"Felix", State and Diaspora

I took another stab at my "Felix" rewrite, but got stalled very quickly. I started to look at ways to get started again. At least I have an idea how.

"Felix", a science fiction story set on Mars, was inspired by a H. P. Lovecraft story.

What has me blocked is that there are several sections that I want to toss out and start over on. Everything I try sounds far too bland after a couple of lines. To a degree, I think I am still somewhat wedded to the earlier version.

When I did "The Barrier" I found it much easier to write when I did it directly in Xtranormal. I think that maybe that is an approach I should try. It may at least get me to think differently about the story.

I haven't heard about anyone else who used Xtranormal as a writing tool. I can't imagine I am the only person who thought of it.

Xtranormal is no longer available and I haven't found anything that I really think is a good replacement. There is a "abandon-ware" version of Xtranormal available (State Plus/Forever), so I downloaded and installed that.

I ran into a couple of problems with the install, but I have most of them fixed now. Since it isn't really supported, I can't get any outside help. I hope to have it working in the next few days.

The program is different than the Xtranormal Desktop that I used. I'll need to get familiar with the system before I can start to use it.

Diaspora

In last week's blog post, I talked about an idea I had to replace Facbook. Well, it turns out that isn't a new idea. One person on FaceBook suggested that I look at Diaspora. (diasporafoundation.org)

It isn't quite what I had in mind. For example, it has been hosted at an on-line "pod" and not on your own computer. You can set up your own pod, but it comes across to me as a very geek-friendly system. In other words, not everyone can set it up.

I suspect that over time it will become easier to use so non techies can use it. I'll keep an eye on it, and see what I can learn about it.

If you have had some experience with Diaspora, I would like to hear about it.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

My Science Fiction Stories

I have four science fiction stories on the go now. Over the last few weeks I made progress on a couple of them, but I need to focus on one at a time if I want to get any of them finished. I’d like to find some people to critique my stories.

The Science Fiction Market

I thought I might try to sell my story Heat Wave to a science fiction magazine, so I did a little research on-line. One magazine, Strange Horizons, has a list of the type of stories they don’t want to see: http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml. I’ll need to look at it a bit closer, but Heat Wave just might be one of them. That prompted me to think of other possible stories.

I picked up a collection of the best science fiction of 2010 at the library. Well, actually my wife picked it up. I wanted to get a feel for the kind of stories and style of writing they feature. It didn’t look to me as if there is a big change from the last time I read a lot of science fiction, back in the 1980s. I think the stories I’ve developed wouldn’t be out of place. That is assuming they turn out OK.

Heat Wave

Heat Wave is the story of a climate researcher who doesn’t get along with his new boss. I wrote more after my last post about it http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/science-fiction-story-update-2012-august-5/, but not in the last week. The first draft runs about 5,700 words now and I think I am about half done. The final story would end up at about 11,000 words. That said, I think I can develop the story more, which could make it a novelette or even a novella rather than a short story. I’ll leave that decision until I do another draft.

I based the story partly on some of my own experiences and partly on what one climate researcher told me about the threats she’d received.

Pete’s Plan

It is the story of a man who lives in a future time where unemployment is so high, that people who have jobs are unlikely to ever meet someone else who has a job. The story is set at a time after the singularity, when some people have become immortal and the rest haven’t.

I got started on it when I woke up from a scary dream early one morning and found it hard to get back to sleep. The dream inspired a story idea for me. I got up and wrote a short first draft in my notebook. I completed a second draft of it this week. It runs about 900 words. My brother has agreed to read it and give me a critique.

The Helix

One story, The Helix, I based on a Lovecraft story, but I moved the setting to Mars. It features a Mars rover I call Felix. So far, all I have is a few notes and a first attempt at an outline. I might change the name to The Spiral Tunnel, because I called the rover Felix. I don’t intend the story to be part of the Cthulhu Mythos, although the story I based it on was.

The Two Davids

The Two Davids, is about a man who wishes he could be two people so he wouldn’t have to choose between two life paths. It doesn’t turn out well for him.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog