Welcome to Spring! Starting today, you can Spring into Scifi by purchasing the new anthology by Cloaked Press, available here. The book contains one of my short stories.
My Story
My tale, “Its Tender Metal Hand,” concerns an aged man, Maleko Koamalu, whose remaining family can’t care for him.
They pay for a caregiver robot.
Maleko hates the robot, but the robot persists in taking care of his needs. Robots can do many things, but can they help an old man reconcile with his child before it’s too late?
If the story’s touching ending prompts a tear or two, well, sorry not sorry.
Inspiration
I wrote it after my wife and I served as caregivers for my mother-in-law. It occurred to me that a well-designed robot could perform all the required tasks. In a couple of ways, a robot might prove superior to a human caregiver. Robots often excel at the things humans struggle with, and vice versa.
Elderly people sometimes repeat themselves, forgetting that they’ve just said the same thing. This can annoy human caregivers, but a robot will listen patiently, over and over, responding each time as if hearing it afresh.
Also, human caregivers often find it difficult to lift and convey heavy patients between bed and wheelchair, or wheelchair and toilet. A well-built robot could do this with ease.
The Anthology
The book contains thirteen other short stories I look forward to reading. Edited by Andrew Ferrell and published by Cloaked Press, this new science fiction anthology, Spring into Scifi, is available here and here so far, with more distributors picking it up soon. As I may have mentioned, it includes a story written by—
Aliens have come a long way. Not real aliens—I don’t even know if they exist. I’m referring to aliens in literature. Inspired by fine articles authored by Ian Simpson and Joelle Renstrom, I’ll describe how aliens evolved with science fiction.
First, though, I’ll emphasize a non-intuitive law of alien literature: Alien stories aren’t about aliens. They’re about humans. Even stories populated only by non-human characters are about humans. A simple reason explains this—people write stories for other people. If we encounter aliens someday, we’ll write stories about them, and perhaps they’ll return the favor…if they write stories. Until then, it’s all about us.
Origins – Humanoids to Visit and Study
In primeval scifi, aliens resembled us. They served as stand-ins for primitive human societies encountered during exploratory voyages. They existed to be noticed and remarked upon, or to serve as metaphors serving the author’s purposes.
Examples include the sun and moon people of Lucian’s True History, the tall lunar Christians of Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone, and the titanic aliens of Voltaire’s Micromégas.
Post-Darwin Evolutionary Branching
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution showed how animal species evolve from earlier forms and sometimes split into two or more species. This freed writers from the humanoid anatomy, so aliens branched out in all directions, exploding into the universe of fiction. They filled all niches. Their attitudes toward humans ranged from bad, through neutral, to good.
We saw warlike, conquest-driven aliens shaped like giant heads in H.G. Wells’ TheWar of the Worlds. A variety of species populated Mars in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series. God-like aliens appeared in Olaf Stapleton’s Star Maker. C.S. Lewis gave readers otter-like bipeds and insect-frogs in Out of the Silent Planet. E.E. “Doc” Smith’s The Skylark of Space featured non-material aliens. Arthur C. Clarke showed us Satan-like aliens whose purpose was to prepare humanity for its designated future role, in Childhood’s End. In Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein scared us with huge bug-aliens. By contrast, peaceful and philosophical aliens occupied Mars until humans colonized the planet and displaced them in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.
3-D Aliens
Readers loved these aliens, but began asking questions. They wanted more depth. Authors began fleshing out the aliens, thinking through the implications. They gave the aliens backstory, culture, language, politics, art, philosophy, mores, and logical motivations.
In Dune and its sequels, author Frank Herbert supplied a life cycle for the giant sandworms, and integrated them into the values and mythos of the planet.
Larry Niven became the exemplar for fully-imagined aliens, from the puppeteers and Kzinti of Ringworld, to the Moties of The Mote in God’s Eye, to the elephantine Fithp of Footfall (the latter two co-written with Jerry Pournelle). These aliens possessed history, characteristic gestures, distinctive modes of thought, their own behavior patterns—the whole package.
Explanations for Non-Contact
As decades passed and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) failed to detect evidence of aliens, and as the difficulty of interstellar travel became more apparent, writers found it less credible to craft stories teeming with star-voyaging alien life.
Authors had to confront the Fermi Paradox problem of why humans haven’t heard from aliens, and what forms that communication might take. Carl Sagan’s Contact, Robert J. Sawyer’s Rollback, and Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” examined these themes in different ways.
Your Alien Story
Like time, evolution marches on. I don’t know what’s next for aliens. Perhaps, in an upcoming story of yours, you’ll tell—
Science fiction literature has provided many fun and interesting technologies that lie beyond our current abilities. Let’s look at a few.
Waterfall, by M.C. Escher
I’m calling these technologies improbable rather than impossible. One person’s impossible often becomes a later person’s accomplishment. The technologies on my list aren’t available now, and some violate known laws of physics, but scientists are researching all of them, and breakthroughs can occur.
Faster than Light (FTL) Travel
This one violates the General Theory of Relativity. That speed limit of c stretches interstellar travel into century or millennium timeframes. If you could exceed light-speed, no policeman could pull you over.
FTL Communication
If relativity forbids pushing matter faster than light, what about information? Sadly, so-called super-luminal communication also violates relativity and nobody has demonstrated it yet. Call me, you Andromedans, just not collect.
Wormhole Transit
The notion of sending matter (including people) through a wormhole connecting distant regions of space sounds appealing. It doesn’t violate relativity or even require FTL. However, nobody has found a wormhole and we don’t know if they exist, or can be created. We should come up with a better name, though.
Teleportation
The movement of macroscopic objects (including people) from one point to another without passing through the space between, as with the Star Trek transporter, might happen one day. The process doesn’t violate physics laws, but would require computational complexity beyond our current means. You’ve got to rearrange all 7 x 1027 atoms in their proper position. So far, scientists can “teleport” information about a single atom across a distance of 3 meters, but that’s all. “Beam me up, Scotty.” “Sorry, I canna do that, Captain.”
Time Travel
From the little I understand, time travel comports with physics laws. However, traveling to the past introduces causality problems, like the Grandfather Paradox. Traveling to the future avoids that difficulty, but remains beyond our technological reach. Except, I believe, for DeLoreans with the advanced options package.
Artificial Gravity and Anti-gravity
Though these are different things, I’ve lumped them together due to their mutual attraction. Artificial gravity, broadly defined, presents no difficulty. Use the centripetal force of a rotating spaceship, or the ship’s linear acceleration, to create it. However, creating gravity itself or eliminating it lies beyond our capability today. Heavy, huh?
Force Fields and Tractor Beams
If we can’t go faster than light, can we at least equip our spaceships with force fields or deflector shields to keep meteors away, and maybe tractor beams to grab things? Perhaps. Scientists are researching these gadgets, but each might consume more energy than they’re worth. Seems like physicists are spoiling all our fun.
Tactile Holograms
Scientists keep telling us no, but they’ll let us have holodecks, like in Star Trek the Next Generation, or hologram doctors, like in Star Trek Voyager, right? Sorry, you can’t touch light. Electromagnetic radiation, as we understand it, doesn’t work that way. Physicists ruin everything.
Lightsaber
Those laser weapons in the Star Wars movies look dangerous but handy. However, they violate what we know about optics and electromagnetic radiation. We can give you a laser, but the beam won’t end in mid-air, and will cross right through your opponent’s laser beam. Also, a laser strong enough to hurt people won’t fit in your hand. Sorry, apprentice Jedi, I’ve got nothing for you.
Invisibility
We’d all love this technology. Think of the practical jokes and the deniability. Optics researchers are working on invisibility using metamaterials, but haven’t seen any practical results. (I should reword that.) Invisibility suffers from an unfortunate downside—blindness. Light passes unseen through a transparent eyeball. A normal, opaque eyeball can see, but also be seen. Don’t look for invisibility any time soon.
Neuralyzer
Maybe I wouldn’t need a lightsaber if I had a neuralyzer, as in the Men in Black movies. Using that gadget, I could make my enemy forget why he wanted to fight. This time, physicists give their consent. However, biologists point out they’ve only demonstrated the technology on mice, and only by implanting fiber optic cables into the mice brains. They’d test it on humans, but nobody has yet volunteered to have their mind wiped.
Suspended Animation
That light speed limit bums me out. If interstellar travel takes centuries, then let me sleep through it, Rip Van Winkle style, and wake me when we get there. Oh, no. Here come those nay-saying biologists They acknowledge suspended animation happens all the time with microorganisms and plant seeds. It’s happened with humans for an hour or two, no more. At light speed, that only takes us one or two billion kilometers. They’d be waking me up before we got to Uranus.
Mind Uploading
The nature of our bodies renders some of these technologies improbable. We could get around that and become immortal if we simply upload our minds into computers. Maybe someday, not today. Here, computational complexity limits us. Work faster, you computer engineers! Why, I have half a mind to…
Cloning Long-Extinct Species
Not known for long-term planning, dinosaurs neglected to leave behind enough intact DNA for us to clone them. Maybe it’s just as well. If we did clone dinosaurs now, in our time, what would they eat?
Conclusion
I’ve teased about scientists spoiling our fun, but they can’t. We can still enjoy reading scifi books about these improbable technologies. They make for fascinating stories. Many scientists love scifi even while they wince at some of the gadgets. Some of these improbable devices even appear in the stories of—
Author Alan Cox said, “I figure [making] lots of predictions is best. People will forget the ones I get wrong and marvel over the rest.” Today, Poseidon’s Scribe will make his predictions about the science fiction to be written in 2025. Next year at this time, you can do some forgetting and marveling.
In the past, I’ve tried crystal balls, tea leaves, tarot cards, astrology, palmistry, and ChatGPT, but none of those worked. This year, along with a partner, I used a Ouija Board.
Authors will give us post-apocalyptic, post-climate disaster recovery stories with emerging solarpunk civilizations.
Driverless Cars
Writers will show us the pros and cons of more advanced driverless cars than we have now.
Futurism Beyond Africa
While Afrofuturism will continue, we’ll see books exploring the future of other cultures and regions.
Fact-ion
Scifi authors will combine their fiction with fact. That is, they’ll base a fictional tale on a true event.
Future Romance
Setting a romance novel in the future is fine, but in the coming year, authors will further explore how human relationships might change in the future. What bizarre, new kinds of relationships might emerge?
Interacting With Readers
Remember choose-your-own-adventure books? In 2025, authors will find new ways to allow the reader to influence the story-reading experience.
Linked Minds
Extrapolating the possibilities of Elon Musk’s Neuralink, writers will craft stories featuring human characters interfacing with computers via brain implants.
Merged Worlds
Pairs of authors will collaborate on novels that combine characters and worlds developed separately and previously by each writer.
Quality AI Fiction
In the coming year, an AI will write a good science fiction book.
After the Ouija Board finished making those predictions, I couldn’t resist asking it, “Who will be the most successful up-and-coming author of 2025?” After some hesitation, the planchette moved, guided by spiritual forces beyond our realm. To my amazement, within the planchette’s circular window appeared, one by one, letters forming the name of—
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—
Every topnotch website offers a FAQ page. I’d like to add one to this website, but, frankly, you fans haven’t held up your end of the deal. You haven’t asked me enough questions to count any as ‘frequent.’
However, I can ask myself questions, and even answer them. (Hmmm…Do you suppose that’s what’s really going on with most FAQ lists?)
Here’s my list:
Q: Who are you? A: I’m Steven R. Southard, stirrer of imaginations, weaver of yarns, and your tour guide for grand adventure.
Q: Why would I want to buy your books? A: To satisfy a yearning in your soul, to complete the missing puzzle piece of your life, and to immerse yourself in amazing new worlds.
Q: What do you write? A: Science fiction, often inspired by my time as a submariner and engineer.
Q: Whydo you write? A: To let the stories out and keep them from piling up inside. My skull can only stand so much pressure.
Q: What do you typically write about? A: I enjoy problem-solving and technology. Most often, my characters face complex challenges and must grapple with strange and unproven technologies.
Q: Why do you call yourself Poseidon’s Scribe? A: It fits me, and attracts a bit of attention. How do I know that? It made you curious enough to ask the question, didn’t it? For a more complete answer, see this blogpost.
Q: What authors inspired you? A: Readers of my blog know my top answer—Jules Verne. Following him, I’d add Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury.
Q: Do you write anything other than short stories? A: So far, you can only buy my short stories. In the near future, I hope to get some novels published. I dabble in poetry, but only for fun.
Q: Do you have any upcoming book signings, readings, or convention appearances? A: They’re less frequent than I’d like. I’ll create a Schedule page on this site for that, and make every effort to update it.
Q: What contemporary authors write stories like yours? A: In terms of story subjects, not literary skill, I’d say Eric Choi, Ray Nayler, and Allen Steele.
Q: What are you working on now? A: Two novels, a travel book, and two poems. In other words, too much.
Q: I’ve got a sure-fire idea for a story you should write. How do I contact you about putting it into words to finish it up? A: Tell you what (and I don’t offer this deal to everybody)—if you write the story, I’ll let you take full credit and you can pocket all the resulting royalties.
Few people have asked me any of those questions, so they qualify as ‘infrequently asked.’ I’m certain I failed to ask or answer your most pressing question, so feel free to leave a comment and fire away. Remember to address your inquiry to—
Yes, my predictions prove false more often than they prove true. But as the adage goes, a scientist is blamed for one falsehood in a hundred truths, while a seer is praised for one truth in a hundred falsehoods. So give this seer a break, will ya?
It’s all a matter of hitting on the right method. I’ve tried crystal balls, tea leaves, tarot cards, astrology, and palmistry, but none of those worked. This year, I realized I should turn to our modern-day version of the Oracle of Delphi—ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot by OpenAI.
I gave ChatGPT this task: “make 10 predictions about topics or themes science fiction writers will write about in 2024.”
The AI couched its answer by stating that predictions are iffy. Further, it said its last training update occurred in January 2022, so the predictions are based on trends known up to that date. Personally, I think it was just being humble.
With all the caveats out of the way, here’s what we can expect in 2024:
AI Ethics and Rights. As artificial intelligence continues to advance, science fiction writers may delve into the ethical considerations and legal rights surrounding sentient AI beings. This could include questions about consciousness, autonomy, and the responsibilities of creators.
Climate Crisis Solutions. With an increasing focus on climate change, science fiction could explore innovative and speculative solutions to the environmental challenges facing the planet. This might include technologies to reverse environmental damage or new ways of sustainable living.
Neurotechnology and Brain-Computer Interfaces. As developments in neurotechnology progress, science fiction writers may explore the implications of widespread use of brain-computer interfaces. Themes could include mind control, augmented intelligence, and the potential societal impacts of such technologies.
Space Exploration and Colonization. Given the growing interest in space exploration, science fiction could continue to explore themes related to interplanetary travel and the challenges of colonizing other celestial bodies. This may include the societal dynamics of living in space and encounters with extraterrestrial life.
Genetic Engineering and Biohacking. Advances in genetic engineering and biohacking may lead science fiction writers to explore the consequences of manipulating DNA, creating designer organisms, or even the potential for genetic warfare.
Virtual Reality and Alternate Realities. With the evolution of virtual reality, science fiction could depict worlds where the lines between physical and virtual realities blur, exploring themes of identity, addiction, and the consequences of living in immersive digital environments.
Post-Pandemic Societies. In the wake of global events, science fiction writers might explore the long-term societal impacts of pandemics, including changes in governance, healthcare systems, and the dynamics of human interaction.
Quantum Computing and Reality Manipulation. The advent of quantum computing may inspire science fiction narratives centered around the manipulation of reality, parallel universes, and the consequences of unlocking the full potential of quantum technology.
Social Media and Surveillance Culture. With the increasing prevalence of surveillance technologies and the influence of social media, science fiction could examine dystopian futures where privacy is almost nonexistent, exploring themes of control, rebellion, and the impact on individual freedom.
Augmented Reality in Everyday Life. As augmented reality becomes more integrated into daily life, science fiction might explore the societal implications of a world where digital information overlays the physical world. This could include themes of information manipulation, addiction, and the consequences of an increasingly connected reality.
Now you know. The oracle has spoken. By ‘oracle,’ I mean, of course, ChatGPT, not—
We’ve arrived at that time of year again, when I judge how well I did at this time last year in foretelling the attributes of science fiction books in 2023.
In past years, I’ve tried various techniques, but this time I used a sure-fire method—palm reading. Let’s see how well I did:
Prediction: Artificial Intelligence. A continuing trend, yes, but in 2023, we’ll see a twist. Authors will get past the Frankenstein reruns and the cute-robot-is-nobler-than-humans plot. Novels will show us more sophisticated AI, computers with a different order of intelligence, one alien to us.
Prediction: Classics redone in LGBTQ. Authors will explore the contours of the LGBTQ realm by rewriting classic tales, but repopulating them with LGBTQ characters.
Assessment: I’ll call this a fairy accurate prediction, too. The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older is a retelling of Sherlock Holmes mysteries with lesbians in the role of Holmes and Watson.
Prediction: Climate Fiction. CliFi hasn’t run its course yet. Readers want it, and authors will supply it.
Prediction: Private Space Flight. I jumped the gun, er, rocket, in predicting this for 2022. 2023 is the year we’ll see spaceships funded by billionaires without government involvement, for better or worse.
Assessment: It took some hunting, but I found what might be an example. Skeleton Crew by HT Aaron appears to involve private space flight, though I may be wrong about that.
Prediction: Solarpunk. I’m seeing more novels in the coming year with this motif, bringing us sustainable, renewable energy and diverging from capitalism and a colonial mindset.
Prediction: Terraforming. Once seen as an extension of man’s dominion over Earth, terraforming will show its warts in 2023. We’ll see stories of botched terraforming, opposed terraforming, and weaponized terraforming.
Assessment: I’ll claim this as an accurate prediction, too. The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz depicts a terraforming project that missed something important.
Before you congratulate me on my foresight (I know you were about to), maybe you shouldn’t credit my palmistry skills. What’s really improved is my after-the-fact ability to find books that fulfilled my prophesies. For those prediction assessments that cite only one or two examples, it’s clear I didn’t forecast a major trend.
I made no personal predictions last year about how my own writing would fare in 2023. Probably a good thing I didn’t.
Watch this space next week to see my spot-on predictions for the world of science fiction in 2024. Considering my past track record, the law of averages says you’ll be amazed at the prognosticating prowess of—
Every time I turn around, more fascinating authors consent to be interviewed. Today I’m featuring another author from the anthology The Science Fiction Tarot.
Jacob Pérez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, but spent most of his young adult life in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up reading books and gaining an unhealthy knowledge of comics and movies. After graduating from college in 2008, he dedicated his continued education to caring for people. If he couldn’t have superpowers, nursing was the next best alternative.
He spends his time off writing about monsters, spaceships, robots, and the most bizarre creatures. He loves crossing genre boundaries and exploring the complexity of human nature. He now lives in Loomis, California, with his wife, three beautiful kids, and an indifferent cat named Zelda. He’s currently working on expanding his writing portfolio.
Let’s get to the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you?
Jacob Pérez: I started my writing career back in 2009. I’d just graduated from college and was working through my nursing degree. My job, then, was an office assistant position that allowed for a lot of downtime. Around this time, I read Eric Van Lustbader’s The Ninja. It sparked something in me. After reading it, I discovered I wanted to write a novel I would enjoy throughout, as so many of my favorite books had done for me.
I’d always been an avid reader. For as long as I can remember, I would carry around a novel to read during my free time. So, writing was always in the back of my mind. But the reason I waited so long to write was due to a lack of confidence. Growing up in a predominately Spanish-speaking household, the idea of learning to write at a professional level felt like a daunting aspiration. But there I was, with the perfect job and that spark of inspiration to give me the push I needed to start writing.
P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books?
J.P.: I grew up on The Berenstain Bears and R.L. Stine as a child. They were my gateway into my obsession with reading. Unlike many classmates, I enjoyed our assigned book reading list. But my early influences were an eclectic group of writers: Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, Eric Van Lustbader, Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Frank Herbert, and Orson Scott Card, to name a few. I devoured their books and their series. Some of my favorites include The Last Stand, Hyperion, Dune, Frankenstein, and Ender’s Game. I didn’t gravitate toward one genre. I loved them all.
Since then, my taste in writing has expanded. I’ve found authors like Neil Gaiman, Kazuro Ishiguro, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, M. John Harrison, and Jennifer Egan, whose mastery of the English language is awe-inspiring. Picking my favorite story is hard, but if you twist my arm and force me to answer, M. John Harrison’s The Pastel City and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This is How You Lose the Time War (which I read before the recent tweet) are at the top of my all-time favorite novels.
P.S.: If you won a trip to the fictional world of another author, where would you go and what would you do there?
J.P.: I’ve always been fascinated by space exploration and the many forms executed in science fiction. That being said, I would love to be a crew member of the Wayfarer from Becky Chamber’s The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Who doesn’t want to travel on a spaceship with a multi-species crew while creating wormholes to connect distant trade routes?
P.S.: I understand your day job is a nurse. It seems you drew inspiration from that in your short stories “Coterie” and “Code Gray.” Do you plan to continue with medical-related stories, or go in different directions?
J.P.: My two short stories, “Coterie” and “Code Gray,” are a couple of the very first I ever wrote while under a mentorship about four years ago. As a new writer, it was only natural for me to draw inspiration from my day job. Key elements were already there. But as I develop as a writer, I want to step out of my comfort zone. I want to explore the potential that speculative fiction has to offer without overly relying on my day job. I’m sure another medical-related story will eventually want to be told. It’s been a lot of fun writing other stories for now.
P.S.: I gather from your Facebook page that you are (or were) a runner. Do you find yourself thinking about fiction story ideas as you run? If not, when do you get your best ideas?
J.P.: I used to run until I tore my meniscus a few years back. Until that happened, running was a great time for me to develop my stories. Now, I’m juggling toddlers, work, and friends. And while I try to think about my writing constantly, my best ideas appear at night. My phone’s notes are riddled with ideas, phrases, and concepts that pop into my head late at night. It would seem my muse likes to come knocking in that period of half-sleep while I’m trying to turn in.
P.S.: Your bio mentions monsters, spaceships, robots, and bizarre creatures. How did you become interested in writing science fiction?
J.P.: As mentioned above, I became interested in science fiction from my insatiable love of reading. It also stems from my obsession with movies and comic books. My father exposed me to movies like Star Wars, Robocop, Aliens, and Terminator when I was very young. He also introduced me to comic books and their fantastical stories that spanned from Earth to the far-reaching edges of space. I’d like to believe that movie ratings were lost in translation at my household. But in reality, I believe my father just wanted to share his love of science fiction, and ratings be damned.
P.S.: In The Science Fiction Tarotanthology, your story “The Bridge” earns a tarot card labeled “Virtual Reality.” Can you tell us the premise for the settings in the story?
J.P.: My story, “The Bridge,” is set hundreds of years in the future, after humanity flees a dying Earth. An immersive virtual reality program has been developed to alleviate the physiological stressors of prolonged space travel. My main character is a companionship entity within this virtual reality program whose human girlfriend is on the verge of ending their relationship. When I wrote this story, I wanted to explore what would happen if such a character developed real human emotions, but those feelings contradicted its core programming. It also delves into the creator’s motive in creating the program, her legacy, and how it affects the story’s characters. As our technology increases and the debates on AI intensify, the idea that a programmable entity could have feelings is not far-fetched.
P.S.: It appears some of your Puerto Rican background worked its way into your story “The Bridge.” Did your memories of PR make the story easier to write?
J.P.: Yes, this is a perfect example of writing what I know. I love Puerto Rico. I love the rich culture of my people, our traditions, and the way we place a high level of importance on family and family honor. While I’ve never been to that particular observatory in Puerto Rico, I drew sensory descriptions and settings from personal experience. It’s definitely a setting I will use again in future stories.
P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?
J.P.: There’s an easy aspect to writing? Tell me, please! All kidding aside, the easiest part for me is creating wonderful stories using my words. I love coming up with exciting plots and memorable characters. It’s very rewarding. What I’ve found the hardest is balancing my other obligations in life and finding time to write. Like many writers, I don’t have the luxury of making a living from writing. At least not yet. So family and work come first in my life.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
J.P.: My current work in progress is a Writers of the Future entry. My main character travels via quantum teleportation for the first time and discovers the multiverse. Suddenly, he has the opportunity to find a universe where his wife doesn’t die in a car accident. But chaos ensues when his jumps have unforeseen consequences. It’s a fun story and a little different from the emotionally complex stories I’ve written in the past. The balance in humor, plot, and character development has been a challenge, but it has a lot of potential to make for a great story.
Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?
Jacob Pérez: Now, that’s a loaded question. There is so much great advice out there, made by people far more talented and experienced than me. But the one that I live by is one a mentor gave me. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. We all want to be great writers and publish our stories for the world to read. In our enthusiasm, we forget that it takes time to master any craft. Everyone’s writing experience is different. I’m guilty of comparing myself to others. But it does you a disservice to rush the process. So many factors affect a writer’s journey, and every journey is unique. So, keep your head down, read, write, learn, and figure out what you want to say with your voice. Let that unquenchable need to write and tell stories fill you with perseverance. Because writing is hard, but if that’s what you love and want to do it right, the journey is worth it.
After interviewing several authors whose stories appear in The Science Fiction Tarot, it’s time I interviewed the anthology’s editor. As is the case with many editors, Brandon Butler is also an author.
Brandon Butler is a Canadian and a Maritimer, not always in that order, born and raised in Halifax Nova Scotia. He studied English and Computer Science at Dalhousie University before becoming a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest made profound effects on his early writing. Relocating to Toronto in 2008, he now works in the tech industry while writing and publishing short stories, novels, anthologies and film scripts.
Next, the interview:
Poseidon’s Scribe: How and when did you get started writing fiction?
Brandon Butler: I really think it began by reading ‘clicking’ for me at a young age and going from there. I wanted to be a writer for a long time before discovering how hard it really was! A big step along the way was fanfiction. I wrote a good amount of Star Wars and Star Trek stuff in the early days of the internet to entertain myself and people I met online until one day I thought ‘why not just create my own stuff?’. For me, in a way, it was my first moment of ‘going pro’. And so, it all began.
P.S.: You’ve cited Harlan Ellison and Roger Zelazny as inspirations for your writing. What about those two authors, in particular, do you find compelling?
B.B.: I continue to be in awe in how Roger Zelazny was able to create such unique, epic tales such as the Amber series in so few words. There are other writing styles, but I think it speaks to the power of brevity and how the most important thing is to convey ideas and concepts that will engage the reader.
Although Harlan Ellison was also known for shorter works and even shorter temper, what I find compelling is his sheer power of emotion, and the willingness to pull from the negative side of the spectrum. I sometimes wonder if writers might be a little less willing to engage with anger and hatred than he was. If so, maybe we ought to think about that because as human beings there’s a time for rage just as there’s a time for joy and affection. It must be managed, but it’s all a part of who we are. And the more often you explore an emotion, the better you’ll understand it – or at least that’s what I believe.
P.S.: Do any facets of your ‘day job’ as a computer programmer find their way into your stories?
B.B.: When writing science fiction, it certainly helps! Knowing a little about how computers work and think can be useful when machines become characters in your stories. Once in a while you might run across a new idea to explore in fiction, but I also find it helps a lot in making your technology sound authentic. There’s nothing a little memory deallocation can’t hurt.
B.B.: Unreal. I received word a little over a year before and went to the event in Los Angeles only a couple months after I graduated from Computer Science. It was my first time leaving the Maritimes since I was very small. Getting to meet and learn from authors who I had read, spend time on the other side of the continent from where I’d grown up, and meet so many other writers beginning their careers was a formative experience to say the least. It was like the world I inhabited grew tenfold in a few short weeks.
P.S.: Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?
B.B.: The latter, really. I try to be as eclectic as possible. Writing chiefly short stories means that you can get more separate stories done in a shorter time, and once I’m done one piece, I usually want to go in an entirely different direction for the next one. That said, I do notice certain themes cropping up in my work more than others. Relations between men and women is a large one (platonic, romantic, antagonistic, and all types in between). Another one is the broader reasons as to why we find ourselves in conflict with one another, and to what degree humans, as a species, may seek instability when things seem peaceful. Religion and the power of mythology also seems to pop up from time to time, although as a second-generation atheist, I’m not a religious person.
B.B.: It’s a story about a Fireman and captive Demon set in a world that’s post-rapture, where hellfire slowly consumes the planet over an extended period of time. Imps, Demons and Wraiths often enter the real world, and gunfire only stings them while water is deadly. That fact raises the importance of the Fire Department in the society that’s been left behind. The pair then work both with and against each other as they try to find the cause of a recent flare of fires that have broken out in the surrounding city.
It’s a story I wrote over fifteen years ago, and for a long time was probably the strongest story I’d written. It’s still one of my absolute best and I was overjoyed to finally sell it.
P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?
B.B.: Work on the anthology caused me to redirect some of my focus, but in about another month I’ll be going back to handful of short stories and a couple screenplays. Two short stories I’m working on right now involve a protagonist unable to leave a semi-sentient tower that no longer wants him, and look at a world after a synthetic takeover where the machines have turned out to be rather less than infallible. And my screenplay is a non-speculative historical biopic set in the French Revolution.
There’s also a novel series about a pair of immortals I need to get back to – I completed the first one after the pandemic but there’s a significant amount of work that needs to be done from the midpoint onwards, as well as starting up the second book once the first is finished to a level at which I’m satisfied.
P.S.: How did you first get involved in editing fiction?
B.B.: The first editing work I did was back in High School for a non-speculative anthology concentrating on the pressures and ramification of war. I and a few other students had an opportunity to work on a ‘real-world’ project, so I’d say that counts as my first experience as an editor. I also worked here and there as both a contributor and editor to my High School and University newspapers, and I served as one of the staff for T.Spec’s Imps and Minions anthology a few years back, helping to select and offer feedback on submissions.
Mainly though, my editorial experience comes from reading my own work, and viewing it with a critical eye that’s as fair as possible. Seeing and correcting issues with what I’ve written has become an experience that’s both time consuming and enjoyable, to the point that it’s one of my favorite things to do. And after I’ve been away from writing for a while, I’ll usually start by editing one of my existing stories to get me back in the authorial headspace.
B.B.: On a Zoom call during the pandemic. It began with a conversation where someone mentioned she had learned how to read tarot, or wanted to. I believe either she or many others in the group tended to be into YA, Harry Potter and that sort of material (I personally tend towards what I personally term as the previous hot trend of late 70s-early 90s horror and dark SF: Stephen King/Dean Koontz or, more lately, Black Mirror), and I jotted down the idea of a tarot card deck for a new generation. As in, one with different cards. Zelazny’s Amber series was probably showing its influence again there with its use of trumps.
Originally it was a story idea and I spent a few months trying to get it to work, but it wasn’t coming together. Finally, I began to conceive of it as an anthology, since it seemed to me the card concept could function exceptionally as a list of contrasting topics – not unlike how the album Dark Side of the Moon tackles its concept of the pressures of modern life.
The last wrinkle was the involvement of Managing Editor Andy Dibble, who was a big part of the early work on the book. We had a conversation while I was still putting the idea together, and he suggested a focus on Science Fiction. Until then I’d been thinking of a speculative anthology with contemporary card themes. His suggestion seemed simpler and straightforward, so naturally I jumped on it. And so, The Science Fiction Tarot was born!
P.S.: People use conventional tarot cards for prediction, self-exploration, or care therapy. Will readers of this anthology know the future, know themselves, feel better, or enjoy some other benefit?
B.B.: Perhaps all four! In knowing yourself you probably know at least some of your future, so doesn’t that make you feel better? And it certainly comes with other benefits! Kidding aside though, I think it’s great that tarot is used in so many multifaceted ways. We created actual decks for our kickstarter backers of just our major arcana and a handful of other cards. Anyone who would want to use our cards to help in anything they do would be fantastic. And some of our cards take direct inspiration from the original tarot, so I can imagine there’s plenty of room to explore tons of possibilities.
P.S.: What plans do you have, if any, to edit future anthologies?
B.B.: Like with my short stories, I tend to want to do something else after finishing a large project. So, no particular plans for more editing in my near future, although I rule nothing out. If something comes along that I want to do, then something comes along. There’s been talk about us doing another project, but it’s just conversation so far.
Ultimately though, I didn’t commit to this project because I wanted to do an anthology – I had an idea that I wanted to do that became The Science Fiction Tarot, which happened to be an anthology. If that distinction makes sense.
P.S.: What advice can you offer aspiring writers or editors?
B.B.: Let your ideas own themselves. Although I find it’s essential to form pictures in your head of what happens in your story or what form your editing project will take, try to sense the natural boundaries of what you have. Instinct and experience help with that, although they take time to develop.
It’s maybe a commentary on that old Andy Warhol quote of getting your 15 minutes of fame: I prefer to think of it as waiting until you have something to say, then saying it and taking as long as you need until you’re done. And then leaving the stage for the next person and giving yourself a break until there’s something else to say. Which there often is. There’s time enough for everything in life, and a big help in working on any project is knowing where you are during its beginning, middle and end.
Thank you, Brandon.
Readers can learn more about Brandon Butler at his website, on Twitter, on Goodreads, and on Amazon. Also check out a previous interview of Brandon by Angelique Fawns of Horror Tree here.
