S = Sunrise

S is for Sunrise

Did you know that clean air is the main ingredient in brightly colored sunrises and sunsets? Or that ordinary sunlight is composed of a spectrum of colors that grade from violets and blues at one end to oranges and reds on the other. Did you know that if not for the fact that the human eye is more sensitive to blue light than to violet, the clear daytime sky would appear violet instead of blue.

I found this article most interesting. I hope you do too!

The Colors of Sunset & Twilight

by Stephen F. Corfidi

Stephen F. Corfidi's article explains where the colors of a sunrise or sunset come from and in a way easy to understand. Please follow the link to read more.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/corfidi/sunset/

A sunrise is something the inhabitants of Ever-Ton haven't seen in years.

Yolanda Renée © 2015

Ever-Ton

Yolanda Renée

Excerpt:

Homemade flowers, along with wiry trees, lined the broken cobbled streets. Ever-Ton, the biggest dome-covered metropolis in the Himalayas, had lost its luster. Workers used to keep it clean; now they worked on building the resources for the new world. The dome, once translucent, now looked like a mud-covered window. I'd never experienced the sun's rays, breathed air that wasn't manufactured or tasted water from a spring.

Donning sunglasses against the artificial sunlight, I hurried to NWAO headquarters to find a crowd waiting to take the tour of the latest and most modern spacecraft, named Sunrise.

***

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M=Memories

The idea of memories making us who we are has been featured a lot in science fiction.  The film Dark City features characters who have new memories implanted night after night, and their alien overlords watch them to see how they behave.  Memories are occasionally blocked by trauma or by mysterious agents that want to keep crucial information contained.

Memories are powerful.  We learn from past experiences.  We’re informed by them in the decisions we make.  When memories are altered or blocked, what kind of impact does it have on who we are?  Can you ever truly control someone by controlling their memories?

My short story “Felix Was Here” deals a lot with memories. Resurfacing memories are the catalyst for all that happens.  And, as it turns out, she’s not the only person who’s struggled with this.

The following excerpt from the story finds Betty speaking to someone who understands her plight.

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Image courtesy of endiku at morguefile.com.

“What happened that night?” Betty persisted.

Simon sighed. “It was bad. The man didn’t just have an episode. He broke down entirely. No matter how much Verity and I tried to talk him down, it seemed as though he didn’t hear us. He kept talking over us both. He went on and on about his brother Tommy, even though there’s no evidence he ever had a brother at all. He kept saying ‘They sent him to war! They sent him to die in a war we’re not supposed to know about! They used tricks and drugs to make me forget. To make us all forget.’ It sounded ludicrous at the time.”

She drew in a sharp breath. “At the time?”

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G = Gore

G IS FOR PRESIDENT AL GORE

The alternate history affecting the story, Ever-Ton, in the IWSG Anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here, was the election of Al Gore for President in the year 2000.

The setting is the year 2050. The world has changed and the inhabitants are leaving. 

Photo Copyright

Ever-Ton

Yolanda RenÉe

Excerpt:

The line seemed to stretch on forever but moved fast. Several people in wheelchairs, children with disabilities, and worried parents talked in hushed tones as the line moved forward. A lovely woman in a wheelchair pointed to the picture of former President Al Gore on the wall behind the counter. "I wonder if he knows how many people he saved."

I smiled, and said, "I believe he does. I really do."

She nodded. "I do, too."

In the 1970s, scientists had warned of the dangers of global warming, but nothing happened until the year 2000. President Al Gore couldn't get the legislation passed that would curb the dangers caused by fossil fuel, but he found the funding for the New World Aeronautical Organization - NWAO. They began the search for a New Earth.

Terrifying storms, devastating droughts, and unimaginable diseases took the earth to the levels of an apocalypse that no one foresaw, not even President Gore. The building of survival units in the highest mountains became a top priority.

Now, in 2050, the world's atmosphere had grown toxic. The city of Ever-Ton, meaning Everlasting Mountain, sat high in the Himalayas. We were the largest and last community of survivors trying to leave earth.

***

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B=Betty

Though the story is named for Felix, Betty is the main character of “Felix Was Here.”  We spend the most time with her.  We see how something as simple as hearing the name Felix turns her life upside down.  She is a regular person trying to make her way through the world.  Her goals in life are simple in the beginning.  Betty wants a good life with her husband Bill.  She doesn’t want them to struggle for anything.  She wants comfort, which is something I think most people can relate to on some level.

Many characters in fiction experience a jarring shift in worldview like this.  We often find ourselves peering at the world through the eyes of someone who was once content with their world, but something happens to dramatically change that.  We first see them when they’re still in their element, and we go along on the journey with them as they discover that all is not as it seems.

I’d like to share an excerpt from “Felix Was Here” with all of you.  In this excerpt, Betty find herself in a quiet moment, and inside everything is chaotic.  That is, after all, what one would expect to feel when their entire world is shifting in mysterious ways.

*     *     *

Photo courtesy of Againstar at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Moonlight intermittently chased away the deep shadows of the bedroom as a soft breeze fluttered the curtain. Betty held the quilt firmly in place just below her chin as she tried to sink into sleep. Slumber, however, remained elusive as Bill lay beside her, the soft sounds of his breathing filling the room. After an hour or two, that sound began to crawl under her skin and fester.

Inhale.

Felix.

Exhale.

Felix.

That pattern repeated on a loop until nothing else in all the world remained. Susan’s sweet voice recited the name as if it were barely even worth mentioning. As if it meant nothing. Yet it did. It meant everything, but why?

Finally, the rhythmic nature of the breathing and the repetition of the name lured her into sleep.

*     *     *

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A = Anthology

A is for Anthology

Mid 17th century: via French or medieval Latin from Greek anthologia, from anthos 'flower' + -logia 'collection' (from legein 'gather'). In Greek, the word originally denoted a collection of the ‘flowers’ of verse, i.e. small choice poems or epigrams, by various authors.

Parallels: Felix Was Here is a collection of short stories of the genre 
speculative fiction. L. G. Keltner did a beautiful job of explaining 
speculative fiction HERE!

Today we're sharing titles, taglines, and a little about each story (if you click the links) but each day of the challenge one of the authors will share a bit more!

L. G. Keltner

FelixWas Here

Utopia isn’t meant for everyone.

**

Crystal Collier

TheMirror People

We think no one is watching, but what if they are?

Meet the Mirror People.

**

Hart Johnson

TheSeventeen

In a world of unregulated drug trials, sometimes the side-effects are viral.

**

Cherie Reich

Foldsin Life and Death

In 2001, the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes again.

**

Sandra Cox

Rainers

Save his world or save her own.

**

Yolanda Renée

Ever-Ton

Salvation awaits in the New World but only if you meet the requirements.

**

Melanie Schulz

TheHaunted

     Sometimes the best things in life are the things you never had.

**

Sylvia Ney

WIN

The connection is everything.

**

Michael Abayomi

GroundZero

     The ruins of New York City might not be as deserted as they seem.

**

Tamara Narayan

Scryingthe Plane

     A teen experiences thrills and chills in a virtual reality internet.

**

To learn more about the author click the name.

To learn more about the author's story click the title!

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Speculative Fiction

Parallels: Felix Was Here

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We create stories to help us shape a chaotic world, to navigate inequities of power, to accept our lack of control over nature, over others, over ourselves. -Doug Dorst.      

Speculative fiction.

Up until Haunted, I’d never written in this genre. Most of my work has more of a paranormal bent. Now don’t get me wrong, I read it all the time; in fact it’s one of my favorites—I love the mish-mash of it all—nothing like escaping reality for a good time. It works because it comes so naturally to us. Who among us isn’t curious about what might have been?   Think about it. Our life is made up of a million choices. What if we’d made just one differently? Would our whole world be changed? Possibly.  Who can wrap their arms around that? And the most frightening part? Sometimes the choices aren’t even our own. What if that train that was supposed to pick up your mother was late—you know that train where your mom and dad met? It’s like Back to the Future on steroids. Almost makes you never want to leave your house, doesn’t it? But there’s a cost there, too.

Everything has a cost.

Just something to think about.

-Melanie Schulz

What is Speculative Fiction?

Before I get to the issue of the day, I’d like to mention that we’ll be posting here on this blog on Wednesdays.  I can’t say if it’ll be every Wednesday or every other Wednesday because we’re still working all of that out, but if we’re going to be posting, for now it’ll be on a Wednesday.  Once the A to Z Challenge starts, that will of course cease to be the case.

Now, on to the topic I wanted to address.

The IWSG anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here is coming out soon, and it’s comprised of ten tales that make use of alternate history or parallel universes.  These elements are part of a much broader category known as speculative fiction.

What is speculative fiction?  This is a far more interesting and difficult question than many people realize.  In a way, all fiction deals on some level with the question “what if?”  So does speculative fiction.  In the realm of speculative fiction, though, you’re asking the question “what if the world was different than it is now in this specific way?”  The differences may be realistic but significant in their consequences, or they may be wildly different from what we expect from the world in which we live.

The realm of speculative fiction can include science fiction, fantasy, horror, and various other genres.  It is a broad umbrella that encompasses many types of fiction.  That’s one reason why it’s such a tricky thing to define.  It’s about possibility and impossibility, as paradoxical as that may seem.  It allows us to go on adventures that we couldn’t otherwise enjoy.  Speculative fiction allows the writer and reader to explore important issues facing humanity in the context of an exciting story.

Here are a few examples for you to give you an idea of how inclusive the category of speculative fiction truly is.  Follow the links to learn more about any of these stories.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Fifteen years after the Allies lost WWII, the United States is occupied by Japan and Nazi Germany.  This is a classic example of alternate history.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

This is a classic science fiction novel that famously includes the three laws of robotics.  Asimov's three laws have been referenced throughout the genre since they were first introduced.  This exploration of robotics is just as much an exploration of humanity.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent just wanted to save his house from being demolished to make way for a bypass.  Then his friend Ford reveals that he's an alien, Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, and they end up in a stolen ship with the president of the galaxy.  The key to surviving is to not panic.  This blend of science fiction and humor helps you see the absurdity of the world in which we live.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

This farmyard full of talking, intelligent animals may fit into the realm of fantasy in many ways, but it's one of the most famous examples of social/political satire out there.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

A hobbit is drawn into an adventure he never expected.  This high-fantasy novel is, as is well-known, connected to the famous Lord of the Rings epic.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

This is an example of contemporary science fiction.  It's our world plus genetically modified dinosaurs, and things go entertainingly awry.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Shadow gets out of prison.  His wife has just died, and his world is suddenly filled with gods and all manner of crazy things he never expected.  This is an interesting mix of contemporary fantasy and mythology.

The Stand by Stephen King

In a plague ravaged world, a handful of survivors are forced to take sides in a struggle between good and evil.  As if merely staying alive weren't challenging enough.  This story is an interesting mix of post-apocalyptic, horror, and fantasy.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

This story spans generations and introduces many remarkable characters.  A bizarre mix of historical, contemporary, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic themes, this novel explores the nature of human connections across time and space.

This is only a partial list.  I could go on forever with examples.  If you enjoy good stories that stray from reality in interesting and perhaps unpredictable ways, then speculative fiction may be right for you.  Jump in and enjoy the ride!

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