Announcement: My novels Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness are about to be published. I write this blog about 2 months prior to its publication. I just heard that the proofs will be here soon--likely before the end of the week. My publisher also wants to put the entire set of novels based on Aegypt on contract--that's 5 more novels for 8 total. They also want to put my other novels on contract. The release schedule should be one novel every 2 months. I'll keep you updated.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.
The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:
1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
I am writing about the extrapolation of science and technology to be able to write science fiction. I made the point that it is almost meaningless to try to fully extrapolate a universe (world) that is 10,000 years in the future (and maybe 1,000 years in the future) without applying some cultural and technological shaping.
By shaping the cultures of your science fiction universe, you can shape the science and technology that is extrapolated. Here is how I culturally shaped the universe of The Chronicles of the Dragon and the Fox to make the 10,000 year extrapolation work.
The major areas in warfare technology are:
1. Software
2. Weapons
3. Countermeasures
4. Defense
5. Communications
6. Robots
7. Vehicles
8. Environments (personal equipment)
If you look at the above list, everything there is affected by and includes software. How can you defend and defend against software? We know that we protect our computers with antivirus software, but that only goes so far--there are more types of attacks than viruses. In fact, the primary means of cyberattacks are social engineering. Humans trying to get passwords and cryptokeys from other humans. Once you can get into the software, you can control or attack the software. So, what if you isolate the software--that's a great idea. If you can find my article on cyberwarfare on line, you can see that is one of the primary recommendations, unfortunately, isolation means you can't use all those really nice features of software: remote control, updating, system access, electronic controls, electronic operations, etc.
The problem is the minute you put the system on the grid, you guarantee its attack. Unless you protect yourself in the way I describe in the article, you will never know when you are attacked and when you are infiltrated. Think about it, unless the infiltrator leaves tracks, you will never even know you were compromised--unless something bad happens. Then it is too late.
In the future, every system will be protected by anthropometric and either passwords or tokens or tokens and anthropometric systems. Anthropometric means body parts. Whether it is finger prints, eye prints, face recognition, other body part recognition, that will be a part of the protection. The second part will be a token or password. We are already seeing these types of systems. I like a token and an anthropometric because that allows you to catch and track infiltrators. It is also very simple for the user.
More tomorrow.
Also remember, I'm trying to show you and give you examples of how to write a science fiction theme statement and turn it into a plot.
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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