Continuum Fiction

Okay, I'm putting it out there, a new genre:

Continuum Fiction

I may not be the first to write it, but I'm probably the first to name it.  New genres eventually get created to cover new types of fiction, and each new division only helps refine and define the expectations for a certain type of story.

Fiction, of course, is at the top.  Fiction is a made-up story.  Great, you like made-up stories, but is Fiction enough of a category to let you know the kind of story you'll be getting?

How about Science Fiction?  Closer, but there's still a wide variety.  And so we come up with categories that refine the classification of story and therefore have a better idea of the type of story we're getting when we see that genre.  Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Adventure and a hundred others that weren't and then were have been created to identify common themes.

And so today I'm officially naming it:

Continuum Fiction

What follows is my working definition, set down here, and I intend to make a Wikipedia article if they'll let me:

Continuum Fiction: any story where at least one character, at some point, recognizes a continuum of existence of self, recalling with certainty having been and acted as various identities in the past, with an awareness of the distinction of self in the present, whether gained through exposure to elements in the story (revelation/epiphany) or with an existing awareness at the story's inception.

Continuum Fiction does not preclude cloning (such as Palpatine in the "Star Wars" universe), genetic streams (such as "Dune"), or mechanical transference, such as the computer storage of consciousness that occurs in many sci-fi stories.  However, to be true Continuum Fiction the actual individual, the true identity, the soul, the spirit -- however you define it, the person themselves, the real person and who they truly are, not a body, not a brain, not synapses or neurons or genetic copies; a true reincarnation/continuation -- must transit to a new awareness, body, etc.

And that's Continuum Fiction.

"Star Angel" fits this definition.  Another series I wrote and may revive (badump bump), the "Saga of Ages" series, is Continuum Fiction.  Who knows?  Maybe I can become the master of the genre I made a name for!  :-)

I hereby declare Continuum Fiction a thing.  Others have written it, though not many, and not exactly as defined above.  Continuum Fiction is my small contribution to the literary landscape.

As always, thank you for listening.  :-)

#TeamStarAngel

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Good News

You get what you validate (support the truth or value of).  When it comes to News we don't have many choices.  Bad news sells so that's what we get.  We don't, however, have to validate it.  Tragedy is part of life and when it strikes -- handle it.  Don't tune in to watch unless you can do something to make it better.  Take action.  Don't be a spectator.  Spectating is for sports, not life.  Don't be a spectator in life.

Between tragedies we can seek out other sources of news, and it's nice to have a few out there focused on the good.  The Good News Network is one of them.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

By the way, this isn't a head-in-the-sand mentality, or whistling past the graveyard.  Validating that which is desired is the first step on the road to making it better.  Validating the negative is not.  Validate the good, not the bad.  You'll be surprised how well that works.  :-)

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Soul Mates

Or love at first sight.  This concept is as timeless in use as it is in its implied continuum of connection.  Throughout the history of humans people have experienced falling in love with someone from the very first moment they meet.  Certainly the percentage who experience this is small, but it happens all the time all around the world every day.  With billions of us alive on this planet at any given moment it's just the law of statistical averages in action.

But why does it happen at all?

Soul mates.  When we say love at first sight we're talking about meeting a soul mate.  Someone we're not, actually, meeting for the first time.  It's funny, but this part of the equation often gets left alone.  We say "soul mate", and we know instinctively what that implies -- and we believe it -- but we don't usually stop to think what it really means.

It isn't, of course, necessary to get that significant, but the truth is the phenomena of that feeling of having known someone, of already being linked to them, impossibly, from the very first moment of meeting, of loving them so deeply and completely without knowing a thing about them in their current form ... is tough to explain.

Yet it happens.

And so it does in "Star Angel".  When Jessica meets Zac it's this sort of inexplicable, incredible reaction.  Jessica's friend, Bianca, can't believe the lengths Jess goes to, what she does for this strange boy who's fallen from the sky.  Even Jess herself doesn't really understand it.

Read on to see why.  Jess and Zac do eventually discover their connection.  From the start they're drawn to each other, with such a powerful force it drives them to amazing lengths to be together.

For our heroes are the truest examples of timeless love.  :-)

#TeamStarAngel
#MakeItBetter

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Two Types Of Story

Everyone has a story to tell.  At least one.  Of this I'm convinced.  Some have more than one, some have many, and some people are nearly bursting at the seams with stories.  While there may not be a limit to the top of the scale, I do believe there's a limit to the bottom.  It isn't zero.

Everyone has at least one.

And so what I've noticed, writing as long as I have been, is that most stories fall into one of two categories: Already There or Make It From Scratch.  In the final bargain maybe all stories are "already there", but that's a bit too esoteric to dive into and, mostly, you, me -- anyone undertaking to write a story -- will notice it's either one or the other.  Either you've got a story idea burning to be told, or you come up with an idea and then work on writing the story from scratch.  Either way, it would seem to me all stories fall into one of these two categories.  Is this a "Duh!" moment?  Probably.  :-)

Anyway, the Already There story can, at times, be easier to write, as it's more likely to flow and the outline is often easier.  Crafting one from scratch can take more effort, sometimes a lot more, and usually involves a much more involved outlining process.  This isn't necessarily always the case.  Passion for the Already There story can bring its own sets of challenges.

Once the writing begins, however, it's interesting how a Make It From Scratch story can begin to flow same as an Already There.  Such that even something that was just an idea you came up with for the sake of writing a story can begin to take on life, and you may find yourself rushing with it in a stream of consciousness -- just as if it had been burning there all along.  Which is why I think all stories may be "already there", at least in chunks, some just buried far deeper than others, and so maybe there's really only one type of story in the end.

But that's probably a topic for another day.

That's my two cents for now.  Happy New Year.  May 2016 be awesome for you.  And, as always, read and read more.  And write.  Sharing stories is an age-old hobby, and if you haven't told yours yet ... by all means, get to it.  :-)

#TeamStarAngel
#MakeItBetter

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Writer's Block

It's the age-old challenge and the age-old question.  Writer's block.  How to solve it?  Everyone faces it, some more often than others, and, as an author, I get asked the question:

What's your solution?

My solution to writer's block is to write.

Yes, this sounds like the sort of answer that doesn't really help, but the truth is the only way through anything is, well, through it.  Like the old Nike commercials:  Just do it.  When it comes to writing, if I can't seem to get going I just make myself write.  Something.  Anything.  I don't worry about how horrible or how dumb or how anything what I'm writing sounds.  We live in an age of electronics where we can type and correct and type and correct and fix and remove and type again.  There should be no pressure to get a first draft anywhere near perfect.  In fact, the final result may be completely changed from that initial effort.

Don't get hung up on getting it exactly right.  Not even close.  Especially not the first time.  The more you try to edit as you create, the more it bogs you down.  Stream of consciousness.  Get it out.  Just ... get it out.  Edit later.  Type "blah blah blah" if you can't think of the words; put in raw ideas for now, even if you can't think of the exact, most eloquent way to say it; just get it out of your head and come back and make it make sense later.

Write.  That's the solution.

Writing absolutely destroys writer's block.

:-)

#TeamStarAngel
#MakeItBetter

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Being A Hero

Each of us can be a hero.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, all scales of action.  This is obvious, of course, but Hero is such a big word we often use it for only the absolute biggest things.  Superman saving a city is a hero.  We can all agree on that (excepting those tiny voices of dissent -- there's always someone who disagrees).  But what makes a hero?  Do you have to save a city?  How about setting aside a day to help a friend do something they can't do alone?  Does that make one a hero?

My contention is that it does.

I'm not out to skew the definition, but most of us know what constitutes heroics.  You know when you're in the presence of one.

The official definition of a hero is this:

"A person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities."

That's a good definition.  Put that way it seems we could all be heroes, almost on a daily basis.  Being a hero has a broader meaning than saving a city or even a life.  Heroics great and small.

At the end of the day heroes make it better.

The Star Angel books are entertainment, but there's no reason we can't practice heroism in our everyday actions.   People are watching, and the things we do get noticed.  By setting a heroic example we spread that message, even if only a little, and the positive effect travels.  Be a hero in all things, great and small, and the effect will be wide.  Leave a trail of good deeds behind you.

It could be fun.  If more of us made a game of it it might spread.  In truth there's more positive in the world than negative.  More good.  Despite the merchants of chaos running the typical news hour, despite all the bad things made all the worse, all the more serious by the fact that they get the most alarming coverage, the evidence supports the fact that, mostly, we're good.  We haven't killed each other yet.  Wars, yes, terrible crimes against each other, of course, but over the millennia we've gotten better.  The world has advanced.  If the balance of our actions were destructive than we wouldn't be here today.  Man -- the vast majority of us -- is good, and no cynic, no matter how clever, can change that.

But there's room for improvement.  To turn the spiral in the other direction.  To push it up, rather than down.

In Star Angel the hero, Jessica, inspires others to action, and by the end of the story each of the major players has become a hero in their own right.  Star Angel is filled with those who rise above.

And so let me stop rambling.  That's the message.  Be a hero, in every way you can.

Can you imagine a planet full of us?  :-)



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Note, this is taken directly and shamelessly from the Team Star Angel web site.  I had a huge hand in the creation of the site, so I feel within my rights to borrow.  :-)

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The Age Question

I've been getting some questions about Jessica's age.  No one's complained, but I think there's been a little discomfort that she's younger than your typical "young" protagonist -- especially in view of the harrowing situations she has to face, many of which would have an adult curled up in a ball.  In answer, and to quote myself from an interview question: these are modern considerations.  People ruled empires at 15 and 16 in the past.  We aren't any different now than we were then; modern society has imposed these conventions, and they have nothing to do with real ability or actual readiness.  In fact, probably a lot of modern issues in the "difficult" teen years (that weren't an issue a thousand years ago) would go away if we let kids get the show on the road.

This isn't to say all 16-year-olds are ready to be leaders.  They aren't.  But then neither are all 30-year-olds.  :-)  And so if the talent is there, if the ability is clear, age is an arbitrary limitation.

When I began writing Star Angel I felt the hero needed to have the resilience of youth.  Jess goes through so much more than an average, fictional adult would be expected to endure, absorb, and keep going.  We find later why this is true for her.  At the outset her age may make us a bit skeptical, but by the final installment we're no longer giving it a second thought.  Only that she is who she is, that she's done what she's done, and that the reality of her accomplishments is all that matters.

I did the following on the Team Star Angel site, and I'm going to do it here.  Something that's getting a bit ahead of plans, but because this question is coming up it will probably be a good thing.  Following is an excerpt from the final book, Book Five: Prophecy.  This is Jessica, and her own thoughts as she muses over this very thing.

Here it is.

FROM BOOK FIVE:

Jess thought maybe what she’d done so far, all she’d accomplished, took the sort of perspective only a teenager would have.  Not yet weighed down by the failures and impossibilities of life, able to have the insane optimism needed to make the attempt.  To believe it could be done.  To absorb the kind of trauma such epic events entailed and move on.  Even that shocking trip to Anitra -- she found herself thinking all the way back, to where this began -- events that would’ve left an older mind scarred ... even after that she managed to fight her way through and survive.  Then slip back into normal life.  Though she seemed too young to be the hero of this crazy story maybe youth was exactly what was needed to make it work.  Maybe that sort of durable optimism was the only thing keeping the whole charade in motion.

Things failed.  But they never failed unless you tried.  Likewise, things succeeded.  And, likewise, things never succeeded unless you tried.  And so the only way was to try.  To make the attempt.  And she had.  Often terrified, often wanting to do nothing more than curl into a ball and wish it all away she’d persevered.  And, so far, the greater part of her attempts had been successful.  Success outweighed the failures and here she was, having achieved what she set out to do and, voila, the teen girl had done the impossible.