Sorry – no blog updates this week – I *HAVE* to work on the novel. Deadlines and such. Check back next week.
The Star Wars Theory You Never Knew You Always Wanted
I promised myself that one of my goals with Inkican was to rise above being another Star Wars fan-boy. That said, sometimes these discussions can give us valuable insights on storycraft and writing, so I wanted to share with you the Star Wars theory you never knew you always wanted. Then I want to talk about what it teaches us about telling stories.
To begin with check out this fan theory. Not only is it an extremely plausible explanation of Darth Vader’s actions in Empire Strikes Back, but it taught me something about the stories I want to tell. Here’s the theory, quoted below: Continue reading
New Wallpaper – “Gantry 17”
Created a new wallpaper – “Gantry 17” – based on some stories that pop into my head whenever I see random, everyday images. Would working in space get boring, like every other job? What would a normal day look like? Those thoughts inspired me to fire up Photoshop and get to imaginatin’ …
Finished this last night and wanted to share it out immediately. I make free scifi wallpapers to share – helps keep me fresh as I write Mesh. The original is 1920×1080 for your wallpapery goodness! Hope you like it. 🙂
The Rocket – Submitted to Clarkesworld
Asimov’s got back to me in record time – ‘sorry, no.’ so I submitted The Rocket to Clarkesworld. We’ll see what happens from there, you can keep track of the progress of this short story and others over at the sci-fi shorts production page!
Now, go make something awesome.
Am I a Toxic Fan? 10 Questions to Ask
More news about James Gunn’s departure from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 this week. No matter where you fall on that subject, there’s no escaping the news stories about ‘toxic fans.’
Do toxic fans exist? Of course they do. In fact, I’ve been talking about them for a while now. Two questions are missing from all of these articles though:
- Would someone know if they were a toxic fan?
- What are you supposed to do about it, if you are?
Just like an alcoholic who may not know they have a drinking problem, some toxic fans may not realize the damage they are doing to themselves or other people. To help fans that may not know which side of the fence they fall on, I compiled several different lists together to come up with some common behaviors of toxic fans. See if you can answer ‘yes’ to any of these behaviors: Continue reading
The Rocket – Scifi Short Story Submitted to Asimov’s
Busy as a beaver. You’ll be happy to know that I submitted another short. The Rocket is a scifi short story I submitted to Asimov’s Magazine last night.
I’ve been working on this story for a while and my beta readers think it’s top-notch. ‘The Rocket’ captures some of the difficult emotions happening in the fractured society we live in now. Will we heal this breach? What happens if we don’t? I’ve been thinking about that a lot, and ‘The Rocket’ is the result of my cogitation.
Back to work on Mesh tomorrow. For now, taking a break and enjoying the fact that people like what I write.
Bo Burnham’s Answer to “Am I a Real Writer?”
Bo Burnham is doing an AMA over at Reddit, and one of his answers struck a chord with me. Often, I find myself wondering ‘Am I a real writer?’ Burnham answers that question beautifully, and I want to pass it on to all of you:
Some one asked him the question, “Was there ever a single point in your career that you thought “I’ve made it” as an actor/comedian?” Here’s his response:
“You know, that was a problem for me for a long time. Believing that I hadn’t MADE it yet or I wasn’t a REAL COMEDIAN. I think its especially prevalent for people that makes things online. That making youtube videos isn’t REAL. It took me a long time to realize that I’d been real the whole time, and the thing that I am pursuing was the thing I was pursuing doing theater in sixth grade. Do you write? You’re a writer. Do you act? You’re an actor. I’d say don’t wait to get some arbitrary version of success or attention for you to believe that you are doing the thing. You really can start enjoying it right away. You don’t have to wait to be good. The process of doing it is the process of becoming better not being good.”
I felt better as soon as I read that. I AM a real writer. So are you. So is everyone else who dares to jot their thoughts down to share with others. Stop asking whether you’re doing it for real, and just do it. That’s how you know it’s real.
Gene Roddenberry’s Sci-fi Solution to Racism
Let’s talk for a moment about Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi solution to racism. I know I’ve talked about Roddenberry before, but the guy is a personal hero and current events make it necessary to speak out again.
The NYT is talking about the worrisome trend of ‘racist science fiction.’ Being a person who loves sci-fi, it bothers me to think that my beloved genre could be co-opted to divide people. At the same time, one can see how powerful an idea can be when persons perceive that it’s time has come.
But what if that idea is horrible? What if that mindset can lead to hate, murder, and genocide? That’s what frightens me, and I think it disturbed yesteryear sci-fi creators like Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling as well. ‘Superman,’ ‘Star Trek,’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’ dealt with anti-facist, anti-racial themes in their time. Rather than taking the issue head on, which would have resulted in failure, they spoke directly to people they knew would listen: The kids.
That strategy has power. Star Trek imagined a future where the Cold War was over, and American racism had died out. Rod Serling mercilessly mocked authoritarian logic in ‘The Obsolete Man’: “This is not a new world, it is simply an extension of what began in the old one […] But like every one of the super-states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.”
Superman himself was responsible for a significant victory. In addition to defeating Lex Luthor, Superman defeated the Klan where normal, law-abiding citizens could not. He didn’t just leap tall buildings in a single bound, he jumped over impossible hurdles in human perspective.
The point that science fiction taught us is simple, and powerful: We can live without racism. We can treat each other with respect and dignity. We can eliminate imaginary boundaries to fellowship and kindness. We can use the power of the mind, and spirit, to create a decent world.
I’m not sure what this means for me, personally. What I do know is that my sci-fi is about a future that just *is*. Even if I’ve said it before, I’m going to say it again. And as long as it needs to be said, I’ll keep saying it. Maybe one day, we can move onto topics of greater interest.
Space, Humans, and Physiology
This is interesting – a discussion on whether humans can be healthy living in space.
I love his plain-spoken explanations – it dovetails neatly with one of the subplots of Victoria Crater. Looking forward to seeing how things develop. Earth is still a unique place to live.
World Leaders Go Full Dystopia
Just read a creepy article – about a recent conversation with the nervous 1%. How will they survive the coming collapse of society? For people who project a bright vision of the future in public, it’s alarming to see world leaders go full dystopia in private. What do you do when money goes away? How do you maintain your family’s safety, or its quality of life?
These don’t seem to be idle questions. As you read through the discussion, you can see that wealthy people have no illusions about how the rest of us feel about them. They also have no illusions on the stability of society as a whole.
The sad part is, where you’d think this would lead some to introspection, and self-realization, they continue to rationalize sociopathic behavor:
They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers — if that technology could be developed in time.
It’s a sad, depressing piece of news to contemplate, but not surprising. Plutocrats have been saying for a while that this massive imbalance of societal power will eventually result in disaster. However, where is the natural “hey, we have to stop the Titanic from sinking!” mentality? If you know society is going to explode, and you wield massive amounts of influence, why aren’t you doing something about it?
I already know the answer to that question, and maybe you do, too. It doesn’t change the fact that the rich and wealthy could do something, even if they chose not to because of the realities of wealth creation and social power dynamics. It’s also why I have no interest in writing dystopian fiction. We’re already living there.
The message is: Start preparing for the future, because they are.
