Science Fiction - Steven R. Southard (Poseidon's Scribe)

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Eighty Days – Day 40

Welcome back to my blog-tour Around the World in Eighty Days, a celebration of the 150^th anniversary of Jules Verne’s classic novel. At the moment, we’re near Shanghai, about three miles from that city’s harbor. So far, 50% of Fogg’s 80 days has elapsed, and he’s traversed 11,619 miles, or 48.8% of the distance.

Things are a big snarled, but hang with me. Fogg and Aouda lost Passepartout in Hong Kong. Detective Fix had gotten the servant so drunk and drugged that he’d passed out in an opium den. Fogg missed the steamer Carnatic, due to sail from Hong Kong to Yokohama, where he needed to catch the large, trans-Pacific steamship SS General Grant.

He boarded the tiny sailing ship Tankadere bound for Shanghai after her captain assured him the General Grant started from Shanghai before sailing to Yokohama. He and Princess Aouda both hoped Passepartout had somehow gotten aboard the Carnatic without them.

During the trip to Shanghai, Fogg dined with Detective Fix, never knowing Fix intended to arrest him when the warrant caught up. A typhoon battered the small ship and it seemed they’d reach Shanghai too late to embark aboard the SS General Grant. Just three miles from the harbor, they sighted the huge American steamship on its way out of port. They signaled with a distress flag and cannon, hoping the ship would approach and allow a transfer of passengers.

In 1872, Shanghai held a population of about 700,000, led by a ‘circuit intendant’ named Shen Bingcheng. They abolished the office title of circuit intendant around 1906, and sometime later began calling them mayors.

Today, Shanghai surpasses all other Chinese cities in population, with 24.9 million. It ranks as the second most populous city in the world, and contains the world’s busiest port. Gong Zheng serves as its mayor.

Getting from Hong Kong to Shanghai today doesn’t require sailing for four days in a small sailing ship during a typhoon. You can fly between the two in less than 14 hours, including an 8-hour stop in Chengdu.

If this blogpost series has stirred your interest in Jules Verne, you’ll enjoy reading an upcoming anthology called Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. It’s the first fiction anthology produced by the North American Jules Verne Society. Here’s what its cover will look like, and as soon as it’s published, you’ll see an announcement at the society’s website and here at my blog.

Let’s see if Fogg, Aouda, and Fix will be able to board the General Grant. If they do, they might reach Yokohama by November 14, if you can believe navigational calculations performed by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

November 11, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

An Extraordinary Cover Reveal

You’re expecting another episode in my blogpost series following the path of Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days. Sorry, but he and his companions are still on their way from Kolkata to Hong Kong aboard the Rangoon.

Today, I’m revealing the cover for the upcoming anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. This is the first fiction anthology produced by the North American Jules Verne Society. I’m proud to have been, along with Father Matthew Hardesty, a co-editor for this project.

In the cover image, artist Amanda Bergloff captured the far-reaching imagination of Verne in her depiction of a squid, balloon airship, deep-sea diver, compass, and moon.

Within the anthology, you’ll find short stories by today’s authors, each exploring some aspect of the vast Verne oeuvre, each echoing the excitement and adventure of that French Father of Science Fiction. It includes tales by Mike Adamson, Joel Allegretti, Gustavo Bondoni, Demetri Capetanopoulos, Brenda Carre, Eric Choi, Christopher M. Geeson, Kelly A. Harmon, David A. Natale, Alison L. Randall, Janice Rider, Michael Schulkins, and Joseph S. Walker.

The Society is working with the publisher to finalize the anthology itself. It’s expected to launch sometime in the next few months. To find out when and where you can buy this extraordinary anthology, stay tuned to the Society’s website, or to this website by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 30, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 23

Welcome back to the blog-tour commemorating Phileas Fogg’s trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years later. The one-day train ride from Allahabad to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) went well.

Along the way, the train stopped at Benares, where Sir Francis Cromarty departed the group. At 7:00 am on the 25^th, the train pulled in the station in Calcutta, giving them 5 hours until the steamer would leave at noon. Fogg and Passepartout had covered 7325 miles, about 29.8% of the total distance, and they’d consumed 28.8% of the time.

Princess Aouda had recovered from her drugged state, surprised to be in the company of strangers, her rescuers. When told a relative of hers resided in Hong Kong, Fogg decided to convey her there.

A policeman arrived, ordering Fogg and Passepartout to accompany him. He escorted them to the office of a judge. Three Brahmin priests accused them, not of interfering with a suttee ceremony in Pillaji, as they thought, but of desecrating a temple in Bombay by wearing shoes inside (see my Day 18 entry).

The judge imposed a sentence of 300 pounds and 15 days imprisonment for Passepartout, and 150 pounds and 1 week in prison for Phileas Fogg. Watching from a hidden corner, Detective Fix rubbed his hands in delight since the warrant for Fogg’s arrest as a bank robber had not yet reached Calcutta, but would likely do so in that time.

Detective Fix might have wanted to accuse Phileas Fogg of theft, but you can get my new ebook, 80 Hours, for a steal at only $2.99. What are they thinking at Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, and Tolino anyway?

Back to Verne’s story. Unperturbed, Fogg stated his willingness to pay bail. Without batting an eye, he handed over 2000 pounds bail money and the judge released them both. Passepartout even got his shoes back.

At the time of the story, Calcutta’s population had reached 633,000. Low-lying areas of the city had suffered terrible losses in the cyclones of 1864, 1867, and 1870. In 2022, Kolkata boasts a population over 7 times that number—4.5 million.

Today, if you travel from Allahabad to Kolkata, you don’t need a full day, as Fogg did. An airline flight takes as little as five or six hours, though you may have to stop in Raipur or Gorakhpur on the way.

For this blogpost series, you can’t fly. Like Fogg, you must board the steamer Rangoon. Fogg estimated the travel time to Hong Kong as ten to twelve days, so look for the next entry on November 4 (good weather) or 6 (bad weather).

Kindly watch your step on the gangway, along with Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda, Fix, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 25, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 22

Thank you for joining me on my global blog tour. We’re following the route taken by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after its publication.

Since leaving Mumbai (called Bombay in those days) we’ve reached Allahabad. Much has happened since then, so let’s catch up with the action.

On the train, Fogg met Sir Francis Cromarty who, besides being countryman and a whist player, knew India well and became Fogg’s traveling companion. At 8:00 pm on October 21, the train stopped beyond Rothal near Kholby. (Don’t bother looking for place names on the map. I’ll explain later.) Track had not yet been laid down between there and Allahabad. Determined to forge ahead, Fogg bought an elephant and the services of a guide.

They rode the elephant past the village of Kallenger on the Cani River. Witnessing a procession of Brahmins, they found out a young princess named Aouda was to be put to death. Her husband, the rajah, died, and the practice of suttee (or sati) demanded her sacrifice, which would occur in the village of Pillaji.

Aghast, Fogg decided to try to save her, and it’s Passepartout who actually did. Along with Aouda, the group arrived in Allahabad. No longer 2 days ahead of schedule, he had then traveled 6835 miles, covering 27.8% of the distance in 27.5% of the time.

Verne had stayed true to geographical facts up to this point. However, as noted in Nicholas Whyte’s informative website, the villages of Rothal, Kholby, Kallenger, or Pillaji never existed. Nor is there a Cani River. It appears Verne made them up.

Why might he have done that? He must have had access to a route map of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, which included accurate village and river names. However, he intended to describe specific places in negative terms (failure to complete railroad lines, practicing suttee), so may have made up fictional names for that area to avoid lawsuits.

By the way, suttee/sati was banned in British India since the 1840s, and has been illegal in modern India since 1987. However, some widows even in the last twenty years have voluntarily committed suicide on their husband’s funeral pyres.

At the time of the novel, Allahabad’s population numbered about 144,000. Today, it’s over 10 times that, 1.54 million. Modern travelers don’t need 4 days to get from Mumbai to Allahabad. Without elephants or princesses, you can take a 2-hour flight between those cities.

I, for one, am glad Aouda joined us on our trip now. It’s about time this journey included a woman. Speaking of that, a female protagonist stars in my new ebook, 80 Hours. You may purchase it at Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, and Scribd.

Our traveling party is cutting it close. We’re due in Kolkata tomorrow to make the steamer. Will we make it? That answer is known only to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 24, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 18

It’s time to continue our around-the-world blog tour. We’re following the route of Phileas Fogg, 150 years to the day after his famous fictional trip. The steamship Mongolia sailed from Suez and reached Mumbai (known in Verne’s time as Bombay) at 4:30 pm today, October 20.

Fogg had traversed 6004 miles, or 24.5% of the distance in only 22.5% of his allotted time. About 2 days ahead of schedule, he seemed in good shape to win his wager. In 3 ½ hours, he had to catch his train to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) leaving at 8:00 pm.

He sent Passepartout out to purchase shoes and shirts, while he walked to the passport office for official proof of his arrival. Meanwhile, Detective Fix headed to the ‘Bombay’ police hoping the warrant arrived for Fogg’s arrest. It hadn’t.

His shopping completed, Passepartout got distracted and curious, and wandered into a Hindu pagoda at Malabar Hill without taking his shoes off. He escaped three Brahmin priests who chased after him and he almost missed the train.

In the time of the novel, 644,000 people called Bombay home and Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse served as the Crown Governor of the ‘Bombay Presidency’ when England ruled the various pieces of the subcontinent. Today, the population surpasses 20.4 million, the President of India is Droupadi Murmu, the Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar, and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

As for Malabar Hill, where Passepartout committed his sacrilegious act, that site contained several temples and some mansions for the wealthy at the time. Even more exclusive today, Malabar Hill counts among the top ten most expensive areas in the world.

Some of you may wonder when I’ll get to the novel’s balloon trip. I won’t, because there wasn’t one. Pressed for time, Fogg would never have considered a balloon. They move too slowly, and often in unintended directions. Every movie adapted from the novel features a balloon, but you won’t find one in the book. Read Five Weeks in a Balloon or The Mysterious Island if you want balloons from Verne.

Traveling from Suez to Mumbai today doesn’t require the 11 days Fogg needed. The drive to Cairo takes less than 2 hours and you can fly from there to Mumbai in about 9 hours, with a stop in either Muscat or Dubai.

That reduction in time from 11 days to 11 hours reminds me—you can grab my ebook, 80 Hours, at Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Rakuten Kobo. It’s a modern adaptation of Verne’s novel.

The train whistle just blew at the Mumbai railroad station. Better get aboard. The steamer will leave from Kolkata in five days and we can’t miss it. (There may be a plot development four days from now.) Who’s we, you ask? None other than Fogg, Passepartout, Detective Fix (who hopped aboard to follow Fogg), as well as you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 20, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Eighty Days – Day 2

Buon giorno, faithful readers and fellow blog travelers. We’ve reached Turin on our voyage Around the World in Eighty Days with Phileas Fogg and his servant, Passepartout. We’re commemorating their famous fictional trip of 150 years ago.

The book states Fogg and his party reached Turin “by Mont Cenis” on Friday, October 4, 1872, at 6:35 am. The Mont Cenis part seems unlikely. A railway had been operating there since 1868, but it closed in 1871 after the opening of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. That tunnel proved a much better connection between France and Italy through the Alps. I’m guessing Verne wrote the novel a year or so ahead of when it appeared in print.

In any case, Fogg must have felt gratified, in his stoic way, to have traveled 736 miles since leaving London. That put him 3% of his way around the world in just 2.5% of the time. Good to be ahead of schedule so early in the trip.

Turin, in 1872, held a population of 208,000 and had served as the capital of Italy up until 11 years earlier. King Victor Emmanuel II then sat on the throne of the newly united Kingdom of Italy.

In 2022, Turin’s population numbers 900,000. Sergio Mattarella serves as President of the country, and Mario Draghi is the Prime Minister.

Today’s traveler wouldn’t need 22 hours, as Fogg did, to reach Turin from Paris. You can fly between the two airports in about an hour and a half.

Speaking of flying, you might consider buying a copy of my book 80 Hours, a fictional tribute to Verne’s story. You can get the ebook from Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, and Apple Books.

Tomorrow, we’re due in Brindisi. So far, all is going well for our party—Fogg, Passepartout, you, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 4, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

NASA’s DART Mission is 125 Years Too Late

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) succeeded in impacting a probe on the asteroid Dimorphos in an attempt to redirect the path of that body.

You’re late to the party, NASA. It’s been done already. Over a century ago.

As chronicled in The Cometeers, an international team already attempted to redirect an Earthbound comet.

In 1897.

When Comet Göker threatened to strike our planet in September of that year, there were no rockets, no nuclear weapons. They fired projectiles from the Jules Verne cannon and tried to deflect the comet with a gunpowder explosion. Commander Hanno Knighthead struggled to motivate his argumentative, multinational crew of eccentric geniuses to work together.

Then he learned the crew included a saboteur. Only a truly extraordinary leader could get this group to cooperate, identify and thwart the spy, and jury-rig a way to divert the comet. Lucky thing Hanno brought his chewing gum.

Good work, NASA. DART struck its target. But let’s not call it new or innovative. The credit for saving the Earth from collision goes to The Cometeers, by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 27, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

80 Hours—Available for Pre-order

Next Sunday, October 2, 2022 marks 150 years to the day after Phileas Fogg began his trip Around the World in Eighty Days. I’ll celebrate this fictional event in two ways:

My story “80 Hours,” will be available for purchase, though you can pre-order it now.
I’ll begin a series of blogposts on the days when Fogg and his companions arrived in each city on their trip.

To Jules Verne’s reading audience in 1872, it must have seemed astounding to think someone could circle the globe in as little as eighty days. Today, we’re accustomed to the space station and manned spacecraft orbiting the earth in a little over eighty minutes.

For the rest of us non-astronauts, imagine facing the challenge of circumnavigating the earth in eighty hours with no preparation and with unknown, promised obstacles along the way. That’s the problem confronting shy and sheltered Wendy Pegram in “80 Hours.”

You may pre-order “80 Hours” in ebook form now at Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Tolino, and Vivlio. Starting next Sunday, you’ll be able to get the book at those sites, and at Amazon, Scribd, and Rakuten Kobo.

If you’ve been itching to make the trip around our globe, you can do it for real. Or (far cheaper) you can read your way around the world by two different methods, courtesy of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 25, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Equation for a Great Science Fiction Story

If only we could write great SF by following a step-by-step process, or a connect-the-dots diagram, or a mathematical equation.

I seem to recall Isaac Asimov once said a good story maximizes the emotional impact on the reader. That definition starts out resembling an equation, but trails off into the unquantifiable chaos of human emotion.

NASA scientist Christine Corbett Moran did a nice mathematical analysis of what she enjoys about SF. She chose an interesting metric. First, she noted the point at which she became engaged enough in the book that she had to finish it. She divided the number of pages left after that point by the story’s total length. At the very least, it’s a good measure for determining how early a story grabbed her interest. She called the parameter engagement.

I tried a different approach to quantifying good SF. I listed twelve attributes I thought important (engaging protagonist, intriguing setting, interesting style, etc.) and performed a pair-wise analysis on them. This required comparing every attribute to each of the others to determine importance. Yes, it’s tedious, and yes, it forced me to make hard choices, but such are the hardships I endure for my readers.

My resulting list, from most important to least, is as follows:

Logical Plot. Events must make sense in a cause-effect relationship.
Engaging Protagonist. I have to care about the main character, and some lesser ones.
Difficult Problem/Ingenious Solution. The problem should be important and appear impossible. The solution, unexpected and elegant.
Consistent (or Explained) Motivations. The characters shouldn’t say or do things out-of-character. Or, if they do, I need to know the reason for the deviation.
Believable Science. I can tolerate some stretching of science, but give me enough convincing techno-babble to make it seem plausible.
Intriguing and Well-described Setting. Make your world fascinating and immerse me in it. Explore the implications to help it seem vivid and real.
Plot Twists. The unexpected turn, the jaw-dropping surprise. A few of these keep me reading on.
Interesting and Distinct Writing Style. If you choose words well, if your story flows like a stream with interesting ripples and eddies, I’ll follow you anywhere.
Symbolism, Inside Jokes, and Easter Eggs. I’m a sucker for this stuff. I don’t always get them, but when I do, I feel like I’ve broken a secret code.
Humor. Not all stories need humor, and not all writers pull it off well, but it’s a plus.
Message. Don’t lecture me with a message or morale. Still, I like it when I finish a story and a day later realize what the author was really saying.
Relevance to My Life. It’s nice when a character thinks and acts like me, but that’s not necessary for me to enjoy the story.

Your list of attributes would be different from mine, and even if some items match, the order of your list would be different. That’s why one reader’s “great!” is another’s “meh.”

Sorry, I don’t know the equation for writing a great science fiction story. If it exists, and if top SF authors know it, they aren’t posting it on their websites.

It’s possible, too, that our elusive equation might include terms like luck and timing, both largely out of the writer’s control.

Perhaps there’s no use searching for an equation to write great science fiction. Maybe it’s better to spend your time trying to write better stories. That’s the nonmathematical goal of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

April 10, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink

27 Ways to Celebrate Jules Verne’s Birthday

Just two more days until Jules Verne’s birthday on February 8th. He’ll turn 194. How will you celebrate?

I have a few ideas for you. For convenience, I’ll separate them into categories.

Low-Cost At-Home Activities

Read (or re-read) one of his books. Perhaps the best way to celebrate.
Join the North American Jules Verne Society.
Watch a movie inspired by one of Verne’s books. There are dozens to choose from, some available on the internet.
Toast to Verne with some French wine, and, as the wine takes effect, imagine taking an extraordinary voyage of adventure to some far-off, exotic location.
Play a game of whist with three fellow Verne enthusiasts. (Verne’s characters often played that game.)
Write your own fictional adventure story set in a place you’ve never been.
Imagine a trip back through time to meet Jules Verne. What would that conversation be like? What would you ask him? What might he ask you?
Do what Verne did in writing Paris in the 20^st Century—imagine what your own city or town will look like a century from now, in the year 2122.
Find a globe or world map. Say you have to reach a specific location, but have only the latitude (as with The Children of Captain Grant), or just the longitude. Imagine the adventures you’d have as you searched along one line.
Imagine Verne time-travelled to 2022 and you could talk to him. What about our world would you show him first? What might fascinate him most?
Bake a birthday cake for Jules Verne. It could depict (or be in the shape of) a balloon, a submarine, a moon projectile, or anything else from his novels.
Compose, and sing, a birthday song for Jules Verne. For the lyrics, try to work in titles of his novels or character names.
Dress up as your favorite Verne character.
Write a poem in honor of Jules Verne
Write a letter to Jules Verne, wishing him a happy birthday.
Draw your own illustration of your favorite Verne character, vehicle, or scene.
Many people have their own version of what the Nautilus might have looked like. Pick your favorite from this website maintained by Michael & Karen Crisafulli, and draw your own.

More Involved Activities

Build a model of one of his vehicles. A search of the internet will give you many to choose from.
Build and launch a balloon made from a garbage bag, safely following instructions on this site, or this one. Imagine you’re aboard it, floating high in the air, for five weeks.
Use a 3D printer to print a Verne-inspired vehicle, or hire someone to print it for you.
Find a suitable cave and go on your own journey to the center of the Earth, (or as close as you can get).
Join a local model rocketry club. (Not the same as launching a manned projectile from a cannon, but it’s cheaper and safer.)
Visit the nearest submarine museum and tour its featured submarine. Note the differences between it and the Nautilus.

Activities for the Truly Dedicated

Jules Verne often set his stories on islands. Plan and take your own trip to an island somewhere.
Visit Verne’s birthplace and museum in Nante, France.
Visit Verne’s gravesite in Amiens, France.
Make a bet with some friends about how fast you can travel around the world, then win the bet.

Later this year, the North American Jules Verne Society will have an anthology published under the title of Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. Among the millions of people eagerly awaiting that event are you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 6, 2022Poseidon's ScribePermalink