What comes after Rock? In my book The Seastead Chronicles, you’ll find a story about the next sound, the coming musical wave.
The world of The Seastead Chronicles shows much of humanity abandoning the land to live in cities on and under the sea. That new environment shapes them and gives rise to new art, new jargon, a new religion. And new music.
Liquisic
They call it liquid music, or liquisic. I introduce it in my story, “Deep Currents.” Like rock, liquisic employs syncopation. Unlike rock’s typical 4/4 rhythm, liquisic uses 6/8. This gives songs a rolling, undulating feel, like waves at sea.
Where rock often features a strong melody and background harmony, liquisic intertwines several equal melodies. This mimics the overlapping nature of ocean waves. No single melody predominates, and all blend harmoniously. Music theory experts might call it counterpoint, or contrapuntal.
Instruments
Liquisic instruments use water to achieve an ethereal, fluid sound. Some of the instruments exist now, and one awaits invention.
The hydraulophone sounds and works like a pipe organ, but uses water rather than air.
The glass armonica takes the sound you make when rubbing a wet finger around a wine glass, and expands the idea to a full “keyboard.” You get haunting, mysterious tones.
As for the fluidrum, I made up the name, but water-based drums exist in Africa, Asia, and among Native American tribes. Germans gave it a different name, the wassertrommel. In India, they play the Jal Tarang. Whatever fluidrums are, they provide rhythm for the liquisic group.
The aquatar might serve as the star of the group, but I have no idea what it looks like, how it works, or what it sounds like. I leave that for readers to imagine. Perhaps the strings stretch within flexible, water-filled membranes. A player would strum them with fingers, not picks. Maybe you could see through the aquatar’s transparent body to the colored water sloshing around inside, with lights illuminating it.
There. I’ve done the hard work—naming the music genre, coming up with its characteristics, and proposing the instruments. All you have to do is get a band together, practice, do some concerts, and make your fortune. My story “Deep Currents” in The Seastead Chronicles offers a name for your band and several ideas for song titles.
One more thing. After you hit it big with liquisic, show a little love to—
Change of pace today. Most often, I interview fiction authors. Today’s guest has done everything but write fiction. Rob Jolles coaches speaking and writing. He’s written several nonfiction books and hundreds of blogposts he calls “Blarticles®.” He hosts podcasts and was kind enough to interview me on his “A Book Finds You” podcast.
A sought-after speaker and five-time Bestselling author, Rob Jolles has spent over three decades traveling close to 3 million miles in the air teaching, entertaining, and inspiring audiences worldwide. His books, including How to Change Minds, Customer Centered Selling, Why People Don’t Believe You, How to Run Seminars & Workshops, It’s a Blarticle®! and The Way of the Road Warrior, have been featured in USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, Harvard Business Review, and Publisher’s Weekly.
Rob is also the host of over 500 podcasts including “A Book Finds You,” and “Pocket Sized Pep Talks,” a podcast he launched over four years ago, and now currently in the top 2% of downloads nationally.
Next, the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: Most often, I interview writers, but you’re more than that. You’re a speaker and, through Jolles Associates, Inc., you give talks to businesses and also coach the art of speaking. What got you started doing that?
Rob Jolles: Rather than being a writer who speaks, I’m what I refer to as speaker who writes. I was a trainer for Computer Sciences Corporation, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Xerox, and I loved it, but I dreamed of something more. One day a professional speaker was hired by Xerox and came in to deliver a presentation, and he had one thing I did not have; a book. I watched him carefully, and was the only other speaker on the agenda that day. My feedback scores were significantly higher than his and I thought, “I can do that!” So, 32 years ago I took the leap, and the first thing I knew I needed to do was start writing! Seven books later, I’m still writing. As for coaching others in the art of speaking, when you’ve actually done it for over 40 years, and written about it, it’s a natural fit.
P.S.: You coach people in both speaking and writing, two very different modes of communication. What aspects, if any, do you emphasize with your writing clients that differ from what you tell your speaking clients?
R.J.: It’s an interesting question because I don’t seem them as, “very different modes of communication.” Everyone has their own writing style, but here’s where a business book is a little different from a fictional book. I’ve always believed one of the best compliments you can get from a reader is to hear, “When I was reading your book, it was if you were here talking directly to me.” Of course, there are other significant differences such as the physical nature of speaking, the necessity to hold someone’s interest in your presentation, and the number of activities that support your message in a presentation. However, I coach both types of clients’ needs because both are necessary to make it as a professional speaker.
P.S.: Thank you for interviewing me on your “A Book Finds You!” podcast. How did you get started doing that, and what’s the meaning behind the podcast’s title?
R.J.: I got started podcasting close to six years ago with a business show called “Pocket Sized Pep Talks.” Almost all my guests are business authors and I found myself almost always asking the question, “I’m not going to ask you how you found this book; I want to know how it found you!” I noticed that every time I asked that question my guest’s faces would light up because there was always a story to tell. I approached the Writer’s Center in Bethesda first, because I teach there, but they wanted to go in a different direction with a show that never got off the ground. I then pitched it to the Maryland Writer’s Association, who loved the idea and away we went!
R.J.: I do love that question! I had been volunteering for almost a decade for a group called, Career Network Ministry, and noticed an unusual pattern. People were learning elevator pitches, and star stories, but having trouble delivering them in an authentic manner. My working title was a little kinder, “It’s not the Words, it’s the Tune!” but I guess that wasn’t eye-catching enough and my editor changed it. But that book and title found me, and the wonderful people there allowed me to experiment with all kinds of different tactics that found their way into the book.
P.S.: Regarding Why People Don’t Believe You, fiction writers might not think that book would apply to them, since they don’t expect readers to believe their stories. Do you think fiction writers would benefit from this book, and if so, how?
R.J.: Of course fictional readers would benefit. I’m not asking them to believe in the fictional stories they write; I’m asking them to believe in themselves as writers. As a guy who interviews 100’s of fictional writers and poets I can tell you firsthand there’s a lot of imposter syndrome issues with these writers… and all writers for that matter.
P.S.: Another of your books, How to Change Minds: The Art of Influence without Manipulation, features a cat and mouse on the cover. That cover alone likely changes minds from “don’t buy” to “must have.” What is the most important thing fiction writers can do to change readers’ minds from casual perusers to loyal fans?
R.J.: Well, I’m not sure I make the same connection you have here with that cat and mouse, which is one of my favorite reasons for loving that cover. People see what they choose to see. That said, it’s a book that deals with the art of persuasion, and not being ashamed to push for an idea that you truly feel would benefit those you are interfacing with. One way to do this is to learn how to write a hook for the books that are written. I make that a requirement for being on the podcast, “A Book Finds You!” Even with a document that teaches guests how to write a hook, I’ve only had one author out of the 40 I’ve interviewed give me anything close to a hook. I get a synopsis, which I’m sure is interesting to the writer, and tells the reader what the book is about, but doesn’t provide a compelling reason why to read the book, or for my case, listen to the author talk about the book on a podcast.
P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?
R.J.: The easiest part of writing is trusting my voice and message. I don’t write about things I don’t know about intimately. The hardest part about writing for me is to be patient enough to wait for an idea I’m so attached to, I can’t help but write about it. This is something you can’t wish for, or fake. That book has to find me!
P.S.: Many introverted fiction writers detest the person-to-person marketing aspects—speaking on conference panels, reading to an audience, and book signings. What’s the best piece of advice you could give them about how to engage with a live audience in an effective way?
R.J.: Imagine your book is one of your children. Remember, you’re not fighting for you; you’re fighting for your book. You worked too hard to create that book to not do all you can to give it the best life it could possibly live.
P.S.: You excel in person-to-person communication in several modes (speeches, podcasts, books, Blarticles®, social media, etc.) and for several purposes (persuasion, education, entertainment, etc.). Fiction writers focus on the narrow slice of writing books for entertainment, but you glide across the communication spectrum as if modes and purposes blend together. Do they blend into one for you, or have you mastered the techniques for each separate mode and purpose?
R.J.: Well, some tasks are easier and blend together better than others. For instance, podcasts allow me to not only extend my network, they allow me to, as you say, glide across the communication spectrum. But please note, like many will tell you, it’s not always a lot of fun. I was raised by a Marine, and that meant learning to fight like heck for what you believe in, and never, ever give up. It’s a marathon, and I just take it week by week and do the best I can.
P.S.: What is the next book you’re writing? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
R.J.: It took seven years, but a book found me about four months ago. I’d prefer not to go into much detail here, but I can tell you where it will be found in the bookstore. Business, Self-Help…
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Rob Jolles: Whatever dream you have in your mind that involves the joy you might feel from writing a book, the reality is even better. It’s an amazing accomplishment, and one that is deeply personal. We all have our own voice, and it’s a voice you need to believe in. You are good enough to do this. Just remember this, which I keep near where I write: Planning to write is not writing. Thinking about writing is not writing. Talking about writing is not writing. Researching and outlining to write is not writing. None of this is writing. Writing is writing.
Search on the internet for “seasteads” and you’ll soon see mentions of billionaires and libertarians. Why is that? Are seasteads only for people in those small groups? Let’s explore the question.
I believe billionaires get mentioned with seasteads for two reasons: (1) Seasteads cost much more to build than houses on land, and (2) Billionaires often chafe at paying high taxes in their home country and long to escape to a low-tax country, of which few exist.
Among the earliest fictional examples of seasteads was Standard Island, a floating, mobile seastead in Propeller Island (or L’Île à hélice) by Jules Verne (1895). American millionaires built it.
In real life, seasteads might not require billionaires at all. Settlers might construct a small one without spending vast sums. They might build on an existing, abandoned platform, as with the Principality of Sealand. Crowdfunding might present another way to pay for a seastead’s construction, with perks of citizenship offered in exchange for contributions.
Libertarians
Seasteading often gets associated with libertarianism because adherents to that political philosophy see few, if any, land nations living up to libertarian principles. Their efforts to influence one or more existing countries to adopt libertarianism have failed. Some now believe the only way to live in a libertarian country is to create a new one.
However, nothing about the seastead concept requires a libertarian governing philosophy. If you build a seastead, declare it a country, and somehow get it recognized as such, you could set up any form of government you please.
The Seastead Chronicles
In my book, The Seastead Chronicles, a brash billionaire builds a seastead and declares ownership of a sector of the ocean. I don’t state the type of government on that seastead, so readers may imagine what they wish.
The fate of that seastead initiates a “gold rush” for oceanic oil and minerals, boom, and other seasteads get established. Most of these locate near known ocean bottom resources to take advantage of seabed mining. They divide the oceans into nations, called aquastates, which other nations and the U.N. recognize. As with land nations, territorial disputes arise, some leading to war. A few aquastates go bankrupt and get absorbed.
Only one story in The Seastead Chronicles mentions the building of a seastead and I gloss over its funding. My stories depict seasteads as existing structures, since my aim is to imagine the effect on people of living at sea. Billionaires might have been involved in funding some of the seasteads, but others might have been built by corporations or crowdfunding.
As for governing systems, they run the gamut. I assumed people would flee their home countries and establish the government they dreamed of at sea. Given a fresh start, they’d set up their own planned utopias. A few might lean libertarian, or start off that way, but I imagined others as solarpunk, anarchic, monarchic, military oligarchic, cooperatively leaderless self-governing, etc.
Up to You
If seastead cities and their aquastates got established in real life, how do you think it would happen? Would only the super-wealthy fund their construction? Would libertarianism dominate their governing philosophies? You might enjoy letting your imagination conjure cities and countries at sea. You could come up with ideas even more outlandish (pun intended) than those of—
Today I interview an author who writes first drafts like nobody else. Read further to hear about her unique process. I met Fabiana Elisa Martínez at an Afternoon with Authors event at a local bookstore. A polyglot, she doubted her writing abilities at first, but started with one-word prompts and crafted stories that have won numerous awards. Here’s her bio:
Fabiana was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She graduated from UCA University in Buenos Aires with a Linguistics and World Literature degree. She is a linguist, a language teacher, and a writer. She speaks five languages: Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, and Italian. She has lived and worked in Dallas, Texas for more than twenty years. She is the author of the short story collection 12 Random Words, her first work of fiction, the short story “Stupidity,” published as an independent book by Pierre Turcotte Editor, the collection of short stories Conquered by Fog, also published by Pierre Turcotte, and the grammar book series Spanish 360 with Fabiana.
12 Random Words, in its three bilingual versions, has won ten awards, and two of its stories were selected to be read in February 2017 as part of the Dallas Museum of Art’s distinguished literary series Arts & Letters Live. The book was also among the six finalists of the Eyelands Book Awards 2022 and won first prize.
Six months after publication, Conquered by Fog became a finalist in the 2023 Global Book Awards, the 2023 Eyelands Book Awards, the Independent Author Network Award, and the Royal Dragon Fly Book Awards.
Her short story “Characters” received the Second Place Award in the Fiction for Adults Category in the 2023 Annual Abilene Writers Guild Contest.
Interview
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?
Fabiana Elisa Martínez: In 2014, invited by a friend who believed in me more than I did, I accepted joining a virtual writing group. I wasn’t sure that I could write fiction in English, or at least quality fiction. Reading is easier; I can read in five languages and always try not to read two books in the same language consecutively. However, I tried, and every month, I wrote a short story based on a random word the group organizer sent.
Magically, some of those stories became a book, my first book, called 12 Random Words. It was published in 2016, and it has been one of the best experiences in my life. Because from the fiction of those stories came an immense number of really beautiful events that enriched my life even more.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
F.E.M.: My life is shaped by literature and languages, so for someone who reads every day, it’s quite difficult to choose just a few books or authors that have influenced me, maybe not my writing, but the way I see the world. Of course, I have my favorite writers. I might be a little biased here, but I love Borges, Cortázar, Javier Marías, and Mario Vargas, to mention some titans of the Spanish language. In English, I love Jonathan Coe and Julian Barnes. In French, I admire Michel Houellebecq. In Portuguese, Jorge Amado and Carlos Campaniço. I admire for sure any writer who can make the reader turn pages with passion and curiosity, no matter the genre or subject. Ultimately, there are not as many subjects, but endless ways to discuss the few deep passions that human beings share: love, jealousy, hatred, fear, and rage.
P.S.: Regarding your book 12 Random Words, (with four marvelous story-linked videos on your website), how did that book come to be and what is it about?
F.E.M.: The videos that illustrate my book can be seen on my website and were conceived by my friend, editor, and movie director, Quin Mathews. We traveled all the way to New York City to film them. It was a wonderful adventure and a great way to make literature tangible.
As I mentioned earlier, the 12 stories in the book were inspired by a random word I was given, and I couldn’t dispute it. I leave it to the reader the freedom to connect those stories. Like any short story collection, the stories may be related beyond the writer’s conscious choice. Many times, readers come to me to comment on characters that appear in different stories and seem to them related in some way. I never tell a reader that their perception is incorrect. It’s exactly the opposite; the reader is always right, and I love to listen to the infinite hues and angles through which they can view a story. I believe that is the magic of literature: the solitude of the writer and the boundless interpretations of the readers.
P.S.: Which came first—your writing, or learning five languages? How have each of those abilities affected the other, if at all? (Aside from the fact that you got 12 Random Words published in 3 different languages.)
F.E.M.: Since I grew up in a bilingual family (Spanish at home and Galician at my grandparents’ house), I don’t have a conscious memory of learning a language. In kindergarten, teachers were already speaking English to me. Later in life, I chose to study literature and additional languages in college, which provided me with the opportunity to earn degrees in Latin and Ancient Greek, which opened the doors to other languages. I have been in love with French for many decades. I speak English at home and teach mostly Spanish, but French is the language I consider my private linguistic room. Like Virginia Woolf’s room but made of words. So, when I was initially writing the stories of 12 Random Words in English (and I want to make this very clear: I wrote all those stories in English from scratch, and that’s the only language I have written fiction in so far), it was only logical to make the first book bilingual in English and Spanish. The other two followed along—English and French, and English and Portuguese.
P.S.: For your book Conquered by Fog, what connects the twelve short stories in it? How does the cover image of a female Greco-Roman statue represent them?
F.E.M.: Again, I think these are questions that the readers might answer with a more interesting perspective. From my perspective, the stories reveal different aspects of the human condition at various ages and stages. I think all these characters look for deep connection, understanding, and love, which is what makes us human. My deepest conviction is that we humans are more similar to one another than different from each other: we all yearn to be loved, and we all dread dying alone. The cover of the book is also a picture taken by my friend, Quin Mathews, and it reflects the character of some of the stories, as well as their classical symbolism. It also illustrates the title of the book, which is the same as the title of the very last short story in the collection. But again, readers know better. We should ask them.
P.S.: We heard that you write in the dark. Is that true? How does that work and why do you do it?
F.E.M.: Yes, I have a peculiar ritual. Whenever I start writing a short story, I turn off all the lights. I close all the shutters and switch off every single monitor. I close my eyes and start writing frantically. My brain works in a different dimension at that moment, perhaps closer to a meditative state; I’m not sure. I only open my eyes when I feel that the story has reached a mature stage. Sometimes 40 minutes pass, sometimes an hour, but when I open my eyes, I know I have something of relative value in front of me, something imperfect but solid that needs to be properly corrected. That’s the second stage of my writing, and of course, it is done with the lights on.
P.S.: Some say I’m in the dark about writing, but they mean it figuratively. Moving on. You’ve titled a short story “Stupidity,” and gotten it published as a standalone book. What prompted this story, and what is it about?
F.E.M.: Stupidity was a given word I had to write about many years ago. It tells the story of an older lady who attends the funeral of someone she loved for decades. However, even at funerals, people can uncover new mysteries about those they thought they knew very well. Interesting surprises can emerge even at funerals.
P.S.: Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
F.E.M.: That’s easy. Ideas are everywhere. I feel inside myself, but also listen and observe. I have always thought of writers as very efficient antennas. People who know me are aware that whatever they say, remember, do, or complain about may end up in some of my writings. Ideas are like subjects. They are limited. It’s how we handle dilemmas, temptations, sadness, and passions that matter. So, I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by a constant flow of literary triggers.
F.E.M.: Since my life is a blend of languages and literature, Spanish 360 with Fabiana is a project that aligns with my passion for teaching languages. The two books are transcriptions of our 50 podcasts, which are available for free on most platforms. The advantage of the books is that, in addition to the transcripts of each podcast, there are thousands—literally thousands—of footnotes explaining grammatical aspects not discussed in the podcasts but related to their dialogues and descriptions. Additionally, after each transcription, there are complementary exercises to practice the specific topics covered in each podcast.
P.S.: Reviews of your books on Amazon praise your writing style. One said “she paints with words” and another said of you, “she carries a museum in her head.” Another reviewer wanted to take a highlighter pen to each sentence. How would you describe your writing style and how it differs from other writers?
F.E.M.: Thank you very much for reading those immensely generous reviews. I’m not sure I’m the right person to describe my style, as my perspective is too close to reality. But what I do know is that I don’t want to write in a transparent way; I want to offer the reader some poetic mystery to decipher, not in the sense of a murder mystery but in the way we understand a poem through the magic and rhythm of words, metaphors, alliteration, and images. I don’t want to produce an easy text; I want to give my readers stories that I would love to read, texts that would be completed through the act of reading. Sometimes I worry that some readers don’t want to work too hard, but perhaps those are not the ones I write for. I believe literature is the only admirable lie—the biggest lie that hides the deepest truth.
P.S.: To say you’re an award-winning author is to understate the matter. It takes longer to list your awards than to list your books! Congratulations on winning all of them, by the way. Please choose one and tell us about your experience in winning the award.
F.E.M.: It’s difficult to choose from one of those awards because every one of them has given me in men’s happiness.
One of the best days of my life is not related directly to an award but to an event that felt like it. In February 2017, two stories from 12 Random Words were read at the Dallas Museum of Art by actress Constance Parry at an Arts and Letters Live Event recognizing Texan writers. Not only were my words, forged at home in silence with my cat on my chair, now in the voice of a talented actress, but I was also considered a Texan writer!
However, regarding awards, one that is close to my heart is the Eyelands Book Award, which 12 Random Words received in 2022. This is an international prize awarded in Greece, and the book was selected from among other short story collections by writers I admire. Every time I see that little tree-like, Greek clay sculpture on my desk, I’m reminded of how fortunate I am and how generous the literary world can be.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
F.E.M.: I am working on what I think could be a novel. We will see. I would say that right now, it’s going to be more like a quilt novel or a story divided into short vignettes that will compound a map of a bigger, deeper narration. If you can imagine a Cubist piece of art, one of those paintings by Juan Gris or Georges Braque, it will be something like that, but with words. Like an atomized story shown through all those little shards of moments in time.
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Fabiana Elisa Martínez: My advice is very simple, although I am fully aware that I lack the authority to give any advice. However, if you want to write literature, first read a lot, then sit down and write. There’s no better class and no better teacher than a good book and a skilled writer (and sometimes a bad book that teaches you how not to write). There is no powerful writing class that can force you to write what is in your heart. There are no courses or literary gurus. In the end, it is always you and how brave you are in front of the blank page. Sit down and write. You will be surprised.
Poseidon’s Scribe: Thank you, Fabiana. I believe your advice will inspire that kind of bravery in others.
Do one or more tattoos adorn your skin? About a third of Americans can say yes. How many tattooed fictional characters can you name? Today, I’ll discuss the use of tattoos in fiction, and mention how and where I’ve used tattoos in my own writing.
Examples
I remembered only two tattooed characters in the books I’ve read. Queequeg, in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, bore tattoos of mystical symbols theorizing about heaven and earth.
Mr. Dark, in The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, sported tattoos over most of his body. They seemed to move, and to depict stories—tales which form the book. Disney used that notion of moving, story-telling tattoos in the movie Moana.
As they do with real people, tattoos reveal aspects about fictional characters. The placement and art of the tattoo tell the reader facts about the character in an immediate and visual way. You may also infer things by clothing, but people change their clothes, not their tattoos. Tattoos make a permanent statement. This post by June Gervais provides great advice for writers regarding the uses and correct terminology of tattooing.
Seastead Tattoos
In my book, The Seastead Chronicles, tattoos play a role, and appear in three varieties—bioluminescent, full-body skin dyeing, and forehead tattoos.
Bioluminescent Tattoos
In the story “A Green Isle in the Sea,” I show minor characters possessing tattoos that glow. Moreover, characters can turn them on and off like flashlights or, more appropriately, like some deep-sea creatures. A handy feature if power fails and the seastead loses all lighting.
I know a type of bioluminescent tattoo exists today, but it requires black light (ultraviolet) to see, doesn’t glow in the dark, and can’t be turned on and off.
Full-Body Skin Dyeing
Starting with “First Flow of the Tide” and continuing in later stories, I make use of full-body skin dyeing. Adherents of the Oceanism religion may undergo a practice called Immersion, as a way of affirming devotion. During Immersion, skin over the entire body gets permanently dyed in some water-related color like blue or green or a mix. Not only does this demonstrate fealty to Oceanism, it also hides the character’s born race, at least regarding the trait of skin color.
Forehead Tattoos
Another aspect of Oceanism’s Immersion ceremony involves tattooing the image of a sea creature on the forehead. Many choose the five-armed starfish, a symbol of Oceanism itself. However, believers may opt for any sea creature, and that choice often tells something about the character.
What Now?
Did I put you in the mood to get a tattoo? If so, let me know what you get. Did I inspire you to write about a tattooed character? If so, tell me about that. As for me, I’ll never reveal where my tattoo is, the one bearing the title—
Both books (1) contain the word “Chronicles” in their titles, (2) concern colonization, (3) belong in the science fiction genre, and (4) could be classified as fix-ups. I’m hard pressed to think of more similarities. On to the differences.
Creative Intent
Bradbury wrote all the short stories for TMC separately, with no intent of combining them. A publisher suggested the Chronicles idea to him. Bradbury then revised the stories to fit better, and added bridging narratives to form a consistent overall story.
I wrote a seastead short story with no initial plan to write more. After that, my muse suggested other stories and the notion of combining them took over. For that reason, TSC stories required no revision, and no bridging material to get them to mesh. Rather than calling it a fix-up novel, you could call TSC a “short story cycle.”
Plot Structure
Bradbury ordered his stories in a logical sequence and divided them into three sections, each occurring over specific designated years. Stories in the first part concerned exploration and initial contact with Martians, the second part with colonization and war, and the third part with the aftermath of what’s happened to humans on Earth and to Martians on Mars.
Although stories in The Seastead Chronicles appear in sequential order, I didn’t group them into parts, nor mention any specific years. The early stories depict initial seasteads and the search for seabed resources. The middle stories show the spread of aquastates and war between them as colonization proceeds. Later stories portray the blossoming of a new, oceanic culture.
Themes
Any discussion of story themes becomes subjective, since readers interpret tales in individual ways. Bradbury explored many deep themes in TMC, but overall I believe he intended a comparison of the colonization of Mars to the 19th Century conquest of indigenous people in the American West. The stories promote living in harmony with nature and suggest that those who don’t do so end up destroying nature and themselves.
For TSC, readers can draw their own conclusions. However, I intended to focus on humanity’s creative impulses, rather than its destructive ones. Though moving to a new environment introduces dangers, it also promotes new ways of thinking. From those, new cultures can arise, including fresh art, music, language, and religious beliefs. If you’re looking for real-life parallels, consider that all historical colonization efforts have changed the colonizers as they adapted to their new home.
Style
Bradbury wrote in a poetic, lyrical style, rich in imagery and metaphor. You can tell he loved the sound and rhythm of words. Few science fiction authors of his time wrote that way, so his prose stands out. By contrast, I’d characterize mine as plain and unadorned. I strive to make my sentences descriptive and easy to read.
Influences
The Wikipedia article on TMC lists several people whose works inspired Bradbury, including Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sherwood Anderson, and John Steinbeck. Editor Walter Bradbury (no relation) at Doubleday gave him the idea of combining his Martian-themed short stories into a single book.
For TSC, my influences start with Andrew Gudgel, who heard about seasteads and mentioned them to me. As general science fiction influences, I’d cite Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury.
Final Thoughts
In this brief blogpost, I’ve missed some similarities and differences. To perform your own comparison, you’ll have to read both books and decide for yourself. Don’t take the word of—
Isn’t it fun when a fiction book includes a map? If you’re like me, you linger over the map longer than you do any other page of the story. A map draws you in and makes you feel like you’re there, like you could use it to navigate from any spot to any other. As you read the story, you keep referring to the map to pinpoint the current action.
Maps of Others’ Stories
Sarah Laskow wrote a marvelous post about maps associated with fiction. Her article includes maps from The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and others. Laskow discusses the reasons fiction writers make maps and their delight in drawing them.
Lincoln Island, from Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island
Lincoln Island
Readers of this blog know I adore Jules Verne, so I couldn’t resist mentioning the map of Lincoln Island included in his book, The Mysterious Island. His characters explored every extent of it, and named the significant features as well as the island itself. You can’t help but follow along with the castaways by flipping back to the map to see where they are.
Map of The Seastead Chronicles
While writing my book, The Seastead Chronicles, I made a map to keep things straight. However, I did not include that map in the book.
The stories in the book take place in our near future as people colonize the seas. As they’ve done on land, they carve out nations with borders, but call the oceanic countries “aquastates,” and people cluster in cities, called seasteads.
On my map, I refrained from noting seastead locations. Unlike cities on land, some seasteads can move, though others are anchored in place. One or more aquastates consist of a single, mobile seastead that travels the world (or at least, wherever it can get permission to go).
Problems with Mapping Aquastates
Borders between aquastates need not consist of lines marking vertical planes, as they do on land. In one case, a single aquastate overlaps another and their borders in that region cut horizontally, with a depth separation. Two-dimensional maps don’t show that situation well.
I faced another problem—map projections. Most world maps emphasize land, since that’s where people live…today. However, you can slice the orange other ways, to emphasize the oceans. Therefore, I based my aquastate map on what’s called the Interrupted Goode Homolosine Oceanic View. That map projection carves through land masses so you can focus on the water.
Interrupted Goode Homolosine Oceanic View
Another difficulty lay in the fact that The Seastead Chronicles spans a period of almost a century. No single map would suffice for that entire time, due to the varying number, shape, and area of aquastates over the decades. In the early years, people set up lone aquastates with no neighbors. Then the water got more crowded. As more people migrated to the oceans, some aquastates failed and collapsed while others grew and spread. Near the year 2100, I supposed, things might stabilize when the cost of war or legal disputes exceeded the benefit to be gained from additional territory.
Want to See It?
Are you curious about what my aquastate map looks like? I’m not ready to release it to readers yet, but I will sometime soon. Sorry about the cruel tease, but some things must wait until all is in readiness for—
Sometimes science fiction authors create religions for their stories. According to Wikipedia, they do this to satirize, to propose better belief systems, to criticize real religions, to speculate on alien religions, to serve as stand-ins for real religions, or other reasons.
Examples
I could cite many cases of this, but I’m most familiar with the following:
Church of Science – Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov
Church of All Worlds – Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein. Note: This book inspired the creation of a real religion by the same name.
Bokononism – Cat’s Cradle (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut
Bene Gesserit – Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert
Earthseed – Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents, (1998) by Octavia Butler
Oceanism
For my new book, The Seastead Chronicles, I created the religion of Oceanism. It begins with one man’s revelation and spreads through the seasteading community of aquastates. In some of the book’s stories, I mention certain aspects of Oceanism, but never describe it in full detail. Oceanism serves the purposes of the stories, not the other way around.
I don’t mean to make Oceanism sound like a fully-formed religion, complete in every aspect. Few writers, least of all me, would go to that much trouble. I created more features of it than appear in the stories, but not much more.
Aspects
All religions, even fictional ones, share certain basic attributes. Here’s how Oceanism addresses several of these aspects.
Belief in a higher power—For Oceanists, that’s their god: Oceanus.
Rules for living a virtuous life—Oceanists seek to obey the 5 Orders and avoid committing the 5 Sins
Sacred Texts—Oceanists call theirs the Tide.
Celebrations and Holidays—Oceanism recognizes five sacred days, evenly spaced through the year
Prayer and Meditation—Oceanism advocates daily meditation, while mostly immersed in water.
Rituals—Oceanists participate in the Five Life Events. Of these, Immersion is the most rigorous. During Immersion, adherents undergo permanent dying of their skin to some watery color, webbing of fingers and toes, inking of a forehead tattoo, and choosing an aqua-name.
Symbols and Iconography—the five-armed starfish serves as the main symbol of Oceanism, but adherents may choose any sea creature for their forehead tattoo. The number five contains special significance for Oceanists.
Sacred Spaces—Oceanism services take place in temples. There, worshippers wear bathing suits and sit in saltwater up to their necks.
Leaders who provide guidance—a High Priest leads the religion, with five pentapriests supporting him, and a hierarchy of priests supporting them.
Purpose
Earlier I cited several reasons authors create fictional religions. Oceanism exists to illustrate one of the ways cultures form in new environments. I imagined, if people moved to the sea in large numbers, new sea-based cultures would also arise and catch on, with new artforms, music, jargon, and religious sects. My stories make no judgements about the validity of Oceanism or any other religion. I leave religious satire and criticism to others.
Given what I’ve said about this religion, would you join with Oceanists? If not, does it sound plausible, at least? Feel free to leave a comment for—
Ever read a work of fiction and wish it included a glossary of the book’s unusual terms and names? Or do you think of glossaries as useless wastes?
In General
More common in nonfiction, glossaries sometimes appear in science fiction and fantasy books, to help readers orient to the unfamiliar world of a novel bristling with strange words and numerous proper nouns.
My new book, The Seastead Chronicles, lacks a glossary. I hope readers can pick up terms from context, without needing a reference section.
Readers might discern the meanings of many words even without context. For example, can you guess what the following seasteading slang words from my book might mean?
Here’s your list: blub-blub, blubbing, ebb-tide, flotz and jetz, fluke, kelpee, pelagic, squido, steader, tidal, and up-bubble.
In the book, character actions and dialogue provide context as they use these terms. Even if you couldn’t guess meanings without reading the stories, you’d deduce them without pondering too hard.
While creating the world of my book, I assumed characters would create new slang as they moved to live in ocean-based cities. That seemed likely, since the phenomenon occurs whenever people relocate and settle in a new environment.
Quiz Answers
Ready to find out how well you did at guessing the meanings of my fictional seastead slang? Below, I’ve provided a part of the glossary that doesn’t appear in The Seastead Chronicles. I bet you came close, even without context, to the correct meanings for many of them.
Word/PhraseMeaning
Blub-blub yada yada
Blubbing kidding, joking
Ebb-tide disappointing
Flotz and Jetz nonsense (from flotsam and jetsam)
Fluke swear word/oath
Kelpee kelp tea
Pelagic out/away, as in “I’m going pelagic”
Squido crazy
Steader a resident of a seastead, also Seasteader
Tidal popular, viral
Up-bubble positive, enthusiastic
Grading Yourself
If you couldn’t guess many slang term meanings, I blame myself. I didn’t give you any background material, but readers of The Seastead Chronicles have all the context needed.
I think the book works well without a glossary, but that’s the biased opinion of—
Who could have guessed Leonardo da Vinci left secrets underground?
Me, that’s who. First, here’s what really happened.
Reality
Sforza Castle, photographed by Jakub Halun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In the 1490s, the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, hired Leonardo to decorate Sforza Castle with artwork, and he complied. Since then, and down through the centuries, rumors persisted of hidden underground passages, secret corridors running beneath the castle.
Leonardo documented these tunnels, using his mirror-style writing. Much of his writings got combined into five notebooks, then bound into three volumes. English biographer John Forster (1812-1876) bequeathed the volumes to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where they’ve been called the Codex Forster. Codex Forster 1 describes the mysterious tunnels beneath the castle.
Recently, Polytechnic University of Milan, the company Codevintec, and Sforza Castle teamed up and employed laser scanning and ground-penetrating radar to determine the truth about the rumored passages.
You guessed it. They found a network of subterranean corridors, just as da Vinci described. Read about their discovery here and here.
Fiction
In my story, Leonardo’s Lion, I extrapolated from a known truth about da Vinci. In 1515, he built a mechanical lion to entertain King Francis I of France and the monarch’s guests. My fictional tale takes place over half a century later, when Chev, a ten-year-old boy, discovers the lion in a royal storeroom. He’s able to operate it and even ride it, and soon embarks on a strange and dangerous mission. His quest leads him many leagues through a French countryside devastated by religious war. Chev finds Leonardo’s greatest secrets hidden underground, and these mysteries could affect the future of all humanity.
Reality Catching up with Fiction
It’s taken awhile for researchers to discover what I suspected when I wrote Leonardo’s Lion. Still, I must admit they didn’t find the underground vault mentioned in my tale, nor were the tunnels anywhere near my story’s location in France.
If you’re interested in exploring Leonardo’s secret underground mysteries, you can’t roam the passageways beneath Sforza Castle. To my knowledge, they haven’t been excavated yet. However, you can read my story. It’s available for purchase here.
A fiction writer with occasional flashes of clairvoyance, I’m—
