Hello! This week I have a short original poem for you, and then links to three of my favorite sci fi-related videos on youtube. Watch out next week for my new fantasy story, “Paint of a Thousand Colors”, and have a good one!
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THE WHITE, THE GREY, THE BLUE - by Owen Wiseman
The snow, the sky, the sea abound
But curse the sea for those it drowned
The untold millions there who went
All curse the sea for those it sent
The grave, the dark, the land unfound
We curse the sea for those it drowned
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The white, the grey, the blue that breaks
To bless the sea and those it takes
The waters come from sky, from snow
So bless the sea and all who go
Awaken, Sea, thy endless hymn
Sing blessedly for us who swim.
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I ran at Chambers Bay during the snow here in Washington, took the above photo mid-run, and felt inspired to write this when I got back to the car. It’s not really sci fi, but then maybe in I-can’t-believe-it’s-a-real-year 2021, everything sorta is?
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Links, Links, Links!
This first one is an Octavia Butler interview from April 2000, one of my absolute favs of hers that’s on youtube. The interviewer is a little awkward and underprepared at times (plus his hair!), but she powers through with the possession and prescience that made her so in-demand. Her take on our future remains profound. She is perhaps my #1 most desired recent-historical dinner guest.
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This series of lectures by Brandon Sanderson (his hair too, woof) is perhaps the best advice I’ve ever watched about writing.
A note about who Sanderson is: A highly acclaimed and massive-selling fantasy author who performed perhaps the most amazing “called-shot” writing feat ever. What happened was, Robert Jordan wrote eleven books of a maximally epic fantasy series (The Wheel of Time, also a massive-seller), and it took so long that he got a rare blood disease and literally died before he could finish it. And then Sanderson came in at his widow’s request, and *finished the last three books of the series while mimicking Jordan’s style, and all the fans loved and embraced it*. Mind-boggling talent.
I know there are some other writers who are reading this, and I’d highly recommend you watch. However: One of the first things he says in the first lecture is “This will only be useful to you if you are working on your own writing”, and it’s the one thing in the lecture I COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH!
If you’re not a writer, what matters here is the meta-lesson—how carefully Sanderson thinks about his craft, how he explores all the potential territory of an idea rather than being satisfied with “enough”, and how he emphasizes the practical rather than the theoretical. These are life lessons, people!
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This interview between William Buckley and Jorge Luis Borges (I swear this wasn’t on purpose but also, HIS hair!) is interesting for its revealing of both men’s ferocious intellects (and often-regrettable politics), but also as a window into how different American TV used to be. Borges was known as a thinker on many topics, and Buckley makes no effort to pigeonhole or simplify him. Hard to imagine seeing something this long form and complex on American TV today, even on PBS.
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Well, that’s all the tricks in my bag today. Enjoy your week! Look for my next story, called “Paint of a Thousand Colors”, in your email next Sunday! It’s a straight fantasy tale, which will be a change of pace from what’s been mostly more sci fi-oriented fare. I’m excited to hear what readers think!