Posts tagged ‘science fiction’
5. Your time machine seemed very well thought out – is it based on something in theoretical science.
The time machine is a product of my imagination.
While I was in college, there was a guy in the dorm who built a tesla coil. You could pull something like a quarter million volts to your finger, but since the amperage was low, you survived. I had to get that thing into a story.
6. How do you personally relate to your main character in your story?
I was a scientist for 34 years, but a biologist not a physicist. I love science and the opportunity it gives you to discover something new, when all the parts of a puzzle suddenly come together. I share the wonder Elmo has for science.
7. How challenging was it to build your alien landscapes and creatures?
I have a very active imagination so it was really quite easy. But the creatures changed along the way. The first creature that comes through Elmo’s machine was going to be the dominant creature on Roth, but of course that changed. Then Valmid was going to be a sinister being and that changed. Since I needed some conflict, Gylex came into being and I could just picture what it looked like.
8. What theme do you want to convey to your readers?
I think, as with most science fiction, I want to create adventure and the wonder of the unknown.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
March 12, 2014 at 7:09 pm
A few weeks ago Jill Bisker was kind enough, through Melange Books, to ask me questions about my eBook, Elmo’s Sojourn.
I posted a link to those questions, but in case you missed them, I thought I’d post the questions directly to my blog.
I’m also posting the link to buy Elmo’s Sojourn with the hopes that this will cause my sales to skyrocket.
Yes, even at my advance age, I still dream.
1. Please tell me a little about yourself – Where you come from? What led you to writing?
I was born and raised in Newark, NJ, but since then lived in the Midwest, LA, Miami and now in Pennsylvania.
I’ve always been an avid reader, feel naked if there is not a book close by. I began writing poetry in college and pursued that for about thirty years while I pursued a career in science. About 14 years ago I began writing fiction.
2. What books and authors influenced your career?
I’ve read a great deal of science fiction by Arthur C. Clark, Asimov, Ray Bradbury among a host of others.
For horror I’ve read H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King and Algernon Blackwood.
3. Your story, Elmo’s Sojourn, is a space jumping sci-fi story. Do you write other genres?
I also write horror and the occasional poem.
4. How did you come up with the premise of your story?
I belong to a writers group, The Wordwrights, and one of the members writes children’s books. She told us she had to write a story beginning with someone yelling that they have a problem. Couple that with a Far Side cartoon where a wife is looking from a door down into a cellar. In the cellar is her husband with the head of a fly. She’s yelling, “Lunch. Are you still a fly?”
With that in mind I had intended to write a story, Cellar Science, but enjoyed the story so much that I continued and the result was the novella, Elmo’s Sojourn.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
March 10, 2014 at 7:09 pm
The Green Brain another science fiction novel by one of the giants of the genre.
This novel deals with a subject overly used today, many times in the guise of making a profit. Right or wrong, that is my opinion. The subject Herbert deals with long before it was in vogue is the environment.
My paperback copy was published in 1966, with part of the story appearing in 1965 in Amazing Stories as a novelette, Greenslaves.
The story begins with the world wanting to protect the production of food from destruction by insects. Countries begin to eliminate all insects in farm areas and then populate the land with genetically altered bees. China is at the forefront of this effort and one of its scientists, Chen Lhu, travels to Brazil to assist in insect elimination. What he doesn’t reveal until far into the story is that the process does not work. This revelation only comes to light after he and other scientists are trapped in the jungle by strange insect populations. These insects, along with other bizarre occurrences are put into play by the green brain. This intelligence has the ability to manipulate insects and much more.
Herbert’s novel predates real world efforts to manipulate the environment with nonnative plant and animal species in order to control some condition in the habitat that man finds troublesome. More times than not the cure is worse than the problem.
One interesting sideline not pursued to a great extent but mentioned is the existence of a group of environmentalists called Carsonites.
Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962.
March 9, 2014 at 6:31 pm
Here is a link for an interview I did for Melange Books.
You might learn a little more about me (lucky you) and about Elmo’s Sojourn.
Enjoy.
http://www.melange-books.com/blog/
March 3, 2014 at 8:22 pm
My short story, Second Chance, is now available in the November/December 2013 anthology published by Separate Worlds as an online publication.
Along with my story you get over 400 pages of horror, science fiction and fantasy along with nonfiction and poetry all for only five dollars. I hope you decide to buy a copy.
Here’s the link.
http://www.speculativefictionstories.com/product/SPEC0001
January 26, 2014 at 8:56 pm
Separate Worlds is publishing my science fiction short story, Second Chance, in their November/December 2013 anthology. Publishing with this Canadian publisher will be my first international publication.
I should say that this will be my first legal international publication. Sections of my novella, Elmo’s Sojourn, were published in China without my knowledge. I discovered this by Googling my name. China is unencumbered by our copyright laws so I guess they go ahead and publish what they want. Oh well, even though I didn’t make a penny I don’t mind the prospect of billions of people being able to read my work.
I’ll provide a link when available.
January 20, 2014 at 7:07 pm
Next month my novella, Elmo’s Sojourn, is due to come out as an eBook published by Melange Books.
I’ve been working with Melange on the cover and after some back and forth I think we have the final version. If possible, I’ll post it when I am sure the version is a firm choice.
In the meantime, here’s the blurb to peak your interest.
Elmo, a retired Los Alamos scientist, travels through a wormhole in this science fiction story to the planet Roth where he meets Valmid and his wife Cal. All appears tranquil on the planet but there is disaster visiting the planet which Valmid hopes Elmo would have the answer of how to end. Roth’s females are being abducted and taken to the planet Gylex. Unknown to the inhabitants of Earth, the creatures have also abducted human females in the past, but suddenly stopped their raids. Valmid hopes Elmo can discover why the raids stopped on Earth and help Roth.
January 12, 2014 at 7:49 pm
Now I’ll discuss my novellas and short stories which I hope will find a home for this year.
I have a novella, Elmo’s Invention, requiring work. It is a prequel to the already published Elmo’s Sojourn. Elmo’s Sojourn is due to appear as an eBook this February. I have a fondness for Elmo and hope to follow him with more stories.
I also have short stories in need of editing, and in some cases completion. The Event is a work of science fiction needing a little work and off it goes. Valued Employees is a short story which is comical but with sinister overtones. It deals with the unemployed who cannot find work because of preexisting conditions or bad habits. This population is just what a unique company is looking to hire.
Billie’s Magic is a short story about and autistic youth with a dark connection to his older violent brother. I may try to self-publish this story on Kindle and see what happens.
Finally, I hope to republish short stories and poems that are already out there and find for them a greater exposure.
That’s what I have planned for the coming years, along with whatever story ideas that may creep into my brain.
January 1, 2014 at 8:21 pm
This is the time when we have an opportunity to mold our lives for the coming year, to repair all the wrongs of our lives. To make promises we usually don’t keep. For years I’ve promised to stop drinking and lose weight – both now accomplished and one the result of the other.
Therefore, I’m going to use this opportunity to outline what I want to accomplish in my writing career, have a record of my goals and see how I do. I’ve got a great deal of work I want to complete, hence the multiple volumes. I also want to keep each short so I don’t lose your attention or bore you.
This section will deal with two novels already written, The Beast Awaits and Sweet Depression, both in need extensive editing. Any agents or publishers that may stumble upon this missive, I’m all yours.
The Beast Awaits deals with hot-button issues, stem cell research, corporate greed and global warming. Creatures are developed accidentally using stem cell research in the course to gain increasing profits. They rapidly multiply and swarm the planet causing mass destruction leading to an increase in global warming. There is no firm resolution at the end of the story only a chance for a lesson to be learned, hence the title of the novel.
Sweet Depression also concerns corporate greed, to some extent, but the driving force is the troubled youth of the CEO and his need for power and control in his adulthood. The story is a cross between the work of James Patterson and Robin Cook. The CEO uses science to increase the company’s profits; however, the product has disastrous side effects. A detective, his own family a victim, sets out to discover what is behind a sudden increase in murder and mayhem.
Happy New Year to all my readers.
May this coming year find you healthy and happy.
December 31, 2013 at 6:47 pm
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