Duct Tape, Madness, and Pandora

While editing What is Now: Easter Sunday, I stumbled over several fascinating tidbits about our solar system - geography of moons, the odds of terra-forming Mars, and patterns in various orbits - which have spawned various other story ideas. Thanks to a friend, I also have a wide array of information on a few religions which I find very useful when I write. To wiki and my friend, we say thank you.

That brings me to what I've been wanting to say. In writing What is Now: Easter Sunday, I found that I enjoyed the idea of discussing what it is that makes us human, what it is that ties us to our little dustball and makes us unique in the incredible vastness of the universe. I know I want to write various "colonial" stories involving the madness that could overwhelm someone when space becomes the new 'last frontier.' After losing myself in our own constellations in a little program called Celestia, I still want to play off the idea of finding yourself surrounded by strange stars.

Last thing: This has nothing to do with anything I'm writing, but I am insanely jealous of anyone who has satellite or cable this summer. Space week is coming on the Science Channel and I want to watch it so incredibly much. Did you know that in the event of an astronaut succumbing to psychosis, the treatment method involves duct tape? That's right. Duct tape. I seethe jealously at all of you who will watch this gloriousness.

So say we all.
Bri

P.S. Check out Pandora.com. It gave me the greatest bands and free songs on internet radio - ever.

Lost...in Space

Since the discussion in our Into Print class this morning, I am much more confident about my current path in the literary life and in the class. Other students have already submitted to publications and while that was a little intimidating, I was sort of inspired to send out my stuff sooner than later, to at least say that I had the courage to send out something. After Spring Break, the three stories previously mentioned will be ready, and that's when I will have to brace myself and send them out.

On another note, the science fiction story has grown several pages within the past few hours mainly because of an idea I had about distance and time that came while I was playing around with a program called Celestia. This setup allows you to start at Sol and move out into our solar system, covering vast distances to find Earth and the moon, then from there, the orbits of various other solar bodies. While I was looking around, I lost track of Earth and found myself wandering into strange space where I didn't know the constellations and I couldn't find a point of reference to find my way back .

When I closed the program, the thought stayed with me of how vast that distance was and how disoriented and frustrated I felt when I couldn't even find our sun or any of our constellations. I think I will definitely use that sense of detachment and disorientation in part of my science fiction piece, so thanks to my friend Charlie for passing the word to me about the program. If any of you are interested, definitely take a look - while sometimes disorienting, there is actually much fun to be had.

So say we all.
Bri

In a Universe of Infinite Chaos

Tomorrow, I have to hand in a one page essay on what I've done so far this semester to get myself published/into the world of print for my Into Print class. At the moment, I've sent out no short stories to magazines other than The Vortex; the few short stories I do have are in drafts, most not nearly ready to be published.

But the one thing I would make note of is that this semester has been my most productive in terms of creativity, and actual completion of several drafts with which I am extremely pleased. So while I have not submitted to outside magazines for the Into Print course yet, I feel I have a substantial portfolio with Half-Made Men, When Otis Met Everlyse, The Promethean and Breaking the Bowl, along with a few other short-shorts, poems and edited chapters of my novel.

This weekend has been my very first experience of writing actual sci-fi. Before, I've played with the genre, but never ever taken it as seriously as I have in Breaking the Bowl. Needless to say, I have enjoyed myself thoroughly. I've picked up a spotty knowledge of our solar system and have a fistful of ideas for further stories involving the frontiers of space and the two characters of Demne Spartkoi and Lyric Meridian.

One of the things I think I would like to investigate in the stories of these two is how someone who has seen all things destroyed - God, culture, world, family - transplants himself into a new environment with no boundaries, in a universe that is both chaotic and infinite. We'll see how that falls.

So say we all.
Bri

The Golden Ratio of Science Fiction

The past two days have been incredibly laid back and I have had more time than usual to write. The great thing about this is that I've also taken the chance to research various subjects concerning The Broken Bowl sci-fi story. Mainly galactic tidal patterns, the golden ratio, moons (chaotic and otherwise) as well as the nature of memory and how it is effected by supreme trauma and loss. I know these seem completely unrelated, but as I said yesterday, I'm trying to tie them together to form several powerful images in this short story.

The hard thing about the current story is when I should make the break between what what the reader knows as a the "reliable narrator" and have him slip into "unreliable mode." The question is whether or not the reader should be aware that he is unreliable before he does or not.

The other major thing I've been working on today is getting the sci-fi elements into my short story without overwhelming the story itself with solar system details. I think one of my friends put it best when he said, "Are you putting this stuff in there to say, Hey, I know enough so that you can take me seriously? Or are you putting it in there to say, Hey, I know a lot of stuff? I have all of these ideas about the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, how tidal patterns work on galaxies and whorls and sea shells, but I'm finding it difficult to find where those details should work in reference to the stories. Thanks for listening.

So say we all.
Bri