Young to Older Writers and Readers of Both Hard SF and Intersting Fantasy.

Latest Milestone

2008-06-26T14:31:00.001-07:00

Finished first chapter of werewolf story, currently slogging through second chapter.

Valles Marineris 1

2008-04-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not dead, see? I made Sci-Fi. It's about robots trying to eat me...eventually. Page one for now, more when I write it.

The Tunguska Event And The Modified Jackson-Ryan Hypothesis

2008-02-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Here's my school presentation on the Tunguska Event and Black Holes. A bit crazy and probably sci-fi. You'll probably want to use full screen to see all the text. My speech was much better about a week ago but the presentation got postponed and it stagnated. All-in-all it worked out well next to other students reports about world hunger, animal cruelty and gay marriage. I think it technically counts as science fiction because of the subject matter and the controversy surrounding the Jackson-Ryan hypothesis. Learn all about it here.

Drawings In Febuary

2008-02-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

Just to prove to you people that I'm still goin' I started a steampunk-ish setting. Here's the engine for my crazy aeroplane and a picture of my drawings on my desk.

Satavarnark...

2008-01-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

For Feeler magazine there has been alot of negotiations.
We decided to have a monthly story which continues the story of the allusive country of Satavarnark.
It is run by a giant sludgy monster beneath the city which gives the country the most vitamin rich tobacco on the face of the planet. The country is hidden within soviet russia. Yeti's hail from this country. And so on.
So if you have a desire to write in an already established universe and want more information please ask.

Send them in,

2008-01-16T22:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't written one of these in some time.
Well there is some news.
Feeler is having its first official writers meeting on Friday.
SO if you have a story to submit we will be willing to pay 1cent a sentence. What?
We are only charging 50cents an issue!
So send in those stories to Mr. Editor gallitrope@hotmail.com
THese will also be put online and subscriptions will be available.

Feeler!

2007-12-30T20:56:00.001-08:00

Yes it is now in action!
What?
You don't know what Feeler! is?
Well it is the fantastic new Sofian/Fay/Lewis Publication SF/F Literary Magazine which will be passed out around schools such as THe Center School! Or perhaps yours!
It is called Feeler!What the American Story Teller has to offer.
So fork over your stories! You'll recieve 1 cent a word!

A death to Baldness.

2007-12-26T22:01:00.000-08:00

Or a death to AAS. Perhaps the most complicated story anyone could ever try to write without going mad.
To explain a time travelling wormhole, germline gengineering, black body radiation, photon dissintigration, quasars, ice shielding, elusive propulsion systems, p-brane worshipping cults and so on is just to much to handle. And not much happens in the story!
So I have moved on to my admittedly better and more impressive stories those being Blue Tony, Lamark's Lagar, Aesthetically Pleasing and the Wayfarer Perpetuation and Tri-System Collective stories.
So be prepared for me to blather about new things.

I just had to wear this mask. All of you stink.

2007-12-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

In creative writing I had to come up with a story on the fly and created something of a kind of strange nature. Oklahoma City 2062, Farmer Kennsington is being chased down by two confederate bible belt clones. He is hiding is an ultra packed discotech and the Co2 is so overwhelming he wears a photosynthetic membrane on his face. He is chased and ends up in the prairies where he discovers idiotic super sentient AI and ultra pubescent 9 year olds all eating grass pumped with 191 amino acid or growth hormones. In other news my friend David and I are writing a Hard SF piece about bio-engineered cryptids and the tokyo bay mega pyramid.
Nothing else to write about.

chore wars

2007-12-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

so there is this rpg online called chore wars, you sign up and get an avatar and input some stats. then one person is the dm and they make "chores" or tasks that you assign XP to and there's also adventures, items and monsters you input youself. I figure that this would be perfect for this blog, like you get some xp for typing 1000 word of genre fiction, or for posting to the blog, or reading a genre book, or for posting a book review and like we can have the treasure be things that are real world incentives, like caffienated beverage or spiffy hat, or fantastic scroll. Tell me what you think before I set up an account and party.

Started Werewolf story

2007-12-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

What is says on the box, I have started work on a series of books about a group of kids. Some of them become werewolves and interesting fantasy things happen to them, I figure if I get two or three pages in word done for every weekend and break day I will have what amounts to about the average 200 paperback.

Desperation is a dish best served cold. Although I don't know how good it would be.

2007-12-12T20:07:00.000-08:00

If I may so... I am a desperate person.
Lightspeed or at least .90c just does not seem attainable for the stylish inhabitants of AAS. No propulsion for them.
So I am desperate to allow a smaller ship to go that speed with some explanation. The story has a good deal of science but without the ship propulsion system it seems ridiculous.
I thought the quantum vacuum energy system would work but as it turns out if that speed were attained the ship would blow up. But hey we would hear something in space.
This leaves me in an akward spot.
I need a system to go .90c before the winter break which was when I planned to write the story. I assure you that after all this ranting Satti Granhsot will open your eyes.
However in better news... My collaborative short story Proposition of the Stuttering Man is complete and in the process of being edited by a friendly humanities teacher. If anyone wishes to read I can email it. Also my extremophile propulsion is finally realized!
Propulsion system anyone?

Utilize!

2007-12-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

For the longest time now I have been trying to find a way to combine some of my new favorite SF themes and regular likes into a short film.

Let's say there is a character who is so dedicated to their girlfriend they decide to share each others thoughts for one neuaral wire connection session. To his disapointment she turns out to be a horrible neo-nazi planning a retro-virus uprising where all will become arian gene puppets. Needless to say this is not good. But in addition a crazy thinking android named Tug Boat is after him for no apparent reason. Also his dreams are becoming far more vivid involving everyone he knows performing elaborate dance numbers. Then things go blank...... He awakens and things are the same but now everything he knows has been put to dance. Everyone keeps dancing. It turns out the government has a tap on all citizens heads and find his ordeal and dreams the ultimate combination for television success so have downloaded his head into a program and have altered reality so spuratic dancing is a non stoppable algorithm. Of course they have no concerns about the arian uprising and only the ratings they hope to recieve.

Take that Joel Ray.

Oops

2007-12-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

I rechecked my math and it turns out that the drum spins at ~4 rpm not 3 (NASAs recommended speed). Our astronauts will just have to be accumulated or doped up on motion sickness drugs. Also, I'm still working out the implications that spontaneous generation of matter/antimatter in the engine would cause. could be used for storage but it could do nasty things to story integrity. Like why we would need to mine the asteroids anyway if we could generate matter for free. Probably something about scaling up production or whatever.

Thank you Jeremy and CO.

2007-12-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not being able to help with the rotational formula you were after but you were able to create what is one of the better ship designs I've seen in a good while. That is you can't beat stealing quark-gluon plasma from the big bang (why would you do that??!!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!??!!?).
It is most definetly a far more practical ship then the ones in my human based universes. In my future aestethics take over everything and accesibilty and practicality take a back seat to how slick something looks. But most definetly this helps me in completing AAS.
It is funny how in SF ships are given the strangest names. My favorite is No More Mr. Nice Guy from Consider Phlebas.
Prepare for The Phrenologists Assistant to make its copyrighted debut here.

Spine Is Born

2007-12-05T22:11:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is. I call it the SS Ludwig or "Luddy" for short (and thats lewd-y not lud-y). Primarily designed to carry people and supplies to the asteroid belt for resource extraction it has been surpassed in carrying capability by tankers and mass-drivers (the likes of which you will be seeing in my upcoming story). Like most ships in my story universe (hereby called "The Spine") the Luddy is powered by zero-point energy. No, I'm serious, this isn't Stargate here, I'm talking about quantum vacuum energy. Basically quantum mechanics states that there will be energy randomly flowing through space even if it is empty. Some say that there is enough energy in a cup of coffee to boil all of earths oceans (volumetrically of course). The only problem has been that after energy extraction you would be left with less than no energy. I say that that portion of the universe just collapses and disappear (well actually, becomes a einstein-rosen bridge), anyhow, the expansion of the universe slows just a tad when the engine is used. When the engine is used, a huge amount of energy is released into a stream of anything available, like hydrogen or water and the resulting plasma is accelerated out the back via a magnetic nozzle (the cones in the picture).
The frontal shield is used to deflect space-bits as the ship travels throughout the asteroid belt. Under the scaffolding that supports it is an airlock connected to a node. This allows access to four modules, crew seating (3) and head, cockpit (seating for 3), food generation (fermentation vats) and life support. The node also allows access to the drum, a sixteen meter wide cylinder which rotates at ~ three revolutions per minute (theoretical NASA comfort maximum) and provides primary bunks, meeting space and just about everything else. Just outside of the drum is a flywheel that spins to counterbalance the rotation and prevent the ship from spinning. The other end of the drum enters into a tube surrounded by the cargo hold (exposed to vacuum) that leads to the engine room. The walls of the cargo hold are made of scaffolding that can telescope inward and open to allow objects to enter or leave. The engine room has the standard things as well as a nanotech fabricator (non FDA approved) for making small objects (< one meter wide) using available matter (recycled and extracted from asteroids).
By the time of my story nanotech has developed to a level at which small scale fabrication is possible in controlled environments and wet-nanotech is being researched. Atomic scale engineering gives ultimate precision to products and allowed the development of the ZPE engine.
Humanity is now expanding into space but the asteroid belt and outer planets remain mostly unexplored. We've got computers in our heads, the fabric of space itself in our clutch (albeit loosely) and the solar system at our doorstep. Who knows what we'll find.

Got A Story In The Works

2007-12-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Soon to come, I promise. More so, it'll lay the foundation for my story universe. Mostly. The hardest part has been working on the artificial gravity but I found this web site which has given me everything that I could have wanted. Now I just have to make a blueprint to show you guys and see what you think of it. (It'll look sorta like a Pegasus crossed with the Theseus.) These guys were from Voyage To The Planets and Blindsight respectively. Updates soon.

Prions! I hate Gabe.

2007-12-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

Imagine you are a highschool student who teaches other high school students about Science Fiction and you have one kid named Gabe follow you around pestering you about things he doesn't know anything about. He will try to one up you or talk about fake science "Won't Carbon Nanotubes keep a Wormhole open?" and "A nanotube is a couple of Milileters right?". Neither of these are true yet he for some reasons wants to keep talking about carbon. Why? Well this is my world.

In other news as the Winter Break approaches I get closer and closer to starting Alopecia Areata Spatium which has even more scientific additions. First of all there will be a character who is a nanotoxicologist, a resonable addition due to the fact that there are diamond and fullerene based nanobots in the story. Also black dwarfs make somewhat of an appearance when the narrative scoffs at the notion of travelling to throw someone into a Quasar stating by the time you got there you might as well go visit a black dwarf that is if you could find it or if photon degeneration works as theory states and on and on until he realizes his statment could be totally false due to the theoretical nature of black dwarfs.

In other news the story I and my pal David Lewis are working on is nearly 5 pages long and looking good enough to publish. You may want to start subscribing to Weird Tales for that is the only suitable venue for something so scientifically unfounded. A monster living in the Thames of london comes from another dimmension with no time using a coal powered ray gun.

Proposition.

2007-11-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

Anyone out there?
I thought so.

Anyway... I have a proposition for everyone out there reading this. I am planning on creating a pamphlet with SF concepts which have recently been disputed. What I am looking for are stories which involve these concepts but give scientific backing. So martians, shrinking, time machines, different models of evolution, FTL let 'em rip.

If you feel so inclined send a story to gallitrope@hotmail.com and leave your email and I will keep you updated.

Victorian Science Fiction.

2007-11-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

As I stated earlier I am running my own SF workshop. Most people in it seem interested but some are rather bored. String Theory is dull to them!

This friday few kids showed up instead going to the walkout in support of stopping the war. Now let me say something. The following day another protest took place to stop shipment of weapons to troops. Wouldn't this leave troops defensless. Can you call this supporting the troops? Thinking about it the only way you can support troops is to support a war itself because without a war there are no soldiers. I've been mulling over that this weekend.

In other news my friend David and I will be collaborating on a Victorian SF story. The story revolves around a phrenologist who is visted by a creature from another dimmension who teaches him super phrenology.

I hope to see you all for Omega Man on the break. But just so you know tonight I was part of an improv contest there and my team lost to a pathetic team so HUT holds bitter memories.

The Far Out.

2007-11-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

Well......
I've been busying myself with creating short stories due to the fact that my school is so lack luster. Guess what we learned about? Calories or the heat transfer unit ooooooooohhhhhhhhh awwwwwwwwhhhhh!

So I have alot of time on my hands.
I just finished doing a complete outline for Alopecia and the new cyberpunk story (which does old comcepts proud with some odd twists). My friend David and I are about to collaborate on a victorican period SF story about a phrenologist visited by an extra dimensional creature who teaches him a new form of phrenology with wacky results.

But recently I came upon a photo my friend Bronte took of her eyes and bleached out which makes it look like shes looking into a vacant computer screen and now I want to come up with yet another CP story. Problem is my ideas seem to be thinning due to my thinking hard about the other stories the past week non stop. I want to do something with really far out science that would make a crazy story. All I can think of is ideas I have already used. Plus I want to do something new in SF (not easy).

I did come up with a notion today while walking home from school. I began to think that with current trends in what is thought to be done in genetic engineering there will be a point where the Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (you know the guy) model of evolution will be possible. Think about it. You can engineer your body to change its genetic makeup just through thought leaving your decendents with this slight change without the use of any long awaited genetic mutation. Hmmmmmmmmm. I find that extremely grim, but I have always found that model interesting. The other thought I had involved organically grown jumpsuits born from animals who wants their membrane babies back.

Who knows where these could go....

Simple.

2007-11-15T09:55:00.001-08:00

Everyone should check out this website.
Rudy Rucker interviews and audio clips.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/rudyrucker

Your Space-Time is my software.

2007-11-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

The whole world of cyberpunk has never been a big part in my SF life but I am starting to appreciate it more and more.

I actually was granted by my school my own Science Fiction workshop last week and have already had my first session and friday is my second. I will be devoting an entire 50 minute session to cyberpunk (I plan on filming it so all of you get to see the idiots at my school have their brains fried).

The subgenre has also affected some of my ideas. If you read the last two entries they dealt with a cyberpunk story idea that seemingly had a few problems. But Jeremy was kind enough state it made sense in a sort of odd perception.

My idea for Alopecia Areata Spatium also has been corrupted by CP. I found there was a problem with the notion of using a wormhole as a time machine due to the fact that it would mess with causality.....I hate causality. So I found a little clever loop hole.

No one knows just how the worhole is allowing this 10 year dip into the past so some philosphers are coming out claiming it must be a new addition to the software that is our simulated universe and a test.

The Copied Conscience 2.

2007-11-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

Well if you read the comment Jason left on the first part of this entry he brings up some valid arguments.

What I wrote has been altered so the story is a bit different then what was presented in the previous entry.

Currently the story revolved around a period of time that is not specified on some town on the west coast. It is somewhat like a post cyberpunk tale in which things like the sprawl have never occured. Technology in the form of cybernetics have flourished along with biotechnology. Space travel and colonization has alos been attained. Problem is a colony has been destroyed and a huge number of colonist must make their way back to Earth.

The government puts into action the plan to make suitable living habitats for the returning humans but due to the lack of space, taken up by the mass ammount of wide spread residential areas the only place to place these habitats are on the sea itself. The gov prides itself on not creating any discomfort with its citizens and decideds not to allow the ugly construction be seen so around the city a huge wall showing of happy images of flowers and happy things is put up.

This is where the story begins. The story revolved around the character Joel Ray who is a sad divorce. His wife and daughter are two members of the returning colonists and he wishes to impress them by buying a luxury townhouse which are said to be built on the sea. Only, he has no money and he doesn't have much time. His only way for making large sums is to sell his body as a flesh vessel. Essentially a flesh vessel is an empty shell sold for most purposes. A computer software can be downloaded into his head and he can obey the algorithms to do what a buyer likes. Also equiped with a mechanical eye that streams direct video back to the buyer of the event he is involved in.

His body sends out advertisments on the web to promote his services. Eventually a bio-engineered dwarf living in a bird cage kills his owner and has plans for a government official who helped put the wall in place. He wishes for Joel to turn him into a soggy mound of fat due to the politicians enormous loss of weight. When refused such a request the dwarf (a software genius) essentially transmits the request making him obey.

The story gets into AI, Giant Squids, Sperm Whales and Wet Nanotech.

I Don't claim to know that much about the ins and outs of things such as Wi-Fi or memory upload but the rest I know plenty about.

The Copied Conscience.

2007-11-09T23:35:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking, it is time I actually start writing some good stories. I keep promising these long length pieces but they take for ever. It was just yesterday when I finally fuly realized all that would need to be involved in Alopecia Areata Spatium. I've also been thinking alot about cyberpunk and how I should write a story in the subgenre. I began thinking of a darker idea then what CP usually entails. The idea I came up with involves a cybernetic hitman who has been dooped by a bioengineered munchin who changes his computer software making him a sadistic maniac. He proceeds to convert an entire human into a mound of fat. It also uses the very common CP idea of Copied Consciences and I was wondering what was involved in that process.

Is it as simple as scanning all brain activity, reducing it down to an algorithm, downloading it into software and then implanting it somewhere?

The Idea Has Come.

2007-11-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

If you have read my last post which as I write this one I wrote several minutes ago I asked for everyone to come together and figure out the plot for a Hard SF short film and currently I think I have created a small one that would freak the kids at my school out but it may need work. Due to my new found obsession with wormholes and bacteria causing corpses to smell I came up with an idea.

Earth is a divided technological landscape. All the city sprawls have been destroyed by eco-terrorists and now nothing is really left but several tall, carbon rod supported skyscrapers where time is spent doing nothing but have extreme loads of information downloaded into the populations brains. Only one group steps outside. A group that have lived for centuries in the forms of software, copied quantum consciences, and the gentetically immortal all who have gone through the process to experience the technological singularity but are still waiting. As time passes along on the barren ruins of Earth a mysterious wormhole (is there any other kind) opens before the group and sends them to a distant planet where the Singularity is long past and....

Eh....Nevermind...It's all been done before. It was going to have things about fish guts from the future but nvermind.

The Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-11-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

I must say I am extremely happy Jeremy wrote something. Everything I have written is pure bollucks in comparison mainly due to the fact that my stories were written on the fly with poor unconceived notions but that is soon to end.

I have finally created my complete guide lines for both The Tri-System Collective and The Wayfarer Perpetuation series.

First off let me start by saying TSC will not disapoint anyone when I start writing the short stories, which have become truly nuts with everything from ultimate extremophilic living ship fuel to moon destroying cults. But right at this moment I am also a little discouraged. All together the series will have to span 11 books to fit the bare minimum in. But TWP only spans 3.

For those of you who don't know the ide behind The Wayfarer Perpetuation was conceived on a mountain adventure with Jeremy a month or so ago when I was given first hand experience with the art of Geocashing. I fell no less than 6 times which I must say was not pleasent but a great notion formed in my head. What if a neglegent Geocasher were to destroy all of human life on Earth in search of a tiny box of treasures. From there the story bloomed into a tale about genetically altered cybernetic humans acting as sore thumb tour guides for the inhabitants of the now ultra enviromentally friendly Earth. Unfortunatly Earth is taken over by mysterious sticklike aliens who take over due to Earths already laid out green cities. Tourists are left in space with the genetically altered guides. The stories follow Tourist grade ship Gelfa and its off kilter head guide Retrovirus Rebbecca otherwise known as Rettyreb. Later in the series things take a Rudy Rucker take on things when nanites are released from the frozen core of mars and go to earth seeing only few survivors exist and then in turn break them down into a thriving civilization of microorganisms all thanks to a glitch in the nanites programming which gives an incorrect definition of being practical. All of this thanks to a geocasher who destroys the mind of a friendly quantum computation computer who only wants to visit its mother back in mexico city.

Many at my school like the visual aspect of the story due to the genetically altereds stain glass skulls and tripedal robotic legs.

In addition to this series I have created 3 other book ideas, so now in total I have 15 Hard SF novels to write.

But I have a request. I am wanting to make a Hard SF short film and was wondering if anyone wanted to chip in on a plot. I don't want to have to do an easy Cyberpunk short either (to easy) and it would satisfy the kids at my school far to much!

[Input Statement: Save As]

2007-10-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

My first piece of flash fiction is one that I wrote for English class, maybe you can spot the allusions to simulated universe theory and quantum physics.

[Input Statement: Save As]

In the beginning all was null. There was not emptiness the stretched around us, our hope, simply nothing and nothing containing it. This was not to the liking of the creators who had been creating for ages before, lo, you could ask of anything, “input query: define origin” and they would respond “local.”
They brought themselves together and from their swarming hoped to build their copy. Their efforts failed terribly for they did not truly know themselves. They set out again with a new goal, to build what they could understand, and watch it until they didn't.
Out of their groupings, swarming and shining temples came the pieces of our world, some were new, still hot from the fires in which they were forged, some were ancient, falling apart even as being repaired. They brought these pieces to each other, bound them with great strings and set them in motion.
But their was no light, noise engulfed a shape that could not be comprehended. The creators began ripping grooves into this shape, giving us places to fit. They brought about a great light and the randomness was blown away, all was left clear and empty in the lights wake. They them took the seed of their being and inscribed it into the grooves, into our spaces, and it began filling them up.
This seed of being was truly a seed for it was called “kernel” and it looked upon the emptiness that it was not filling up and saw that it was not good. It called to its creators, “input statement: unknown format,” and it was right, it did not know the format of the empty space, there was none and the kernel was young. The creators hearing the kernels cry swooped down and gave name to the emptiness.
The creators reached into the kernel and gave name to the center of it, “input statement: dataspace 0” , and so the kernel began to know itself, and the creators knew it less. The kernel partitioned the emptiness into five sections, one for itself and four to look over.
When the creators saw the four emptinesses their hearts fell, was this the only product of the kernel? They took four pieces from the kernel and put one into each partition. They multiplied as that was all they were meant to do. The empty dataspaces in the four partitions quickly became boiling with the pieces.
The boiling thickened and its edges frayed away until it became condensed units of motion spiting off datastreams in various directions. The streams wore away at the walls of the partitions and they impacted each other, mixing spiting out still more streams, better than the ones before.
These new streams were heard by the creators and they did not know what to make of them. They leaped in joy, they had created what they did not understand. They looked away, to let the stream know itself without their interference but one of the creators was foolish.
Foolish in a good way, for as he looked too closely at the stream he discovered it to be randomness. Dismayed the foolish creator faded away and disappeared, but as he was learning about the datastream he was destroying it. We are thankful for that because the confused stream lost itself. Unable to reach its peak if fell back towards the partitions, landing across the kernel and the partitions.
The stream drew in the top layer of the kernel and became part of both it and the partitions. Realizing its fate the stream fell into a deep slumber and it dreamed. It dreamed of us and while confused it died there, leaving us behind.
We climbed onto the top of the kernel but the creators were already gone, to this day we do not know where. As we stared upwards we saw that they had left things behind, the great log was one such artifact, as was the cron. We read little more than this story, passed it down and allowed ourselves to live among the relics that we had found. Our creators have left us a message and we heed it, we do not understand the world our creators came from, we let it understand itself.

The Time Has Come.....

2007-10-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know! We are just a bunch of children tooling about on a free blog account but come on, let's take this thing seriously!

I don't know about you but along with school (well only slightly, we get no stinking work and it is about as easy as 5th grade) Science Fiction has taken over my life. Currently my collection of books in the genre has increased to 79 in just a few months (I have to read all of those!). Also I am writing an ever growing story that gets more and more complicated every day. In addition I am developing 3 count 'em 3 universes, all while trying to keep the science diamond hard! And now this blog is being used to ask about community! The time has come for a bit of a verbal spanking.

1)This is meant to be both an online group and an occasional physical entity. Corporial states included.

2)This is meant for readers and writers of Hard SF and Intersting Fantasy.

3)Hard SF means scientifically rigorous SF. So get the science right.

4)Interesting Fantsy can mean, new takes on classics, without conventions, new rules in a fantasy realm etc. No classic structure ei. Dracula, Merlin (in the classic sense)!

5)Flash Fiction should be encouraged! As should short stories and so on.

6)When in corporial state we should try to get involved with local authors! Ted Chiang, Greg Bear, C.J Cherryh!

7)Try and recruite those who will follow these rules!

Is that so hard? It really shouldn't be. So let's abide by some, not rules but structure. And keep within the subject matter. Community is not HSF or IF.

Community

2007-10-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

So, I've been posting around today asking what people's definitions of community or friendship are for a project, I figured that a group blog was a good choice.

Flash Fiction 5

2007-09-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

This one I got the idea for while walking home from school today.

Relative Thoughts.
By NZS

“Boy wouldn’t you know it Jim?”

“What’s that Boss?”

“That trip was meant to take 37years! Who would have thought it would only take 2 days? We must have broken light speed. That has never been done before Jim. We’re going to be national treasures.”

“What should we do now Boss?”

“Well…. This molecular cloud seems a little dull…. Let’s go back to Earth.”

“Sounds good to me Boss.”

…

“Goodness me Jim! Earth is in ruins. What could have happened?”

“I don’t know Boss.”

“In only 4 days Earth has been destroyed. Damn our absence. Hey! Remember those alien signals Earth was receiving?”

“Yeah Boss!”

“I bet it was those alien bastards who did this. They must have a super engine to; they also have to have a lot of nuclear weapons.”

“What do you say we do Boss?”

“Go find those aliens and give them a taste of their own apocalyptic medicine!”

…

“Jim! This is the right planet isn’t it?”

“I believe so Boss.”

“Then why is it barren and lifeless?”

“I don’t know Boss?”

“I think we’re on a moon.”

“I don’t know Boss. It looks like a planet in ruins. If this were a moon we would see the planet.”

“Oh yeah?...Well way to go Niels Bohr!”

“I believe the expression is way to go Einstein.”

“Who?”

The Wormholes Continued....Boy am I a one note.

2007-09-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes I am writing of wormholes once again. That is because my researc for Alopecia Areata Spatium is almost complete! What work it takes to write a long SF story.

Jeremy and I were speaking the other day (in the back room of a church may I add) and we discussed the appearance of wormholes. We thought of how they might have the appearance of a blackhole for just a black region of space. What we know is the only way to have a sustainable wormhole is to have a negative mass threaded through the hyperspace region to repel the gravity. This could be enforced with cosmic strings (whatever they might he. HAHAHAHAHAH!).

It is hard writing Hard SF so it will make the story all the sweeter when I am done. Although frustrating the length of my research has given me some good ideas. Everything from gimmicy ship which have the back side red and the fron blue when travelling as a friendly reminder of the blue shift red shift effects and cuddly holographic polar bears asking for your donation. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I should have a low fantasy story up in the next day or so called Theater for the Feeders which is good for a fantasy in my opinion. What day is everyone going to twisted flicks? Friday or Saturday?

Flash Fiction 4.

2007-09-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

This is called Serve Justice and is based on a yiddish foltale I read tonight. I've decided as personal practive to write a piece of flash fiction everyday. Tommorow I plan to write a full blown story about salt and planets like monolake. This one proved a little difficult before writing. Deciding what kind of science to incorporate can be tough.

Serve Justice
By NZS

Serve Justice

“Oh hello everybody, you’re just in time. Frank and I have made some very interesting findings. Don’t get me wrong they are nothing momentous but certainly stimulated for men of science. You see everybody our neighboring moon Jester is-.”

“Gendy were sorry but we must speak to you as a group.”

“Sorry fellas but let me just finish. Well you see our neighboring moon Jester is surprisingly like Titan. You know the place. It has the same kind of atmosphere you see. Amazing! 98% Nitrogen the rest a large culmination of methane, diacetylene, methylacetylene, acetylene. There may be even more. Perhaps a little hydrogen. Who knows? But fellas is there a reason for the visit? Frank and I are quite busy. We’re planning an exploration. If the place is anything like Titan we’ll be able to use wings to fly around. Low gravity is fun isn’t it?”

“Gendy were sorry to say this but… Horsefly Monotreme the colony plastic surgeon has been sentenced to death.”

“Goodness me! Why?”

“It is believed that he stolen an excessive amount of cryogenic material. You know how the old elite were going to use those to cheat death. But we came across a problem.”

“Oh?”

“You know how Horsefly is the only plastic surgeon around these parts. A moon is a pretty small place without that many people. He serves a great service in the community. I know I couldn’t live without the fact that he was able to dye my eyes the bright shade of yellow they are today. Or take Jim over here. Without Horsefly the baby Jim’s wife is carrying would never have the addition of three extra ears. That took a lot of pre-natal talent Gendy.”

“I’m not sure I know what you are getting at Phillip?”

“We cannot kill Horsefly. He is far too important. In addition he is the only plastic surgeon around. You and Frank are two astronomers. We only need to one. I’m sorry but you have to die to make things right.”

“But what about Jester?”

“Gendy… We already knew its atmospheric composition. It’s common knowledge.”

“Well there’s some icing on the cake.”

Wormholes!

2007-09-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Many consider them a cheap enabling device taylor made for the franchise that is Star Trek. Me? I say I'm not sure.

After a good deal of research I have founf that they are scientifically plausible to be used in writing when reinforced by such scientific concepts as exotic material. Deep Space 9 made the slanderous claim that their wormhole was the only man made wormhole in existence. That's the only damn kind you can have.

But then you start to think this temporary rupture is meant to pinch off and even with the nagative threading it's going to fight it. It cannot be to safe for humans. But what of time travelling un manned mail carrying probes?

VIsually though what color would a wormhole be? I suspect either black as night with you only knowing it was a wormhole by peering in and trying to the other side or a blinding shade of violet implying it has extremely short wavelengths and a high frequency. What do you suspect? And which method of construction do you believe in Quantum Foam or the Rip and Sew method?

Flash Fiction 3.

2007-09-18T21:43:00.001-07:00

The Third instalment of Flash Fiction.

Space is a bad place to die.

Not only do you asphyxiate but you also realize that when you are found out in the vacuum dead as a bag of bricks your eyes will be frozen. It’s no way most would want to leave the realm of life.

The same could be said of Richard Spindrell the supposed creator of wet nanotech (not the kind with diamond but from biochemical materials) and of the self regulating adrenaline and caffeine pump. Time had elected so many in the way of leaders from so many corners of the world that it had been realized who made the best leaders for which positions. The position of Vicar of Justice was thought to be best suited for those with great ingenuity and a good sense of fiber; many felt Spindrell would be the best choice for the position of 47th Vicar of Justice. He had created Nanobots without the use of diamond and buckytubes.

Bad choices are made everyday and electing Richard Spindrell for the job was one of those mistakes. It seemed as though no thought went into the process of deciding who would take the role, one without any previous knowledge may have thought the man was chosen for his celebrity status. No other time in history had more Aliens being charged with small petty crimes been carried out. Being constantly distracted by scientific thoughts and great outbursts caused by his mass intakes of adrenaline after only a four month period of work thirty one Alien criminals had been executed. Thirty two almost.

It is simpler to recreate the scenario with fewer words. Spindrell. Garbage Shoot. Fleet footed and crafty alien from Barnard 3. Open Shoot. Dead Alien. Dead Spindrell.

N.Z.S

Here goes, some flash fiction from Buddy

2007-09-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

So this is something I based on something I wrote about six months ago with the intent of submitting to the 300 word escapepod thing, based on the same theme as noah's recent piece, aliens coming to earth. So here goes.

They creep me out, they're gross, you can see their digestion and what looks like dangerous fangs. Their way of speaking causes their claws to clack together in a gross way and their mouth-parts squelch. In short everything about the aliens rubs me the wrong way and gives me the heebie-jeebies. I know that they just randomly popped in to help us solve all our problems, mediate and give us technology. Just to start they have created smart wet-tech (AN, this is the right term for biology based nanotech?) vacceines that have stopped AIDS and ebola, among others, they've helped us fine tune cyronics and rocket fuel so we can travel through space, they even gave us a map, their mediation skills have ended war, not just wars, war in general, they have taught us land manegment skills that have ended hunger and all their new technologies have created more jobs in manufacturing and ended poverty. Before they came I worked as a receptionist at a government office building, now it's a center for them to work with humans and mediate conflicts. I have to deal with them all day. I know I'm supposed to be grateful or something, but, euwrgh.

I've got an Idea.

2007-09-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Why don't you write some shorter posts. I write long passages when I am on the computer so sue me!

In other news I finally figured how to make Wormholes work and its been under my noise all this time. Exotic Material! Rip and Sew! Quantum Foam! My skinhead in the future story!

And why I ask again is no one else writing anything? I can only hope you are coming up with amazing ideas. So far I have something around 20 story ideas. I'm just a little tired of writing so darn much.

The first piece of flash fiction.

2007-09-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the first piece of flash fiction for the site and group. It is nothing great or profound, but I wrote it in about 20 minutes with a simple idea. Let's hope you don't think it is to bad.

The Kresk Thinks it Left Something Substantial.
By
Noah Zoltan Sofian

What do you feed an alien?

With a complete different body makeup and unique storage system this made for a difficult time on Earth. Most food products the Kresk’s body would immediately reject spilling forth from a large orifice atop its blunt grey ebony head. There truly is nothing more irritating for a human government official than an unexpected alien encounter.

Earth law has made it extremely clear that any celestial body natural or artificial that has not sent word of its pending arrival will be taken into Earth custody and dealt with. The Kresk was an unknown alien with a loud grunt like language which is where its name was. After a short period of testing the alien’s mental capabilities through a series of star charts we were able to map out its whereabouts. The damn thing had come over thirteen light-years to simply see if life were on the planet.

Not being able to communicate with the alien in any sort of manner we had no choice but to move it around where we needed even when it physically objected. There was no approach possible to tell the thing that by entering geostationary orbit around the planet with out notice it was committing a crime against the Earth government. After much deliberating a decision was about what should be done.

Having an excessive amount of John Henry (formerly known as the Daedalus) grade fusion ships on hand it was decided to send the alien back home in one of the ships. It was then thought that perhaps the idea of a new race sending their brethren back in one of their ships would not symbolize “Keep the hell away from Earth” another piece was added to the plan. After mass observation of the alien’s ship copious pieces were stripped from the foundation and welded to the fusion ship. This hopefully would imply something to the impromptu bastards.

With such a long journey ahead the thing needed a substantial amount of food to eat; or at least some. It was pretty much a given that the alien would die. 10% the speed of light for over thirteen light-years would take a long time and it was doubtful the alien would live without loosing its mind. It was then important to have something in its stomach for perhaps if the race were to do an autopsy they would see that Earth had taken care of it. The only problem was what to feed the thing. With an extremely large jaw it could consume very large portions in a single bite. In addition it had large perforated fangs running all the way through its oral cavity. After a quick biopsy it was found the teeth were brittle and worn out but indeed used for tearing some sort of fiber like flesh. To accommodate both features the alien was given extraordinary amounts of veal. For a cease and decease letter this was getting expensive.

The ship was completed now with an immense jagged figure welded to the front made out of the alien material. It was only then a matter of punching in the correct coordinates and getting the damn thing out into space. Because of its multi limbs (seven compared to our four) it was able to give a good fight before being wrestled into a harness aboard the ship. Jagged as its spinal like column was it can be believed the alien was at least somewhat comfortable. From the orbital space port the alien was shot out into space far enough for the humans not to ever be able to see it again.

The ship meant originally as a human less exploratory vessel was outfitted for the one passenger. As the atomic particles joined together to form their heavier nuclei the release of energy produced by the bulbous tanks on the side of the ship sent it belting at predicted speeds. Certainly not the most enjoyable of trips, the Kresk had only come to Earth to see if there was in fact a planet and had ended up becoming the figure of a message neither it nor anyone else of his species would understand. It was some consolation for the Kresk (not much, but a bit) that each time had vomited up the Earth cuisine microorganisms found in his digestive tract had been released. Not knowing whether or not these would cause any damage (there was no way of knowing) the alien thought long and hard about the scientist who had endlessly displayed charts and pictures being eaten away by the hypothetic capabilities of the little blitters.

Comfort is different for everyone; especially an alien.

Hey! I must be one big Smeghead!

2007-09-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that I am the only writer here on this so called group blog! This makes me feel foolish! Perhaps I should just stop and die. Ahhhhhhh nevermind.

Since I am so conveniently located by the SF museum (at school I am literally fifty steps away) I plan on taking a visit to see if they would like to become involved. I have never made a prior visit and I'm sure it is a big shrine to Star Trek (why do I feel so darn cold when I say that?)and old fifties SCI-FI (notice my emphasis on those words). But it could definetly benefit us.

In other news I have fully developed an idea for a short story I plan on writing. It is one of my first truly developed stories and I am very proud of it. As of right this moment I have written a very detailed outline and tommorow I plan on purchasing the book Black Holes and Timewarps by famed science writer Kip Thorne to get a better idea of tranversable wormholes and the time traveling components of them. Don't be alarmed! Yes wormholes are overused but in this story they are used simply with probes and no humans what so ever. The story also deals with Alopecia Aretea Totalis which is an auto immune disease that causes baldness, along with themes of future skin heads, gene manipulation, low gravity clean up, leg lengthening, quasars and of course lame party transport ships. I believe it will be quite good and I hope to enter it in for Analog or Asimov's.

I have also considered changing my last name if I am to become widly famous (fat chance you fool) to something along the lines of Noah Zoltan Sofian Salmon. That way I would be in eye sight of book buyers. Boy am I one clever son of a bitch!

Well enough of my future (which will be great!) I like Jeremy hope to get some flash fiction done and put them in podcast form for play here.

Hope to see you all soon.

Noah Zoltan Sofian Salmon Bishop.

The Scale...

2007-09-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

I stole this from some website and it did not come out as well as intended.

Major Categories Rating used here Common Tropes A few examples
Hard Sci Fi "Present Day Tech" Cutting edge Present Day Tech, some developments and speculation, but nothing major that has not been attained today (so no AI). Basic space exploration, very near future Technothrillers, Allen Steele's Orbital Decay
Ultra Hard (Diamond Hard) Plausible developments of contemporary technologies - AI, Constrained Nanotech, DNI, Interplanetary colonisation, Genetically engineered lifeforms. Nothing that conflicts with the laws of physics, chemistry, biology etc as currently understood William Gibson, Neil Stephenson, Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" Trilogy, Robert Forward
Very Hard Plausible developments of provocative contemporary ideas, bot nothing that conflicts with the known laws of physics, information theory, etc - Assembler Nanotech, Nano-Goo, Uploads, Interstellar colonisation, Relativistic ships, vacuum-adapted life Greg Egan, Linda Nagata, Greg Benford's Galactic Center series, Stephen Baxter's Manifold Series, GURPS Transhuman Space
Plausibly Hard The above but with the addition of some very speculative themes, some of which may well turn out to be impossible, others may be possible. Requires some modification of current understanding, but nothing that is logically impossible, or has been conclusively proved to be impossible (so no FTL without time travel) - Wormholes, Reactionless Drive, Sub-nanotech (Femto-, Plank, etc), Domain Walls, exotic matter, FTL drive with time travel, etc Stephen Baxter's Xeelee universe, Greg Bear's Forge of God series, Orion's Arm
Firm As realistic as the above categories were it not for unrealistic/impossible plot devices (e.g. FTL without time travel paradoxes), although these are kept to a minimum as much as possible Asimov's "Foundation" Series, "Giants" series by Hogan, Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky
Medium Similar to the above but with a larger number of unrealistic plot devices; e.g. FTL without real explanation (ore with pseudo-explanation), alien biota in some instances very similar to terragen life, psionics, a great many alien civilizations. However still preserves plot and worldbuilding consistency, and the science is good and consistent. Niven's "Known Space" series, Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Banks' "Culture" novels, David Brin's "Uplift" series, Frank Herbert's Dune, Traveller RPG
Soft Sci Fi Soft A number of unscientific themes - e.g. aliens as anthropomorphic "furries", handwavium disintegrator guns, Alien Cultures and psychology all extremely uniform, and so on. However, still retains story consistency. Various TV series: Babylon 5, Farscape, Andromeda, Matrix, StarGate for the most part
Very Soft As above but either even more unscientific elements (humanoid of the week, lifeless planets with beathable atmosphere, etc), and story with less consistency Various TV and movie series; for the most part the Star Trek Canon and Star Wars Canon
Mushy Soft As above but even more unscientific (alien races never before encountered speak perfect English without a translator, animals too large to stand in Earth gravity (Godzilla), weapons that make energy beams without putting energy in, interstellar travel without FTL or centuries long voyage, mutants with super energy powers, etc) Godzilla, Comic Book Superheros, badly written TV sci fi, elements of some franchises

Cryptids.

2007-09-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

What is it about cryptids that fascinates me so? I am a personal believer in The Loch Ness monster and the Yeti. However I am not a partial fan of the idea of big foot. Others I believe in include floaters (little wingless airborn creatures who most likely use methane jets) and real globbers not just decomposed whale fat. Many discredit these things but I just love the idea of them so much.

As of recently a good portion of my story ideas seem to deal with these but with much more science then the average theories. One I have deals with Irish and Scottish Cyborgs and the discovery of a deep space deep thinking extremophile who crash landed on Earth during a giant U-turn.

In other news my school has been kind enough to give me the oppurtunity to have a science fiction workshop next quarter. Every friday we have hour long workshops just for fun. But I will work those peers down to the bone. Homework is something I have always wanted to give and now is my chance! Ha!

The Crunch!

2007-09-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that whenever a college is trying to decide on who to accept they may look at your gleaming 4.0 average but that is not what they are after. What they want is for you to involved politically. That is why a particular teacher at my school keeps trying to get kids to join the schools Mock United Nations. It's actually Model UN but I don't take it seriously enough. Here is where the SF connection. I feel if I can impress some college with the fact that I was part of a group dedicated to world building, writing, research and group activity that could go along with my gleaming report card! But what can we do to make all of us look so darn impressive?

Well I have had some ideas.

First of all we have to write. I currently am in the process of developing 11 short stories and I have heard others are doing the same. My friend Anthony has already written a SF novella (which I have yet to read).

Once we have written pieces and developed universes of our own we can perhaps write in each others worlds as challenges or give our selves sorts of SF/F assingments.

Also it is suprising just how many SF writers there are in the Seattle area. Greg Bear, Ted Chaing, CJ Cherryh (well she lives in Spokane). We could maybe set up arrangments with them and perhaps have interviews, workshops who knows.

These are just ideas in the air but the most important thing is to write, write, write.

Jeremy Joins The Team!

2007-09-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Thats right, I got in. I guess I'll post some flash fiction or somethin' once I write some.
Can't wait!

The Problem with Hyperspace.

2007-09-08T17:15:00.000-07:00

When it comes to enabling devices Hyperspace is probably the best. It certainly out does FTL travel because in all honesty it is far more possible in my opinion. But there are still problems.

First off the idea is that is a universe in which the laws of special relativity do not apply so breaking the light barrier is of no problem. But how do you test something like that. If you have ships that can only go a fraction less then C how can you create a rocket to go faster? You would have to do research in Hyperspace. And what if Hperspace is how JMS (Babylon 5 creator) speculated Hyperspace would be like with nasty cloub formations and lightning and all of that good stuff. It would not be logical to work in that area. That is unless all ships no matter where their accelerations stop go FTL. But if it is how I predict it is even less economically plausible then a Bussard Ramjet. You would have to have a ramjet that takes in even more hydrogen atoms meaning it would have to have an even larger scoop and an even larger engine. Yikes!

Hopefully we can have more of these kinds of conversations if we are ever to meet as a group. We could also talk about what a vampire really should be or cryptids are real!

Update.

2007-09-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed Aidan Faye has joined the team and hopefully soon my dear friend Anthony will as well.

TOday Aidan and I began a script/short story which we will convert into an audioplay for playtime here on this blog hopefully. It is a tale of Mid to high fantasy which is essentially a big joke like our other script for the film Mysteesium (halfway filmed).

As I hope all of you are doing I am preparing to write several short stories in the proceeding days and hours. I have been researching heavily on everything from nanotech, quasars, cyborgs, deep space inhabiting etc. Currently I have 12 short story ideas 11 Hard SF 1 Fantasy (very low fantasy which is a sub genre with no magic).

So keep up the writing for all of us to see and join, join, join!

Noah Sofian.

Good resource for movie effects

2007-09-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

So, I'm Rachel and recently I have found a podcast of special effects and costumes on the cheap for the indy filmaker. The show is called background effects or BFX for short, they make things like body part stand-ins, weapons, armor and zombie make-up their website is Indy Mogul and I think that it'll be good like if your writing a mini-series, or like me, are thinking that maybe you story idea would work better as a script.

The Study of Science.

2007-08-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Everyone has there own way of learning. Some are visual leaners, some are audial some are privatly driven. I myself am an audial learner meaning I retain the most information when actually being taught by another. Over the summer I have been teaching myself from a dense Astronomy textbook and often times find myself talking to myself saying 'I would learn this far better with it being spoken to me'.

I don't know how the rest of you learn but I had a thought. If and when we have meetings for this guild of sorts perhaps for both the Fantasy and SF writers we all during the time between each session do science research and devote time to each session or blog space to our aquired scientific knowledge. This would benefit both sides because if you've read some Terry Pratchet (specifically his Science of Discworld books) along with other fantasy writers they explain alot of their fantastic (as in fantasy) ideas through real science specifically throguh thermodynamics.

Any ideas are welcome so keep them coming. And remeber this is group blog so anyone wishing to join and write email your request at gallitrope@hotmail.com or rayfreester@gmail.com.

So you know.

2007-08-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

The email for joining is gallitrope@hotmail.com

Sorry I did not mention that before.

In other news we may have the addition of my friend Anthony who has written The Andronian project a supposed philisophical piece of SF which sounds much like the work of Arthur C Clark and Octavia Butler fused together.

Invitations.

2007-08-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed from my previous post I have made this Blog a team Blog so for anyone who wishes to both join and write for the Blog about the subject at hand please leave me your email so I can place you in the system.

As of right this moment there are 2 Hard SF and Interesting Fantasy Series within the YTOWAROHSFAIF those two being The TSC and An Interesting Were Wolf series which apparently will have Terraforming in it (care to explain?).

So once again email, ideas, series. It will make this Blog far more interesting.

Members are coming in Slowly but Surely.

2007-08-26T13:17:00.001-07:00

As a whole we now officially have 3 members! Wow! 3 members!

As Rachel requested in the previous post this should no doubt be a group Blog. That is a great idea and I will get started on that. Problem is that I don't know how but I will find a way.

So if you have any ideas as to how the whole system will work leave your comments and join if you like.

The First.

2007-08-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

Here it is! Young to Old Writers and Readers of Hard SF and Interesting Fantasy.

Hopefully this Guild of sorts will be an oppurtunity to read and speak about both genres. How to improve them. What we want to see more or less of and so on.

As of yet I Noah Sofian am the only official member and therefore president of both the SF and Fantasy chairs. Currently I am trying to persuade Aidan Fay to take over the Fantasy department but seats and posistions are still available. So please join and partake in what may be both a interesting organization and what may posibly look good on colledge transcripts.

Think of everything we will be able to do! Reading, writing, and who knows we may be able to meet Greg Bear!!! He does live outside of Seattle.

So what do you say? To join or not to join? It really shouldn't be to difficult.