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Friday, July 19, 2024

Writing - part xxx750 Reflected Worldview and Interpolation

 19 July 2024, Writing - part xxx750 Reflected Worldview and Interpolation

Announcement: I still need a new publisher.  However, I’ve taken the step to republish my previously published novels.  I’m starting with Centurion, and we’ll see from there.  Since previously published novels have little chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I might as well get those older novels back out.  I’m going through Amazon Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to you.

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.

Today’s Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus two 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.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

6. The initial scene is the most important scene.

 

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

 

1.     Design the initial scene

2.     Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.      Research as required

b.     Develop the initial setting

c.      Develop the characters

d.     Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.     Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.     Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.     Write the climax scene

6.     Write the falling action scene(s)

7.     Write the dénouement scene

I finished writing my 31st novel, working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors.  The theme statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events.

 

I finished writing my 34th novel (actually my 32nd completed novel), Seoirse, potential title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.  The theme statement is: Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.     

Here is the cover proposal for the third edition of Centurion:




 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29th novel, working title Detective.  I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior.  I just finished my 32nd novel and 33rd novel: Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

 

For novel 30:  Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

 

For Novel 32:  Shiggy Tash finds a lost girl in the isolated Scottish safe house her organization gives her for her latest assignment: Rose Craigie has nothing, is alone, and needs someone or something to rescue and acknowledge her as a human being.

 

For novel 33, Book girl:  Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they are both attending Kilgraston School in Scotland when Morven loses everything, her wealth, position, and friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to befriend and help her discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family and existence.

 

For novel 34:  Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.

 

For novel 35: Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

Here is the scene development outline:

 

1. Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

2. Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)

3. Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and develop the tension and release.

4. Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5. Write the release

6. Write the kicker

          

Today:  Let me tell you a little about writing.  Writing isn’t so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime.  Writing is a habit and an obsession.  We who love to write love to write. 

 

If you love to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well.  We want to write well enough to have others enjoy our writing.  This is important.  No one writes just for themselves the idea is absolutely irrational and silly.  I can prove why.

 

In the first place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only purpose.  Writing is the abstract communication of the mind through symbols.  As time goes by, we as writers gain more and better tools and our readers gain more and better appreciation for those tools and skills—even if they have no idea what they are. 

 

We are in the modern era.  In this time, the action and dialog style along with the push of technology forced novels into the form of third person, past tense, action and dialog style, implying the future.  This is the modern style of the novel.  I also showed how the end of literature created the reflected worldview.  We have three possible worldviews for a novel: the real, the reflected, and the created.  I choose to work in the reflected worldview.

 

Why don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel?  I can tell you what I do, and show you how I go about putting a novel together.  We can start with developing an idea then move into the details of the writing. 

 

Ideas.  We need ideas.  Ideas allow us to figure out the protagonist and the telic flaw.  Ideas don’t come fully armed from the mind of Zeus.  We need to cultivate ideas. 

 

1.     Read novels. 

2.     Fill your mind with good stuff—basically the stuff you want to write about. 

3.     Figure out what will build ideas in your mind and what will kill ideas in your mind.

4.     Study.

5.     Teach. 

6.     Make the catharsis. 

7.     Write.

 

The development of ideas is based on study and research, but it is also based on creativity.  Creativity is the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form.  It is a reflection of something new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect).  Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and producing.

 

If we have filled our mind with all kinds of information and ideas, we are ready to become creative.  Creativity means the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form.  Literally, we are seeing the world in a new way, or actually, we are seeing some part of the world in a new way. 

 

The beginning of creativity is study and effort.  We can use this to extrapolate to creativity.  In addition, we need to look at recording ideas and working with ideas.

 

With that said, where should we go?  Should I delve into ideas and creativity again, or should we just move into the novel again?  Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we know, will result in a new novel.  I’ve got an idea, but it went stale.  Let’s look at the outline for a novel again:

 

1.      The initial scene

2.     The rising action scenes

3.     The climax scene

4.     The falling action scene(s)

5.     The dénouement scene(s)

   

The initial scene is the most important scene and part of any novel.  To get to the initial scene, you don’t need a plot, you need a protagonist.

 

My main focus, at the moment, is marketing my novels.  That specifically means submissions.  I’m aiming for agents because if I can get an agent, I think that might give me more contacts with publishers plus a let up in the business.  I would like to write another novel, but I’m holding off and editing one of my older novels Shadow of Darkness.  I thought that novel would have fit perfectly with one potential agent who said they were looking for Jewish based and non-Western mythology in fantasy.  That’s exactly what Shadow of Darkness is, but they passed on it.  In any case, I’m looking for an agent who will fall in love with my writing and then promote it to publishers.  That’s the goal.

 

Most of my writing has a very strongly historical basis in a reflected worldview.  This short statement needs some definition and description.  In writing, there are three overall worldviews.  The first is a real worldview.  I consider Centurion to have been written in a real worldview.  A pure historical worldview is a real worldview.  The real worldview is the worldview accepted by most as the world as it is.  Knowing the world as it is, perhaps real is the wrong word, but this will stand.  Real is the basic and non-fantastic world we experience every day.  I’m not certain there is a better or more expressive way to define the real worldview.  As a contrast let’s look at the created worldview. 

The created worldview is mostly defined as fantasy and science fiction; however, it’s a bit more complex than that.  A created worldview is a worldview that was created by the author for a novel or a series of novels.  The created worldview is related to a real worldview, but not in its details only in its reflection of usually humanity or even nonhumanity.  In general, a created worldview is based in a world completely unrelated to the real.  What does that mean?  As I mentioned, the most common understanding of a created worldview is science fiction or fantasy world, but this doesn’t completely define the created worldview.  In a created worldview, the writer usually creates the history, the basis, the features, and the settings of the worldview to fit the fantasy or the science fiction plot and point.  For example, in a created science fiction worldview, the author might describe a colony on Mars or on some other planet.  Since there has never been a human colony on any planet, this must be a created worldview.  Likewise, in a fantasy setting, a fantasy world unrelated to anything defined by history or in myth would also be a created worldview.  I consider Harry Potty a created worldview.  The reason is because many of the creatures and the magic in the Harry Potty novels as well as the settings and the history are unrelated to myth or history.  Jack Vance’s Green Pearl novels are also a created worldview.  The magic, settings, and history are completely unrelated to anything in the real world.  They are a created worldview and a fantasy genre and world.  Likewise, the Sparkly Vampire novels are a created worldview.  The reason is that the vampires don’t resemble classic historical vampires much at all.  It’s okay for mythic characters to vary in some degree from their classic characteristics, they are mythic after all, but not so much that they can’t be recognized or they don’t follow the basis for their historical understanding or basis.  Bram Stoker defined the classic vampire.  You can vary your vampires to some degree from this classic basis, but if you go too far, you have created a worldview.  That brings us to the reflected worldview.  That worldview based on the real but not created.

I’ll get to the reflected worldview, next.

This gets a little complex, but in our world there are many things that we consider not real although there is plenty of history as well as stories to support them.  For example, vampires.  I’m not sure anyone really believes in vampires, but vampires are a part of human history and myth.  If you look up vampire, you will find a host of information.  Much of is, or maybe most of it is all fiction, or is it?  The vampire is a part of human lore and human culture than is well accepted and to some degree believed, but is it real?  The same is true of all kinds of mythic creatures as well as the supernatural and the gods and goddesses.  There is much much more to these creatures, beings, and places (like Atlantis) but we don’t consider them to be part of the real world.  I call this the reflected world.  The reason is that the reflected world reflects what people believe and not what they think is real. 

You might say, this is a kind of schizophrenic view of the world, part real and part reflected.  I say it is just normal human understanding.  When my grandchildren or children ask if dragons are real?  My answer is I hope so.  A real worldview novel can’t include dragons, but a reflected worldview novel can.  This is the worldview I write in.  I write in the reflected worldview. 

I’ll give you more information about this kind of writing and worldview.

Personally, I consider the reflected worldview a more real worldview and way or writing than the real worldview.  The reason is that what people imagine and what they think about the world is sometimes more important than what we see in the real world.  We see this all the time.  For example, in religion, the expression of belief is part of the reflected worldview.  Religion is by nature supernatural.  It depends on the idea of a God or of gods as well as a supernatural understanding of the world.  Is this real?  In the sense of a worldview it is a reflected worldview, but it is still accepted as part of the real.  Unfortunately, the idea of the real and the reflected overlap one another, and we see some of this in real worldview writing.  For example, an author writing about a military action or campaign might wax eloquent about the spiritual ideas of the people or about the spiritual past that formatted the nation as a whole.

Now, about the reflected worldview.  I want to write in an obvious reflected worldview because I want to show not just the real world but rather the spiritual and supernatural depths of the world.  To me, putting words into the mouth of dragons, or into the mouths of the Fae, or into the demigods and gods and goddesses of myth is really fun and exciting.  More than that, the interaction of humans in the world with these supernatural beings is even more exciting.  This builds in the entertainment of the novel and the world of the novel. 

I’ll expand more on the writing and writing in the reflected worldview.

The reflected worldview is different than the created worldview and perhaps most similar to the real worldview.  In fact, the reflected worldview is the actual worldview most people live in.  When I study to write in a reflected worldview, I research the subject matter extensively.  For example, when I wrote Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire, I studied and researched vampires for months.  I gathered all the data I could on them, their history, and their settings.  I didn’t use all the information I discovered, and I used some information selectively, but if you look up my vampires, they will fit with history and myth.  That is all you have to do to figure out my vampires is to look them up in books or on the internet.  My view of vampires is the classic worldview myth of vampires.  The point is what you know about vampires is what you will find in my novels, and specifically in that novel.  This is true of all reflected worldview subjects, but not true of created worldview subjects.

One of the main ways you can check if a novel or an idea is created versus reflected worldview is just make an internet search.  For example, if you did a search about Harry Potty, today, you will find an enormous amount of information about Harry Potty—those novels and creations are a bestseller phenomena.  You won’t find anything about the world of Hogwarts or Harry Potty prior to the publication of the first novel.  This is a created worldview.  You won’t find anything about the magic system and magic theory of Harry Potty until the novel.  The magic and magic theory isn’t based on any system from myth or the past, and many of the creatures in the novel came from the mind of the author.  They are created worldview.  This isn’t bad, it’s just not the reflected worldview.

What makes the reflected worldview so great?  That’s next.

The main point of the reflected worldview is to present your readers not what is real in the world, but what could be or what they can imagine as real.  This is pushing deeply into the suspension of disbelief. 

If you notice, to develop a great created worldview, the author must design an entire world, or at least parts of it, that will suspend the disbelief of the reader.  In the real worldview, the author just has to take the elements of the normal world and present them—the plot and characters then are what must suspend the disbelief of the readers.  In the reflected worldview, it is the same.  The reflected worldview is similar to the real worldview, but with all the elements of the real or rather reflected worldview that people know of, but don’t necessarily believe in.  How difficult is it to get a reader to accept a classic vampire—not very, based on all the vampires in novels.  On the other hand, the non-classic vampire is a bit more difficult to believe in.  It takes a well and carefully written novel to build the trust and belief of the reader for that.  On the other hand, if the vampire is the kind of vampire the readers are expecting, or close enough to the standard model, they will readily accept them as a character or a trope.  That’s the main point.  The suspension of disbelief is already accomplished as long as the author doesn’t screw it up too much.

On the other hand, the Harry Potty novels invented all kinds of creatures, beings, and spirits, like for instance, Thestrals.  Thestrals are not creatures of myth or any human culture.  They are one of the many created creatures of the wizarding world that Rowling beneficently gifted us.  Thestrals, like many other inventions of Rowling are potentially on their way to becoming mythic creatures, or maybe not.  Jack Vance created many more and many better developed creatures in his novels, both fantasy and science fiction, but they haven’t crept into the cultures.  On the other hand, many of Rowling’s inventions might.  Or they might not. 

A real problem with Rowling’s creatures is that many are just silly.  The novels are all for Young Adults—they aren’t to be taken too seriously.  They are missing one of the most important ideas from a magic standpoint.  An idea that a thinking adult or young adult can’t miss if they have any degree of education and reason—where does the magic come from?  Ancillary to that question is the great rational of C.S. Lewis.  Magic must come from inside of creation while miracles come from outside of creation.  This always points to God and the supernatural.  In fact, the supernatural always points to God.  God is supernatural.  This is the real power of the reflected worldview.  Perhaps we can look at this and look at the power of the reflected worldview to the author, next.

The strength of the reflected worldview is that it is already created for the author.  It’s similar to the real worldview in that regard.  Haven’t you noticed that the made up Harry Potty creatures are kind of stupid?  This is true of many authors in fantasy and science fiction.  A real mater like Jack Vance creates marvelous creatures and beings without any seeming effort, but let me tell you about it. 

As a science fiction author myself, I approach the creation of the science fiction worldview in the same way I would the fantasy worldview, but not the reflected worldview.  How’s that?

If you are going to write about aeronautical science and how aircraft fly, you better do some intense study on the subject.  The same is true is you intend to invent science fiction with extrapolated technology on, let’s say, aircraft.  Space craft are the same.  Biological creatures are even more complex.  Science is science, but biomes are not just biomes.  When I created the shinobi fly for my novel Regia Anglorum I had to create an entire biome to support it.  I didn’t detail the entire world or the world of the biome, I just introduced two creatures I thought might integrate into the world of El Rashad.  They were the scarcats and the shinobi fly.  As I noted, I didn’t relate the entire biome in my novel—I did in my notes.  Both creatures are very dangerous to humans.  The shinobi fly larva ire poisonous as are the shinobi flies to humans.  In addition, the scarcats look like kittens, but are very well armed.  In any case, my point is this, I developed entire creatures with a lifecycle and an existence in a biome as side creatures in my novel.  I spent at least a month on the design of the world and the biome I was describing including drawings and maps.  Now, compare that to some of the fantasy world creatures that just exist.  They are all based on an illogical magic system that allows such things to just exist.  My point is that in a created worldview, you better really do your research and develop your creatures, world, and science.  The science should be based on the science we know at this moment, and not wild magical conjecture.  The reflected worldview requires significant research, but you don’t have to make anything up.

What do I mean?  If you need a vampire or any other creature for a reflected worldview novels, all you need to do is research the literature and myth.  You don’t need to make anything up. I would recommend not borrowing anything from modern or fictional sources.  Use real sources and historical sources.  Don’t just make something up—if you do, you are in a created worldview.  Plus, the advantage of the reflected worldview is that with the very well educated, they will immediately know your reference.  For example, almost every educated reader will know about a dragon or a vampire or a zombie.  A very astute reader who is familiar with Gaelic or Celtic myth will know who Aine is or other mythic gods and goddesses.  In your novel, you will need to illustrate and explain—that’s your job, but the very astute reader might already know some of the story, while others will run across the information in other literature or perhaps in their studies.  The reflected worldview simply reflects the world as it exists, but in myth and historical information.  I hate to write historical fiction—we aren’t writing about fiction except in the result.  The point of the reflected worldview is that it exists in human knowledge lying on the edge of the real or actual and the not as real or measurable.  More on this and more on research, next.

As I wrote, the writer needs to use care in researching the reflected.  The reason is that all kinds of fiction has cropped up across the internet and in popular literature that can counterfeit as reflected.  If after about 250 years the information comes into the popular knowledge of the culture, perhaps we can call something the reflected worldview.  However, I can assure you, if real historical people like actors, actresses, singers, and dancers are forgotten by the reflected culture, most of Harry Potty will too. 

I’m a connoisseur of Victorian Era, especially, late Victorian Era novels.  These were the best sellers of their time and popular all over the English-speaking world.  These novels literally created a genre and brought thousands if not millions of young people into the modern and educated world.  Today, these novels and their authors and characters are all but forgotten.  You can find them in the Guttenberg Project books, but almost nowhere else.  My point is that these great novels, supper popular and best sellers for their time never made it into the reflected worldview.  They are part of history, so in a modern novel, you can use them and address them in context.  Just like, in the future, you’ll be able to address the Harry Potty novels in context or the Beetles in context.  The main point however, is this: unless a creature or an idea in a Harry Potty novel has some kind of context beyond a Harry Potty novel, it will not be able to be used in a reflected worldview.

There is the possibility that the Thestrals become a creature of modern myth.  There is equally a much larger chance they will not make it past Harry Potty or the Twenty-first century.  Such is the problem of the created worldview.  This is the main problem with researching the reflected.

In researching the reflected world, you need to ensure the validity and the worth of the information and the source.  For example, in researching Aine, Aine is a very undocumented goddess.  A lot of information is sparse, but little has been written about her.  Almost all the information about Aine is very old and very tenuous.  This is actually great.  Anyone searching for Aine will find something similar.  The power of this is that with multiple stories and information on Aine, as the author, I can pick and choose what I want to represent as real.  I can make and write the life and character of Aine as I desire as long as I keep to the basics and explain the rest away.  This is what writers do, both the real and the reflective.

I’ll write about this next—that is how an author takes an historical or a reflective person, creature, or being and makes them their own yet holds true to the historical and mythical facts.

If you are just going to make up something, do it.  Lovecraft made up all kinds of really great creatures and beings.  If you do and you want great success, you need to really research what you are about.  That’s what all the great science fiction and fantasy writers did who work in a created worldview.  It’s like DuneDune is likely the best and most developed work of recent times.  I’d like to say my science fiction is similar in research and development, but not necessarily scope.  My science fiction worlds are different and not quite the same as the world and length of expression in Dune.  This is the created worldview and not the reflected worldview.  Perhaps I should explain this a little more in depth.

Almost all science fiction is a created worldview.  This is necessary because science fiction usually moves in future sense rather than in the current times.  The purpose of science fiction is to extrapolate technology into the future. 

In my created worldview, humans had problems initially with intragalactic exploration and colonization, so they developed the skills and people they needed genetically.  In my future world, the royalty were genetically created for rule, and their laws forced them to continue the genetic lines for the good of mankind.  I don’t get much into the other genetic groups because the system has been operating and working for a long time and the overall system is slowly degrading.  Additionally, I based my created worldview roughly on the Anglo-Saxon culture for not other reason than it made for really great names for the warriors, leadership, and groups. 

This basis for the culture and society of the Human Galactic Empire is all in my novels as background.  The real power in the created worldview is the extrapolation of the technology, and this is perhaps the most important part of research and creativity in the science fiction author and world.  To extrapolate technology, you must understand it. 

In my earliest science fiction, The Chronicles of the Dragon and the Fox, I have a little biological information and development, but not much.  The main worlds and the interaction is in cityscapes and in space.  There is little need for much on the biomes or the biology plus most of it is presumed to be terraformed and from the original earth.  This approach didn’t require me to make much to do with the biological differences of the worlds.  There is some, but as I wrote, most of the biomes are terra-normal biomes and therefore require little detail or explanation. 

In my later novels, The Ghostship Chronicles, which are not published yet, the older universe has a greater diversity of biomes.  Most are terra-normal and modified from terra forms, but a few include other creatures and animals all based on something else.  A similar carbon based life development, but poisonous to terra-normal and terrans.  I don’t have any aliens in my science fiction world, just modified humans. 

The point is that in science fiction, we are extrapolating technology, creating worlds and biology, and creating cultures and societies.  In the Dune model, the author created everything, or you might say, extrapolated everything from politics to religion as well as biology and technology.  We are creating nearly everything.  There are ways to help abbreviate this process.  I look at this, next.

Yes, I’m looking at the created worldview, but my ultimate point is the reflected worldview.  I think that if I show you how the created worldview is developed, you will see why a reflected worldview for certain types of novels is better.  Of course, for science fiction novels, the created worldview is unavoidable, and this is also true for some but not all fantasy novels.  We are already seeing how the reflected worldview can fit wonderfully into a fantasy world.  Now, to building the created worldview.

In the created worldview, we are usually extrapolating, or in some cases interpolating technology, biology, the setting, and objects in the setting.  Let’s look at some basic extrapolation.

Technological extrapolation is the basis for most science fiction.  If I need a spaceport, I simply take an airport or a nautical port and extrapolate that to space vehicles.  That’s all there is to it.  In the simplest extrapolation, we might take an airport or a nautical port and add spaceships, structures, and all, but it gets a bit more complicated and less complicated than that.  It depends on how in depth and how detailed the author can and wants to be.  For example, what types of fuel does your spaceships use?  From the model of modern aviation, you might have more than one type of fuel.  With fuels, you need fuel storage, fueling systems, fuelers, perhaps protection from the fuel or types of fuel.  Add to this, what kind of spacing are we talking about?

Do we have some type of FTL (Faster than Light) travel?  Is it warping?  In my novels, the spacecraft use complex warping by following gravity waves and gravity holes to calculate the intragalactic travel with hydrogen fuel.  Most of the hydrogen fuel is captured from gaseous planets by the ships or harvesting ships.  Intrasystem, my ships use nuclear acceleration of the hydrogen fuel for movement.  Shuttles are generally used to move planetside.  My systems and extrapolated technology is pretty complex because I’m an aerospace engineer.  I understand this kind of stuff at a pretty low level.  The rest came from other science fiction or from my imagination. 

In any case, I think you can see the way the extrapolation of technology works.  I’ll move to the extrapolation of biology, next.

Biology extrapolation is even more complex and detailed than technological extrapolation.  You can just wang it and have Star Trek dreck and Star Borz.  For example, you can go with some very illogical and implausible science.  I’ll go with parallel carbon based evolution, but even with parallel evolution, you can’t expect to ever be able to eat or interact safely with the creatures and plants of another planet.  Why?  If you know anything about the science of biology, you know that biology is based on stereo isomers.  For example, vitamin C is a single isomer of the vitamin C molecule.  If the molecule is not the correct handed stereo isomer, no animal can use it.  It is worthless to the plant or animal.  If just the handedness of the molecule is this sensitive, what do you think will happen for more critical molecules like DNA, proteins, RNA, and others.  That’s why as a basis, you can expect all alien plants and animals to be normally poisonous and at the best a purgative. 

Just to be clear.  It is impossible for alien plants and animals to interact safely on any level.  The chances of a human being to reproduce with a Vulcan is the same as a human being reproducing with a bulldozer (I think Aurther C. Clark said this but it might have been Asimov).  I’d say, it would be more likely for a bulldozer to reproduce with a human than any alien.  The idea isn’t just silly, it is scientifically impossible.  Even the idea of colonizers taking early humans to some planet and then expecting them to be able to reproduce is pretty silly.  If you need to propose anything like this, you are indeed writing in a nonscientific created worldview.  That’s why Star Trek is dreck—and this is why many science fiction writers write dreck.  It’s cute fantasy, but it’s not science. 

For my science fiction, I presume, like many scientists, that there is lower level life in the galaxy, but not any other higher level intelligent life.  The lower level life can’t accommodate humans or terran life.  I have most of the worlds terraformed to make them able to support humans.  In some cases, I do have humans that have evolved or been genetically changed to accommodate their environment.  In my novels, this was common in the Human Galactic Empire, but less so in the Confederacy of Space. 

So, as a science fiction author, extrapolating biology is very complex and difficult.  I suggest you get a good education in biology before you touch the subject in your fiction.  This is true of other fiction as well as science fiction.  The extrapolation of biology and biomes is difficult and filled with mines. 

What I should look at next is extrapolating the setting.

I think extrapolating technology for a scientist is easy.  Extrapolating biomes on the other hand is very difficult.  If you don’t understand biology and aren’t supper informed and into the genre, I wouldn’t even try.  You’ll end up like Star Drek with Vulcan/Human hybrids—you might as well have human bulldozer hybrids.  That’s actually more logical.  Ha ha.  Now, to settings.

I actually wrote this really cool program when I was younger to make up and parse solar systems and planets based on astronomical data and probability.  The program was extensive very fun and produced some great solar systems.  The problem is that I compiled it in MS-DOS as an exe file.  Nothing wrong with that except it won’t run anymore.  Ouch.  All that work and it needs a rewrite and recompile.  So is life.  Not to worry, you don’t need a program to develop planet and solar system settings, but it helps.

The reason it helps is to get your imagination fired up and your setting ideas more varied.  You also need to know something about the science of planets and solar systems, at least based on what we know to build good science fiction settings.  Now, you can just base everything off the solar system and planets as we know them, but that is pretty distressing and unhappy.  In the first place, you want a planet near or in the life zone of the solar system.  In our solar system, only terra, the earth is in this zone.  Venus is too hot and Mars is too cold.  The two hot is almost insurmountable.  The too cold can be worked a little. 

The life zone is where the sun/star makes water be in the liquid state on the surface of the planet.  Without water, you can’t support or have life, and I’m not just writing about life as in alien life, I mean human life, plants, and animals.  Liquid water is necessary for life, and a planet must be in the life zone or terraformed/manipulated in some way to be warm enough to be in the life zone.  That is if your life is based on carbon.  If your life forms are based in another atom, things might be different.  For ease of explanation, let’s stick with carbon-based and terra-based life.  This is what I use in my science fiction anyway.

You need to stick your planet, and it needs to be a carbon-based planet, a gas based or gas giant won’t do, in the life zone.  You can have hot planets and cooler planets, but realize, planets include many biomes based on, in this case, similar carbon, DNA, based molecules.  In other words, there really cannot be Dune type planets with as single biome unless you have something else in play.  I have a planet Neuterra which is the moon of a gas giant Asa-Thor.  The planet gets a very even heating from it’s star Asa and its planet Asa-Thor.  The result is a nearly singular biome.  The secret is to apply a little science to develop your setting as you need and desire.  Plus, we are applying the suspension of disbelief to our setting and our science fiction.  Make it seem logical and feasible, and it mostly will be logical and feasible.  Don’t go non-science nutso.  There are other things we can look at in settings like space ports and non-life type planets.  This includes gas giants and carbon based worlds. We should look at that too, next.

In our solar system and we presume other solar systems, you find gas planets, mostly large ones, and carbon based planets mostly small and dense ones.  Our planet, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Pluto, and all the moons and asteroids in our solar system are carbon-based planets.  What’s that got to do with anything?  They are basically dense planets with reasonable gravity.  You can walk around on them.  Gas planets are gas, and until you get to the hard frozen core, you ain’t walking on anything.

There is a lot more we can write about planets, but as I wrote, space ports and non-life zone planets have great worth in science fiction.  In my science fiction, the gaseous planets are used for refueling.  Some ships have refueling scoops that allow them to capture hydrogen, mostly, for propulsion.  These types of ships can use other gases for propulsion, but hydrogen is the normal gas found in gas giants.  You have to get really deep in the planet to get much heavier gases.  Most of the time, a ship will scoop hydrogen from the surface of the gas giant.  I didn’t invent this idea—it’s pretty normal in science fiction extrapolated technology. 

As a sideline, most ships use nuclear fusion or fission for propulsion.  The hydrogen either provides the fuel for the fusion or fission, and there are other methods of propulsion that have been proposed.  One method of early propulsion before fusion was to use the fission nuclear reactor to accelerate the hydrogen and propel the ship.

Of similar note are space ports and other facilities found throughout populated solar systems.  You have space traffic control, military outposts, mining and industrial facilities, refueling and refitting facilities, port facilities.  For space ports just imagine an airport and everything in them.  You might modify the space port based on current political and social mores and events.  For example, most of our airports are locked down to prevent terrorism.  This may or may not be true in the future or with space ports.  Future technology may have made terrorism nearly impossible in space—or not.  The world you create for your science fiction or fantasy needs to be completely logic based.  If you can make it fit logically and scientifically, you have hit the sweet spot for science fiction.  Of course, the reading public for science fiction is usually pretty astute.  The young adult and fantasy/magic realism group may not be. 

That’s a side of the created worldview worth looking at, next.

I mentioned this before, and I will again.  One of the main reasons I use the reflected worldview for my novels is because I don’t want to look stupid.  It’s always true that in every novel you write and publish, there will be problems.  There will be misspellings, grammar issues, punctuation issues, style issues, logic issues, and potentially historical issues.  Knowing this, I want to reduce the logic, reasoning, and historical issues to the lowest point.  The other issues are all questions of editing and style, logic reasoning, and historical are issues of research and knowledge.  This is my biggest problem with modern created worldview fantasy and magic realism.

If you base, for instance, your magic on an already developed system like from the Golden Bough or Bonewitz (same thing) you will have very little problem with the logic and reasoning in the magic system.  Now, the main question: isn’t magic just fiction? 

Magic is indeed fiction unless you meet a person who wholly believes in actual magic.  Then you will find they are familiar with the ideas on magic from the Golden Bough.  I should italicize The Golden Bough.  Here is the main concept.  If, like Dune and politics and society, you spend years developing your magic system, you will likely have a magic system that will face muster with readers.  On the other hand, if you don’t or the logic of your system is lacking, you will end up with a hodge-podge like many young adult novels.  This is why I write in a reflected worldview.  I don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time I bring up an important idea or subject.

When I mention a vampire, I don’t want to explain myself.  Now, for good writing and understanding, we might have to explain certain ideas or concepts about a vampire, but how great is it to base that information on what has gone before. 

Creativity is the extrapolation and interpolation of the ideas of the past.  The reflected worldview is simply a form of creativity.  I could also argue that the created worldview is creativity, and it is, but think of it this way.  If I need a kitchen from 1990, do I make it up in my mind, or do I find a picture of a kitchen from 1990 and use that for my creative interpolation.  The answer should be obvious.  This is the question I ask all the time in the reflected worldview.  My answer is always to me, research what I need.

When I need a god, goddess, creature, person, being, idea, myth, concept, and all, my first step is research.  I find something in the record of human history and existence that will fit the needs of my novel.  As I mentioned before, I want to entertain and I believe the best means of entertainment is through existing human ideas that are turned through extrapolation and interpolation into something new or newly creative (not necessarily in the sense of the created worldview).

What I should do next is look at the created worldview from the sense of proper extrapolation and interpolation.

When I teach classes on extrapolating technology, as a scientist, I think it’s pretty easy.  After all, I invented the idea of the electronic book in 1984, but because technology couldn’t make one, I was stuck without a patent but with an idea I put in my science fiction novels and also tried to sell as an idea.  I also called it an ebook, go figure.  In any case, the extrapolation and interpolation of ideas for the created as well as the interpolation of ideas for the reflected worldview are critical.  This is why I repeatedly wrote to start with what we know.

The best example is the nautical port to airport to spaceport.  This is extrapolation until we actually have real spaceports.  There are all kinds of other extrapolations.  What you as a writer need to understand is stones are still around even after the stone age and technology almost always starts as entertainment.

One of the greatest examples of this is the extrapolation of technology.  I can assure you we will eventually have flying cars.  We would have had them much sooner, but the government keeps them down.  My favorite bit of history is that in 1956 when Ford Motor Company came to the USG (US government) to propose five factories to build flying cars, the USG came out with the private pilot licensing rules the day after.  The USG killed flying cars in 1956 by making pilot training requirements that could only be fulfilled with extensive training.  That’s the government way.  Today, you all get to be placed in cattle cars (aircraft busses) at the mercy of the USG and airline companies.  Only the trained and the wealthy can afford air taxis (air charter), and every time air charter reaches an affordability milestone, the airlines and the USG make new rules to keep it expensive.  Eventually, you will have a flying car, but the government won’t like it, and as always, the wealthy will be the only ones who can afford them for a while. 

My point is that even when we have flying cars, there will be stones, ground vehicles all around.  First, they will be the cars of the less wealthy, poor, and goods transportation.  Eventually, they will be ground transportation.  However, once air cars are ubiquitous, it will be less cost effective to have roads and other means of non-air based transportation.  The government will charge you for roads for the next thousand years even if no one is using them. 

I gave some ideas in regards to transportation and extrapolation.  There is much much more in the extrapolation of technology, but let’s look a the interpolation of technology and ideas.  I’ll just mention a little along these lines and then work toward the reflected worldview.

Let’s say we want to have a magic based system for a created or a reflected worldview.  I would advise you to stick with The Golden Bough and design your magic system from there.  It will be logical and reasonable if you understand the basics of magic.  You can also base a magic system on miracles, I would also advise that.  What is the difference?

Magic is the manipulation of so-called natural laws within the universe or creation to achieve unexpected results.  For example, the use of symbols and magic rules to cause something to occur that seems reasonable, but that we know is usually impossible.  I’ll give an example.  The idea of making a doll to represent another person, placing a bit of hair or fingernail from the person into the doll, and then manipulating the doll to force the person the act or be affected like the doll.  This is the use of symbolic, similarity, and representative magic to cause a result.  Does it work?  Some magic practitioners claim it does. 

On the other hand, miracles come from outside the creation.  The point of miracles is that they are not controlled by those who just desire to make them happen, but rather that certain people, creatures, or things can cause things to happen that are outside the bounds of the normal universe.  Magic is always from within the world.  Miracles are always from outside the world and miracles overcome the real world.  In other words miracles can make things happen in the real world that are at odds with science and physics.  Magic can’t do this although the means of magic are at odds with science and physics, the results of magic are common, they are just unexpected.

As I wrote, I should move over to the reflected worldview and interpolation.

Really, there should be no such thing as developing or designing a reflected worldview.  However, in some regards, an author may be actually reflecting the world not designing.  What do I mean by that?

The best example is the way I designed the Organization and Stela into my reflected worldview novels.  If you make a search for the Organization or Stela, you likely won’t find anything.  On the other hand, if you search for the MI structure or British intelligence, you will find MI19 as well as the other MIs from World War Two.

In World War Two, there were 19 Military Intelligence agencies in the British government.  The went from MI1 to MI19 excluding MI13 and MI17.  MI19 was the interrogation and foreign language branch of the MI structure.  I’ve worked in MI and most specifically in covert and overt military operations.  In my day overt was special operations and covert was special missions.  Today, I have no idea, and I don’t write about US special military operations—I write about the British and French. 

The big deal is that covert military operations has a great deal to do with languages and language intelligence.  It isn’t the 007 kind of silliness you see on the silver screen.  MI19 was all about interrogations and languages.  In the world of intelligence, you have three basic levels of language expertise.  You have those who are trained to translate and many times speak the language.  You have those who are experts in the language and culture who can infiltrate the culture.  Then you finally have those who know the language and culture intimately, but could never be able to infiltrate that culture.  These final language experts can for example, look exactly like good British boys and girls, but nothing like they can speak and understand Chinese, Russian, Japanese, French, or any other foreign tongue. 

In the old days, they recruited these gems like they did Kim from the novel by Rudyard Kipling.  Kim’s father and mother were British citizens, but he lived in the Indian culture and knew their as well as the British tongue perfectly.  This was the first generation of language and cultural spies.  After the era of Kim and with the breakup of the British Empire, these language experts came mainly from missionaries and the diplomatic corps.  Children of missionaries as well as those of diplomates tend to learn a language at the street and cultural level.  They also are either bullied or forced to fit into a culture which makes them excellent for language intelligence.

The reason they are perfect for their roles is they don’t look like they have any familiarity with the culture or language at all.  They look like common British citizens.  Standing next to any diplomate, emissary, or ambassador, they are the most effective and dangerous agent possible.  They know what the adversary or other culture is saying and meaning.  They can spot errors in translations, in translators, and they can overhear words and unintended and intended meanings in words and actions.  These are the most powerful agents in a nation’s arsenal.  The ability to understand cultures and languages is perhaps the most effective and most efficient way to check the information you are getting as well as the information you may discover.  That’s not to say the lower level translators are not very important, but as I wrote, there are three distinct levels of language experts in covert operations.  MI19 during World War Two had them all, or so we are led to believe.  This is the position I take in my reflected worldview intelligence structure. 

More, next.

In the real world, MI19 was shut down right after World War Two.  The reason given was the mean interrogation techniques used by the interrogation experts.  We all know that an organization like MI19 must exist in any government.  In my reflected worldview, I have no idea where MI19 went or who runs it, I just called this new organization the Organization.  I used to be MI19 and it still uses the resources that used to belong to MI19.  In addition to interrogations, it provides all the language shares and language intelligence to British intelligence.  Is this accurate and official—not at all.  It isn’t creating something completely new.  It’s simply taking a known structure and agency and interpolating it (or extrapolating it) into the now.

We know the work of MI19 must still exist.  We presume it was absorbed into another branch of British intelligence, perhaps.  I simply give a name and existence to this branch and their work.  Does it exist?  It did, and it does in my novels.  In addition, there is and was a second piece to this organization, the Organization.

In my novel, Sister of Darkness, one of the main agents in MI19 saw the use of a Stela and the miracles of Leroa and Lumiere Bolang in action.  After the war, this officer, Colonel Lyons became the head of the Organization.  He doesn’t fully understand the operations or the extend of Stela under the Organization, but the Office of the Queen allowed him to set up, or actually allowed Leroa to set up, the Stela office under the Organization.  Yes, Stela is my invention, but it fits right in with my novels and with the Organization.

Stela comes from the Greek word for memorial stone (a grave stone) but it is meant in the sense of supernatural objects known in the real world.  Colonel Bruce Lyons saw the use of one of these objects during World War Two.  For the protection of Britain, the Organization and the Queen set up the Stela office.  The purpose of Stela is the protection of Britain from the supernatural.  The heads of Stela are unbound goddesses whom I introduced in my novels beginning with Aegypt

Here is the point.  I’m writing in a reflected worldview.  I interpolated (or extrapolated if you like) a worldview and structures in a reflected worldview that came out of actual offices, agencies, and MI groups.  The point wasn’t to create something new, but to build on what really existed to give a basis for my writing and novels.  Further, much of this information and development depends on the Office of the Queen.  This is what I’ll look at, next.

Part of the reflected worldview in my novels is that, of course, the Queen knows about everything.  In fact, there are offices, officials, and individuals in the British government who interact with the reflected world beings as part of their normal duties. 

I got to this point fully through logic.  If, for example, gods and goddesses of Britian and the Gaelic and Celtic world existed, they would have some representation in the world and in the courts of the land.  That representation, or rather, the representative for the humans is the Queen and a handful of other individuals.  I’ve factored this as a small number of people because they have kept the secret so well over time.  In fact, I explain that the Queen was both a friend of Brittania and of Leora.  Brittania is the goddess of Britain.  In her court is the god of Scotland, the goddess of Wales, and the goddess of Ireland.  There are others of less consequence, but under the respective courts of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Britian.  Over them all as well as the Fae courts is Ceridwen, and over the Fae courts directly is the Aos Si.  Yes, the authority of the gods and goddesses over the lands is a bit of a jumble, but so are the myths and the stories about them. 

The point of the reflected worldview is this: you can look up information about the beings and creatures I mention and find they fit delightedly and exactly into the world in a way like they should.  This is the power of the reflected worldview. 

Other than the Queen, who has a red phone to Ceridwen, but the way, is the Keeper of the Book of the Fae.  This is through the Wishart family.  Azure Wishart was the Keeper and her father before her.  Now, the Keeper is her son Seoirse although that’s not entirely certain at the moment.  I need to write a bit more about Seoirse and Rose.

In any case, there may be more who know about the details of the interaction of the British government with the other courts of the land, but only the Queen, Stela, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Keeper are fully involved—at least that’s what I’ve represented in my novels.

Perhaps I should move into more about the reflected worldview.

I want to write another book based on Rose and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s my plan.  Before I get to that, I want to write another novel about dependency as a theme.  We shall see.

 

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
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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