Science Fantasy Romance 19 - Satellite of Lust

Satellite of Lust

SFJ03

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More of the Sun

Blurb

Jeremiad, lounge lizard revolutionary, is captured and interrogated. What could be worse than that? Well, for one, there’s no bar.

Memories

before reading

Now that Jeremiad is an established character, I wanted to tell more stories with him. This is the one that developed.

Review

after reading

In this one, we learn about Jeremiad’s philosophy...and his ruthlessness. There’ll be more, later. I guarantee it. His war’s not over yet.

Next Week

(Fantasy)

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Science Fantasy Romance 18 - Pure Humanity

Pure Humanity

SFJ02

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More of the Sun

Blurb

Fast-talking Jeremiad picks up a woman in a bar on Ceres only to discover that they’re both on the run from the same crowd. Of course, there’s more beneath the surface of this lounge lizard revolutionary…

Memories

before reading

I couldn’t just leave Jeremiad alone, so I wrote a sequel exploring his youth, and with a new exciting adventure.

Review

after reading

We get some more details about Jeremiad’s background, and why he’s a revolutionary.

Next Week

Satellite of Lust 

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Science Fantasy Romance 17 - Jeremiad

Jeremiad

SFJ01

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More of the Sun

Blurb

A fast-talking lounge lizard picks up a girl in a bar and teleports her around the solar system. But there’s more to both of them than meets the eye…

Memories

before reading

Jeremiad is still my favorite character, even though I wrote this story so long ago, because he’s so much fun to write. He’s so self-centered, effete...while at the same time possessing a solid core of ruthlessness that worries me.

Review

after reading

This is the first Jeremiad story, so we had to introduce him, and then he takes off. It’s just good. If you want to know, Jeremiad is the only character I write who speaks in my own voice, meaning he’s the only one who I could make an audiobook version of. We’ll see. 

Next Week

Pure Humanity

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Science Fantasy Romance 16 - DRAGON MARINES

DRAGON MARINES 

SF016

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A Future Darkly

Blurb

A boy writes his first science fiction story while he waits for his mother to come back from the war.

Memories

before reading

Yes, it’s supposed to be all-caps. It’s the title of the story-within-a-story the boy protagonist writers, while he misses his mother. This one actually started with me just babbling on Twitter about a silly story about ‘Dragon Marines...in SPACE’, then I abruptly thought of the hook and wrote this. Let’s read.

Review

after reading

This is a very emotional story, with a lot of subtle touches. The last line...wow.

Next Week

Jeremiad 

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Science Fantasy Romance 15 - War of the Possible Future

War of the Possible Future 

SF015

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Blurb

A Middle Eastern nation erupts in protests against a well-armed government. As a reporter tweets from the front lines, one man struggles to keep a hospital from going dark, and a hacker plans to send the dark back where it belongs. A short story, cyberpunk ripped from the headlines.

Memories

before reading

Written in the middle of the “Arab Spring”, the story opens with a tweet from a reporter I was following at the time, and carries on through the misadventures of a man sucked into the action by the need to keep a hospital running in the midst of the chaos, and the shadowy figure who pushes him to take it further. I wrote it in a blur of excitement and anticipation, and it’s one of my most contemporary (political) works.

Review

after reading

This is a really sloppy story, but it was a really sloppy time, so it fits. I like how I deliberately messed up the flow of the plot with constant interruptions by @Reporter. I also have a soft spot for the drone operator, don’t ask me why. (Oh, and the links in the fake tweets are real, interesting.) This story has one of my favorite endings.

Next Week

DRAGON MARINES

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Science Fantasy Romance 14 - The Littlest Barnacle

The Littlest Barnacle 

SF014

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Blurb

If a small boy lives, does anybody care?

Memories

before reading

Looking back on my notes, this story was supposed to be a fun story of a boy stowaway with no particular skills, but a lot of heart. Apparently deciding that that was lame, Creative Voice wrote a super-depressing story about an abandoned boy who gets screwed by life. OK, then.

Review

after reading

...the fact that the story is really short is, when you think about it, even more depressing. This is a very well-written story, though, and I know for a fact that Mr. Editor had nothing to do with it. Except for the very last line, where he inserted himself, and thanks be to him.

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War of the Possible Future 

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Science Fantasy Romance 13 - Swift Invasion

Swift Invasion

SF013

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Blurb

The aliens were completely unprepared for one completely prepared human. So was Humanity.

Memories

before reading

This story evolved out of a conversation I had with a tech who had completely screwed his jack-ass employer over merely by being fired, and then having been found to be indispensible after the fact. I’d just read a lot of Heinlein, and the classic Competent Science Fiction Protagonist was roiling in my brain. Here’s the result.

Review

after reading

This is a dialogue-heavy story that proceeds with humor to a good punch-line. But! In the midst of that, there is an amazing character speech that I’d completely forgotten about. I don’t know where it came from, but I like it. It raises the story up from “merely” humorous.

Next Week

The Littlest Barnacle 

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Science Fantasy Romance 12 - Players of the Nuclear Theremin

Players of the Nuclear Theremin 

SF012

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Blurb

The Nuclear Thereminers dare to roam the galaxy searching for new colony worlds for an expanding Humanity, but trouble on Earth may prove even more perilous. Follow the career of orphan Jess Alate through interesting times in this science fiction story.

Memories

before reading

This one was really long, and I remember stopping in exhaustion about three-fourths of the way through, then picking it up in the morning and finishing it off, then going back and adding in even more. I don’t remember the last bit I wrote, but I know that this one wasn’t written straight through, it evolved out of scenes, and chained itself together. Oh, and I also listened to a lot of theremin music, but you knew that.

Review

after reading

It’s very dialogue-heavy, which is fine by me because it’s such a long work. The talk keeps the story moving. One of my favorite things about this story is that there is no info-dumping; none. The reader is left to piece the setting together for herself, while the characters get on with their lives. Or not. That’s the Science Fantasy Romance ethos, and I think this is the first story where I actually kept to it. All in all, I’m very satisfied with this story. Not to mention I love the title.

Next Week

Swift Invasion 

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Science Fantasy Romance 11 - Science Up Some Love

Science Up Some Love

SF011

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Blurb

“Pygmalion @SatelliteTYT: I’m the last man on Tau Ceti. It’s not my fault.” A scientist tries to make something of the organism that devoured the rest of the colonists, his only companion the orbiting communications AI.

Memories

before reading

I wrote this story while I was on a “stay-cation”, sitting alone in a hotel room in the nearest big city because I was tired of my house. I remember it was written extremely slowly, each sentence thought over, and many breaks for 7-11 hamburgers—these turned out, later, to be a bad idea in food—slowly, but steadily, building up the romance and the science fiction alternately unto the finish. Let’s read!

Review

after reading

I love both the science fiction and the romance in this story, and the Twitter-style dialogue is good, too, even if it’s a pain to format afterwards. I think writing so slowly meant that I had lots of time to incorporate a thousand references to other works of this nature, making this a rather literary work, or something of a Where’s Waldo story on the second read-through. Can you find all of them? (I think there’s about six intentional ones, and another two accidental I just now spotted.)

Next Week

Players of the Nuclear Theremin 

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Science Fantasy Romance 10 - Kritarchy

Kritarchy

SF010

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A Future Darkly

Blurb

For much of an Earth without nations, the roaming Judge-Ships of the Kritarchy are the only law, and Judge Lightner is one of the best. But when a vicious marauding fleet sweeps through the Kritarchy, the Judge finds out just how much the law is worth as he is forced to make one of his own.

Memories

before reading

I remember this story as being really, really dark--hence the excellent cover art--the story of a tragic fall from a just society into tyranny in response to outside attacks. Yes, that’s political. Yes, I’m a political scientist. Yes, I was depressed. I also remember that this story got very mixed reviews for content, and that, as a consequence, I avoided reading it. Well, I’ve got to now...

Review

after reading

This story is not just dark, it’s brutal. From the opening to the ending, it does not let up. Violent, tragic, emotional, despairing...nobody wins. I’m reading it, and I’m thinking I was channeling “King Lear” into a very well-constructed (in political science terms) alternate history. But I can definitely see, now that I have an emotional distance from it, where the mixed reviews came from. This is the story you get when a political scientist is pessimistic. This story is not for everyone...is it for you?

Next Week

Science Up Some Love

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Science Fantasy Romance 9 - Bitsy Pollo Save Us!

Bitsy Pollo Save Us!

SF009

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Blurb

In a cow-eat-human world where chickens are slaves to bulls, one middle-class rooster is pulled too fast and pushed too far.

Memories

before reading

I take full responsibility for this one. Creative Voice said “I wanna write a story about an anthropomorphic rooster and human cattle, and it’s going to be serious,” and I was too lazy to argue, so we wrote it. And here it is, for your reading pleasure.

Review

after reading

Surprisingly good, and that’s all I have to say. If anybody asks “What’s Science Fantasy Romance?” you can point at this story and they’ll know. I really like some of the descriptions in this story, and Bitsy Pollo’s hen-pecked home life feels ‘real.’ I regret nothing!

Next Week

Kritarchy 

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Science Fantasy Romance 8 - Sharia & The Gays

Sharia & The Gays

SF008

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Blurb

Twelve year old Sharia suspects her next door neighbors of villainy, but will she and her quiet friend Sydney be able to find out what Mr. and Mrs. Gay are scheming before it’s too late?

Memories

before reading

This is an (almost) all-dialogue story, started as a challenge to myself to write more and better dialogue, finished fast because I started the story and the two main characters just took over, bantering one with another, until the story ended. One of my favorite humorous stories. Oh, and this isn’t a political story, but obviously the character names are ripped from the headlines! at the time of the writing.

Review

after reading

It reads fast and funny. I kinda want to make an audio version, now, with professional voices. I think that’d be pretty great.

Next Week

Bitsy Pollo Save Us! 

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Science Fantasy Romance 7 - Cosmast Rhyt

Cosmast Rhyt 

SF007

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A Future Darkly

Blurb

When a far-future academic wants to find a long-lost asteroid, who better to hire than a bored space wanderer looking for a way to pass his longevity? The journey proves to be just as surprising as the destination in this darkly humorous science fiction short story

Memories

before reading

I wrote the opening line of this story in a windowless hotel room, then I sat pondering it for a long, long time before I set is aside and went to the hotel bar. A month or so later, I was in a mood, and so I sat down and wrote the story. I recall that it’s pretty gloomy, ironic...but with an odd feeling of hope. Let’s see what happened.

Review

after reading

I love this line: “Very good, then. I will know everything, S will do everything, and Rhyt: you, as usual, will go everywhere.”. This story is erudite science fiction, and fantastic. This is one of my new favorites, with some great characters and a fun fake ‘academic paper’ in there, too. I used a lot of political scientist brain on that one. I really suggest you read this one; it’s the exemplar of the Science Fiction point of the Science Fantasy Romance triangle.

Next Week

Sharia & The Gays

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Science Fantasy Romance 6 - Time Travel...Laterally!

Time Travel...Laterally!

SF006

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Blurb

A hot summer day, a group of bored teenagers, and a time machine that runs on pure bull turns out to be the recipe for a disastrous trip past the future. If by “disastrous trip”, you mean “Adventure!”

Memories

before reading

I wrote this story while I was testing a voice recognition software, but when the software turned out to be horrible, I transcribed it myself. Once I’d left out all the ums and ers, and cleaned up a few sentences that got lost in the rambles, it was surprisingly clean. I only remember adding in one paragraph, in re: the ‘time travel spindle’, because I’m bad at describing machinery impromptu. So, if you want to read how I talk when I’m just bullsh*tting my way through a story, here’s your chance...and mine!

Review

after reading

I like how the 16-year-old protagonist and first-person viewpoint character is actually writing the story, and how I added a lot of little ‘writer-touches’ in to reflect his character voice. There’s some good stuff in here, and this counts as YA. One part suffers from a mild case of Info-Dump fever, though. Sorry about that. All in all, though, it’s a solid character-based story, and that’s Science Fantasy Romance.

Next Week

Cosmast Rhyt 

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Science Fantasy Romance 5 - Ernie Centrifuge, Private Eye

Ernie Centrifuge, Private Eye 

SF005

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Blurb

Ernie Centrifuge has to pick up the case where his murdered boss left off, but to save the girl he’ll have to find his selves first.

Memories

before reading

Years ago, I wrote a ridiculously long (and terrible) version of this story while wine-drunk at a beach house, then I wrote a terrible NaNoWriMo novel-length version of it. I burned them. Once I started my Second Better Million, I rescued the characters from the fire and wrote this story. Later on, for whatever reason, I used the same character names for different characters and wrote The Tisroc Series. I’m still a little sketchy on how that happened, but whatever. It’s quite possible that “Ernie Centrifuge” is my very first (surviving) character name, so let’s see what he’s up to. Let’s read!

Review

after reading

This story is kinda cheesy, or corny, or corn with cheese on, which is delicious. I think this is the first story where I just let my love of dialogue roam free and followed it around while it did stuff and amused me. This is a very silly story, but it’s acceptable. I really want to write a series of stories set in “LIQUOR STORE Abaissé, WINE! BEER! (& Spirits). Psychic Reading available upon request WITH PURCHASE!” now. It could be my Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon!

Next Week

Time Travel...Laterally!

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Science Fantasy Romance 4 - Drugs are Legal, People Ain't

Drugs are Legal, People Ain’t 

SF004

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Blurb

In a future where reproduction is strictly regulated, gonzo reporter Daniel Dean Harlan infiltrates a back-alley maternity ward. But will the people he meets infiltrate his cynical heart?

Memories

before reading

This is the story that crystallized Science Fantasy Romance in my mind as a genre. Written in Full Creative Mind--after seeing the phrase “gonzo futurism”, and while ridiculously drunk, and with dim memories of Hunter S. Thompson’s writing style (viz: ‘drugs’) from when I’d read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas—in a matter of hours, then edited slightly more sober to make sure all the hymn lyrics were right (the Scripture was, of course, from memory), and that I hadn’t spelled gwan’ wrong, or accidentally said going to instead. I’m also reasonably certain that this is the only story of mine that my mother likes. I’ll enjoy reading this one...

Review

after reading

“I was gwan’ have to ask her to get pregnant by me, for the purposes of journalism.”

...you know, this’d make a pretty good movie, or a stage play. Talk to me.

Next Week

Ernie Centrifuge, Private Eye

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Science Fantasy Romance 3 - Director Chen Saves the Day

Director Chen Saves the Day

SF003

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A Future Darkly

Blurb

A fast-paced tale of a taciturn administrator’s behind-the-scenes juggle to keep his asteroid from being blown up and to pay the bills on time.

Memories

before reading

I hand-wrote this story in an incredibly boring meeting which had very little to do with me, then I essentially rewrote the whole thing when I typed it up. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I mention Ceres in my fiction, though. I’d revisit that colony many a time. I remember that the characters were fun, and that the story was pretty funny...but I don’t remember the plot. Guys, this is either going to be good, or really, really bad.

Review

after reading

I think this is the kind of story that arises when writers throw down the gauntlet. “I double-dog dare ya to write a story about the background coordinator in the over-the-top SF action story. Oh, and he can’t talk.” ...OK, I’m not going to nominate this one for the Hugo, but I laughed out loud, twice. It’s a fun story, guys, and I really like the setting.

Next Week

Drugs are Legal, People Ain’t

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Science Fantasy Romance 2 - Deep Sleep

Deep Sleep

SF002

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A Future Darkly

Blurb

A teenage psion wakes up alone on a failing colony ship. As her memory returns, she struggles to survive and escape to the planet’s surface.

Memories

before reading

This story was my favorite—of the ‘dark ones’—for a long time, and I used it as a showpiece of sorts whenever anybody said “I want to read something you’ve written!” I remember a crude drawing of the spaceship I made, which I’d love to show you but it has perished. This is one of the few stories I went back and rewrote, which means, as I sit down to read, I’m a little worried my memories of the Creative story will be ruined by Mr. Editor...

Review

after reading

Whew! That’s a good story. As I read, I remembered what Mr. Editor did, which was save the story. In the first draft, the ship’s computer had been an entirely unnecessary character, its entire purpose easily edited down to a log entry. I can see (but you can’t) the brush-strokes where Mr. Editor cleaned up Creative’s sloppy timeline, smoothing out the flash-backs while driving the survival horror plot. Oh, and he changed the ending. Good work, Mr. Editor. This time. This story reminds me how much more confident I’ve become in my Creative voice in the year or so since I wrote it, but I’ll still hold it up a showpiece for Science Fantasy Romance. 

Next Time

Director Chen Saves the Day

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Science Fantasy Romance 1 - Preemptive Mercy

Preemptive Mercy

SF001

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Blurb

A father fights to save his daughter from a gruesome fate on an alien world.

Memories

before reading

This story just appeared one day while I was rolling around my house in a rolling chair, so I popped open my netbook and wrote it. I remember it was like a song or an epic poem, flowing out of my brain and on the page. The copy was clean and required only spell-checking. I also remember that this was the first absolute “Creative voice” story I ever wrote, with surprising—and disturbing—results.

Review

after reading

The first thought is: I really like the ending, and the opening paragraph pops along. I use the word crypt-crèches, which is classy. I think it’s atmospheric—but the writer has the atmosphere in his head, so he can’t judge—and worth the time.

Next Week

Deep Sleep

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in which I read my own writing

I recently blasted through a whole bunch of publishing work.

First Reader

I copy-edited, made new covers and reformatted all my Science Fiction stories (as collected in A Future Darkly and More of the Sun) from 2011, 19 total. It took 8 hours, so, 25 minutes per story. Not a bad shakedown test of my eBook Formatting Workflow, if I say so myself.

As part of this, I had to read them all again, so I figured I might as well make that useful. I wrote little Memories and Reviews of all of them, and I'll post them once a week for, if you've been following along at home, nineteen weeks. I'll call it Science Fantasy Romance Sunday.

All of them are good! Which is a relief, since I published them with that expectation.

By the time they run through, I'll have reformatted the Fantasy and Romance stories, so that'll be another pile.

In other news, I'm on DriveThruFiction now, with pretty PDF versions of those stories. You should do it too, because they have a cool system.

Thanks for reading!

-daB

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