So what have I been writing?
Of course, as usual, the answer to this question is Science Fiction. But, not bundled into the Aurora Chronicles. I’ve found a couple of small time e-magazines that buy new authors quite consistently, so I’m getting up to speed on their submission requirements and penning a few things for them.
I don’t know how fast one of the magazines answers submissions, and the other indicates that it answers by the end of the next month. So I should know something near the end of July for at least one short story.
Inspiration behind the more reading link:
On Inspiration:
Space is generally my thing. But sometimes, I get asked how do I keep writing about space. Here’s my answer:
SPACE PICTURES.
image found here: LINK
The above picture is the Cone Nebula, and this image was the APOD (or Astronomy Picture Of the Day) for the 28th of May 2014. I spend a lot of time looking at images from Hubble as well. But, APOD is a good way to get a new picture a day. I have the app for it on my iPhone, I have it in the favorites on each computer that I have access to in the family, I even have the URL memorized. (apod.nasa.gov – in case you were curious)
I also devour science fiction in any of it’s many forms. I admit to not liking some of the so called classics, and I love some of the more alternate versions of science fiction as well.
But what about The Aurora Chronicles story Blindly Stargazing, the one with the blind Captain? What made you write that story?
I was seeing one thing missing in almost all traditional science fiction. Disability. No one was really talking about how disabilities would be handled in their futuristic worlds.
I mean, not in a real sense. Sure, Star Trek: The Next Generation had Geordi LaForge with his VISOR that allowed him, a blind character, to see.
While I love Star Trek in all of it’s glory, I do have a minor problem with it. We don’t see a lot of things in Star Trek that I think we would have, even that far in the future.
Disease or Medical Difficulties and disabilities. I couldn’t help but wonder how a starship would have been reworked to allow for a disabled individual to serve. I wanted to try it out, and I had the perfect character for it in Madeline Walsh.
I figured out how to handle a blind character, for the most part. I think I could figure out a deaf character (with the glaring exception of not having known a deaf person on which to base them). But paralysis, I think I would have a problem with a paralyzed character anywhere but, say, a space station or dirtside. I’m still working on that.
I do plan to at least try to have a character with disabilities in each time period of The Aurora Chronicles.