Robert J Sawyer plays the Blues!

Just got my ticket today for the International Festival of Authors, to be held this Sunday at a local hotel here in Thunder Bay. My neighbour Bill is coming too - he moved into the neighbourhood recently and turns out he's a keen SF reader, preferring the classic  oldies like Heinlein and Asimov. Has boxes full of the stuff in his basement, 'Come on in and help yourself!'

But I digress.

So this Festival is hosting  Vincent Lam, Ania Szado and Robert J Sawyer and they will read from their current works. Do you wish you were here? Admittedly, SF-head that I am, I have not heard of the other two, but I have read some of Robert Sawyer's novels and short stories. You can read the opening chapters of Sawyer's latest, Red Planet Blues, here. I started it, began enjoying the mid-future Mars he paints with deliberately grimy brush, then I had to get back to work. Ahem.

It's set maybe 100 years in the future, when Mars is settled to some extent, and the main character is a hard-up private detective starting on a missing-person case. One major technological breakthrough that plays a major role in the plot is the idea, in vogue amongst many SF types these days, that sooner or later we'll be able to upload our personalities onto computer hardware or into replacement bodies, thereby extending our lives tremendously. A kind of ultimate hard-drive backup.

Here's a snippet of dialogue as he visits the local police force which is renowned for its sloppiness and inattention to duty:


The NKPD consisted of eight cops, the junior ones of whom took

turns playing desk sergeant. Today it was a flabby lowbrow named

Huxley, whose blue uniform always seemed a size too small for

him. "Hey, Hux," I said, walking over. "Is Mac in?"


Huxley consulted a monitor then nodded. "Yeah, he's in, but he 


don't see just anyone."


"I'm not just anyone, Hux. I'm the guy who picks up the pieces 


after you clowns bungle things."


Huxley frowned, trying to think of a rejoinder. "Yeah, well ..." 


he said, at last.


"Oooh," I said. "Good one, Hux! Way to put me in my place."



He narrowed his eyes. "You ain't as funny as you think you are, 


Lomax."


"Of course I'm not. Nobody could be that funny."

So I am plotting. What one question should I ask the author, if I get the chance? Here are some contenders:

• If Microsoft launched a technology to upload the human mind onto a computer, would you do it?
• When you invented your future-Mars, how much did current Mars colonisation ideas affect your planning?
• Have you signed up with Mars One for a one-way ticket? That would be a great inspiration for a future novel!
• Do you know a friendly publisher I could talk to?

Actually I wouldn't dare ask quite as bluntly as this, except the second question. Not in public. Perhaps afterwards, after Bill has got his autograph.

Everybody's Into Space These Days!

This is a link to the article over on The Calling giving some links to all sorts of wise and wacky things that ordinary people are doing these days in the arena of spaceflight, space exploration, space colonisation and so on. Hope you enjoy it.

Here's an extra pic - my favourite Earth-to-orbit launcher, Skylon.

A Plethora of Home-made Rockets!

I believe some people call it 'down the rabbit hole'. When you start clicking things online you never know where you'll end up - having tea with the mad hatter, or arguing with the Queen of Hearts.

I experienced something comparable while doing a little background research for the Chapters book-signing event (see this link). Looking into the many and varied efforts people are putting into private space travel ventures is like old-style barn dancing - who will be your partner next time around? And the next? I looked again at SpaceX on Wikipedia (bless their cyber-socks) and clicked on a link that said 'private spaceflight'. Way down the bottom of that page under the exciting 'External Links' section I found two intriguing companies called 'Starchaser Industries' and 'Astrobotic'. Who could resist finding out about names like that? Starchaser is building its own rocket to launch two people up to 100,000 feet - that's about 30 km - not quite 'real' space which is 100 km, but still impressive. Here's what it looks like:

Thunderbirds Are GO!

And they're recruiting astronauts to fil the navigator's seat! Need I mention that it's based in the UK, in Cheshire to be exact, where they make such good cheese.

Sadly, Astrobotic's page didn't load. Oh - wait a sec - I tried again and here's a picture of one of their planetary exploration rovers.

Anyway, you get the idea. I spent a few other web crawls finding out about the advantages of orbital tethers, LEO refuelling depots, the Outer Space Treaty of 1951 and its ramifications for private space investors, and the Mars Society. It's all out there. Isn't it wonderful that so many people are taking the initiative? My favourite of the week is the Danish engineer who is building Denmark's first manned space program in his (rather large) garage, along with some buddies. They're called Copenhagen Suborbitals. Look!

Shiny rocket cones! I like! This is the liquid oxygen tank.

The most dazzling item these Danes have produced? A steam-powered fuel pump! Yes. Watch their video on how they designed it. (Did you know you can produce steam by throwing hydrogen peroxide at potassium permanganate? No boiler required.) Innovation, and the simpler the better. Brilliant people.

I'll be adding a whole list of similar links after the book signing that's at Chapters, Thunder Bay, Friday October 25th at 7pm.

What fascinates me with all these is the standard science-fiction starter question: "What if...?" In this case, what if some of these amazingly creative, perseverant people are successful? Wouldn't the world be a better place if people like you and me were travelling the airless corridors of the sky above our heads? If it wasn't just the governments of a very few nations sending their ex-Air Force pilots and top scientists? Granted, most of the private space ventures with more chance of success are funded and run by billionares such as Elon Musk (developer of PayPal and Tesla Motors) with his SpaceX, and Richard Branson with his Virgin Galactic. Not exactly your average Joe Public. Still, even many of these are enabling many others to join in a Space Race characterised by friendly competition and inspiring goals, rather than the Cold War era frantic race for orbit and the Moon which has left us so little lasting legacy.

I remember reading a great SF novel about a disgraced alcoholic astronaut and some keen, bright teenagers who build a spacecraft out of a disused railway tanker-truck (and many other bits and pieces) and fly it to Mars and back. But I can't remember the title or the author's name! Can anybody help me? It's about the only attempt at fiction I can recall on this subject. My only real gripe with the storyline is that it involves an unrealistic method of propulsion invented by the astronaut's reclusive, genius relative. (As another rabbit-track, maybe the author was thinking of this attempt  by NASA researchers to squeeze the fabric of the universe behind and in front of the spacecraft and propel an object in a bubble of warped space-time.)

On the subject of propulsion, here are two more "What-ifs":

1. An ion thruster is under development which could make manned interplanetary travel faster. It's called VASIMR, which stands for (take a deep breath) : Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket. Read about it here. Wikipedia says: "Costa Rican scientist and former astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz created the VASIMR concept and has been working on its development since 1977". All it needs is a lightweight power source and a bit more development. Oh, and perhaps a wealthy billionaire to get it built and into orbit!
2. Orbital tethers. Imagine two satellites attached by a 4km tether. Each one could be at a different altitude above the Earth, and thus would be in a different orbit, placed under different gravitational force. The transfer of momentum that can then take place is a keen topic of study for some of those bright mathematicians, because it holds potential for cutting down drastically on the amount of chemical rocket fuel required to change a spacecraft's orbit - perhaps allowing craft to begin their journey to Mars or the Moon at a much lower cost. A conducting tether in orbit around Earth can also generate electricity, or if a current is passed through it, will exert a force on the spacecraft that it's attached to! The possibilities of that are huge.

 Well, that's enough of that for now. I must get back to work. I have a large barrel in my garage filled with baking soda, and I am about to pour in the vinegar, strap into the flight seat and open the skylight for lift-off....



(just kidding!)

Posting Elsewhere

Briefly, here's a link to a post I wrote on the blog of a writer named Jade Kerrion. The post, like my recent one here, is about writing 'in the shadow of Star Wars'.

The Science Fiction that Kids Love

Not that I'm an authority on what children love about sci-fi adventure, but it's one of those global phenomena that bears closer inspection. My main sources of data are my two sons, aged 7 and 9, who have been Star Wars(r)  fans for as long as they could lisp 'Pew, pew!' and wave a piece of Duplo Lego (r) .

Yes, it has a lot to do with those annoying little  (r) symbols - the commercialisation of playtime. But look at it through the child's eyes without so much cynicism: 'It's so cooool! I am only a fairly small person, but here I am swept into a huge adventure where giant-sized heroes and villains battle it out - and in space! With loud laser bolts, huge spaceships and stuff.'

A scene from the latest epic the boys and I are producing: "Too Many Droids" !!

But is it so different from swords and dragons? Is it actually 'science' fiction at all?

There is still quite a element of futurity, of techy stuff, even in Star Wars which is so notorious for unscience. (eg. Han Solo has this unfortunate line shoved in his mouth when boasting about his ship's speed, something like: 'She's the only ship to have done the Kessel Run in under 3 parsecs.')  [ed: since seeing the film Solo I realise how good the film-makers are at covering their tracks!]

I've ended up chatting with the boys about androids, light-years, fusion, and all that, because the words are sprinkled into Star Wars the same way I heedlessly fling oregano over everything I cook. Good science fiction is a kind of innoculation against future-shock. So when they're teenagers or in their 20s and riding in driverless cars and living perhaps through the AI singularity and so on, they'll tell each other, 'We knew about all this when we were little!' And perhaps the future won't be such a scary place to live.

As I write for mid-grade and YA, I have felt a certain amount of responsibility how I make the story world and set my characters romping into orbit. Some of us adults may feel that technology is nibbling away at our humanity, or twisting it into new and frightening shapes, but I don't feel a compulsion to paint it that way in my story. So I ease off on the half-human, half-robotic cyborgs; I let the people pilot their spacecraft even though computers are already doing a better job than most of us could do, here in the 21st century.

I think I can see something! It's a...

A great deal of good science fiction is about looking ahead. For the future to be a good place to live, where people still care for each other, we have to make good choices now - we as voters, as consumers who buy so much electronic stuff, as scientists - and we need to encourage our kids towards better choices. Often in our family this includes saying 'no'. There are so, so many dark places out there in the catacombs and battlefields of kids' SF. Just see the games on sale, the movies some watch. To create something brighter, to pass a flaming torch of inspiration into their eager hands, that's what I want to do. But to do that I need to keep feeding my soul on the light. You can't give people what you don't have.

Blog Etiquette

Perhaps blogs have been left behind in the dust of Facebook and Twitter, those children of brevity and (often but not always) shallowness, but I think not. I think there are many people out on the cyberavenues who are glad to dally long enough to read a blog post, perhaps actually think about something meaningful, before passing onwards to the next click.

If you still value blogs and other forms of more solid content on the internet, then hear my plea! Cultivate us bloggers! Here are a few ways you can do that.

• Leave Comments! This could easily be points one, two and three, but I'll spare you that artless form of emphasis. Even if you say nothing but 'Hi!' it will encourage a writer to keep on crafting words for you. If you find a thought-provoking post, be the first to comment - perhaps you'll start a lively debate!
• If you disagree or dislike what the blogger is saying, then go ahead and tell them... but use at least the same tact and consideration you would if talking face-to-face with someone you respect.
• Mention good posts elsewhere. Spread the good stuff around! Just copy the link from the address bar, and paste it into your next Facebook thing. Or if you Twitter, look up 'bitly', a useful site (one of many, I suspect) which allows you to post greatly shortened web addresses into a Tweet, thereby saving you characters.
• Most of all, treat everyone you meet on the internet as real people! Think about it.

Bye for now... I have to go and say 'goodnight' to two younger 'real people' of my own!

Content to craft?

If ever you grow good enough at something to feel like you've made it, think again. This is the sort of warning I hope you will echo back to me one day when I've reached a higher level of writing. I certainly have no room for complacency.

In fact, I've recently started a job in which I become a trainee, knowing very little, rubbing shoulders with the experts, spending most of my days nodding while others speak pearls of technical wisdom... feeling smaller than I'd like to. And this is at age 47. 

But that's fine. Computer Service Manager - in - training is a good place to be. It is a full-time job, though, so that my writing is reduced to a couple of hours every few evenings. This could discourage me, but I think that work is a great environment in which to gather more story material.


Have you found Randy Ingermanson's Advanced Fiction Writing site yet? It's not hard to find online. One beginner lesson of his that I read reduces the process of writing to this outline of a writer's prime requirements:

1. Content
2. Craft
3. Connections.

At work I can soak up more Content: this is the life-lesson and real-life character material that you pick up by meeting people, doing new things, failing, labouring, making decisions, and so on. You know: real life. Then I aim to keep improving my Craft and Connections in my spare time.

But don't hold your breath waiting for my next book...

Next in the series...

So Ghost Brigades was a pretty good read, all in all, and now I'm on to the next in the series, The Last Colony, but it's not the last! I discovered a fourth book, Zoe's Tale, about one character from the last two books.

The Last Colony  is less about war, and more about the struggles of ordinary people trying to make a new life for themselves on a remote alien world, despite the machinations and secret plots of their own government and the threat of being wiped out by alien attack. It reminded me strongly of Allen Steele's excellent Coyote series, especially when (==small spoiler==) John Perry and Jane Sagan go sprinting off into the forest to rescue some of their colonists from ... whatever creatures are out there... I almost expected a boid to jump out at them!

It contains all the great plotting and wit you expect from Scalzi; the  (==small spoiler==) convenient box of tricks that Hickory and Dickory turn up with looks like a little bit of a rushed job - there might have been other ways to rescue the colony from that attack that weren't so much of a rabbit-out-of-hat, but I'd have a hard job inventing one that runs smoothly. Really I'm just mentioning this so that I have something to comment on. Makes me feel a little less intimidated as I write my own stuff. 

As for the Big Ideas behind the writing, I'll have to post about that another time. Got a few things to do now... bye.

John Scalzi's ... Ghost Brigades

One thing I liked straight away about this book is that I found it in hardback in the library - always gives a book more depth and character - and the next thing was the cover art. I like! I like it in a boyish way, with a little of the same wow! gosh! factor of walking away from first seeing Star Wars on a big screen at age... ten? twelve? The cover has a space battle above a planet, anyway. Pretty generic, but it sets the scene. Inside back jacket tells me the artist's name is John Harris. Let me look him up... Aha. I see that he's illustrated for the likes of Allen Steele and Jack McDevitt, both of whom I've been reading in the past few months.

But onto the story. John Scalzi is a joker, which I learned from following him on Twitter. Read the opening of Ghost Brigades and you'll see an example... let me say no more. It was a neat trick, well pulled off. So far, I can see that JS is staying true to the war-in-space genre of the first in the series, Old Man's War (see my last post), expertly imagining future technology, alien technology, interstellar genocidal warfare, and what that might do to the human (and other) people who get caught up in the military mincing machine. This last part, the human story, is the only reason I would read the whole thing. What happens to people who live and breathe the disciplined and controlled application of deadly violence?

The world we live in is over-militarised, and I grew up in a town neighbouring one in which 'squaddies', ordinary soldiers that is, are trained, barracked and sent out to do our government's bidding, to do their dirty work. And from the few times I met those young, beer-inclined, very physical men, I've wondered what chance they ever had of enjoying a normal human life, if there is such a thing. They're trained to be tough, ruthless and to obey their commanding officers. Civilians stay in their comforable homes and feel horrified at the innocents being bombed, sometimes at the expense of their own tax money; meanwhile, the frontline soldiers often feel that they're paying the price for those civilians' comfort. There's something screwed up here; perhaps you can enlighten me and tell me why one group of people are turned into killers while the rest of us rest easy and veg out in front of TV.

Governments maintain armies to keep hold of their status and economic position, not essentially to keep you and me in beer and Pringles. (Is this turning into a rant? I'll stop here.) So thankyou Mr Scalzi for making me think a little. If your series is intended, in part, to be a meditation on the present state of affairs, I'd better keep reading until the end of Book Three to appreciate the fulness of your thoughts.