“Rome is to be banished immediately,” replied Oronus. “We do not want to spend any time unloading and transferring your belongings.”
“I have an idea,” Rei said. “How about you fly us to wherever in that ship? That way, we can unload it when we get there then you can take it away.”
“Fair enough,” replied Oronus.
“So, we have an agreement?” Rei asked.
“Yes. The banishment is to begin now,” replied Oronus. He signaled to the quarter sphere in the corner of the ceiling. “Grus, accompany them to their spacecraft, please. It is already on its way.”
Rome moved around to Rei. She kissed him and hugged him.
“I did not know you were such a good,” Rome paused, trying to recollect the word. “Yes, lawyer, I think that is the term you use,” Rome said. Rei grinned.
“I think I will keep you,” Rome said happily.
“Try and get rid of me,” Rei said with a smile and they started to walk out.
“Binoda,” Oronus called out to them. “You may not accompany them to Ylea. Rome must not have contact with any Vuduri after today.”
Binoda shook her head. “I am going with them. From this moment forward, I am no longer Vuduri. I am now mandasurte. I have already rendered myself Cesdiud.”
“Mea!” Rome said in horror. “You cannot.”
“It is already done,” replied Binoda grimly. “I no longer have any use for the Overmind.”
Uh-oh. Self-Cesdiud. I didn't even know that a Vuduri could do that. Now what will Rome do? Who else could she possibly trust? Without a pure Vuduri whose loyalty could not be challenged, she ran the risk of tipping her hand and guaranteeing the execution of the mandasurte before they could do anything about it.
Entry 3-344: December 5, 2015
Body count
Here it is, the fifth of December, 2015 and I thought I'd take a quick look back and give you some of my stats through today.
Published to date, seven books in e-book and paperback plus one in Audiobook form:
Sales Figures:
Total books sold: 2560
Rome's Revolution Scifi Series: 546
Tales of the Vuduri Series: 1791
Non-Science Fiction: 14
Breakdown by book:
Rome's Revolution: 355
The Ark Lords: 86
Rome's Evolution: 57
Future Past: 14
Tales of the Vuduri: Year One: 1063
Tales of the Vuduri: Year Two: 519
The Milk Run (book form): 31
The Milk Run (Audiobook): 17
I've gotten some five star reviews and some one star reviews. Go figure... To me, sales of The Ark Lords and Rome's Evolution are the only true measure of whether people like my writing or not. Because reading those books means that Rome's Revolution was enjoyable enough to want to keep going.
Here are just a few more ancillary pieces of information:
Blog posts: 1077 (you read that right!)
Philcons attended: 3
AND THE BIG ONE!
Royalties to date: $1,015.45 - I'm rich, rich, rich. Now I can retire!
Maybe not.
Oh well.
Entry 3-345: December 6, 2015
Qua Non Mintaka
Way back when in 1973, when I first wrote the novelette that became VIRUS 5, I always made my heroine Rome a little bit artistic. This is a trait she carried forward even in the modern version of Rome's Revolution. One of the things she did in that very first attempt was to write her own music. Fast forward to today and as a member of the mind-connected Vuduri, it would never have occurred to the modern Rome to do such a thing. But then she was Cesdiud (cast out) and stuck in the "Flying House" for a year and she got to learn how to do it all over again.
In a small measure of respect for that long-lost version of Rome, I lifted the description of one of her pieces from the original manuscript, more or less wholesale. Here is the barely edited version:
“May I stop at my quarters and pick up a few items?” Binoda asked. “It would appear that this is my last chance.”
“Of course,” Grus replied but did nothing.
“Aren’t you going to…?” Rei started to ask in English but then stopped realizing that the pilots probably heard the words via the Overmind as if they were sitting in the room with them. The ship banked to the left but the motion was barely noticeable due to the artificial gravity put out by the EG lifters.
As they were ascending, Binoda looked at the artwork mounted in various spots around the room. “Whose handiwork?” she asked in Vuduri.
“It is mine, Mea,” Rome replied.
“How did you learn to craft these works?” she asked.
“I learned many things,” Rome replied, “once I was Cesdiud. I learned about art, beauty, music…”
“Music?” Binoda said amused. “You do not remember but you did like music when you were very young. I could tell, even if you could not.”
“Let me play something for you,” Rome said, waving to Rei. “Rei, can you activate Qua Non Mintaka?”
“Sure,” Rei said, pressing a few buttons on the touch screen. He took one step back and looked around the room.
At first, there was nothing. Then the faint sounds of crystals, tinkling together, like delicate wind-chimes wafted through the air. In the background, crickets chirped and then little chicks peeped. There were burrings and tappings, mews and coos, assorted squawks then a rising wind. Sounds of the surf rolled forward. The waves crashed and the wind began to howl. All around, the sounds got louder and louder, the cacophony becoming almost too much to bear. The noises crescendoed, punctuated by a crack of thunder then it all fell together into a lilting harmony, haunting and wistful. The tumult had become an orderly disorder of discernible melody lines and rhythms. The high pitched noises, those of the animals and insects, not instruments, carried the tuneful arrangement while the wind and waves gave the bass line a strong and booming beat for the melodious creatures.
All the while, Rei was beaming. He was so proud of his wife. He put his arm around her and held her close. She nodded and Rei stepped forward and the music faded to a peaceful, soothing background.
“That was utterly beautiful, Rome,” Binoda said. “Orchestrating nature! You have learned well.”
It is my intention to take a short break from writing novels and bind up all the short stories I have acquired over the years, including the original VIRUS 5 and the original Rome's Revolution and release them as a volume called The Vuduri Companion. It shouldn't be that hard. But wish me luck anyway.
Entry 3-346: December 7, 2015
We lose our home?
Yesterday, Rome revealed her talent as an artist and music composer to her mother. However, there was a little more to the incident. The reality of the Vuduri taking away the "Flying House" was becoming more and more real. This is the remaining portion which takes place in the middle of Part 3 of Rome's Revolution.
“That was utterly beautiful, Rome,” Binoda said. “Orchestrating nature! You have learned well.”
“Thank you, Mea. I learned one other thing as well.”
“And what is that?”
Rome turned to Rei and took his hand, showing it to her mother. “To love,” she added, pressing his hand to her lips.
Binoda smiled and nodded but said nothing more.
It only took a few minutes to arrive at Binoda’s dwelling which was in the northern region of what was once called Portugal. Upon learning that Rome was not returning to Earth from Tabit, Binoda had moved there to get away from I Cimaci. She lived in a detached home, little more than one of the Vuduri barracks but set back in a field.
The tug approached her residence and rotated in place so that the rear cargo entrance face her dwelling. It landed with barely a bump. Once the tug had landed, the assembled group started to arise but Grus motioned that Rei and Rome should sit back down. One of the pilots ca
me and took up a position in the doorway.
“I will accompany Binoda to fetch her belongings,” Grus said rather hoarsely to Rei and Rome. “Please remain here until we return.”
Rei said, “OK” in English.
After Grus and Binoda had left the ship, Rei activated the cellphone in his head and said to Rome, “I saw something on the way in. I think we screwed up.”
“Do not speak,” was Rome’s only reply. Out loud, she said to Rei, “We do not know who is listening in.”
“Gotcha,” Rei said out loud and became silent. He looked around the room. “I’m going to miss this ship,” he said, figuring that was safe to make small talk.
Can you fall in love with a house which was really your prison for a year? Maybe not but if it was your first home together, you might remember the good times fondly.
Entry 3-347: December 8, 2015
Philcon 2015, Part 1
Two weeks ago, I attended my third PhilCon which is the SF Fan Convention put on by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society. This year, I was lucky enough to be on seven panels! Here they are:
1. Examining Characters in Hard SF
2. The Ethical Robot
3. Can You Trust Your Brain?
4. Getting the Scientists in SF Right
5. Why Aliens Won't Be Like Us
6. Romance Novels with SF vs SF Novels with Romance
7. The Uses of Time Travel
I'll give you a summary of each of those panels over the next few days. I also had a ½ hour book reading on Sunday and a one hour (really three hours) book signing. Here is a picture of me at the book signing:
Do I look happy? I'll answer for you. No, I was not happy. Why? I only sold three books. One was to a woman who had attended one of my panels so she showed up in the first minute and bought one. The second book was sold to the girlfriend of a fellow who was on a panel with me. I was moderator and he thought I did a good job so he stopped by to say so and she was with him.
The third book I more or less forced a guy to buy Rome's Revolution for $5.00 (a $3.00 loss) because the spine had been damaged in shipment. Many people, and when I say many, I mean like six, said they'd rather read it on their Kindle or Nook so I gave them my card telling them it was available in both e-book and Audiobook.
To date, I have sold ZERO additional books meaning the anxiously awaited sales spike did not occur. Very disappointing. I figured if I had an audience anywhere, it would be here.
Oh well. I will keep going. Tomorrow, we begin the summary of my panels and my thoughts.
Entry 3-348: December 9, 2015
Philcon 2015, Part 2
Yesterday, I gave you a brief summary of my Philcon 2015 experience. Also as I mentioned yesterday, I was on seven panels. Over the next few days, I'll share my observations of those panels:
Panel 1: Examining Characters in Hard SF
This panel was about whether hard SF needed characters with some depth. I argued that the days where your characters were just one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, chess pieces to be moved as needed to further the plot, were a thing of the past. Think about my heroine, Rome, in Rome's Revolution. Recently, I got a review from Jim Short, here on Goodreads. Here is what he wrote:
Surprisingly good story from a new author. The plot seems to get needlessly complicated partway through but everything does get interconnected and tied up further in. The characters are interesting although some seem caricatures (Captain Keller) in order to move along the plot. The main characters are well rounded with full histories and motivations. The technical aspects of the science are not so in-depth as to be a problem and one of the main characters easily acts as a foil for the explanations (that the reader needs) so it comes over as part of the story without any feeling of being tutored just to get through it.
Pretty encouraging! He recognized the fact that I spent a lot of time developing the characters. All of the panelists were of similar mind.
Panel 2: The Ethical Robot
I started out arguing there was no way to program ethics into a robot, a computer, artificial intelligence, machine intelligence, whatever you want to call it. My basic argument is you can't program people so once an entity becomes self-aware and autonomous, the die has been cast. I gave three examples from Rome's Revolution. MASAL: a power-mad computer who wanted to turn mankind into an army of living robots. OMCOM: a planet-sized computer who had his own agenda and pursued it, somewhat uncaring about whether humans were harmed or not as he achieved his goals. And finally, MINIMCOM, an entity who became a loving, supportive member of the extended Rei/Rome family. So I said if we can teach computers to love, that is about the best we can hope for. Another panelist called it empathy but basically he agreed with me. The other panels spent much of the time arguing on how to get humans to respond favorably to computers but I felt that was off-topic. Still, it was an interesting and enjoyable panel.
Tomorrow, I'll continue the rundown on the panels and my observations.
Entry 3-349: December 10, 2015
Philcon 2015, Part 3
Previously, I had given you a brief summary of my Philcon 2015 experience. Today, I will continue my observations of the seven panels in which I participated:
Panel 3: Can You Trust Your Brain?
I was the moderator of this panel which is actually appropriate because of my background in Sensory Science. I started out the meeting with a brief clip from the movie Dark Star which was a comedy written by Dan O'Bannon and directed by John Carpenter. If you've never seen this movie, you should. It is very funny and all the more remarkable because it was filmed on a shoestring budget by some college students at the film school at UCLA. The transcript for that scene is funny, even if you never see the movie. You can catch the clip I showed here on YouTube. Here is a still:
The point of the clip, argued by Dolittle with the bomb, is that your brain (electronic or organic) is sitting inside your head (or housing) and cannot experience the world directly. It can only know what your sensory apparatus passes along. Anyone who ever drank too much and sees the room spinning knows the room really isn't spinning. It is just faulty transmission of data.
So I preempted the entire discussion by saying, no, you cannot trust your brain which got a laugh. But then the panel proceeded and it was a really good and interesting discussion. There were a lot of great observations, about how your senses can fool you, drugs can influence your thinking and so on.
I really enjoyed it but in the end, the answer was the same as I posed at the beginning: no, you cannot trust your brain.
P.S. Dan O'Bannon was not thrilled with the audience's response to Dark Star so he rewrote it as a horror movie in space. You may have heard of it. The title was Alien!
Entry 3-350: December 11, 2015
Philcon 2015, Part 4
Previously, I had given you a brief summary of my Philcon 2015 experience. Today, I will continue my observations of the seven panels in which I participated:
Panel 4: Getting the Scientists in SF Right.
This panel was supposed to discuss how well does Science Fiction depict the lifestyles and work environments of those in scientific fields. The panelists were actual scientists (I guess including me) and the universal consensus was that no, science fiction does not get the scientist right.
As it turns out, real science performed by real scientists does not make for an action movie. Scientists pose theories then perform experiments and at the end of that experiment, they either confirm or disprove their hypothesis. As it turns out, engineers are scientists who take scientific things and turn them into actionable items.
So to keep movies and books moving along, most writers use a kind of creative short-hand to make "the scientist" an older white guy with coke-bottle glasses and pocket protector who is simply there to espouse theories. This leaves the hero to make those theories explode on the screen or in your mind.
I must pr
ofess, I am guilty of exactly the same crime. In Rome's Revolution, my hero, Rei Bierak, is an engineer, not a scientist. Whenever he needs scientific facts, he consults with scientists or their proxies, the computers, but he is the one that takes action and saves the day.
So the bottom line is, no, writers do not get the scientists right nor can they because scientists make science, not action. This particular panel went rather well. The next two were each horrible in their own way. I'll explain tomorrow.
Entry 3-351: December 12, 2015
Philcon 2015, Part 5
Previously, I had given you a brief summary of my Philcon 2015 experience. Today, I will continue my observations of the seven panels in which I participated:
Panel 5: Why Aliens Won't Be Like Us.
This panel was supposed to discuss the fact that evolution and planetary science tells us there won't be any Martian egg-laying princesses, or aliens that resemble us except for a slight facial difference like in Star Trek.
This panel was a horrible, horrible nightmare to be on. One of the panelists had a notebook and as soon as the panel started, he opened up the notebook and began reading about the known, catalogued aliens including the Greys from Zeta Reticuli and host of others. He was dead serious and he wouldn't shut up.
Now I know that science fiction is all about speculation but this guy rattled on like it was the truth. If it is the truth then it isn't fiction so why was he at a science fiction convention?
After about 10 minutes the moderator had to raise his voice and say stop, STOP! several times. Finally, he shut the guy up and we discussed aliens in general. Some aliens may be similar to us (convergent evolution) but we generally agreed that most won't look like us. In fact, some might be unrecognizable. Some might be hive-minds where an individual cannot communicate much but the collective might. (Overmind anybody?).
Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three Page 46