Blog post by Jan M Strasser
My journey started in sixth grade. I had just finished reading Treasure Island for a book report. I wanted something fun, full of action, but this was ponderously slow and heavy. I plowed through the report then escaped outside to the garage, I needed air. I think it was in winter, so the yard would have been too cold for me. This worked fine because the garage also contained my father's stash of scifi books. It was something I am sure my dad felt was only for him. My mother certainly didn't appreciate the genre. I remember one time she caught me watching I Dream of Jeannie and told me "You know this is not real." A response I have gotten to this day, with not much distinction between the three genres of scifi, fantasy, and horror. Yes, I know it is not real, but you must believe (at least to some extent) to read or write any story it must be logically laid out and not violate any rules you have set up. In Scifi you can test out some ideas of different mores, even poke fun at existing ones, to see how it feels without reality stepping in, at least not as much as in the 'real world.' My dad took well to my new-found interest. He made notes on what I wanted and ran around the used book stores in the search. First of all, I wanted action; no more background, lineage or whatever got in the way of the story. The first book he found for me was Deathworld by Harry Harrison. Wow, did it move! You travel to a planet where everything wants to kill you. The characters go through a series of buildings where the lethality of the environment increases until they reach the last building which approximates the outside. Included in the equipment you get is a specially outfitted gun. Wiggle your fingers to get the gun into your hand for instant use. For a young woman, this was new, powerful and exciting. Now, while I loved this, I wanted something I could relate to even more. I asked for a book that had girls as the heroes. Dad came up with The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz and Eric Flint. A story about a bachelor Captain of a small space vessel that finds three girls who are witches. He raises them as his own. The Captain is a gentle man who respects others, even children, and lets them be who they are. This respect allows the girls a good dose of freedom from which many unexpected situations arise. Yes, now we were on the right track for me. Next, Dad brought in two pieces by two iconic science fiction writers. The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein. This is a story where a man is looking for that which brings him the most happiness. He goes through into the future with cryogenics (freezing your body so you don't age for the years you are frozen.) Those who mean the most to him are his cat, Petronius the Arbiter or Pete for short, and Little Ricky, the only one in his life that understood how to treat cats and 'got him.' He gets his fantasy life by taking the cat in the cryogenic sleep and arranges to join Ricky when she grows up. At the time I felt this was very romantic, and while he waited to marry her when she was full-grown, I realize now it smacks a bit of pedophilia. However, the first time I read the story I adored it. To this day I enjoy how the hero only seems to be affected by the things he holds most dear, almost ignoring the bad behavior of those around him that aren't true friends. The other iconic piece was Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey describing a girl in a colony on another planet. Menolly gets injured by a fishing accident and purposely is not allowed the course of treatment to let her fully recuperate. Her hand won't extend enough and she can't play an instrument. Her parents do not condone this radical idea to sing with the harper in her village and then join the harper academy thus not joining her parents in fishing. She runs away and hides in a cave when 'threadfall' occurs (nasty threads that periodically fall from the sky and devour living tissue). While she waits out the fall, she finds and impresses dragon eggs. These are small creatures, the size of birds, that are telepathic and can travel 'between' instantaneously from one place to another. This impression of such a large clutch of eggs is the most ever accomplished. The feat gets her noticed and reveals how her parents treated her. She achieves her dream of leaving the village, though not as she first intended. A very good story for an adolescent. Wonderful! As much as I loved my father supplying me with books, I began to search on my own. I found myself standing in front of the bookcases in used book stores, devouring all Heinlein and McCaffrey, then exploring out from there. The attraction was the low prices and the variety from current faves to those from the past. An added benefit of used book stores was an opportunity to see what fellow scifi writers liked the most. New book stores just didn't have as much inventory or variety in the genre. This has changed, but the used book stores still rate highest for me. If you think that's unusual, a girl going for scifi instead of fantasy, let me say this, I do like mermaids, fairies, and magic. The allure of outer space where others live in different ways, have survived the rigors of evolution, and made the leap to travel among the stars encompasses for me all the joys of fantasy. If you add in the addition of the plausible expansion of current science here on Earth, you might be able to see why this makes Scifi very exciting for me. I would stand in front of those books looking at so many ideas, settings, and characters. I loved it! However, it was a bit surreal because I was usually the only female standing with very polite, adolescent boys. l know the demographics of scifi readers is diverse, even way back when I started, but my experience was that I was alone. It amused me and I didn't mind, but there would be no heavy conversations over coffee. Hence, I started writing. I must admit if my stories are not in our world of reality it made it easier to accept. That premise allowed me to develop as a writer and get the courage up to 'kill' a character. When I started writing everything was sunshine and happiness. It reminded me of a Barbie movie I had for my young daughter. There was no 'bad' guy in the thing. I pushed back on the idea that it was a problem to write that way because I really enjoyed my stories. However, when you bear down and look at what you have written, you eventually realize that it is empty, especially if it goes on for a whole movie or book. I started with short stories. One, because I wasn't sure I could figure out enough for a full novel and two because I have back issues and can't sit that long. I went along happily writing for quite a while. I finally got to the point where I was expanding an idea and really enjoying it. I joined my first critique group because it filled one goal I had; a group dedicated to writing willing to beta read for me (for those of you who don't know beta reading means someone who reads before you send it out into the world). Unfortunately, they were not scifi writers, though one said she used to write it (should have known better what that meant.) In one piece I was happy with my characters; a lieutenant commander in the Australian navy, a sailor, and a crazy, drunken nut who was chumming (putting raw meat in the ocean to attract sharks) then shooting them with a rifle. They were all in a zodiac (the inflatable little boats that ferry the seaman around outside of their ship). The zodiac is rocking and goes over, dumping the three men into the ocean with the stirred up sharks in a feeding frenzy. I killed the sailor and the drunken idiot. The other sailors under the command of the lieutenant left to chase the other ones chumming. I had to make their leaving plausible. Well, the critique group didn't think I should kill anybody. How frustrating, I had finally worked up the courage and felt good about it. Reluctantly, I took the killing out but it never had the punch after that. I decided to leave the group (for many similar writing reasons) and put the death by sharks back in. Ironically, it was this critique group who had pointed out that the ship would never leave their leader if they knew he was still alive. I now am in this wonderful meetup group, The Tucson SF and Fantasy Writers. It encourages writing in the three genres, Scifi, Fantasy and Horror in the form of books, short stories, scripts, and comics. I would also go for serials but haven't yet been blessed with one. The founding writers of the scifi genre (in the late 40's) started with serials in the pulp magazines. Along with their short stories, they evolved the genre into novels. I, too, plan to evolve. Due to this fantastic meetup group, I have published one short story, one essay and three submissions in an anthology. I have been inspired to write all sorts of things and am on my way to a novel. A wonderful journey!
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