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Time to start writing Science Fact... err... I mean, Fiction.
Hello Everyone,
Warm tidings from the author recently reunited with a keyboard. Yes, it feels good to type again.
I do know how to write, you know, by hand, but because I can type pretty fast, nothing else dictates my thoughts more efficiently.
So, Science Fiction, huh? I say this because I've been consistently surprised by how high the numbers are when it comes to the scifi stories I've posted. One is science fact, actually.
"The Dawn of Cy-Man" was one of the first stories I posted here, and it is the most viewed story with 775. However, what has really surprised me is that, "My UFO Sighting" and "S.O.I.L." are both around 600 views. They are two of my most recent stories.
I know that fantasy is still a viable genre, but it does seem that scifi is trending better. I mean, Star Trek has yet another series [Strange New Worlds] continuing the story of Captain Pike. Not that I'm complaining. I really enjoy the actor they chose for him, and Nurse Chapel is a surprisingly interesting character.
In the end, this is just more motivation to get to writing book two of my scifi saga along with "Time Quest", which is a separate perspective of the same events.
I'm excited for the new movie about Oppenheimer. It's given me an idea for "Time Quest", as Dr. Pherringer, the MC, has a similar destiny. His equations allow for a more destructive and radioactive bomb than nuclear ones, although technically, it is still a nuclear bomb.
I'm thinking that he will time travel and meet the man that began a dark legacy of which he will propagate. Now I just have to watch the movie. I didn't think Cillian Murphy could look any more gaunt, but I'm guessing he lost some weight for the role.
Anywhose, thank you all for so many views and reads, and for helping me to know which genre upon which I should focus.
Thank you so much for reading. Have a wonderful day....[[|:-)
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Real science fiction may be to dull and dry for most readers, but you're right, it still sells because it predicts. We love it when those predictions, like those of Arthur C. Clarke, come true.
I love historical fiction, especially those stories that match history as close as one can. Like you, I'm looking forward to Oppenheimer, because of how important the Manhattan Project was to ending World War II and starting the Cold War arms race.
In the summer of 1970, I took a class converting about 20 people (retreads) leaving industry to become college instructors, like I had. There were only two of us youngsters in the class. The rest were mostly retired people from many fields with long histories. One of them was a chemist from Westinghouse with the interesting name of JR Calloway Brown.
I was renting an A-frame with an option to buy, that had been built by a faculty member who was on leave to get his doctorate with his family. It was a two-bedroom, so when Callaway needed a place to stay, I rented a room to him. And then, a graduate student decided that he would clean out all the dead flies in the unfinished loft, and stay there. We hit it off, largely because Steve loved to clean and cook and that suited me just fine.
But Callaway was an odd duck. He had thick glasses, a graying black mane, and claimed to have hypertension. His room had a door to the outside in the back of the house and he used it to smoke many cigarettes he was addicted to. He was divorced but had grown children he called74 long-distance occasionally. He ate out and generally did not mix with Steve and I except when we had a party or the chemistry department that was a big success.
At one point, Calloway told me he was part of the Manhattan Project. I didn't question him at all about it, but I sensed he was troubled about something. He said, "I don't want to learn anymore about chemistry," and refused to wear protective glasses when teaching his classes to students. Finally, he disappeared at the start of the second semester in January.
I got a call from a business professor Callaway had befriended. "Callaway is in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic mental ward. He wants his shaving kit. Can you get it to him?"
I was always willing to help anyone in need in those days, so at my first opportunity I drove the 60 miles to Rochester and delivered the kit to the dingy looking ward with caged entry to keep the insane from mixing with the rest of the clinic population. They immediately took the razor blades out of his razor before taking the kit to him. I surmised some of the people there were suicide risks.
While searching for the shaving kit, I found Callaway's 1928 large rolled up doctoral diploma in chemistry from the University of Virginia. Very impressive!
About a week later, Callaway returned and finished teaching that semester. When the spring semester was over, he packed up his car and returned to his home in Benton Harbor, Michigan where he worked for Westinghouse. I never heard from him again. I was glad he didn't have a stroke or heart while staying with me.
I was a bit slow to catch on, but I believe he was suffering from PTSD from his experience in the Manhattan Project and may have known Oppenheimer very well. But I will never know. I tried to look Callaway up on the Internet and found ministers in Virginia with his name. But, if he did work on the project, it was all top-secret anyway. His name would never be mentioned, even on papers she may have written. It's a shame I didn't question him, but I never was one to question the many great people I've met in a kind of Forrest Gump way. One of the reasons I got along with like that… No hero worship-bull. I was never one to get nosy about people, even when I lived with them.
Ron (at) RonHullauthor.com
PS. If you want a picture of the class with both Callaway and me in it, I recently scanned it and all you have to do is send me an email and I will send you a copy. My email address is directly above.