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Opener to a joke? No. It really happened. Last Saturday, seven of us set up in the open-air seating area of the Oak Street Drafthouse and Cocktail Bar in Denton, Texas.

Selected as the fantasy portion of the Denton READiculous Book Palooza—they dared to call it the “first annual”—we sat at our tables selling books, conversing with readers, and reading excerpts of our writing.

I marred an otherwise eminent group, consisting of CCS Jones, Rhonda Eudaly, Rachel Oslin Bradford, Michelle Miles, Leslie C. Sewell, and Amena Jamali. From watching them at work and from viewing their table setups, I learned more about selling books to potential buyers.

You’re still wondering what happens when seven authors walk into a bar? They peddle books, and we did. It’s different when seven lexicologists walk into a bar. One drinks, one sips, one gulps, one quaffs, one imbibes, one swigs, and one guzzles.

Well, okay. That joke floored ‘em at the lexicology convention.

My thanks to Mindy and Jennifer and the whole staff who organized and put on the Denton READiculous Book Palooza.

If you’re going to put on a book palooza, it helps to have a bar close by. That serves to satisfy the thirsts of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Billionaires get to think bigger. Some spend their money on grand projects, pushing technology to new limits. The rest of us play amusing parlor games, imagining what we would do with billions of dollars.

Raúl Jianyu Mason

My imagining led me to create a fictional future trillionaire, Raúl Jianyu Mason, who’s featured in my short story, “Infinity in Your Hand,” published in Tamarind Literary Magazine, Issue 9. Bold and determined, Raúl lives by this credo: big accomplishments require only two things—money and will. The first human to marry an android, he’s famous for building and operating the largest space habitat.

Wormholes, Black Holes, White Holes

Raúl has set his sights on reducing the time required for interstellar travel by constructing stable wormholes in space. If he can do it, he’ll open the universe for humanity to go anywhere, thus bending space itself to his indomitable will.

Theories tell us anything can enter a black hole and nothing comes out. But for a white hole—the counterpart to a black hole—everything comes out, and nothing can enter. Raúl believes these could serve as an entrance and exit, with a wormhole between. But black holes and white holes attract each other, so he develops a design using two white holes and two black holes positioned to maintain stability. To sum up, he proposes a shortcut portal through a wormhole to a distant spot in the universe.

Poetry

The story got its title from the poem “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake, which begins with these lines:

    To see a World in a Grain of sand
    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
    Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
    And Eternity in an hour

Money and Will

You’ll have to read the story to find out how things work out for Raúl, and for his android wife. Perhaps he’s right—all it takes are money and will. Raúl’s got plenty of both. Or maybe it takes something else to hold “Infinity in Your Hand.”

My Story in Your Hand

Pick up a copy of Tamarind to read this story by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

This month marks a century and a half since the publication of Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. Maybe you think you don’t care, but read on. That novel changed a genre forever, and pointed readers toward new ways to think about survival.

Partial Summary

Near the end of the American Civil War, five Union prisoners escape a Confederate camp by balloon. Swept away by a storm, they must, at last, abandon their balloon and jump into the sea. They crawl ashore and identify the landmass as an island. With ingenuity and determination, they survive four years there despite suffering numerous misfortunes. In time, they cultivate crops and raise animals, build a pottery kiln, a metal forge, and even a telegraph.

As a Sequel

The novel attempts to serve as a sequel to two earlier books—In Search of the Castaways and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Though Verne connected the novels with some dramatic skill, he botched the timelines. He wrote a footnote attempting to explain the date discrepancies, but it did little more than inform readers of his awareness of the problem.

As a Robinsonade

Something about island castaway stories touch us. Could we, too, endure in a remote locale, out of contact with friends and family, deprived of the comforts of civilized life? We take nature walks and go on camping trips, but do so while clutching smartphones, knowing we’ll soon return to our big-screen TV, while our door camera monitors the outside world.

In 1719, Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, igniting an explosion of marooned-on-an-island stories, now called Robinsonades. Verne loved islands and had read both Robinson Crusoe and Johann David Wyss’ The Swiss Family Robinson. However, he deplored those authors’ choice to maroon their castaways along with survival equipment, the very tools and artifacts of civilization they needed. By contrast, Verne dropped his characters on an island with two watches, a match, a grain of wheat, and a metal dog collar.

This denial of resources became the standard for later Robinsonades, forcing characters to innovate and use available raw materials. No author or scriptwriter since Verne would dare equip their characters with large quantities of helpful supplies.

As a Comment on Civilization

Verne’s marooned characters don’t just scrape by. Bit by bit, they morph from castaways to colonists. In effect, they don’t separate from civilization—they restart civilization in a new place. In four years, they retrace the technological advances of twelve thousand years of human history. From Stone Age to Iron Age to Electrical Age, they recreate mankind’s major innovations. Perhaps this shines new light on the saying, “you can take the man out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the man.”

As a Bromance

The novel’s themes of survival, innovation, and perseverance stand out. But Nick DiMartino, in his book The Amputee’s Guide to Jules Verne, also detects a theme of male bonding. The castaways don’t argue, complain, or fight. They work together to survive. After they return to civilization at the end, they elect to live the rest of their lives together in the “wilderness” of Iowa.

With a Deus ex Machina

I suppose I can still call this a spoiler alert, even for a book 150 years old. What makes the island so mysterious? Peculiar things happen on occasion, aiding the castaways just when hope appears lost. Near the end they discover Captain Nemo, sole remaining member of the submarine Nautilus, has helped them when necessary. Not a deus (god), but he owns one heck of a machina.

As an Enduring Tale

The Mysterious Island still captivates today, in its sesquicentennial. Readers will enjoy the novel 150 years from now and beyond, because it asks a question applicable in any age. Could we, too, could endure if marooned on a remote island without our modern toys? Go ahead and read it. Explore Lincoln Island and imagine yourself being there. Accept this invitation to adventure, extended to you by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

An article written by speaker, writer, and life coach Brad Stulberg caught my eye. It bore the grandiose title “8 Rules to do Everything Better.” Really? Everything?

I’d love to do everything better. At the moment, I stink at mountain-climbing, neurosurgery, trombone-playing, the decathlon, and a couple of other activities. However, I’d settle for writing better, so I figured I’d see if the eight rules applied to fiction writing. What follows are Mr. Stulberg’s rules, and my assessment of how they apply to authors.

1. Stress + Rest = Growth

This one makes sense. Writers can overdo things, typing until late at night, going without sleep. Everyone needs recharging time. Besides, the unconscious mind often mulls over problems and finds solutions.

2. Focus on the Process, Not Results

I might have stated it a different way, but I agree with the intent. Writers shouldn’t compare themselves to famous authors, or anyone else. Rather than aiming for the best-seller list, seek to write as well as you can.

3. Stay Humble

This rings true. I imagine some best-selling authors lose some humility when they reach the pinnacle. They might imagine they’ve learned all they need to learn. If they step past confidence to arrogance, they risk going stale.

4. Build Your Tribe

Readers might think this couldn’t apply to writing—a solitary activity. It does, in some measure. Even the most introverted writers benefit from surrounding themselves with like-minded supporters. These take the form of critique group partners, beta readers, and eventually reader-fans.

5. Take Small, Consistent Steps to Achieve Big Gains

Any big job, like writing a novel, seems daunting before you start. Beginning with a small step helps in at least two ways. First, you’re less likely to abandon an effort you’ve started. Second, what you found difficult today, you’ll find easier tomorrow. That’s a corollary to the adage about eating an elephant. Thanks to the learning curve, you can take bigger bites each day.

6. Be a Minimalist to Be a Maximalist

Though I’d quibble with the phrasing, I agree with the meaning. If you say yes to fiction writing, you need to say no to some other fun activities of life. Focus on learning to write better. Put in the time.

7. Make the Hard Thing Easier

By this, Mr. Stulberg means to design your life around doing what you value, and make the tempting disruption thing harder. Don’t count on your willpower to avoid distractions or to prevent falling back into bad habits—remove the lures. Engineers call it the poka-yoke concept, or mistake-proofing. Example: if you tend to plunge into the rabbit-hole of fun research while writing, then write with a device disconnected from the internet.

8. Remember to Experience Joy

Like all people doing what they love, writers can turn into workaholics. Take time to celebrate the achievements, to delight in the other aspects of life. This goes beyond the rest and recharging of point 1 above. It means to allow a happy pause for reveling in small victories and to be fully present for the others you love.

Summing Up

Overall, Brad Stulberg has provided eight helpful pieces of advice, as applicable to writers as to anyone else. Though the rules may seem trite and obvious, don’t we all need a reminder every now and then? Among the writers who needed this refresher, I’d count—

Poseidon’s Scribe

You might find my new book, The Seastead Chronicles, of interest. Several book distributors offer it in paperback and ebook format. Before you buy, though, you should understand the meaning of the word “seastead.”

Definition

Combining the words “sea” and “homesteads,” seasteads are permanent abodes at sea. The Wikipedia article restricts the definition to structures in international waters, but I see no reason for that. People could construct them close to shore. Some imagine seasteads to comprise or be included in new oceanic nations, but I can foresee future seasteads as extensions of existing land countries, too. Most seastead concepts and historical attempts float on the ocean surface, but I could imagine underwater seasteads as well.

History

Accounts of people living on the sea go back thousands of years, and include the areas of Southeast Asia, Venice, and Aztec-era Mexico. Recent decades have seen fledgling attempts at small seasteads. Some failed after a short time, but more are starting up.

In Fiction

• In 1895, the novel Propeller Island (also The Floating Island) by Jules Verne introduced readers to a huge man-made mobile island built by American millionaires.
• China Miéville’s novel The Scar (2002) features thousands of ships connected to form a floating city.
• House of Refuge (2014) by Michael DiBaggio features seasteads, but in an alternate history world of humans with paranormal abilities.
• PJ Manney’s 2017 novel (ID)entity describes a pirate attack against a seastead.
• Atlantis Returns (2019) by Vlad ben Avorham considers whether land nations will accept seasteads or not.
• The Seastead Adventures series, Books 1, 2, 3, and 4 by Tara Maya and Mathiya Adams (2023-2025) consists of young adult romance novels that take place on a seastead.

Institute

The Seasteading Institute promotes seasteading, educates the public about the concept, supports those who build seasteads, and nourishes a seasteading community of interest.

My Book

In The Seastead Chronicles, you’ll find fifteen short stories set in the same world (ours in the near future), but spanning almost a century of time. I don’t portray seasteads as good or bad, but as new places where people live, bringing the best and worst aspects of being human with them.

As one reviewer wrote, the book “explores not only the nuts-and-bolts of how such a civilization and its technologies would function…but also how such a society would grow and evolve, how family dynamics and national identities would change; how human physiology and psychology would adapt to this harsh new environment. Even the idiosyncrasies of casual language are explored… The reader is given tales of war and peace, of murder and romance, of adventure and intrigue to propel these chronicles forward to a satisfying conclusion. But in all these stories, it is the human experience that drives the narrative.”

You may purchase The Seastead Chronicles in the following places and formats: Amazon as ebook, Amazon as paperback, Barnes & Noble as paperback or ebook, Everand as ebook, Indigo as ebook, Rakuten Kobo as ebook, and Smashwords as ebook.

The Seastead Chronicles receives the strongest possible recommendation from—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Soon, my next book will launch. It’s The Seastead Chronicles, the first book in a series by the same name.

Throughout history, humanity confined itself to a small fraction of the Earth—the land. In the future, we take to the sea.   

Fifteen short stories chronicle humanity’s 21st century struggle to colonize the seas. They include pioneering attempts to own and defend sectors of the ocean, scrambles over vast mineral resources, and quests by oppressed populations to live free. You’ll follow fierce sea battles over boundaries, experiments with unique forms of government, and efforts to forge a new, ocean-based culture.

Along the way, you’ll meet the bold and quirky characters who defy continental powers and their innate, land-adapted nature to settle and thrive in the water. You’ll get to explore the seasteads where they live, their shining aquatic cities—some fixed and some mobile—on and under the ocean. In reading this book, you’ll view life from their perspective, a world where water isn’t just for travel or temporary work—it’s home.

As Ray Bradbury did with Mars and J.R.R. Tolkien did with Middle Earth, I present a new world, but it’s our Earth with fresh borders within its oceans. Welcome to The Seastead Chronicles.

Stay tuned to this blog for further details. The book could launch in just a few days from Pole to Pole Publishing. It’s the first published story collection by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Today is National Tell a Story Day. You can honor this day by telling a story. Now that I think of it, you might find it harder not to tell a story.

Definition

At its essence, a story consists of a character and at least one event, but usually a series of connected events. The character might be you, someone you know, someone you’ve heard of, some animal, or some other non-human creature.

Born Storytellers

Since the development of verbal language, our species has told stories. Our prehistoric ancestors likely related tales of hunting game, of gathering plant food, of having babies and raising children, of combat, and of death. They spun these stories by firelight in caves and painted the tales on cave walls.

Today, much of our everyday speech takes the form of stories. “I had a good day at work.” Character and event. As children, our earliest sentences formed stories. “Mommy, I’m hungry.”

You may not think of these humdrum, trivial utterances as stories, but they meet the definition. In fact, you could count every day as National Tell a Story Day.

Methods

Face-to-face verbal communication still serves as the most common way to tell stories. We’ve invented countless others over the millennia, including cave paintings, etched tablets, inked scrolls, books, magazines, comic books, audiobooks, video games, podcasts, e-books, and more.

Interesting Stories

Though you can classify most of what we say, and most emails we write, as stories, the majority of those don’t intrigue us beyond the transient purpose of conveying information. To qualify as interesting, a story needs to satisfy more criteria:

• Problem. The main character (MC) needs a problem to solve.
• Attraction. Something about the MC must cause readers or listeners to identify with and care about the character.
• Antagonist. The MC must struggle against an opposing force, which could be another character.
• Setting. The story should convey a sense of place, and that location should be described well enough for readers or listeners to imagine themselves there.
• Plot. More than a series of events, a plot orders the events such that the MC strives and fails again and again, with the stakes rising each time.
• Resolution. The story should end with the problem resolved in some way, through actions of the MC, though perhaps not the way the MC expected. Perhaps the MC dies, but does so in a meaningful way that resolves the problem.

Enduring Stories

Some stories transcend even the interesting ones. These tap into some universal themes of the human condition. The style of writing captivates readers and listeners by rising above mundane prose. These stories last for centuries, getting endlessly repeated, re-read, and copied into other forms. These classics include Aesop’s fables, the books of the great religions, the Iliad and Odyssey, and myriads of others.

Your Challenge Today

On National Tell a Story Day, I offer an either/or challenge to you. You may choose Task A or Task B, and I’m unsure which one’s harder:

Task A: Using my broad definition of “story,” go through this entire day without saying or writing a story.

Task B: Make at least one of your stories interesting.

It’ll be Task B for—

Poseidon’s Scribe