On Fear

During the 11/13 Paris attacks, the city implemented a curfew for the first time since the Second World War. Public transportation was shut down, and police urged all civilians to remain indoors. Tens of thousands of people were stuck on the streets without a place to go, and without a way to get home. Local Parisians began posting their addresses on twitter along with the #porteouverte hashtag, which means "open doors." 

The city was a war zone. Hundreds were dead in the streets, with more attacks possible at any moment. Was there a chance terrorists could use this hospitality against them? Of course. Yet thousands on twitter opened their doors to complete strangers anyways, because compassion is more powerful than fear. The terrorists wanted them to be afraid, but the French would not allow that to stop their humanity.

It's impossible to ensure 100% safety. There will always be some degree of danger regardless of what we do, no matter how careful we are. We cannot allow fear of danger to destroy what makes us human: our compassion for one another.

In 1939, the SS St. Louis arrived on the coast of America full of Jewish refugees fleeing Germany. They were denied. FDR sent the coast guard to stop them, firing warning shots across their bow to keep them from running ashore. 

The ship returned to Europe, unloading the refugees in Belgium and France. Most were later sent to concentration camps. Because America was afraid.

The Syrian refugees aren't our enemies. They're fleeing ISIS. Is it possible terrorists could sneak in among the refugees? Sure. Again, it's impossible to stay 100% safe. Should we turn away thousands of refugees, women and children, the vast majority of whom are undoubtedly innocent, simply because a few terrorists might get through? Because we're afraid?

Fear destroys our humanity. It changes who we are. Fear is what caused the Salem Witch Trials. It's what caused us to round up all Japanese Americans and throw them in internment camps. It's what caused McCarthy to hold up a piece of paper and declare there are 205 communists in the US Government. It's what causes us to arrest a child for bringing in an electronic breadboard clock, a common circuitry project. 

The terrorists want to change us. They want to make us so afraid that we change everything about our country, everything that makes us great. They want us to enact laws to restrict our own freedoms and allow widespread government surveillance. We made these mistakes after 9/11 because we were afraid.

"I lift my lamp beside the golden door." America has always been a beacon of hope for the world. This is part of what has made our country wonderful throughout history. I would rather accept a small hypothetical risk and remain this beacon than see the country change itself because of fear.

Don't let them change us. Don't be afraid. 

Guest Interview: Emma Larkins

This week I was lucky enough to interview fellow science fiction author Emma Larkins. Check out the interview below!

David Kristoph: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Emma Larkins: I loved reading at a young age, and avidly consumed anything I could get my hands on. I wasn’t content to simply read stories - my mind naturally turned to storytelling. I started engaging my siblings in my own, invented choose-your-own-adventure stories during long car rides, and the rest is history.

DK: What's your writing process like? Is there a specific time and place you prefer to write?

EL: My writing process is pretty chaotic. I have a lot of work to get through, so I often find myself writing at weird times and/or in weird places. You can find me pounding away at my desktop keyboard at two in the morning, or sitting on the couch with my laptop and a cat (or two) in the afternoon. I’ve been known to write on the subway, outside of laundromats, and on the shores of hidden forest lakes.

DK: Which writer type are you: an Architect or Gardener?

EL: I like that distinction - never heard it before! I’ll actually have to look that one up… I certainly started out as a gardener. When I wrote the first draft of Mechalarum, I had no idea what direction it was going in, no outline. It evolved completely from scratch. As a result, I spent a ton of time during rewrites, basically rebuilding the story from scratch. So, for the sequel I’m writing now (Witherwelt), I’ve outlined what I want to have happen so I have a base to work from. I’m still open to things evolving - I listen closely to my characters to know where the story goes next. I’m happy to throw out some or all of the outline if it doesn’t end up working.

DK: From where do you draw inspiration and creativity?

EL: Many of my story ideas started off as dreams. I have some crazy dreams, which works out when you’re writing speculative fiction.

In general ideas come to me pretty easily. I tend to have the opposite problem - too many ideas, and not enough time. Many ideas grab me and won’t let go until I deal with them, and sometimes they’re outside of the realm of what I normally work on, so I have to drop everything and explore this new niche because I trust that my brain will lead me in interesting directions if I do so.

DK: Growing up, what are some of the books that influenced you most as a writer?

EL: I read a lot of really meaty novels at a young age - Lord of the Rings, David Copperfield, Wuthering Heights. I was the kid who actually enjoyed English reading assignments. They developed a love of words in my young brain (although I would later learn that the flowery language in literature isn’t a great fit for most modern audiences). The Chronicles of Narnia series was a big influence, for sure. In a sea of wordy epic fantasies, it told fascinating adventure stories with engaging characters that didn’t take a month and a dictionary to get through. And everything by Tamora Pierce put me on track to create strong heroines.

DK: Okay, give us your elevator pitch. Mechalarum. Go!

EL: Strong heroine Kiellen risks slow death for the power of biomechanical flight in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It’s Fury Road meets Iron Man (with aliens).

DK: How long did Mechalarum take to write, from start to finish?

EL: I used the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) method to get the first bunch of words on paper. The first draft, about 80,000 words, was done in a month. It took a lot of work to get from there to the finished draft, though - I finally released the digital copy four years and 300 hours later. Another fun statistic: the published version of Mechalarum stands at about 80,000 words, but I ended up writing (and deleting) an additional 100,000 words as I drafted.

DK: What other works do you have planned in the near future?

EL: I’m writing the sequel to Mechalarum this month for NaNoWriMo! It’s going to be called Witherwelt, and it’s going to turn the world I established in the first novel on its head.

DK: Any advice for beginning authors out there?

EL: Write bad stuff. Just a ton of really awful junk. I think too many aspiring writers approach the craft excited to produce some amazing, high-quality work, and the truth is it takes a long time to get to that point (as described beautifully in this video based on a speech by Ira Glass). I wrote four and a half novels before I even began to get close to something I felt comfortable publishing, in addition to years spent working professionally writing software manuals and marketing materials.

Ideally during a long and fruitful career, you’ll keep improving. Which means whatever you’ll do in the future will always be better than what came before. But you’ll never get to that “better” place unless you pass through where you are right now. So never be afraid, even if what you’re doing isn’t as great right now as you’d hoped.

On the flip side of that, I’d say start sharing your work as early as possible if you really want to be successful in getting known (and eventually paid) for writing. The sooner you start sharing and getting feedback and having people engaged with your work, the faster you’ll start improving.

Bio and Blurb

Emma Larkins is a science fiction author and card game designer who loves puns. She writes accessible stories that tease the edges of your imagination without making you feel like your brain has gone through a blender.

Her Mechalarum ebook (“Strong heroine Kiellen risks slow death for the power of biomechanical flight; Iron Man meets Fury Road, with aliens.”) will be available for free November 21 through 25 on Amazon - during which time Emma will be raffling five signed paperback copies of the book. And she’s going on a book tour! Join her as she shares stories, excerpts, interviews, and more. Click here for a complete list of tour stops.

You can also stop by her Twitter or blog to say hi!

Review of State of Fear, by Michael Crichton

I've been reading Michael Crichton for a long time. He's easily my favorite author. Like most teenagers, Jurassic Park blew my mind and had me reenacting scenes with my GI-Joes in my bedroom. After that I absorbed everything he'd written: early work like Andromeda Strain and Terminal Man, then his middle-career work Congo and Sphere, and the later books like Timeline, Congo, and Next. I loved it all. Crichton could do no wrong in my eyes, and he never  disappointed.

Well, unfortunately that ended with State of Fear.

State of Fear tells the story of eco-terrorists attempting to make climate change appear worse than it actually is in a variety of staged catastrophes (flash floods, antarctic shelf collapses, and tsunamis). An unsuspecting lawyer from California is swept up in the attempt to stop them.

The book falls short in numerous ways. First, the characters are extremely flat. Peter Evans--from whose point of view the majority of the book is told--is boring and unmotivated. He has no clear goals or ambitions, and is simply swept along in the events. The two mysterious characters who suddenly appear to try and stop the terrorists also have no backstory or motivations, beyond a vague "We have to stop them" attitude. The entire thing is weak. It's a thriller, so less backstory is expected, but when the characters have no reasons for their motivations it becomes dull.

Secondly, the book's pacing/plotting is formulaic and boring. They're in Pasadena trying to stop lawyers. Now they're in Antarctica for [insert vague reason here] and oh, they stumble upon a terrorist plot there. Now they're in Arizona trying to halt a flash flood. Then they're fighting the terrorists on a tropical Pacific Island. It's a collection of individual scenes strung together in a patchwork plot that feels disjointed. Crichton's writing is fine, but the story itself is sub-par. 

But the largest reason I didn't enjoy the book is because the entire thing was written as a strawman attack against cllimate change. Crichton paints all environmentalists as psychotic and extreme, rabidly insisting global warming is real and going to whatever means necessary. You know how, when you're explaining an argument and you want the other side to look dumb, you puff out your cheeks and make their exaggerated voice really deep and slow-sounding? This entire book feels like Crichton doing that. "Hurr durr, the environment!" 

Not only is the book itself written to paint environmentalists thusly, but Crichton goes so far as to attach an entire 20 page thesis at the end of the book, where he lambastes modern scientists as 100% corrupt and equates Climate Change Theory with the Theory of Eugenics. "Eugenics was widely accepted in the 1930s," he goes on to explain, "and we look back on it as ridiculous. The Theory of Climate Change will look the same in another century."

It's fine to have an opinion on an issue, even if others disagree. Discussion and discourse are important. But State of Fear is an elaborate attempt to paint the other side as extreme, when it's simply not the case. That would be more excusable if the book were entertaining, but this work of fiction fails in that regard as well.

Self-Publishing Tiers

With the advent of self-publishing, there's a lot of content out there. Some of it's good, but the rest... well, yeah.

A discussion on Reddit this week led to the categorization of the different types of self-published authors these days. Here was my spin on it. (Note this is mostly a joke, so please don't send me hate mail explaining why E.L. James is actually James Joyce reborn.)

• Wanna-Be Tier: "I'm a layperson who has never written anything longer than a Highschool English paper, but I have what I think is the next great American novel. I'm going to write a 60k piece of crap, self-publish it, and when it doesn't sell I'm never going to write again."
• Peasant Tier: "I'm an avid reader and think I can do it myself. I'll start a blog about writing, write a book or maybe two, and then get bored and stop after a year."
• Hipster Tier: "I've taken several creative writing courses, and maybe even have an MFA degree. So naturally I'm God's gift to literature. I'll write a metaphor-heavy analogy for the human spirit, and when it doesn't do well I'll smugly declare that the industry is stacked against truly great prose."
• Semi-Pro Tier: "I've been reading/writing for years. I've never been traditionally published, but I've recently decided to start self-publishing some of my less successful work. I have a moderate amount of success, and continue to try traditional publishing. I also frequent conventions and am active in the community. Hopefully I'll be traditionally published in the near future!"
• Pro (but shouldn't be) Tier: "See you later, shitlords! I self-pubbed for a while, and although I'm not terribly talented, I've got a huge fanbase and have parleyed that into a traditional publishing deal." (EL James)
• Pro (for realsies) Tier: "I self-pubbed for a while, got a lot of practice, and gathered a fanbase because I'm talented and committed. My hard work paid off and I've got some traditional publishing deals now." (Andy Weir, Chuck Wendig)

Cover Reveal for Tales of a Dying Star #5

The first Tales of a Dying Star quadrilogy may be complete, but the universe isn't done yet! Another four books (a second quadrilogy) is plotted and planned, along with a possibility for a few standalone novels.

With that in mine, I'm happy to unveil the cover of Book V: Born of Sand

Born of Sand returns to Praetar, the besieged and beleaguered planet under the control of the Melisao Empire. The release date is set for December, 2015. 

Once again, all credit to the ridiculously talented Milan Jaram for the cover.