World in the Satin Bag

World in the Satin Bag

SF/F Links: March Roundup Part One

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This is a little later than usual, but so be it. There will be a roundup at the start of April, most likely, rather than two roundups for March, although I’ll still call it a March Roundup. I got behind due to finals. In any case, here are a load of links that might be of interest to you all (more to come): Universe Today Galileo returns to the Vatican. Yup, they’re putting up a statue for him. About damn time. On the subject of Galileo, New Scientist had a controversial question about whether or not scientists should exhume his body to do DNA tests to figure out if the person buried with him, presumably his daughter, is actually his daughter. Quite honestly I really don’t care. This is the same as arguing that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays. Who cares? Venus’ south pole has some weird weather patterns and it’s sort of stumped scientists. Imagine when you pull the plug out of a drain and watch the water go down. Yeah, something like that. Apparently scientists are thinking about putting an “Ark” on the Moon. What does that mean? Basically a giant computer run complex that holds seeds and genetic info and what not in case we all blow ourselves to pieces. Not necessarily news, but scientists believe that all the little bits that formed together and created life might have been brought here by meteorites. This is apparently due to having found meteorites with rich concentrations of amino acids, which are rather important after all. I wrote about germs becoming three times more likely to spread disease a while back, but Universe Today has an article on it which is quite interesting here. There’s a lot more talk about what this means for long space missions too. We might be able to find small, terrestrial planets around Alpha Centauri, which is every SF fan’s wet dream. All we need is five years a a moderately sized telescope. I’m in. More reasons why Pluto is so much better than Venus and Mercury, who are still planets (I feel sorry for Pluto…this is nothing short of racism): Pluto has two more moons, Nix and Hydra. Eat that Venus! Kessler Syndrome: the idea that space travel will become impossible without hitting something. Yeah, this is a problem we may be facing pretty soon. We need a giant garbage machine to go up there and eat up all that stuff and turn the material into convenient little metallic bobble-heads. That would be cool. Write, Pam, Write! has an awesome list of seven writing tips. Check it out! Strange Horizons has part one of an awesome article on the realities of space warfare! (Courtesy of SF Signal) The Devil Frog! That’s right, scientists have uncovered information about a giant frog that lived a long time ago when dinosaurs still roamed. Sixteen inches doesn’t sound like a very large frog, but that’s pretty freaking huge in the frog world! There’s a bit more about it here. Star Wars Toys that will never be made. Hilarity ensues. (Courtesy of SF Signal, I think) A supersaturated view of the moon. That translates to a really freaking cool looking rendition! Don’t know where I found this, but how about a list of nine of the most baffling theme parks around the world? Yeah, coolness! 25 ways to break your procrastination habit. Yeah, I need to pay attention. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Milky Way Galaxy. Too bad one of them isn’t “cause it’s freaking awesome”. (Courtesy of SF Signal) The only reason Bungie, the company that made the Halo games, is any good. One of the Mars Orbiters discovered an ancient Mars lake that might have been inhabitable once. (No, there wasn’t any water) New Scientist has an article that suggests that hardy bacteria could survive in Lunar soil (not in the vacuum though). That’s pretty cool. Listverse Top 10 Badass Swords. Poke! Top 10 Most Overlooked Mysteries in History. This one is youtyreally freaking cool! By the way, I want to see this Voynich manuscript! io9 A wristband your boss can use to track your emotions. Yeah, cause we need people to have MORE control of our lives. Sand Dollars (you know, those really interesting shelled critters with the cool shells?) apparently clone themselves when in danger, which is fascinating to think about. Imagine if you could clone yourself on command. These are hilarious. Pictures of scifi things that look like things in real life! 8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories! Yes! There’s been a breakthrough in how digits are grown, meaning that we might be able to “naturally” grow replacement digits. Now that’s cool right? We once figured that sleep patterns were primarily controlled by changes in light, well new studies suggest that TVs can also have an effect. I’m screwed, since a computer screen isn’t that much different. Crap. Would you inject your breasts with nanoparticles if they could be used to detect cancer? If I had breasts I would, but since I don’t…regardless, nanotech is the wave of the future. This is interesting: plants develop new reproductive systems in cities. They go from being dispersing systems (the seeds fly to some other spot) to nondispersing (they just lend next to the parent) because it’s more efficient. That’s neat! Evolution for the win AGAIN! Eat it creationists! 20 SF Novels That Will Change Your Life. Self explanatory right? Nanocrystals that absorb carbon dioxide. Cool? Yes, I think so. Robots are going to fight our wars for us. There’s some good and some bad about this. I might have to rant later. Scientists have found krill living as deep as 9,800 feet in the ocean below Antarctica. That’s good news for those of us hoping to find little aliens on Europa and what not. Rule 34: No exceptions. Yes, this picture is hilarious! Futurismic Immune system in a jar. That’s the title I’m going with. So, a virologist basically says

World in the Satin Bag

Well Shucks

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My story “Irlgem” was rejected from Eclipse Two. Unfortunate, but oh well, it’s off to someplace else then. We’ll see what happens. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

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Aha! Writing Updates

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“Marx Ignatia” is, for all intensive purposes, finished. I have to edit it, but I’ve reached the end, I think. I don’t know if it’s a good ending, but it’s done anyway. For those that don’t know, “Marx Ignatia” (the working title) was sort of inspired by another story called “Asher”, since the character of Marx Ignatia is mentioned in that story. So I finished it at 18,003 words and now intend to set it aside for a short while before going in to editing it. It’s a long piece, so I need a mental breather.Also, I’ve finished the first draft of “Interstellar Realty”, which may be the finished title, and it is off to be critiqued. I expect that story to go out at the end of the week.Now, to the pressing matter. I finished “Life of Jordan”, but it has a lot of problems that, unfortunately, have pushed it back and off of the planned submission to Writers of the Future. The story itself is fine, but there are bits where I obviously need to clarify or add things in order to make it work better and that poses a problem: I’m supposed to be removing words, not adding them. This means I may not be able to get “Life of Jordan” down to size and it may need to be submitted elsewhere. So, it’s been pushed out of the way since I need to get a story submitted to this quarter for WOTF. That means “Interstellar Realty” is going there, since I think it is a decent story. I enjoyed it so much, actually, that the little jokes made me laugh out loud.Anyway, so that’s the writing update for the time being. There’ll likely be another this weekend. I’ve got a lot of things cooking that have nothing to do with my writing, but do have to do with interviews and the like. So stay tuned!

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Oh You Silly Religious

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Apparently you can just make it up now. Yeah, I thought it was surprising to. It’s not written in the Bible, but hey, it must be a sin cause the Archbishop said so. Good lord. I proclaim a new sin, since we can just make it up now:Thou shalt not oppress, discriminate, or manipulate people of alternate position due to religious intolerance and thou shalt not profess the name of God in war, nor shalt thou make new sins because of changing times, nor for the sake of man’s indiscretions that that thou mayest have Holy Law as a defense for personal disagreement. Welcome to Shaunism, the new religion of the world, where people aren’t discriminated against for being slightly different or believing in magic bunnies or whatever else they believe in and neither are people killed, imprisoned, or threatened for believing in magic bunnies or whatever else so long as their beliefs do not cause intentional harm to those of the living. P.S.: Yes, I realize the sins in that link are basically decent ideas, but I still don’t like the idea of having to use religion as a basis for creating them as no-nos. Shouldn’t the Church just the address the issue from a common sense point of view? Maybe explaining why we shouldn’t do it rather than saying “well, God said so” would be a much better idea and possibly more effective. Now I feel like we should do all the things they don’t want us doing, just in spite. (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

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Movie Review: Sunshine

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This is probably one of those overlooked movies that everyone should see. Will it become a cult-classic? Probably not, and in all likelihood it will be forgotten in the next ten or so years. The sad thing is that this movie is one of the most amazing movies to come out last year. Sunshine follows the story of the Icarus II and her crew. The sun is dying a lot sooner than expected and mankind, being the stubborn “we will live” species that we are, is not ready to die out. They decide to send an enormous nuclear device to restart the sun. When the first ship, the Icarus I, mysteriously disappears, a second mission is set in motion with an even larger bomb–the size of Manhattan. Sixteen months into the journey the crew receives a disturbing signal: a distress beacon from the Icarus I. Capa, the crew’s physicist and expert on the bomb they are carrying, is given a decision: either ignore the Icarus I and hope the one bomb they have will work, or deviate from their course and possibly get a second bomb…two second chances. Like any story such as this, things do go horribly wrong, and I’ll leave it at that. Sunshine is a brilliant film that deserves a lot more attention than it has been given. Considering the abundance of flashy, space-opera science fiction being thrown out there, this is a huge breath of relief. It’s a disaster movie, but with gripping scenery. The CGI is fantastic here. It isn’t overdone and it looks, gasp, real. This is something that other directors should be looking at when they envision using CGI. If you can’t make it look real, don’t bother. There’s no point and it really hurts the feel of a movie when things look fake. The characters, while somewhat sparse in characterization at points, are powerful and memorable. The cast is well picked for the characters they are supposed to be and the acting is on par. It’s really hard to not love this film. Perhaps the only part that I felt hurt the movie was after a fire erupts in the Icarus II and destroys their oxygen supply. Later on, when things are falling apart, Corazon (played by Michelle Yeoh) finds a single little plant growing out of the ashes, which is such a beautiful scene, but considering the ending seems somewhat pointless. I love the scene, but it’s so depressing to think about Corazon’s almost tearful happiness at seeing life springing from the ashes (which might be a commentary on the story as a whole), only for that little bit of life to end up being no more anyway. I loved the scene, but sort of wished it had ended a little different. Perhaps that is what the writers intended to do, though. Regardless, this is a powerful film that stresses what it is to be human and even touches on some really disturbing issues of human psychology and God. One little bit of technology that I really loved was this sort of miniature holo-deck. Unlike in Star Trek it’s non-interactive. You can’t go walking around as Sherlock Holmes and shoot people, but for these astronauts who are stuck on this ship–which is huge, but still a giant tin-can–it acts almost like a refreshing moment to remember what it is they’re saving. It’s truly a beautiful little machine. Contrary to what the critics have said about this film, the end half does not ruin the amazing, beautifully envisioned beginning. In fact, the ending seems to amplify the desperation of the crew to succeed in their mission, even when there’s a killer on the loose and everything is falling apart. Remember, this isn’t just a survival of the individual, this is the survival of a whole species, and that desperation is clear by the end. The ending was powerful, gripping, and terrifying. The movie as a whole is equally as powerful, gripping, and terrifying and if you haven’t seen Sunshine yet, do so immediately. This film is truly a gem in the field of science fiction.

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Today Has Been…Special

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I have been one heck of a trooper today. I set a lofty goal of 2,000 words a day, with an amendment that stated that if I was writing an essay or doing something school related I would be able to sidestep the writing, since my entire life and success depends on being able to hold a job that can pay off the student loans and otherwise give me a livelihood that will sustain me and keep me from going nuts and working at Burger King. Partially the point of going to school is to educate myself in things I don’t already know, which is working, and partially to secure a decent job that will, hopefully, make me happy. Now, of course I’d love to be one of those nice folks who write for a living, but I think a part of me knows that such things will never happen, and I can live with that. All writers should, by the way, because most writers never get to that point. Even some of the huge names in the field right now are barely scrounging from all the work they put into writing. John Scalzi is not rich by a long shot and is quite generous in sharing his financials (which, while much better than I have ever made in my short life, is certainly not the greatest income considering he works his butt off writing fiction and other stuff).Okay, that aside, I’ve been a trooper because I started the day feeling generally like crap, for no apparent reason, and with my mind attempting to contemplate what exactly I was going to do with the story currently entitled “To Paint Lords Green”, a fantasy short set in the same general world as “Irlgem”. I sat around talking to the girlfriend and came to the conclusion that whatever I was doing with that story wasn’t going to work the way I had intended and the idea I was working with was going to turn into something too large for my tastes (I wanted a story under 5,000 words, and that just wasn’t going to happen).So I spent hours feeling sort of horrible and then I had a spark of random inspiration and started writing this new SF story currently called “Interstellar Realty”. I don’t think that will be the final title, but it’s a humor piece and I’m loving it. It took a while to get through because there is something about humor for me that requires a little more in the thought process. Jokes are somewhat difficult to write I think, especially if you don’t want to come off sounding like one of the very few SF writers who tell jokes in their stories. So, it is now after eight in the evening and I have officially written 2,752 words, 49 of which were in “To Pain Lords Green” (yes, I counted those).Is “Interstellar Realty” finished? Nope. Is it close? I think so. It’s technically at a good closing point, but I want to write a little more to provide a better ending to it. One thing I learned about a story I wrote a while ago was that the ending left people a little unsatisfied, which was difficult to change and still is (I think I’ve figured it out though, so I may be writing that very soon). Basically I want the story to end on a high-note, which won’t be much more than 500 words I think. I could probably cram it into 300 without losing much. It all depends what bizarre stuff pops in my head. Just so you know, “Interstellar Realty” is basically a comedy piece about futuristic realty companies in a galaxy where humans have moved to other planets and the like (there are aliens thrown into the mix). It’s also a commentary on customer support services, which we all have probably had to deal with. I won’t say much more than that though, because it might ruin the story.Now, the story “Life of Jordan” that I’m working on is written. It comes in at around 17,600 words, which is 600 over the limits for Writers of the Future, so I have to trim it down. It’s not edited at the moment, but in a very raw state. Part of that is because I want to go through it, with help from the rather brilliant and writing conscious girlfriend (yes, she gives honest advice and sometimes it ticks me off, but she’s more often right than wrong about things related to writing), and find all the bits that really shouldn’t be there and drop them out now before doing the real edit (typos, sentence structure, etc.). The premise of that story is one where the world has fallen due to global warming and small, walled and guarded cities have sprung up and genetic manipulation has been used to alter children so they are homosexual to prevent overcrowding, leaving heterosexual people, in such communities, to be considered dangerous (and illegal). I’ve enjoyed writing it because it does deal with some interesting conflicts in today’s society and it does spring up the idea of what we might one day do to solve our population problems.So, that’s where it all stands, basically. I’m doing a lot of writing and hopefully by the end of the next week I will have two more stories polished and ready to go out (“Life of Jordan” to Writers of the Future and “Interstellar Realty” to…somewhere). Exciting. Now I’m exhausted, so I’m going to go read and clear my head. Somewhere in there I’ll eat food.

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