98.6 Factor

As a child and well into my teens, my love for sci-fi was dominated by the need to know where technology and science advancement was going. For the more humanistic elements I turned to mystery, romance, and thrillers.

It's no mystery that sci-fi has always been driven by the hard facts. So much so, that for several years, in my more emotional phase of life (turning in to a mother, marrying, starting my adult life)...I turned away from sci-fi and my reading leaned towards other genres.

Coming back to sci-fi several years ago, I immediately recognized the evolution of its framework. What had been infused to a deeper extent was the 98.6 Factor.

What's the 98.6 Factor? Well, we use the term a lot in healthcare. Even some automotive marketing use it now. It's the human element. The person behind the technology and science.

Sci-fi has matured with the onset of this new Speculative Era. The relationship between the two have melded into a beautiful balance. As we all know science and technology is at the core, an extension of ourselves. The achievement and gratification we can receive from it. By infusing the emotional, spiritual, and philosophical aspects back into the story, we've re-emerged the human experience back into the future.

No longer will robots be able to take over, because we recognize our place in the future. More importantly, we recognize our need for the 98.6 Factor in the future...something robots can never achieve.

Think about your story and ensure that its not starving of human experience. Don't let the science drive the human...let the human drive the science.

So...that's my philosophical posting for today.

Good writing all!

City Building

Need some world building inspiration? Feel like what your building is a little stale and small scales...not innovated enough?

I was working on my story tonight and found myself a little drained with a new space city my characters are heading too. So I clicked on one of the favorite sites, Popular Magazine and found a great article, Environmental Visionaries: The Urban Remodeler.

This engineer and engineers like him might be of help to you. These people build cities of the future based on their vision of where today's technology will be in 100-150 years. This kind of research can be a great launching point for the city ports of your story's future.

Take a look at the article's sample vision proposal...I know, totally awesome!
If you want to see more about this kind of visionary engineering, check out the Terraform1 site.

Kickin' Back into Gear

Okay. I'm back from my work conference...3 days, all day, of healthcare stuff. Now I'm back home and it's time to visit space a little bit. Helping this is the fact that it's Friday, which means A.R. can play - er - write all night if she so wishes too...which I do of course, Sillyhead!

Any-who. I'm thinking minimum 2500 words. M.I.N.I.M.U.M. I'll focus most on the Space Epic, but will move to my fantasy if Mrs. Muse turns into Mrs. Cranky Muse.

That's all folks.

Good writing all!

Book Review: Rebels and Lovers

Rebels and Lovers by Linnea Sinclair is a fantastic sci-fi romance. I liked the nerdy male main character, Devin. At his basic he's a glasses wearing, data crunching, business guy who gets himself caught up in something he can't handle.

In comes Kaidee, a girl from the "interstellar" block so to speak. She's from a rough side of space, with a questionable father in an even more questionable business. The story interweaves through one action-packed adventure to the next. Through it all Kaidee keeps saving Devin and his nephew from trouble.

There was a bit of back story that at times had me questioning whether this was a trilogy or series. I kept checking the front information...as if it would change or something. It wasn't until I went to Linnea Sinclair's website that I saw it was, in fact, one of the Dock Five Universe series.

The detailed world Sinclair's built is a magnificent, realistic world based on sound social and technological assumptions. If there were one complaint - and it's a small one - they spent a bit too much time fighting at the space port and not enough time in space travel...but I'm not going to complain. I mean, I have to concede that the series is titled Dock Five, which is the port they were hangin' at.

If you want to read a great example of a sound sci-fi romance, pick up Linnea Sinclair's Rebels and Lovers. Now I just have to go get the first 3 in the series...and then wait anxiously for the next.

Good writing (and reading) all!

Leading Couples

On my current sci-fi WIP I'm working with a couple different romantic dynamics. One of them is a couple. In chatting with a writer friend, she was surprised 2 of my MCs were already in a relationship.

"It won't sell," she commented.

"Why?" It seemed a very odd statement to me.

"Good stories are about characters who meet, fall in love, and have that new relationship conflict."

What? "That's silly."

It is silly, but in my research last night, I found that there is a stereotype couple characters are boring in books. The biggest argument seems to be they lack in passion and intrigue.

Well...I'm deciding to balk at this stereotype. What made the reading masses think a relationship can't continue to be passionate and intriguing? No wonder the divorce rate is what it is!

There's nothing more passionate than a lover who knows your body. It's actually more passionate because EVERY sensual scene is going to be a "hit", but with the added bonus of a depth and connection new passion can't match.

And what's more intriguing then riding that relationship through the bumps and adventures of life and learning new aspects of their character?

Lastly, conflict - in my opinion - is more in a relationship because the characters have something they don't want to lose. Through the progression of the story there's internal and external conflict threatening to tear them apart, destroy them, or break their spirits.

Okay, my little rant is over. If you have a chance to build a great story with a couple, try it. I think you'll find it very rewarding.

Good writing all!

Science Update

Hello! I have some pretty cool topics to cover today. I took a few weeks to connect my blog to my "geeks sites" a little better, which you'll find in my revamped Sci-Fi Haunts section.

All right...rev your geeky engines 'cause, "WE'RE OFF!!"

Japan rolls out first solar sail in space! Holy moly! This is what I'm talking about. Ideally there'll be more than one mode of transportation...but wouldn't this one be the most magnificent?

I could see waking up in my space port apartment and opening my dark blinds (no more sun rise people) to a flotilla of beautiful metal yachts working their way across the spaceways to the connecting business sphere, or full of tourists from the nearby Mars mining colony.

*sighs* Okay, on to the next cool space thing.

The Search for other "Earths" is going pretty well...we think - Okay, okay. I know I didn't end up being a scientist, but still. Can't they just let us peek at the good stuff? Just a little peek?

Pout over.

It is pretty cool that they've found 400 interesting possibilities. False-positives or not...they're really mapping out some cool future settings for character exploration in my novels. Now...I just have to wait 8 months before I get the details to put IN to my stories.

Ho-hum.

All right people. That's it for now.

Good writing all!

Query Letters

I figured since I did submissions in the last post, I'd better follow up pretty quick with the querying process. It can be kinda confusing.

The query letter can be (is) the most daunting task of getting your novel published. I'm still learning how to perfect a query letter...and I only have 1 darn completed book. (I'm already stressing the query for my next sci-fi epic novel.)

Querying is a one page letter about your book you write to agents seeking representation of your novel. Some publishers also request querying first. The basic framework of a query letter:

Paragraph 1: The Intro/Hook (Keep this paragraph only 1 or 2 sentences...I know, I know, but it's important.)

Paragraph 2: Summary of story (It's good to keep this 1 paragraph, but I've seen 2 paragraph successfully done.)

Paragraph 3: Biography (Only those things that tie to the story or you as an author. Not about your life as a kitty wrangler if the story is not about kitty wrangling.)

Closing: Say thank you for time and consideration. ENTER. ENTER. Sincerely, Your name. (Keep it professional people; no begging or bribery here.)

Most importantly, make sure you put the name of your book, word count, and genre in the query letter. This can be either in the first paragraph or last. Tip for you, not in the middle. It'll get lost.

Sounds pretty simple, right? But trust me and thousands of other querying writers, it's very hard. No cliche sentences. Interesting without being corner. Professional without boredom. Courteous without brown nosing or "bowing down to them"...and the list of "eeks" goes on.

There are some great resources to help you get started putting a query letter AND see examples of not-so-good ones:

Agent Query's "How to Write a Query"
Query Shark
Guide to Literary Agents "Successful Queries" series

Good writing all!