Carolyn Ives Gilman and Me

I just started listening to Carolyn Ives Gilman's Dark Orbit. I was immediately struck how her set up parallels the SF saga I've been working on for years: Mischief's World (working title). Both stories feature a female protagonist with a science background in alien life who has a reputation for holding authority and official conventions at arms length. Both protagonists are compelled by a difficult circumstance, skillfully exploited, to accept a job. Both jobs put her on a journey to an unknown alien world, and both alien worlds were discovered by a message from an ancient exploratory vehicle that people had given up expecting to hear from. Both alien worlds also give a previously unseen look at alien life--the first-ever non-terrestrial life in Gilman's, the first compatible with terrestrial life (i.e. human) in mine.

Peek at Mischief's World opening pages [rough draft]

The parallels end there. Dark Orbit goes off into mysterious deaths and fractal space, Mischief into mysterious passengers, a romance, power and domination, and [SPOILER DELETED]. But that's an awful lot of overlap. Although Mischief might be more light-hearted and temperamental than Gilman's Sara, they would certainly be friends if they met.

I met Carolyn once, at Readercon, years ago. I'd had the great privilege to have her read one of my short stories and offer insightful feedback, and I was pleased she remembered it some months later. At that point, Halfway Human was her only title, and she wasn't accustomed to strangers looking up at her and saying, "Oh, Carolyn's here!" At that point in time, I only had one completed novel manuscript, and, curiously, like Halfway Human it was a "Gender SF" story. Hers shook up gender roles by creating a world where exists a third, neuter gender, mine by reversing the power dynamic by eliminating 90% of the male population (on a continuing basis).  The parallel would be truly astonishing if Mischief's World were my current project, but I confess it is stalled. It has an epic scale akin to The Fellowship of the Unloved, and epic scale means an epic undertaking for me.

When I tried to look her up online, I discovered that Carolyn's better-paying job is Historian, and my paycheck is for teaching High School Social Studies (and other subjects, but that's my favorite). I've always felt a kinship with Carolyn. A little envy, too, of course. But I like it that she sent a little of the spirit of Mischief O'Malley out into the published world. She was feeling a little cramped, stuck on my hard drive all these years. I hope we will meet again some day. I wonder how she would react if she got to see the opening for my story.

Nibble nibble little publisher

So, one publisher is looking at the manuscript for The Fellowship of the Unloved.

Another is looking at the outline for Mischief's World.

Mischief's World is the title I've finally settled on for my space colony story. I think it's going to be a series! The initial volume--the story of the journey out, and the corporation that wants to break my free-spirited heroine, and the enigmatic broken man she seems to be falling for--might actually be approaching completion. I'm at the "read through the story again and see if it's holding together" phase.

Here's a link to my initial post on this story, only 3 years ago!

It's a solid tale. I don't want to jinx myself, but after 12 years of struggling, I may complete 2 novels in 12 months.

Back and Forth

Okay, I did work on the transition. It got hard, I got stuck, I got distracted by the summer. I'm back in the colony story. I've been doing a lot of the first visit to the new world, and the lead-up to it. Busy time.

Now I'm distracted from that, by an insane need to build an electric bicycle. Visit http://idledad.blogspot.com for news about that project. Moreover, I've misplaced, maybe lost the flashdrive that had the latest work, with no backup, which has me bummed about writing. If that weren't enough, I've started a new job as a special educator, my first teaching job. Fyah...

Keeping the whole story in front of you

For a long time I've had a challenge being able to see the whole story at once, and think about it as a whole, rather than sequentially. This is my latest effort: iconic cartooning. The idea is a simple cartoon that captures the essence of a scene or event. No words are allowed. It is made with symbols of import to the author, with little need for representation.

The clip shown at left is from an early chapter in this story. I apologize for the poor rendering. It covers the journey to the colony ark, and some first events. In the top square, we see a figure with a star on the back of his head and another with flyaway hair. These symbolize Jonah and Mischief, respectively. Mischief is smiling animatedly, Jonah looking away. Heat waves off his head mean he is angry, she irritates him with her cheeriness.

In the second frame are three characters, Mischief with her flyaway hair, then another with curly hair (Avery) and one with dark glasses and a badge (security officer). The security officer strikes Avery with a stun wand that shocks him.

These two little squares describe a scene in which Mischief meets Jonah on the shuttle, and he is rude and spurns her. She moves to sit next to Avery, who is suddenly set upon by security, stunned, and removed from the shuttle, not to be seen again.

The remaining three frames show Mischief trying to make up again with Jonah in the cafeteria, and then Mischief asking the chaplain for news of Avery, where the chaplain warns her that security is watching.

The advantage of the visual format is I don't have to read it, I just have to see it. Moreover, I don't have to think up the right words. I just draw the Mischief icon with a goofy smile and her hand up and I have the feeling of what she is saying without writing it. Seems to be working.

A little Mischief

Okay, here's the protagonist of the latest story. On the right in the cargo pants, name of Mischief. The guy she's messing with, in the tweed, is an older botanist she has a brief fling with.

And here's where they're going: 44 Bootis A, just off the constellation Bootes, 40 lightyears away. Read about it at Solstation (http://solstation.com/stars2/44bootis.htm). But don't tell Mischief, she doesn't know, yet.