STRUGGLING TO GET IT WRITE: THE SCIENCE FICTION LANDSCAPE
I write from southeastern Pennsylvania, approximately ten miles from Valley Forge, 100 miles from Gettysburg and, perhaps, thousands of years into the future. I am a science fiction writer living in a land of history. In my area, people hold firmly to the past, tenaciously some might say. Preserving houses built hundreds of years ago and land once walked by soldiers in long ago wars.
Yet I, a writer of science fiction, deal in a future denied of the past, where structures gleam of metal and glass and little of the past kept sacred. Perhaps it is time for a reality check. Often, science fiction book covers depict futuristic cities gleaming in their modernism. Yet the reality does not conform to this image, the present truth. The year is 2015, yet how many of us readers of science fiction, the timeline has already past. Think of the years 1984, 2001, 2010, to name but a few of the significant dates in science fiction. Now, look around you and compare the story to the reality.
Nineteen eighty-four is one date which rings most true. In our ever-increasing need for technology and connection to the communication grid, we have given up our freedom as an individual. Barely a day goes by without the revelation of immense security breaches, all our personal information gone. What I find frightening is that we live in a world where we don’t know who ‘big brother’ is. Is he a computer genius youth, a foreign government, or some criminal out to make a buck? In the end, except for monetary loss, what difference does it make? The difference is, our life is revealed.
Sorry, my mind wondered, back on topic, the futuristic element of science fiction and the fact that some of that future is already here.
As mentioned earlier, the area where I live is steeped in history and clings to the past. How does the need to hold onto the past meld with science fiction? I think that connection of the past and science fiction is kept alive in the relatively new genre of steampunk, a sub-genre of science fiction which I will not attempt. My mind does not twist in that direction. However, steampunk is alive and growing and I’ve included a link to further your understanding of the genre.
Interestingly, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are referred to in this article as authors writing in the imagery of steampunk.
This piece is just my thinking of the world of science fiction, keeping the past alive, and what direction reality is taking.
DRAGON EGGS, A CHILDRENS’ POEM SERIES
I don’t know how or why this began, but it’s a series of children’s poems with more to follow.
If you know my writing you will know this is most out of character. In fact, in the near future I shall post the first chapter of a novel, fully written and currently being edited, which goes beyond horrific. For now, please enjoy these poems.
DRAGON EGGS
Dragon eggs, though very small
Will yield a beast surprisingly tall.
All it takes is a safe wet abode
To yield a monster oh so bold.
So if you find their eggs, it would set the world a shiver
With the awesome possibility the beast may someday deliver.
But if it’s near the dawn of the day
Take your find, then straight away
Invite your friends, but tell not what you found
And create a huge omelet to go around.
DRAGON EGG OMELET
You’ve made your omelet,
A massive omelet
With good things deep inside,
Your friends all joined
But now they’re gone
Perhaps you better hide.
For left alone
To clean the kitchen
What is that smell of burning?
The ground is shaking, thump, thump, thump,
For company now you’re yearning.
A roar does sound
A mighty roar
And things fall off the wall,
A flame roars past the window,
Should 911 you call?
The house grows hot,
So very hot
A huge eye peers the window,
Seeking the eggs she made with love
The dragon’s come to find you.
DRAGON’S DISCOVERY
She roars a voice
A mighty voice
The tell you of her anger.
You’ve done her harm
A mighty harm
With omelets to your favor.
They were so good
So very good
Good food inside your tummy.
But the dragon roars
A mighty roar,
That isn’t very funny.
She cries, “My kids, my kids are gone,
“Your evil killed my offspring,
“Who will replace me?
“Who will live on?
“What future does your kill bring?”
She weeps a tear,
A mighty tear
That tears your heart asunder,
The thunder roars, a mighty roar
How could you know her sorrow?
She loves her family,
Her now gone family,
Family love she cannot hide,
Her heart is broken, mightily broken,
With sorrow now you cry.
Local Author Event
My great writer friend, Sherrie Palmer, was great in making this event possible.
You never know how much talent there is in your own back yard. I discovered this last Saturday when Erin McCole Cupp and I invited local authors to come and spend the afternoon at the Atglen Public Library.
We ended up with a dozen authors coming. Many authors had more than one book available. Some of them are also performing storytellers, historians, educators, scientists, lawyers, journalists and more. Many are available for school visits and offer workshops.
I was both nervous and excited about the day. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great and I was afraid that would keep people from coming. I was afraid it would be quiet and sad that the weather kept people away. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see that the day was upbeat and fun!
The authors arrived mostly one at a time which was great because then Erin and I could meet them and…
View original post 323 more words
SHIT, I’M GETTING OLD
I know I shouldn’t complain. Every day I read of lives in the obituaries whose existence ended shorter than mine. But sometimes it’s hard to keep that in prospective.
I sit here writing in my house in Pennsylvania wearing a woolen hat, which is what prompts this communication. I am freezing. The outside temp may reach 16 degrees. I won’t talk about the wind. As those of you who follow closely my life through my blog, I thank you, and you also know I had a book signing last Saturday. In preparation for that momentous event, I did something I do on a routine do, and do not have a word for, being about four times a year. Semi-annual times two, I don’t know. Anyway, I am a bonehead both figuratively and physically. I requested use of a #2 blade, I think a #1 blade would resemble something of the order of a guillotine. So as the temperature plummets, I sit here working in my blue woolen hat.
Just thought I’d share, in case you feel my writing has suddenly taken up a cold nature.
THE LOOKING GLASS WAR by JOHN LeCARRE’
My reading volume has increased since becoming a fulltime writer, as it should. Also, because I’m a fulltime writer with minimal sales and retired, I haunt the Goodwill store and local library where books can be obtained, hardback for one dollar and paperbacks for fifty cents. I love bringing home an armful of books for next to nothing. My piles of books grow and I feel I’m surrounded by, soon to be, old friends.
During my book-buying adventures I stumbled upon books by John LeCarre’. I put them aside for I thought they would be too dated, spies and the cold war. But when I finally went to read the novels, I was in for a treat I did not expect.
The Looking Glass War, published in 1965, is a spy novel. Because of its publication date, I thought it might not offer much, instead, it was a book I could not put down.
We are all familiar with the James Bond character and the adventures described in Mission Impossible movies where the characters succeed in everything they attempt and nothing goes wrong.
Give me a break!
In LeClarre’s spy novel, the spies make mistakes, their frailties play into their work – they are human. Not only does everything not go right, little does. As they try to do their job they worry about cost and budgets.
If you want an entertaining read, try to find some of this author’s books.
POST BOOK SIGNING
We had the book signing on Valentine’s Day.
With approximately ten authors, there were more books than signings.
Insert my favorite phase from Kurt Vonnegut.
I would like to thank Erin Cupp for her great organizational skills and my good friend and fellow writer, Sherrie Palmer, for arranging for the Atglen Public Library for holding this event, , providing an opportunity to meet area writers.
My daughter, Lynn, was in attendance along with her boyfriend, Tyler and his son, Tripp, who scored a book and a handful of bookmarks. Use them well trip.
Atglen is a lovely little town, with a smattering of Amish riding in their buggies. If you are in the neighborhood, visit the library. Ask for my book, New Moon Rising, they now have a copy.
For those who missed the event and want to purchase my work.
Here are some links where you may purchase my work.
Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Barnes & Noble.com
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/walt-trizna?store=book&keyword=walt+trizna
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=walt+trizna
WE REMEMBER
I came across this piece in my email and thought I’d pass it on for the benefit of my writer and reader friends. Here are a list of writers, having completed this journey of life, leaving us with their words and thoughts.
We are all on this identical journey with the same destination. Let us hope that we leave behind a life’s work worthy to be remembered, if not by the world, at least by those we love.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/i-began-to-exist#.op8AzP88M
THE SECRET TO A GOOD RETIREMENT: WHAT NO ONE WILL TELL YOU, PART 3
Here are some guidelines I put into play during my life and are helping now in retirement.
Get as much education as you can. With costs today, it is not easy but it is important. If you think a high school diploma will be enough, learn a trade during those years and work as hard as you can learning it.
Here I’m going to be a little philosophical, but a good education will not only get you a good job but enhance your appreciation of your life and the world around you, give you the ability to understand and analyze the world around you. Today we have become a population of sheep spending and wolves profiting. Question everything. This was once a hallmark of youth, to think and question, not to bury your mind in an endless stream of the latest electronics.
Don’t spend like a drunken sailor – sorry sailors. This is the really hard part.
For your entire life, buy only what you need, not everything you want.
Learn that bigger is not better. We are only told bigger is better is by those who sell big.
Don’t upgrade just because you can. It may cost you down the road.
Don’t move from that small house you’re in now just because you can. If you don’t need the room, stay where you are. If you have kids and it seems a little crowded just wait awhile. The kids will move out after a time, and if you’re lucky, will only come back to visit.
Develop a comfortable lifestyle and stick with it no matter how much money you make. The money you don’t need, save. And find the most profitable way to save. In today’s world, a bank is not the place. Find a financial advisor, but only through references that you trust.
The next may be difficult, for in the reality of today’s world, it may no longer exist.
Find a decent paying job and stick with it.
Earn a 401k or pension that is properly funded. Even if at times the job is shit, stick with it. I’ve better.
Here is a fact none will tell you in all the seminars you will be offered to attend at the finest restaurants in the area. If you are young, you may not believe it but this will happen. If you maintain a decent salary all your life, you can retire early and not need to wait until you’re 70. I retired at 62 and the increase I would see at whatever age was minimal, because I maintained a good salary with increases and qualified for a decent social security payment at the age of 62.
What retirement guru will tell you all this?
I strongly feel, that the secret to a good retirement begins when you are young. When you reach the age to retire and are offered a plan where all is taken care of, it is probably bogus.
This is just my opinion, take it or leave it.
I just had to get this out of my system. There’s more where this came from and will follow.
Now back to the important subject of writing.
THE SECRET TO A GOOD RETIREMENT: WHAT NO ONE WILL TELL YOU, PART 2
I’m here to tell you, what I think, is there a secret to the good retirement. But if you’re an old flatulence (trying to keep it clean) or approaching old flatulence age, it’s already too late. The secret, of course, is to start saving early. But there’s more to it than that, much more. Lifestyle is a big factor, what you expect from life and what you have experienced is a big factor. I’ve been lucky, in that the situations in my life formed an individual primed to save and not expect much, not need much. Let me explain.
Those familiar with my blog have probably read some of my memoir pieces. Born and raised in Newark, N.J., my family was poor. By the time I began college, we had always lived in the same cold-water flat. Six of us in two bedrooms. The experience was less than pleasant, but little did I realize it primed me for the future. Extravagance has no place in my existence, never has, never will.
What follows are some truths I have learned. Truths the retirement hucksters will not dare tell you. How will they make their money for their retirement? When you reach that certain age, and if you’ve not been diligent with your career and finances, anyone painting a rosy picture of what life could be like is just reaching into your pocket. .
I feel that preparing for retirement is not something you suddenly do when you’re ready to retire, or nearing that point. It’s a lifestyle you establish while you’re young and stick too. Perhaps not so much a lifestyle you establish, rather one that happens upon you.
But there is a way to prepare, depending on your age, not so much for you but for your offspring. Teach your kids well. If you talk on the phone while driving, and demand that they don’t because it is dangerous, no matter what they say, they will talk on the cellphone while driving. Our children learn by example. And whose example, yours.
If you max-out your credit cards and buy whatever you want, and then turn around and tell your kids to spend responsibly, what do you think they will do? It is the future generation we have to teach by example, not by words.
Here are my three simple rules to a secure retirement. You will not like them, even if you are young. Most of the young will not listen, it’s the immortal and all-knowing thing, but here they are… to be continued
Walttriznastories's Blog 