Writers of the Future, Honorable Mention

My novelette, "Trepanning for Gold" received an Honorable Mention in the 1st quarter of the Writers of the Future contest. Congratulations to those who won in each respective category, and to all the others who made the Honorable Mention list. We'll keep on keeping on. Write, write, revise, edit, rewrite and write some more.
For those whom don't know, Writers of the Future is a great contest, run in quarters (winners drawn from each quarter, all winners printed in the book each year). If you write Science Fiction or Fantasy you should really consider entering this contest. There is a parallel contest for illustrators. This contest has been a gateway for many entering the publishing world.

Systems Failure

I saw the cover of the Cincinnati Enquirer today at the coffee shop. "Our System Has Failed Us". It should have read "Our Systems". Plural, with an S. If the human race got a report card, like I did in the dream I had last night, it would be studded with F's and D minuses. Sure, their might be a few C's where we are just muddling along, maybe even a B. An A might represent those stunning achievements of our geniuses and cultural innovators. If the assesment was for a midterm, the notes at the bottom would read, "unless drastic measures are taken, by the end of the quarter, Cultural Fugue will certainly have been entered."
Cultural Fugue is a term coined by Samuel R. Delany, a writer of, and critical thinker on, Science Fiction. It comes from his book "Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand." It is sort of a combination of toxic ills, uncontrolled pollution and toxic waste, and nuclear war all propelled by socio-economic stress. When a planet enters Cultural Fugue their might be no turning back. In Delany's own words it is when "socioeconomic pressures reach a point of technological recomplication and perturbation where the population completely destroys all life across the planetary surface." Sometimes it can be averted. Often times it is not. Luckily, for those planets, they exist only in a world of fiction.
So what to do in this time of planetary crisis in all systems, economic, education, environment?Our judicial systems crumble and health care is a farce. Can we halt the claws of entropy before several arteries are sliced?
I believe so. But to do it we need to dip our hands into the realm of magick and dreams, bring back the gifts present there.
A study of history shows that humanity has always been ushered along by contact with extra dimensional beings, angels, fairy folk and the like. This will be the subject of my next post.

Kim Stanley Robinson

"Does the word postcapitalism look odd to you? It should, because you hardly ever see it. We have a blank spot in our vision of the future. Perhaps we think that history has somehow gone away. In fact, history is with us now more than ever, because we are at a crux in the human story. Choosing not to study a successor system to capitalism is an example of another kind of denial, an ostrich failure on the part of the field of economics and of business schools, I think, but it’s really all of us together, a social aporia or fear. We have persistently ignored and devalued the future—as if our actions are not creating that future for our children, as if things never change. But everything evolves. With a catastrophe bearing down on us, we need to evolve at nearly revolutionary speed. So some study of what could improve and replace our society’s current structure and systems is in order. If we don’t take such steps, the consequences will be intolerable. On the other hand, successfully dealing with this situation could lead to a sustainable civilization that would be truly exciting in its human potential" -Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim is one of my favorite science fiction writers and a leading environmental thinker. Do yourself a favor and read this quick article by him... and pick up one of his books. My favorites are the "Three California's" series (The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge) and his Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). He is a fascinating, thought provoking writer.

H**ster Haiku

Went to the Tavern
make a lot of money,
still bought PBR