SF, just as we should explore aliens with weird bodies, or science that is barely understandable, or not comprehensible at all.  The problem is, how do we tell those stories in ways that people can relate?

I ran into this problem in the early drafts of Emerald City Dreamer.  I wanted to be as "realistic" as possible. I wanted to be true to my characters as possible.  The result?  My characters came off completely unsympathetic.  They weren't even aliens.  Everyone in ECD has a humanoid body.  It's just their actions and values, even the actions and values of the humans, did not make enough sense to a large enough percentage of my critiquers.  So I had to make some major changes.

In fiction, the story is far more important than "realism".  The world has realism.  In SF, we use stories to explore ideas, and those can be accurate down to the letter.  Internally consistent, and even completely scientific.  But in the end, stories are, ultimately, about the characters.  What choices do they make in this world of new ideas?  The answer to that is what makes readers feel satisfied, or not, at the end of a story.  That is what makes readers interested enough to keep reading.  That is what separates this medium of fiction from academic papers and essays.  Because of the characters and their choices.

To pull that off, readers must relate to the characters.  Especially if they're aliens.  Especially if you must sacrifice some scientific realism or logic to make it happen.  You have to risk a couple of readers saying, "That would never happen", to make the rest of your audience love your story.

It helps me to think of SF as mythology.  Because, in a way, it is.  In the old days, the hero trudged into the underworld to save his lover from the torments of a god.  Today, he's got a high-tech costume and he's fighting aliens with quantum tunneling stabilizers.  So what if that costume could never contain all those gizmos and gears or make him actually fly or any of that?  Who cares if Black Widow, being thrown against a stone wall from somewhere in the sky would actually crush her dead?  (Ok, I cared for a couple of seconds.)  And who cares if the technobabble is technobullshit?

When you hear a myth, you're not rolling your eyes, saying, "Yeah, like the gods would ever talk to Orpheus.  He's just some dude.  And like Hades would give a crap about music.  Hell, there aren't any gods in the first place."  We accept it as myth.  As fiction.

Likewise for our science fiction.  Yes, it's great to try to include as much science in science fiction as we can.  But after a while, we have to accept that it's just myth.  At the very least, taking this attitude helps me enjoy movies more.

At best, it helps my writing.  I try to pack in as much realism as I can, without making the stories too inaccessible to readers.  In fact, realism is a great tool to generate ideas during world building.

I'm building a world right now, about a species that co-evolved with a fungus that produces a complex biochemical mix the aliens need to thrive and survive.  The themes are about classism and privilege and poverty.

Because there are no humans in my story, I walk a difficult line.  I cannot describe my aliens through a human perspective.  My aliens have to be sympathetic and relatable on their own.

My world building process goes something like this: "Assume X is true.  What would that do to their culture?  To how their bodies evolved?"  I take those answers, and say, "Now that Y is true, what does that do to their religion?  To their attitudes on war?  To how their reproductive systems evolved?"  Those kinds of questions help me brainstorm and hopefully come up with awesome details to set in my world, and perhaps even plot points.

At some point, I realized my creatures seemed a bit like otters, and they had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  They walk on two (sometimes four) legs, and have two genders.  And their personalities, for the most part, are strikingly human.  Why?  Why would aliens "just happen" to have all these elements, when they evolved so far away in a completely different ecosystem?  And why does their climate seem a bit like a swamp?

I could tweak those facets.  Give them alien faces and even more alien bodies and come up with strange surroundings.  But that would go too far.

They have faces because readers need at least a few anchors to the reality they understand.  I want them to love the characters and understand my message, so I give the aliens faces.  Enough of this planet is like Earth that readers have a context to understand the changes I've made.  So I can spotlight that which I want the readers to see.

You get to a point where it is mythology.  The point of my story is, "What happens when classism is biologically enforced in an obvious way?"  I want the unfairness of my alien society to be clear and emotional.  I want them rooting for my poor character, and hoping my upper-caste character does the right thing in spite of his cultural programming.

I don't want readers hung up on trying to picture a creature shaped like a five-legged walrus with no torso, or sort out their feelings for a protagonist with tentacles for a face.  I might explore those options in another story, where they don't distract from what I'm trying to do here.  Maybe in a different story I'll have human characters to be the lens through which we view the uber-strange aliens, or where the uber-strangeness is part of the mood I hope to establish.  Maybe I want you to feel confused or disturbed or unsympathetic or whatever.  (Hi, Kafka.)  But not here.

So as we consume fiction, it helps to let go a little.

As creators, learning to letting go a little, in just the right places, is part of the craft.

Links of the Week

Every week I post a lot of fun and interesting links in Twitter.  Last week was no exception.  Here is an aggregate of some of my favorites.

Writing & Fiction

I'm pretty excited about a new book called "How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One".  Here's an except.  In the spirit of this, the author has listed a few of his favorite sentences here: Stanley Fish's Favorite Sentences (and Mine, too)

I posted a few of my own favorite sentences, from a series I'm currently reading, Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.

And while we're on that, Strunk and White vs. Stanley Fish at the Boston Globe.

I learned a new way of spelling "teh internet", "t'internet" from this blog post, Why Being an Indie Author is More Difficult Than It Sounds.

There's a documentary on H.P. Lovecraft, called Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown.  I love biographies of the old-school sci-fi and horror writers.  So inspiring and nostalgic.

I listened to an awesome short story called Schrodinger's Cat Lady on the Escape Pod podcast.  What a fun story!

Here's a blog post about publishing and piracy called, Writing on the High Seas.

Science

Carl Sagan's old Cosmos series is up on Google Video for free viewing.  I watched all of these last year, and they are very worth it.  He cannot disguise his passion for science.  The retro charm of this show only lends enjoyment, and most of the science is still accurate.  Here is Episode 1.

Speaking of Carl Sagan, here is the much-shorter excerpt, A Pale Blue Dot.  If you don't have time for 13 episodes of Cosmos, this one is less than four minutes.

The Kármán vortex street caught my interest.  What beautiful fractals in the clouds. 

I also discovered the beautiful Faroe Islands up north of Ireland and west of Norway.  The tradition of growing grass on their roofs came from the Vikings, who would build houses by tipping their ships upside down and growing turf on top.

And I found a huge source of free documentaries at Top Documentary Films.

There's a short TED Talk called How to Start a Movement, about the science of leadership.

Entertainment

Best superb owl commercial of the week?  Watch this Volkswagen Commercial featuring Darth Vader.

Leavenworth, WA has started a new marketing campaign, featuring Woody the Nutcracker in a new rap video.

News

An Iowa Eagle Scout testifies to the Iowa House of Representatives in favor of gay marriage.  You see, he was reared by two mothers.  His story is touching.

Speaking of touching, here's a video about the protests in Egypt.

In a story from Russia fit for a cyberpunk novel, a suicide bomber blew up prematurely when she received a spam text.