About the author:
J.E. Dugas is the author of the multi-period action/adventure/science
fiction series Rose Petals and Gun Powder (Rose Petals and Gun Powder,
including , RPGP: Shadows of Life, RPGP: Lost Cove, RPGP: Wanderlust,
and RPGP: Paradoxical, a Double Feature), as well as the new title
MechaNation, a NanoPunk Thriller. J.E. is currently at work on its
sequel, MechaNation: Rebirth. Prior to writing full time, J.E. spent
over a decade in the private security and law enforcement fields.
Visit him at http://www.crimsonworx.com/index.html
.
Shortly after the conclusion of the War of 2018, the mechanical evolution of humankind made a dramatic leap forward.
With the Human Guerilla Faction no longer a threat, a biotech company, Lazarus Nanotech Corporation, went from competing to stay in the top ten, to top contender after introducing their revolutionary NanoInjections system.
NI’s were designed to wipe the slate of traditional internal surgery, and go far beyond it. NI’s—composed of targeted nanomachines—could be preprogrammed and injected into the client to vastly transform the client’s body in any chosen manner. Weight loss, facial reconstruction, breast and genital enhancement, intelligence boosters, social elitist; whatever the client desired.
Soon, NI’s became a major vanity movement, and Lazarus Nanotech became the most valuable company in the world.
This success, of course, spawned an entirely new criminal underworld: the Nano Black Market.
Visit him at http://www.crimsonworx.com/index.html
.
Shortly after the conclusion of the War of 2018, the mechanical evolution of humankind made a dramatic leap forward.
With the Human Guerilla Faction no longer a threat, a biotech company, Lazarus Nanotech Corporation, went from competing to stay in the top ten, to top contender after introducing their revolutionary NanoInjections system.
NI’s were designed to wipe the slate of traditional internal surgery, and go far beyond it. NI’s—composed of targeted nanomachines—could be preprogrammed and injected into the client to vastly transform the client’s body in any chosen manner. Weight loss, facial reconstruction, breast and genital enhancement, intelligence boosters, social elitist; whatever the client desired.
Soon, NI’s became a major vanity movement, and Lazarus Nanotech became the most valuable company in the world.
This success, of course, spawned an entirely new criminal underworld: the Nano Black Market.
Fiction, Fantasy and Realism in Writing (Guest Post from the Author)
Every good writer was a reader first. As one transitions from the front
view of the page to working behind the scenes, any writer will quickly
realize that one of the most time-consuming efforts of writing, whether
it be fiction or non-fiction, is doing homework on the intended subject.
Getting your point across is important too, but if your facts are just
made up as you go along, well, there’s a place for that, and
unfortunately, most of those places are filled by our politicians.
For the bulk of this meandering post, I’m going to be referring
primarily to fiction, and more specifically, Science and Speculative
Fiction, just because that is my preferred form, and because that is
primarily what fictional books were generally intended for:
entertainment! (Ron Hubbard, you are dismissed.)
From the writer’s chair, there will come the occasion where I get a
great idea that is bordering on feasibility, but to keep it within the
realm of logic, there needs to be some grounding facts to keep my
intended audience from wandering off to the fantasy section; a place
where ogres and trolls devour people who think logically and care none
at all whether a clip or a magazine is the correct nomenclature (more on
that later, but first, a gripe!)
One
of my chief complaints when it comes to defining work into one of the
less broad fiction genres is giving that work a classification. (Using
my own titles, I chunk them into Action/Adventure/Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction, and mostly in that order; this comes into play in just a moment).
On occasion, someone will ask “Why don’t you group this as Fantasy?”
Without being overly rude, I try to quell my furrowing brow and reply,
“Because this stuff is feasible! I might not be able to create it beyond
an ingenious description in a novel, but somebody could make it real.”
And that, folks, is where my definition of Science Fiction and Fantasy
part ways—where the realism of logic is relevant and not. Why they are
often grouped together is yet a question that stymies my writing soul.
In my personal definition, well-crafted and believable Science Fiction (or any fiction for that matter) could actually happen,
regardless of however far-fetched the initial thinking might be. Allow
me to detail with some abbreviated current mediums that, with enough
research and dozens of large burlap bags filled with cash, could be made
real (or already exist, way, way off the map): the fantastic (and by the time you read this, sadly discontinued) television show Fringe, movies such as The Thirteenth Floor and Blade Runner, and any number of the personal favorite Metal Gear
franchise of video games. Certainly I could go on all day, but these
are foremost in my mind to help you understand where I’m going with
this.
Which is: They are all phenomenal examples where the base writing mixes
liberal amounts of speculative fiction with well-researched fact, and
as a nice by-product, the reader or audience can completely sink into
the respective universe without dispelling any of their logic.
(Something I also work diligently to achieve, ahem!)
In short order, that is why I find the ‘Fantasy’ tag so abrasive.
Notwithstanding some of the more unusual of human specimens you might
find trolling through your local Wal-Mart, your chances of coming across
a giant, axe-wielding ogre, or a fire breathing dragon are remote
enough to be called Nil. And I would think that the greater majority of the reading public would agree.
While I’m sure some of this thinking has already alienated the Fantasy
fans among you out in the world, bear with me, as the rest of this
logic-bound critique applies to you, too.
As our current world stands today, we as both readers and writers must
begrudgingly accept that there is a massive body of work already in
existence that has formed ‘road blocks’ in people’s minds as to what has
been defined as feasible and what is not. (This is the commonly known
under the moniker of ‘opinions’.) I’ve quickly found that there’s not
much to getting around what the potential reader has been exposed to
prior to picking up any prospective book (mine included), but that isn’t
to say, to borrow a phrase, that an old dog can’t learn new tricks.
The beauty of this discouraging fact is that there also exists a wide
net of wiggle room for interpretation. And that is where the crucial
elements of research and realism fit into this debacle.
If a far-fetched idea is to succeed, my view is to try not to reinvent the wheel right off the bat, but rather, add new features.
Build upon what has already been submitted to the world at large and
tweak to my heart’s content. Then, after successful tweaking, reveal the
masterpiece gradually so a reader has something to build its
credibility upon. This is how new ideas are realized and accepted into
the saturated world of logic and reasoning, for those of us still bound
to such thinking. (Guilty as charged!)
Additionally, with the power of the Internet at our fingertips, we as
readers and writers are both blessed by the accessibility of this
wonderful tool for research and learning, but also cursed to finding out
that our idea(s) have already been thought of and released into the
wild. Chances are that this prospective moment of brilliance was also
realized long before the Internet was even conceived, and quite
possibly, by a fiction-centric person well before my father’s father was
born.
While feeling defeated, that doesn’t mean I feel bound to the task of
thinking up of a new, never-conceived-of idea every time I sit behind
the keyboard, because try as I may, that’s really, really tough. Much like a patent, any idea can be reinvented and further polished.
This doesn’t, however, give me free reign to steal ideas, as that’s
also my job as Chief Entertainer to offer something new that hasn’t been
rehashed fifty times before; that’s Hollywood’s job, and frankly,
they’re pretty damn good at it.
By now you’ve noticed that I’m getting a bit preachy for my own good,
so I’m going to cap this off with a direct caveat for you on realism in
fiction. There are people out in the world that will inevitably
know any given subject on a professional basis, so I make it a point to
be extra attentive to the thought that they will catch research mistakes.
I’ll use myself as a reverse example. One of my biggest pet peeves in
popular media is the misuse of ‘clip’ for ‘magazine’ (I told you it
would come back!). A clip, no matter how well described, will not
function in a modern firearm. I have no idea who started this,
(non-researching Hollywood writer, perhaps?) but the proper term is Magazine. (Clips were
used in older rifles, however. The M1 Garand has an en bloc clip, for
instance.) While on that subject, the word ‘bullet’ does not refer to
the entire assembly of a bullet, powder, primer and brass case. That is a
cartridge. Better known in military-speak as a round. Also,
dead bodies will not retain their lively color after lying, hanging,
being drowned, being stuffed into ___, or any other ridiculous nonsense
I’ve come across in popular fiction. Ever. That color is blood,
which after the heart ceases to beat, will pool in the area most
affected by gravity. What will remain is yellow skin which slowly turns
grey as time and decay continues their unyielding march.
Don’t believe me? Research it! Though you could just believe me and
your time before bed will thank me. I’m one of those fascist detail nuts
who felt that, in my youth, learning through job experience would lead
to a more credible story-telling prowess. The unhinging of this theory
came after working as a psychiatric technician in a state-run mental
facility, in what ultimately led to two chapters in a novel. Or the ten
plus years in private security followed by a four year stint at a police
department.
And now I write action-oriented, feasibly far-fetched Fiction.
As they say, live and learn…
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