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—
Hectic times for Poseidon’s Scribe. Last week I mentioned I’ll be speaking at PenguiCon. Today I’ve got two more events to tell you about.
First, here’s an update on PenguiCon, the scifi convention at the Westin Hotel in Southfield, Michigan. For the panel “Extraordinary Visions: the enduring legacy of Jules Verne” (11:00 am on Saturday, April 22), there’s been a person added to the panel. In addition to Eric Choi (the con’s Guest of Honor), Jeff Beeler, JD DeLuzio, and me, the panel will also include Dennis Kytasaari, president of the North American Jules Verne Society.
Also, for the next panel after that, Eric Choi graciously invited me to read some of my fiction as well.
Two weeks later, I’ll be speaking at DemiCon, the scifi convention in Des Moines, Iowa, running from 5-7 May at the Holiday Inn & Suites Des Moines-Northwest.
I’m scheduled for the following events:
AI Meets SF, Friday 6-7PM
Iowa in SF, Saturday 10-11AM
Can Writers Benefit from Being Editors? Saturday noon-1PM
Steven Southard Reading, Saturday 2-3PM
Pandemics Through History, Their Effects on Literature, Saturday 3-4PM
Character Changes from Unlikable to Likable, Saturday 9-10PM
Gadgets in SF, Sunday noon-1PM
I’ll give you more updated information on that as the dates approach.
Then, on April 30, a new anthology launches and it will include one of my stories. You might not associate tarot cards with scifi, but both have something to do with predicting the future, so it works. TDotSpec is publishing The Science Fiction Tarot, edited by Brandon Butler.
The book contains my story, “Turned Off,” a tale of two movie prop robots whose circuits activate during an electrical storm. They each recall being turned off after being replaced in their movies by costumed human actors. Now they consider what to do about the humans who created them but can turn them on or off at will.
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—
Welcome back to my blog-tour Around the World in Eighty Days, a celebration of the 150th 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.
Custom House in Shanghai, around 1872
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.
The port in Shanghai today
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—
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—
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 20st 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.
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—
You writers have been busy! In turn, your writing has been keeping me busy, as a co-editor for two different anthologies at the same time. Here’s a quick update on the two books I’ve been involved with, in good news/bad news format.
First, the bad news. Pole to Pole Publishing is cancelling its planned Re-Enlist anthology. I was co-editing this one along with a wonderful friend, author, and editor, Kelly A. Harmon. The book was to include futuristic/military/dark reprint stories. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive enough suitable stories to fill the anthology.
Many thanks to those who did submit stories. Among them were some great tales.
On the bright side, no one can keep Pole to Pole Publishing down for long. They plan to come up with new calls for submissions for future anthologies soon, and they’ll be announced here. It’s even possible that I’ll get to be involved as a co-editor again.
Now for the good news. The open submissions window for the anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne just closed, and we got a flood of submissions. By a flood, I mean 120, way above what I expected, and they included many wonderful stories. I’m part of the editing team for this book, and we’re busy choosing which stories to take.
I also thank all those who submitted to that anthology. So many good tales, and we’ll have to make some tough decisions. We can’t take them all.
This anthology is being sponsored by the North American Jules Verne Society, and the society’s leadership was pleased to learn of the huge response by writers who took the time to write and send their stories. It demonstrates the lasting impact Jules Verne’s novels continue to have on people today.
If all goes well, that anthology will be published later this year, and I’ll announce that event on this blog.
Although I continue to write my own fiction, I figured it was time to give you a status update from the editing desk of—
That’s the thing about great writers of the past, they still speak to us. In a sense, they live forever.
Would you expect there’d be an active fan club devoted to you, in a foreign country, 116 years after your death? In Verne’s case, there are several. The one I’m most familiar with is the North American Jules Verne Society.
A couple of months ago, I mentioned the NAJVS is sponsoring an anthology of short fiction, the first of those it’s ever done. The working title for the anthology is Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. I’m fortunate enough to be part of the editing team.
That call for submissions is still active and NAJVS will be accepting stories (and artwork) until April 30. For more details, click here.
So far, we’ve received some good story submissions. However, we could use more stories based on the full range of Verne’s oeuvre. To start creative fluids coursing through your veins, allow me to mention that Jules Verne wrote about:
A 35-day balloon trip over Africa (Five Weeks in a Balloon)
A voyage to the North Pole with a mutiny, an ice palace, and a volcano (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras)
A hike many miles underground, encountering a subterranean ocean and prehistoric animals (Journey to the Center of the Earth)
A journey to the Moon aboard a projectile launched from a cannon (From the Earth to the Moon)
A globe-girdling quest for a lost father, knowing only his geographic latitude (In Search of the Castaways)
A trek across Russia by courier who can’t see where he’s going (Michael Strogoff)
A comet slicing off a chunk of the Earth, with people and animals still on it (Off on a Comet)
A family living underground for a decade (The Child of the Cavern)
Two men using their halves of an inheritance to establish rival utopian cities (The Begum’s Fortune)
A steam-powered mechanical elephant marching across India (The Steam House)
A ship-sized helicopter operated by a mad scientist (Robur the Conqueror)
An attempt to alter the Earth’s axis (The Purchase of the North Pole)
A mysterious Count in a Transylvanian castle, that might have inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula (The Carpathian Castle)
A man-made, propeller-driven island (Propeller Island)
A vehicle that operates on land, on and beneath the water, and in the air (Master of the World)
A plan to flood the Sahara Desert to create an inland sea in North Africa (Invasion of the Sea)
A description of Paris nearly 100 years in Verne’s future. (Paris in the Twentieth Century)
Oh, yeah. Verne also wrote a book about a submarine (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea). In fact, the above list is way, way incomplete.
Still, something on that list should nudge a neuron in your noggin, move your muse to murmuring, and cause you to commence clacking on your keyboard.
Today, his birthday, is a fine day to channel your inner Verne. Allow him to inspire you to write a great story, or create a cover image. Send it in. Eagerly waiting to read your tale or view your art is a group of NAJVS editors, who happen to include—
I know, I know, when I used a crystal ball two years ago, my predictions didn’t pan out. Then when I read tea leaves last year, my prognostications were in error. But you can believe me this year. I’m using SciFi tarot cards to predict what will happen in 2021.
The cards can’t possibly be wrong. Here are my predictions for science fiction books in the year 2021:
Disease Stories. Inspired by the COVID-19 virus, there will be stories of even deadlier diseases, perhaps intelligent diseases. I see stories of pandemics, extreme isolation, and how characters deal with mass death.
Rebirth. I foresee stories of characters getting back to normal after pandemics, stories about the rebirth of society.
Private Space Exploration. Inspired by Space-X, stories of space travel will involve companies, not governments.
Humor. There will be a surge in funny scifi, mainly because we can all use it right now.
Artificial Intelligence. Writers in 2021 will continue to explore this topic as they have for decades, but with greater urgency as computer scientists get closer and closer to developing Artificial General Intelligence, and perhaps Artificial Super Intelligence.
Anti-Capitalism. I predict there will be stories pointing out, in fictional form, the deficiencies of capitalism. Anti-capitalist themes may only form the backdrop of the story, but they will be there.
China. In 2021, I see an uptick in scifi books involving China in some way. Some will be written by Chinese authors, and some stories will be set in China.
Fewer Aliens. Alien tales are out in 2021. Of the few that will be published, they will involve communication only, not visitations, let alone abductions or invasions.
Urban Scifi. Paralleling the urban fantasy subgenre, we’ll see a lot of scifi books in 2021 that start out in a modern-day city setting, and go from there.
Personal Predictions
Here are three other prophesies for 2021, but these involve me in some way:
The Seastead Chronicles, my collection of short stories about the future history of seasteading, will be published in 2021.
The North American Jules Verne Society will publish its first anthology of short stories, (working title: Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne) all inspired by Jules Verne, in 2021, and I’ll be on the editorial team. You can write a story for it. Click here for details.
Pole to Pole Publishing will put out an anthology of reprinted military science fiction short stories in 2021, titled Re-Enlist. I’ll serve as co-editor of this one. Stay tuned to this blog for more details.
In late December of 2021, I’ll post my assessment of the above predictions, and you’ll see there’s no better reader of tarot cards than—
What an opportunity for you fellow writers! The North American Jules Verne Society is sponsoring its first anthology of new fiction, and the group wants to see a story (and artwork) from you.
The anthology is titled Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. NAJVS is looking for fictional short stories inspired by the works of Jules Verne. Your submission can be an original story; it can be a reprint. It can be set in any time or place. It can use characters from Verne’s tales (they’re all in the public domain) or you can make up your own.
In addition, the Society is seeking illustrators to come up with the cover image for the anthology and also some internal images to go with each story.
