If you write genre fiction, you write for two sectors of the reading public. Problem is, they want opposite things. What do you do?
For any genre—and I’ll use science fiction as my example—you’ll have two types of readers. Let’s call them Experts and Newbies. You’d like both of them to buy and enjoy your books.
Experts
The first type knows the genre well. Scifi experts can quote the Three Laws of Robotics, have a ball lecturing you about Dyson Spheres, reveal the universal question for which the answer is 42, and babble on about Babylon 5. They read often, and crave the most recently published stories, and prefer them crammed with all the technologies and the latest scientific discoveries.
Newbies
Don’t take that term the wrong way. We all start as newbies. The newbie takes a chance when buying your book. Despite harboring doubts about scifi, the newbie remains curious and willing to learn. The newbie may not know a warp drive from a hard drive, but likes a good story as long as it doesn’t confuse.
These two types differ in their approach to what I’ll call New Stuff and Tropes.
New Stuff
I mentioned experts seek technology and scientific discoveries. They want the latest, the cutting-edge, the most imaginative concepts. Give them the New Stuff. Not only that, they want the full explanation. What’s it look like? How is it powered? How fast does it go? What languages can it speak? You could write many pages of convincing technobabble without boring an expert.
Newbies don’t delight in New Stuff. It’s all new to them. They just want to know how the characters feel about the new stuff and how it affects the plot. Any paragraph that reads like a technical manual annoys them, maybe enough to stop reading.
Tropes
With tropes, the situation reverses. Here, I using the term to refer to technology or concepts well known to readers of the genre. Expert readers get your meaning as soon as you mention wormholes, the multiverse, generation ships, FTL, or cryosleep. If you go further to explain the trope, experts feel insulted.
Newbies, by contrast, get stumped by tropes. These strange words and phrases serve as an ejection seat to launch them out of the story. Just a brief definition would save newbies from frustration.
The Balance
As a writer, you’d like to please both types. When it comes to New Stuff, you should aim for just enough explanation to satisfy experts, but not so much that it bores newbies. With Tropes, seek the briefest definition to help out the newbies. Better yet, define the term in context so newbies can catch the meaning and experts don’t get exasperated.
At a critique group meeting recently, one member criticized my manuscript, saying I hadn’t defined an unfamiliar term, but that member managed to glean what it meant. Another group member knew the term, and said I shouldn’t bog down the prose with further explanations.
I’d achieved balance.
The Signal Technique
Say you’ve got some new stuff in your story. You want to explain it all for the benefit of experts without making newbies nod off. Perhaps the signal technique will work. At the beginning of a paragraph, provide a signal to the reader that a long description follows. If you make the signal clear enough, the expert reads on with eagerness and the newbie skims or even skips that part.
This method might work as well for tropes. Here the signal tells experts they may skip an upcoming explanation without missing anything, while the newbies should read the paragraph to understand the unfamiliar jargon.
Jules Verne mastered that technique. Known for including long lists, he provided unmistakable signals in advance. It’s as if a hypertext alert pops up from the page saying, “Uninterested readers may skip this next part.”
Summary
Needless to say, I’ve simplified things in this discussion of two audiences. Your readers span a spectrum from newbie to expert and all points in between. You can write for them all if you keep their preferences in mind. Maybe, for your next book, one member of your reading audience might be—
Some writers struggle to come up with titles for their stories and books. Capturing all that text into a few pithy and alluring words seems to confound them.
Before I get to that, I recommend reading this post by book marketing expert Dave Chesson. It’s helpful if you experience difficulty with titles.
In his post, Chesson mentioned a new resource to help if you’re stuck thinking of a title—ChatGPT. It’s the conversant AI that’s available to everyone for free, here.
Credit to mozarttt and Pixabay
As you know, I’ve blogged before about writers using AI and my opinion remains unchanged, for now. ChatGPT is the equivalent of assigning the same homework assignment to a million junior high school students and getting the best answers back instantly. Yes, it’s instant, but it’s junior high school level. That last part may change in the coming months and years as AI improves.
You can seek help from ChatGPT to come up with a title. You can give it a long description of your story or book (or even input the entire text) and ask for any number of suggested titles. Note: there is some question about who owns content provided by that AI, so check the terms and conditions first.
To test how well ChatGPT can generate titles, I decided to have it come up with alternative titles to a work in the public domain with which the AI is familiar. I chose the Jules Verne novel Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours. The literal translation from the French would be ‘A Tour of the World in Eighty Days,’ but in a bolt of titling genius, an early translator rendered it as Around the World in Eighty Days.
That’s become the most iconic of Verne’s titles in English, played with and altered to suit hundreds of other applications.
Something about that format and word choice struck gold—“Around the [world or other object] in [time period]” gives that sense of encompassing something on a strict schedule. It’s literary magic.
For computers, the rule is ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ What happens when you put literary magic in? I gave ChatGPT this task: “Come up with 10 alternate titles (in English) to Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days.”
Here’s the output:
“Globetrotting in Eighty Days”
“Across the Planet in 80 Days”
“A Journey Around the Earth in 80 Days”
“Around the Globe in 80 Days”
“Eighty Days of World Exploration”
“Circumnavigating the Earth in 80 Days”
“Across Continents in Eighty Days”
“Around the World Adventure in 80 Days”
“Around Planet Earth in 80 Days”
“Expedition: 80 Days Around the World”
See what I mean? They all lack the zing, the flair, the magic of the actual title. In twenty minutes of solitary brainstorming, you could do better. That’s my point.
Before you AI enthusiasts sic a terminator on me, I admit I could have pressed ChatGPT harder. I could have gone on to ask it for more interesting and creative titles—titles that don’t just paraphrase the real one. Maybe the AI could have given me more to work with had I prodded it further.
At present, I think it best to partner with AI but not rely on it. Adopt the centaur model I mentioned in my February 26, 2023 blogpost. ChatGPT can recommend titles and they might be inferior or even so-so, but one or more of them might spark the killer title you’re after. You might not have thought of that title had you not consulted the AI.
My answer to the question posed in this post’s title is probably not, but there’s nothing wrong with using AI as a brainstorming tool. So far, all my titles have come from the unassisted mind of—
Have you ever enjoyed an author’s books, then found out something disturbing about that author? Did the revelation spoil your appreciation of the books?
I suspect we’ve all been let down by a hero. Perhaps a favorite actor, athlete, politician, or artist did something unsavory, and that detracted from your experience of their work. It stains their reputation, at least for you. You’re no longer able to separate performer from performance.
The works of Jules Verne, my favorite author, come across today as antisemitic, racist, and sexist. His anti-Jewish sentiment is evident in both Hector Servadac (also published as Off on a Comet) and The Carpathian Castle where he depicts Jewish characters in a bad light. He includes characters of color in many novels, but never as the hero and often in stereotyped ways—servants or cooks—subordinate to the white hero. At least he includes them, unlike those of the female gender, who rarely appear at all in his works.
I could excuse these ‘isms’ and rationalize my continued reading of his works, by observing that this 19th Century French author reflected the prevailing biases, prejudices, and privileges of his time. I could say it’s unfair to impose my modern standards on a man no longer around to defend himself.
But I believe that lets both of us—me and Verne—off the hook too easily.
Consider that reading represents a form of communication, and that it involves a sender (the writer) and a receiver (the reader—you). Your appreciation of the written work occurs at that interface where you interact with the text.
Therefore, you bear a share of responsibility here and you can’t shrug it off. Your love for or hatred of the book is an individual reaction you own, an experience you share only with the writer, whether that person is alive or dead.
All written material to which we have access was written by humans. All humans suffer from faults, frailties, and weaknesses of some kind. You lack the option of reading books written by angels. Sorry about that.
Knowing this, you face a choice. You might refuse to discover anything about the author. That spares you from any knowledge of skeletons lurking in their closets. But it sets you up for profound disappointment if you ever find out your favorite author slipped off the mental pedestal you erected and fell short of your moral standards in some way.
On the other hand, you can read with full understanding that you consume text produced by a flawed author—a human. You can research the author and discover some distasteful truths, and read the work anyway.
Here’s where I stand with Verne. I can’t claim ignorance of his backwards attitudes. If I choose to enjoy his novels, I must decide that the good outweighs the bad. Further, I must recognize this as an individual choice. Other readers make their own choices.
I like to read Verne’s novels, most of them. I don’t excuse his faults, don’t condone his biases. I wince at his stereotypes and cringe at the prejudiced opinions. I don’t idolize him. I’ve decided, for me, his strengths outweigh his weaknesses.
You face similar decisions whenever you read anything. Does the good exceed the bad? Do the delights of the book surpass the poor behavior or faulty value system of the writer?
When you read a work, only you can weigh good against bad. Nobody else can do it for you, not reviewers, critics, or even—
Janice Rider (she/her) has always loved the natural world and resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, close to the Rocky Mountains. She has a BSc in Zoology with a minor in English Literature and a BEd degree. Springs and summers following university course work were spent at the Calgary Zoo where she helped look after many different animals. A trip to Africa was a highlight for Janice; there, she was able to observe wild animals hunt and play. Janice directs The Chameleon Drama Club for children and youth. Three of her plays for youth were published through Eldridge Plays and Musicals. As well, a nonfiction piece of hers on snakes was published in Honeyguide Literary Magazine. Three of Janice’s short stories are published in anthologies – Beware the Bugs! by Word Balloon Books; the North American Jules Verne Society’s Extraordinary Visions; and Speculation Publications’ Beach Shorts. Currently, Janice is involved in a two-year international mindfulness meditation program for teachers. She sees mindfulness as a way of coming into harmony with the natural world.
Let’s get to the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?
Janice Rider: I started writing when I was about fourteen years old. I loved to read and writing seemed a natural outlet for my love of words. As well, my dad liked to journal and wrote poetry and short stories for fun. He and my mom encouraged my interest in writing. When I was in grade eight, I received the gift of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings for my creative writing, which was an added incentive to keep doing what I loved.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
J.R.: I have enjoyed so many different authors, but when I was in elementary school any books to do with horses interested me, books like Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty and Glenn Balch’s Tiger Roan. As well, I appreciated the playfulness of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, as well as A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. In my teens I particularly loved the books written by Charles Dickens, Richard Adams’ Watership Down, Jane Austen’s novels and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
Currently, some of my favorite books are TJ Klune’s Under the Whispering Door, Thomas King’s short stories, Alexander McCall Smith’s The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Neil Gaiman’s short stories, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, Kate Quinn’s The Rose Code and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. One book I found horrifying but utterly impossible to put down was Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. I like novelty in short stories and novels and admire authors whose characters are unexpected. When reading I also look for the ability of an author to touch the heart and bring compassionate characters to life without slipping into sentimentality. Clever humor is always welcome.
P.S.: How do animals figure into the stories you write?
J.R.: My stories almost always relate to the natural world and animals in some way or other. My background is in zoology, conservation and education, so I have a strong desire to pass on my fascination with the living world around us. Animals may be central to a story’s outcome, as in a story I am working on about a young girl and her sister who learn that bulls can be dangerous. They may be part of a human character’s make-up, as in a short story I’m hoping to get published about Medusa. In some cases, the animals in my stories form close bonds with humans, even if they are creatures like hornets as is the case in another story I’m in the process of writing.
P.S.: What are the easiest and most difficult aspects of writing for you?
J.R.: That’s a tricky question. Sometimes, my stories seem to write themselves; at other times, I have to keep revisiting them while working on other things. I feel that the best way to progress is to make time for writing on a regular basis, which can be challenging for me as I am juggling a number of interests in my life. When stuck, I will turn to a few pages of a well-loved author just for inspiration. I also notice that, for me, it is easy to begin a story, and I have lots of ideas; however, unraveling the ideas into full stories is a process and often requires rewriting.
P.S.: Your short story, “Shark Out of Water,” appears in the anthology Beach Shorts. Tell us about that story.
“Shark Out of Water” was originally written for the drama club I direct for children and youth. The young people involved in the production had such a lot of fun with it! When Speculation Publications advertised for submissions on the theme of romance reading for the beach, it seemed like a great fit. The story is based on the Hawaiian myth, “The King of Sharks.” A young woman, Fabia, becomes smitten with a new face on the beach. This man is so very different from anyone she has ever known, but is he all he seems or will he take an unexpected bite out of her life? You’ll have to read the story to find out!
P.S.: I understand that you’ve been practicing Spring Forest Qigong for over a decade. What is that, and how has it helped you?
J.R.: Spring Forest Qigong, like Tai Chi, is one form of qigong. There are literally thousands of different forms of qigong practice. Qigong can be practiced as a martial art form, as an academic discipline, or as a way of maintaining or improving health. Spring Forest Qigong is aimed at bettering health. I find it meditative and calming. I have been leading this practice for a long time and feel that it helps me to be more focused and centered.
P.S.: The anthology Beware the Bugs!includes your story “Marvin’s Millipede.” What is the problem or conflict to be faced by the protagonist of this tale?
J.R.: Oh, I had such a lot of fun writing this story! It just flowed and gave me such pleasure! The story is about a boy, Marvin, who has a love of arthropods – the creatures with jointed legs, segmented bodies, and an exoskeleton. His favorite arthropod is the millipede, you know, the critter with the multitude of legs for walking on, the one you see cartoon pictures of with piles of shoes on its many feet. When he and his two friends, Lucy and Sophia, find an American giant millipede a little over three inches long, they decide to conduct an experiment to see if they can make the millipede, dubbed Maverick Miles Maddox or MMM, bigger. Does their experiment work? Yes, it does! MMM becomes very large indeed, gigantic in fact! Marvin and his friends must now decide what to do about MMM.
P.S.: You’ve written three plays that were published. Each appears to take inspiration from earlier works, but gives these works a twist. Please tell us a little about all three and tell us the twist in one of them.
J.R.: I’ve written far more plays than I’ve published, and it was satisfying to have a few published.
“Aladdin and His Sister,” is about a spoiled Aladdin who is fortunate enough to have a resourceful, courageous, and compassionate sister, Maliha, to help him manage his affairs. Two genies feature in the play.
“Cyrano and Roxanne” is based on Edmond Rostand’s play, “Cyrano de Bergerac.” In my take on the story, I provide Roxanne with three bosom friends, Chrystele, Danielle and Brigitte, who help to see that this time round there will be a happy ending for Cyrano and the woman he loves.
“When Science Bites Back” is really two plays that are part of one production. Both plays are science fiction, which is not an easy sell for the stage, and based on stories by H.G. Wells works with a touch of Alexandre Dumas’ novel, The Black Tulip, worked into the second story. In “Bacterial Broadside,” villains steal an experimental sample from the famous bacteriologist, Professor Parvulus. Will the world ever be the same again? In “Orchid Obsession,” rival botanists compete for first prize at the Exotic Blooms From Bulbs Competition. When one of the botanists receives a bulb under unusual circumstances, will the bulb bloom into something bloodthirsty?
P.S.: The Extraordinary Visions anthology includes “Want of Air,” a story of yours with no animals. What inspired you to write it?
J.R.: “Want of Air” does not have animals in it, but in the story, Jordan’s mother, Karen, is working to protect a marine offshore area, and his father was an oceanographer. Jordan is clearly fond of living creatures as his bedroom is hung with photographs and illustrations of numerous sea creatures.
The inspiration for the story was my oldest son, Nathan, who began reading a shortened version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas in grade four. Like Jordan, he became so involved in the book that he was identifying with the characters and their distress. He became anxious about the amount of air in our home. It was a cold winter day, and Nathan wanted the window open. For the story, I imagined what might have happened had Nathan opened the window on that bitter day. Thankfully, Nathan still has his dad in his life as my husband is very much alive.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress?
J.R.: I am currently working on more than one story. One of them is a science fiction tale about an elderly patient who has a robotic lion to help him manage his senior years. The patient’s son has tampered with the inner workings of his robotic pet who begins to engage in decidedly realistic lion behavior. The story is inspired by my dad’s current struggles and my work at the Calgary Zoo with lions.
Poseidon’s Scribe: What is your advice for aspiring fiction writers?
Janice Rider: Enjoy the writing process, connect with other writers, and carve out time to write, preferably each day. If I am writing something, and it ceases to be enjoyable, I step into another story and come back to the one I am struggling with later. I have a friend, Heather MacIntosh, who has also published short stories. Talking together and sharing our thoughts and tales has really inspired me to keep writing. When I write regularly, I feel content at the end of the day. It seems to me that writing, like qigong, is therapeutic.
Poseidon’s Scribe: Thank you, Janice. It’s good that you enjoy writing. I fear if I wrote about snakes, millipedes, and sharks, I’d be creeped out, not calm.
Readers can find out more about Janice on LinkedIn.
Readers will recall that the anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne came out in December. I’ve offered to interview authors of stories in that volume, and some have accepted. Today I bring you the first of those.
Joseph S. Walker’s short fiction has been published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, Tough, and many other magazines and anthologies. His story “Crime Scene” is included in the 2023 editions of both The Best American Mystery and Suspense and The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year (marking his third consecutive appearance in this collection). He has been nominated for the Edgar Award and the Derringer Award and has won the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction. He also won the Al Blanchard Award in 2019 and 2021.
Here’s the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing fiction? What prompted you?
Joseph S. Walker: I wanted to write fiction from a very young age. It was in large part because of that desire that I majored in English, eventually getting a PhD in American Literature. In retrospect, though, this may have been a mistake, at least for me. Studying literature in such a rigorous way made actually writing fiction seem like an overwhelming prospect. Then, too, it has a tendency to make you feel like you should be aiming at mainstream or literary fiction, or whatever label you want to put on it. There’s been progress on that front, but genre writing is still treated as something of a second-tier arena in much of the academy. So for years I told myself I was a writer, but my time was mostly spent on academic articles, and a few rather dour, realistic stories I labored over for years.
It wasn’t until my 40s that I decided that if I wanted to be a writer, at some point I had to actually write something. I also decided that it didn’t have to be agonizing. It could be fun. It should be fun. I started writing things that I enjoyed writing, in the fields (mostly mystery and crime) that I enjoyed reading. One of the first stories I wrote with this mindset was accepted to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and from that point on all I wanted to do was write. I’m published more than eighty short stories now, and I just want to keep going.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
J.S.W.: In terms of the actual style of my writing, I think the biggest influence would be Robert B. Parker, who created the private eye Spenser. I look at some of my earlier stories now, and it’s almost like I’m writing a pastiche of one of his Spenser novels. I think I’ve come a way in developing my own voice, but the echoes are still there. That said, the writer who made me want to be a writer was Harlan Ellison. He’s usually classified as a science fiction writer, though he also wrote a large number of crime stories. I loved his writing, and his essays especially have stayed with me. He made being a writer seem like a privilege, an honor, an obligation, and a lot of fun.
A few favorite books off the top of my head: Strange Wine (Harlan Ellison); When the Sacred Ginmill Closes (Lawrence Block); Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders); Possession (A. S. Byatt); A Catskill Eagle (Robert B. Parker); Last Chance to See (Douglas Adams); I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamera); Devil in a Blue Dress (Walter Mosley)
P.S.: Your short stories tend to be about crime and mystery. What attracted you to these genres?
J.S.W.: Partly, it’s just the fact that it’s the genre I’ve always loved reading. I think my early reading history is shared with many of my fellow mystery writers: the Hardy Boys and the Three Investigators, then on to Doyle and Christie, then Hammett and Chandler, and so on up to Gillian Flynn and S. A. Cosby. And then, writing stories like this is fun for me. Starting a new story is always hard, but if you’re lucky there comes a moment when something clicks and the words seem to tumble onto the page. For me, that happens most often when I’m writing crime.
P.S.: You’ve got a story appearing in The Best American Mystery and Suspense, coming out in October. Please give us a hint about what to expect in this story.
J.S.W.: The story is question is “Crime Scene,” which originally appeared in Malice in Dallas, an anthology from the North Dallas chapter of Sisters in Crime. In my story, a semi-retired assassin takes an assignment to kill a prominent businessman, but the job has to be done in Dealey Plaza, on November 22, at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. The story was my response to seeing Dealey Plaza in person for the first time, and being struck by how different it seemed from every picture of the area I’d ever seen.
Having the story selected for The Best American Mystery and Suspense (by series editor Steph Cha and guest editor Lisa Unger) is a true honor, especially since I’ve been faithfully buying every volume of this series since it was launched, as Best American Mystery Stories, back in the 1980s. As it happens, “Crime Scene” was also selected for the upcoming volume of the other annual best-of anthology in my field, The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year (series editor Otto Penzler, guest editor Amor Towles). To the best of my knowledge, it’s the first story to be selected for both series!
P.S.: In what ways are your stories different from those of other crime and mystery fiction authors?
J.S.W.: This is probably a question which others are better suited to answer. I don’t know that writers are necessarily the best judges of their own work. That said, I think if there’s anything that distinguishes many of my stories, it would be an underlying concern with isolation and loneliness. My characters tend to be desperate people who can perhaps be saved if they can forge one genuine relationship with another person.
P.S.: Congratulations on winning the newly-instituted Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction. Tell us about your story “The Last Man in Lafarge,” and about the experience of winning the award.
J.S.W.: The Bill Crider Prize was given for the first time at the 2019 Bouchercon, held in Dallas. I was very proud to win the award, especially since the contest was judged by Linda Landrigan and Janet Hutchings, the editors of, respectively, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. At the time, there very much seemed to be a plan that the award would be given every year in honor of Mr. Crider, a prolific and skilled mystery writer. Unfortunately, in subsequent years this plan seems to have fallen by the wayside, perhaps in part because of the pandemic, which caused the 2020 and 2021 Bouchercons to be held in reduced form online. It’s possible I will go down as the only winner of the Crider Prize, but I very much hope the award does return.
Winning the award meant I got to attend my first Bouchercon, where I got to rub elbows with many of my favorite writers, meet some heroes, and make a lot of new friends. I left feeling determined to attend every year, not knowing that the next in-person convention wouldn’t be until three years later in Minneapolis.
As for “The Last Man in Lafarge,” it remains one of my favorites among my stories. It’s about a sheriff in a dying Texas town, a bartender with a mysterious past, and a prodigal son with the kind of secret that can get a person killed.
P.S.: You’ve won the Al Blanchard award for best New England-based crime stories twice! Once for your story, “Haven,” and later for your story “Herb Ecks Goes Underground.” What were those experiences like?
J.S.W.: Deeply gratifying! In 2021, a week after going to Dallas for Bouchercon, I got to go to Boston to attend the New England Crime Bake, a much smaller and more intimate mystery convention, to collect this award. Once again I had a fantastic time, and the experience only deepened my sense of having found my community among my fellow mystery writers. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend when I won the prize again in 2023, but it’s a wonderful contest, and I intend to keep entering every year.
P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?
J.S.W.: The most difficult part, for me, is always actually starting. That applies to both starting a completely new story, and simply sitting down to start a writing session. Sitting at a computer with internet access, I can find 5000 ways to procrastinate before I actually manage to force myself to put something on the page. Once over that initial hump, things get—well, I won’t say easy, because it’s never easy. But easier.
As I say, no part of the process is easy. If there’s an area where I feel least like I’m fighting my way uphill, it’s probably writing dialogue. I just find that to be enjoyable, though I often get carried away and have to cut back on it in revision.
P.S.: Tell us a little about your story, “The Dominion of All the Earth,” in the Extraordinary Visions anthology. Do you consider it a departure from your usual story type, or a typical representative of it?
J.S.W.: “The Dominion of All the Earth” is very much a departure from my usual writing, which is a big part of the reason I was interested when I saw the call for stories. I like to occasionally challenge myself to do something that isn’t a crime story set in the present day. Seeing the call also gave me a strong sense of nostalgia, because I read and greatly enjoyed many of Verne’s novels in my youth. I figured there was a good chance that many, if not most, of the submitted stories would take 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as their starting point, since Nemo is such a fascinating figure. That meant it would probably be a good idea to use a different Verne work, and I remembered that my other favorite was A Journey to the Center of the Earth. I reread the book, for the first time in decades, and thought there was a story to be told about how the subterranean world would absorb, and ultimately respond to, the damage done by the explorers from the surface world. In my story, it’s been fifty years since the excursion underground, and the response is finally coming.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
J.S.W.: I write exclusively short stories (at least so far!), so what I’m working on changes very often. This is actually a big part of what I like about writing short stories. Instead of spending months, if not years, on a single narrative—and then waiting more years for publication—I can be working on something new virtually every week. If I write a story that’s too dark, I can follow it up with one that’s mostly humorous. Right at this moment, for example, I’m working on a story for a hardboiled anthology of 20s private eye stories, but I’m already sketching out an idea for a farcical heist story with a holiday theme.
I can say that I have some stories coming this year that I’m very proud of!
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Joseph S. Walker: It may sound simplistic, but the best advice is the simplest: write. I started being a productive writer the moment I stopped thinking about how great it would be to be a writer, and started actually writing. Put your ass in the chair and your fingers on the keys. Keep in mind that the real writing happens in the process of revision. I find this realization tremendously liberating. It means that I can throw virtually anything down on the page, knowing I’ll have the chance to come back later and work on it more. It gives me the freedom to be terrible, which liberates me from the burden of aiming for great.
Thanks, Joe.
Readers wanting more information about Joseph S. Walker can visit his website and follow him on Twitter and Amazon.
Attendees at the science fiction convention PenguiCon enjoyed a great treat yesterday. They got to go to an informative and fun panel about Jules Verne.
Scifi fan and bookseller Jeff Beeler led the discussion and asked questions designed to give the audience a good feel for the famous French author. Unlike most readers, the first Verne novel Jeff read was the obscure 1888 novel Two Years’ Vacation.
JD DeLuzio added his own perspective on Verne. He’d read the author’s major works and commented on the societal and cultural change Verne wrought.
The president of the North American Jules Verne Society, Dennis Kytasaari, knew more about Verne than the rest of us combined, and discussed not only the history of the society, but also mentioned that the publisher BearManor Media is offering 25% off on its Verne titles (including Extraordinary Visions) through the end of this month. Use the code ‘Verne25’ at checkout.
Even if you missed that panel at PenguiCon, you can still get that 25%-off deal. These are modern translations, not like the poor early English translations of Verne’s major works. Go snap up those books at this website now. You can always come back later to read posts by—
Penguicon features a panel called “Extraordinary Visions: the enduring legacy of Jules Verne” at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 22. Bookseller and scifi fan Jeff Beeler will moderate the panel, and panelists include Eric Choi, author JD DeLuzio, and me.
Following that panel, at 12:00, Eric Choi will launch his new book, Just Like Being There, and I plan on, well, being there, for that.
Face it—when it comes to pure enjoyment, nothing else you had planned for that day even comes close to attending Penguicon.
Two weeks after that, I’ll be speaking at another convention. Plus, another one of my stories will appear in an upcoming anthology. Stay tuned for news about both of these exciting events. You don’t want to miss a single post by—
I plead guilty…to violating many laws of science in my writing. But I’m not alone. I’m in good company with many other science fiction writers. Call us the Laser Pistol Gang.
Authors of so-called ‘hard SF’ should adhere to known scientific principles and knowledge, but aren’t above bending or breaking the laws of physics for the sake of a good story.
Mary Shelley really stretched biological science in Frankenstein when her fictional scientist animated a human from dead tissue. Jules Verne knew human astronauts wouldn’t survive the acceleration of a manned projectile launched from a canon in From the Earth to the Moon. H.G. Wells disobeyed temporal causality in The Time Machine. When he wrote Fantastic Voyage, Isaac Asimov understood the impossibility of miniaturizing people. From his medical training, Michael Crichton must have realized not enough intact DNA fragments remain to create the living dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.
These represent a small sampling from SF literature. Don’t get me started on SF movies, which seem to break more laws of science than they obey.
On what charges could the science police arrest me? Consider my rap sheet:
“The Steam Elephant” (from Steampunk Tales, Issue #5 and The Gallery of Curiosities #3). The state of steam and mechanical technology in the 19th Century did not allow for a walking, steam-powered, quadrupedal vehicle.
“Within Victorian Mists.” Everything needed to invent lasers existed in the 1800s except the conceptual framework, so if it had happened, it would have required dumb luck.
“Bringing the Future to You” (from Cheer Up, Universe!). That story contains too many science violations to list, but I meant the tale to be funny.
“Leonardo’s Lion.” Some accounts state Leonardo da Vinci built a walking, clockwork lion. Even if true, it’s doubtful the creation would have supported a child’s weight or traveled over rough terrain, as it does in my story.
“The Six Hundred Dollar Man.” Yes, steam engines existed in the late 19th Century, but no one then could have made one small enough to fit on a man’s back and power the man’s replacement limbs.
“A Tale More True.” Try as you might, you can’t build a metal spring strong enough to launch yourself into space as my protagonist does.
“The Cometeers.” In this story, I violate the same laws Verne did in launching humans to space using a canon. In fact, I used his same canon.
“Time’s Deformèd Hand.” Nobody in 1600 AD built walking, talking automatons powered by springs. However, I did mention the wood came from magical trees.
“A Clouded Affair” (from Avast, Ye Airships!). You couldn’t build a steam-powered ornithopter in the 1800s, and you’d find it difficult even today.
“Ripper’s Ring” Human invisibility remains impossible today, let alone in 1888. Even if it were possible, it would render the subject blind.
“The Cats of Nerio-3” (from In a Cat’s Eye). Evolution allows organisms to adapt to new environments, but neither cats nor rats would likely evolve in such a rapid and drastic manner as my story suggests.
“Instability” (from Dark Luminous Wings). According to legend, a Benedictine monk constructed a set of wings and tested them sometime around 1000 AD. The wings work no better in my story than they would have in reality.
“The Unparalleled Attempt to Rescue One Hans Pfaall” (from Quoth the Raven). Just because Edgar Allan Poe wrote about a balloon trip to the moon didn’t mean I had to repeat his error.
With so much law-breaking going on, how can we hope for an orderly reading society? Must we be forever besieged by the criminal authors of the Laser Pistol Gang?
That answer, I’m happy to report, is yes. Authors write to entertain readers. That’s a writer’s ‘prime directive,’ to steal a phrase. If the writer must bend or break a rule of science to tell a good story, the writer is going to do it.
One key phrase there is ‘good story.’ The better the story, the easier it is for a reader to forgive a scientific flaw. Of course, if you can tell a good story while keeping the science accurate, by all means, do that.
If you aim to join the Laser Pistol Gang, be aware we have a tough initiation ritual. You have to write a story where a law of science gets broken. Not a very exclusive gang, I admit. But it’s a proud, longstanding group. Take it from one of its most notorious members, known by his gang name—
This, fellow voyagers, marks the 80th day of Phileas Fogg’s journey around the world, 150 years after the fictional tale. Will Detective Fix finally arrest the bank robber he’s been chasing the whole way around? Will Princess Aouda go on to live with her cousin in Holland? Will Fogg return to the Reform Club in time to win his wager?
In New York, Fogg had missed the departure of the China, and found—from consulting his ‘Bradshaw’—that no other steamer would reach London in time. They stayed overnight at the St. Nicholas Hotel (perhaps a reference to the upcoming Christmas holiday?) on Broadway. In the morning, Fogg found the ship Henrietta about to leave, bound for Bordeaux. The captain never took passengers, but changed his mind when Fogg offered 2000 pounds apiece for the four of them.
Fogg ended up paying off the crew to perform a mutiny and they confined Captain Speedy to his quarters, while Fogg ordered a course change toward Liverpool. When the coal gave out, Fogg purchased the ship from Speedy and ordered everything above the waterline burned. On December 21 at 1:00 am, the Henrietta arrived in Queenstown, Ireland. The four travelers took a train to Dublin and a steamer to Liverpool, arriving at 11:40 am. There, Detective Fix arrested Fogg.
Imprisoned in the Custom House, Fogg waited, without apparent emotion. At 2:33 pm, Fix freed him, saying police had arrested the real bank robber three days earlier. Fogg knocked the detective to the floor. He, Aouda, and Passepartout took a train to London, but arrived at 8:50pm, 5 minutes too late to win his wager. Back in his London flat, he had discussions with Aouda the next day, and she proposed marriage to him. If her proposal seems rather sudden, remember that this novel followed the adventure format, not the romance formula.
Fogg accepted and sent a delighted Passepartout to make arrangements with Reverend Samuel Wilson at Marylebone Parish for a wedding the next day, Monday. When Passepartout found out it was only Saturday, he dragged Fogg to a carriage and they made it to the Reform Club just in time to win his wager. By traveling east, he’d gained a day and hadn’t noticed it. He’d covered 24,544 miles in exactly 80 days.
Bradshaw’s Guide, 1882
When Verne had Fogg consult the ‘Bradshaw,’ he referred to Bradshaw’s Guide, a book of railway and steamship timetables, published from 1839 to 1961.
St. Nicholas Hotel on Broadway, 1853
The St. Nicholas Hotel existed, having opened in 1853 as the first NYC building to cost over $1M. It closed in 1884 and luxury condos occupy that site on Broadway today.
The port of Queenstown in Ireland changed its name to Cobh in 1920.
Marylebone Parish
Marylebone Parish existed. An Anglican church, it stands about 1.2 miles NNW of Fogg’s mansion at 7 Saville Row. Fogg asked Passepartout to contact the Reverend Samuel Wilson, but I found no record of that name in connection with that church. Charles Eyre served as its rector from 1857 to 1882.
Fogg’s group required 8 days to travel from New York to London, but today you can fly that route in about 7 hours. Throughout this blogtour, I’ve contrasted Fogg’s trip with modern-day flying times. For the entire circumnavigation, those flight times total 102 hours. If we assume an average layover time of 1.5 hours for each of the 16 stops, the total time is 126 hours, or a bit over 5 days. Of course, if you’re interested in the shortest possible time without mimicking Fogg’s route, that’s a bit over 44 hours, accomplished on commercial flights (including the Concorde) by David Springbett in 1980.
This post completes our blogtour, but need not end your enjoyment of Verne. I recommend almost all of his novels. If you prefer a more modern style, I recommend Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. Just published, it’s the first anthology of fiction ever produced by the North American Jules Verne Society. I also recommend you join that group if you’d like to know more about Verne.
In the end, Phileas Fogg spent about as much money as he won. He’d seen nothing of the world he’d just circumnavigated except the insides of steamships and railway cars, where he’d played countless games of whist. However, he’d won the love of a charming spouse, and Verne asks us to ponder whether we, too, would circle the globe for even less a prize than that. Is love, after all, the greatest adventure?
Thank you for traveling Around the World in Eighty Days with—
At long last, the North American Jules Verne Society has produced its first-ever anthology of new fiction. Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne just got published today. As of today, it’s available from the publisher, BearManor Media, in paperback and hardback, and from Amazon in both versions.
The anthology includes stories 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. Credit goes to artist Amanda Bergloff for the splendid cover image.
The stories derive not only from Verne’s better-known novels, but also from the obscure ones many are unfamiliar with. These stories may prompt you to sample Verne’s lesser-known writings.
In addition, an image taken from the original illustrations of Verne’s novels accompanies each story. One appendix lists the sources of these illustrations, and another appendix provides the complete bibliography of Verne’s works.
I’m honored to have served as a co-editor for this volume. I’m proud of the result, and should mention my co-editor, Rev. Matthew T. Hardesty, and the others who served on the anthology team: Dana Eales, Arthur Evans, Alex Kirstukas, Andrew Nash, Reggie Van Stockum, and the Society’s current president, Dennis Kytasaari.
