Tag archives for Creative writing - Page 2
Babylon Falls [Flash Fiction]
An abandoned warehouse in the US (photo: lburgan via pixabay) I wrote Babylon Falls as short story for the NYC Flash Fiction Challenge round 2 back in September. The prompt was to write a horror story set in a warehouse and including a kids lunch box in under a thousand words. The premise I went with was something strange happened in Babylon in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. Ten years on some mysterious entity is getting its revenge on some of the US troops involved in thwarting it's nefarious activities. The title is a twin clue, Babylon Falls directly referring to the capture of the site of the ancient city. It also refers to the location of the warehouse. I wasn't entirely happy with Babylon Falls at the time, which is why I didn't post it sooner. I've had…
Southwold Lighthouse – Writer’s Guide
During the half-term week I had a tour of Southwold Lighthouse, and there were a lot of interesting facts that I thought were worth capturing in case I ever want to write a story featuring a lighthouse. So here they are. Southwold Lighthouse Southwold Lighthouse is a late nineteenth century lighthouse, one of the later ones built on the East coast of England. It was deliberately built inland, on top of a hill right on the Northern edge of the town of Southwold. Of course it's now in the middle of town, opposite the Adnam's brewery. With the lighthouse automated there's no documentation. (Photo: James Kemp) The lighthouse started with an oil burning lamp, which was upgraded to electricity in the early 20th century. In the early 21st century it has been upgraded to using LED lights and fully automated…
First Mission ANDR12 [Short Story]
First Mission ANDR12 is a near future speculative fiction short story about the first mission of the Autonomous Networked Dynamic-learning Robots, or ANDRs for short. First Mission is set an unspecified time a decade or two into the future and in a generic counterinsurgency in an unspecified African country, somewhere in the greener belt between Sierra Leone and Kenya. I've written a bit more about the background to the ANDR featured in First Mission over on my military focused blog Hot Blood & Cold Steel. NB this is a first draft, there may be typos, inconsistencies and bits that don't really help the narrative. If you are feeling generous please call them out in a comment and I'll use that when I edit the story. Otherwise, please enjoy. First Mission ANDR12 A Royal Air Force Merlin HC3A helicopter during a…
Telepathy (and super powers) in Stories
English: Example of a subject in a Ganzfeld telepathy experiment. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Following on from declaring Telepaths as hard science fiction I thought I would write about using Telepathy in stories and how to solve the problems. Telepathy is a super power, and with all super powers it brings a reduction in challenge for characters endowed with it. Writing a Story featuring Telepathy I mentioned two things I did in passing in the earlier post, but there's also a third. Set universal limits on super powers Give characters moral limits that stop them abusing their super powers Give the opposite side a (temporary) counter to the super powers Taken together these let you put the conflict and challenges back into the situations your characters find themselves in. We all know the equation: Conflict + characters = plot So this…
What would we take to settle new Colonies?
I've written about motivations for sending new colonies on starships to settle earth like planets on other star systems. Astronomers have found thousands of these, so assuming that we don't wipe ourselves out before we develop the technology, one day we'll land on planets lit by another star. Technology for New Colonies First some assumptions. Planets we settle are in the Goldilocks zone and have breathable atmosphere. We can travel faster than light (either Einstein was wrong, or there's some alternative dimension or something) There are people with both money and motive to start new colonies With that, what technology do we take with us to start new colonies? Bear in mind that a lot of common tech is constrained by its history and the pre-existing infrastructure. On the new colonies there won't be any infrastructure, so there's more freedom…