Palin cites New Star Trek Series in Gun Rights Decision: “Everyone Had a Phaser”

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Star Trek is enough reason for justifying the Supreme Court decision today, according to once VP nominee Sarah Palin.  Poised to become the new captain of the USS Steadfast (in UPN and Fox’s new Star Trek Series–see past entries here and here), Palin gave a speech today where she cited as precedent the popular science fiction series, aired between 1966-1969.  “Sidearms protected everyone.  Everyone had a phaser.  This is the future.  So, we thank the judges for remembering not only where we’ve been but where we’re heading,” she said today outside her Alaska home.  She showed the crowd her own handgun, which she claims has stopped fourteen robberies, six alone by her next door neighbor, writer Joe McGinniss.

Palin excited the gun rights lobby (which is near frothing already for Palin) by endorsing the Supreme Court decision and by linking it to popular culture.  Seventeen unidentified men and women held up their iPhone 4s after having googled “shooting death” to show how many gun death entries are in the news for just today, June 28th.   “Those really effective background checks keep guns out of the hands of crazy people!” one of them shouted at Palin’s abrupt press conference.  [The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, an advocate for sensible gun laws, cite more than 100,000 people a year are the victims of a shooting]

Palin countered, “If it’s good enough for Star Trek, it’s good enough for the country that will be Star Trek one day.  After all, these are Americans in space.”

Bloggers have tried to explain the Federation of Planets to Ms. Palin (as she’s about to become a captain on the new series).   She twitters politely, “All captains of the series were American, everyone spoke English, and the military was in charge of ‘exploration.’  This makes it an American ship in space.  How much more American can you get than U.S.S.?”

The writers, once thrilled at writing the conservative adventures of rogue captains, were shocked at Ms. Palin’s link-up between Roddenberry’s vision of peace and her own gun-toting agenda.  “She’s obviously not familiar with the ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ alternate timeline.  Sidearms on the bridge crew were a sign that things had gone bad—not good.”

Palin is certainly a rogue Trek actor for the writers.  She has cajoled the writers into scripting outright sedition on the bridge.  “This is how real, honest people would talk if their President was a weak-kneed, educated liberal facing this kind of disaster.”  She refers to the Reckoning–that portentious, ominous, apocalyptic thing hurtling towards Earth–that is the tension backbone of the new series, Star Trek: Reckoning.

Writers have committed to one season.  My inside man in this writing group says, “I don’t think the fans could sustain the series past one season.  Just seeing how a conservative rogue group would f**k up the whole Federation would make them cry out for the Reckoning just to clean house.”

Another writer says, “We’re treating it as comedy.  And the best thing is that Sarah [Palin] is taking it dead seriously.”

The team of producers and the director, Chris Berman, want it that way.  “I think Palin, Gingrich, Cheney, Limbaugh–they’ll be able to pull it off because they believe in their beliefs so much.  It won’t even have to be acting.  And yeah, I agree with the sentiment of the writers— fans will be torn between which is worse for the Federation–conservatives or a giant meteor, wave, whatever coming to wipe out human civilization.  Both alternatives wipe out civilization.  It’s really the lady or the tiger, isn’t it?”

About the Trek reference in today’s speech, Berman says, “Any reference to Trek in popular culture helps the show.  When we air this series, Palin and the others will have done a huge favor to us by just being themselves and by mentioning the series.  We’re trying to give them as much creative control in this as possible.  Since we know nothing about what conservatives would actually DO with a starship, we’re learning from them how to go about creating these characters.  We’re looking at this as a cultural and creative exchange.”

He added, “Nothing is more alien to us than the Tea Party.”

Note: all content is intended as parody.  That said, Star Trek: Reckoning would be very interesting indeed.  References to Joe McGinniss in no way implies he is guilty of robbery, only implying that Sarah Palin would think he was.  

For NY Times editorial on how wrong the courts were.  

Clarion Write-A-Thon: Helping Writers Reach their Dreams

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Writers Andrew Emmott, myself, Desirina Boskovich and Matthew Cody at Clarion

 

I signed up for the Clarion Write-A-Thon, a fundraiser that puts a whole bunch of writers into a sensory deprivation tank while they write for six weeks.  

Oh wait, there’s no sensory deprivation tank….

But still, the writers are joining together to keep Clarion San Diego alive and well for years to come by raising money to provide scholarships.  I’ve already written a whole essay about how life-changing my Clarion experience was.  I know it has been for my whole group of cohort writers–all 18 of them.  

The Link to My Writer’s Page lets you know what I’ll be doing for six weeks, and encourages you to donate a bit of money–maybe per day, per word, or just a small sum ($20, $50, $100) in total.  All proceeds go to Clarion for scholarships, helping more people like me get to attend.  Most of us who attend a six week workshop make sacrifices to be there, and certainly the costs can be high to spend six weeks anywhere in the world (even my apartment is $1050 just in rent for six weeks), but the benefit each student receives from that time is ginormous.  

Each Student gets:

  • individual instruction from 6 major writers in the field
  • connections to agents, publishers, editors
  • advice on how to create a writerly business
  • a cohort, band of writers that encourages during the long haul
  • a lifetime of mentoring
  • six weeks of time free to write, concentrate on their art

It’s very difficult to shave off time for writing, and this six weeks is a huge jumpstart.  I have sold 4 out of the 5 stories I wrote for Clarion, and frequently I take out that notebook that I kept during Clarion to record what the teachers/writers said, and I go through it again.  You can’t GET this kind of instruction anywhere else but with publishing writers, established in their fields.  

Enjoying the 4th of July: Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, Matthew Cody and myself

 

If you have trouble imagining what this would be like (maybe you don’t write science fiction), imagine a workshop of six weeks where each week you got to spend with these people: Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, John Updike, John Irving, Kazuo Ishiguro and Alice Munro.  And then editors from Harper Collins, Random House, etc came by to chat with you and take your pitches, and agents came by, and you went to a giant convention where all the big writers hung out.  You got to eat and drink with people who were doing your career— like job-shadowing, except they became your friends–for SIX WEEKS.  It’s just like that but with the big names of Science Fiction and Fantasy!

In the Golden Age of Science Fiction, a writer learned by joining up with a pulp magazine and writing stories every week to push into those magazines–they trained with writers around them, doing the same thing, encouraging each other.  

Nowadays, we’re all trying to get stories into those “pulp” magazines, Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy–but we’re not in a room full of other writers writing together–we’re strung out across the world.  The only places we get that kind of training are these workshops–they stand in for the kind of on-the-job writing/training you would get at a magazine.  The intensity is the same.  I think the quality is higher.  But without Clarions, writers wouldn’t have that avenue for training, and many who might not figure out how to write for the magazines, or their novels by osmosis, wouldn’t get published. 

For the six weeks, I will be working on chapters of my first novel, chapters a publisher is expecting and has asked for.  

Please consider donating even a small amount to the cause of helping writers in the Science Fiction and Fantasy field.  We brought you space shuttles and cell phones, fax machines and computers, rockets and really great entertainment.  

If you talked on your cell phone today, hug a science fiction writer for imagining it!  

And consider a small donation to the workshop that helps the visionaries think up such an interesting future.

Aboriginal Playwright Reading Series begins Wed. June 23

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Gwaandak Theatre is putting on a reading series this summer in Whitehorse, featuring three plays written by First Nations playwrights, borrowing the skills of some local First Nation actors—some who are brand new to the theatre stage.  I’m excited to see these plays put on as readings.  They’ll really showcase what aboriginal playwrights are doing in Canada.  

The first of the readings (June 23) is Sixty Below, Leonard Linklater and Patti Flather’s play, produced down South.  It  had an extensive run up in the Yukon as they both took the play to the communities in 1999.   It has a Yukon setting and was hugely popular when it toured.  And now gets a special reading this Wednesday night.  

“Sixty Below is the story of Henry, fresh out of jail and ready to straighten out his life. Of course it’s not that easy: his old buddies just want to party, his girlfriend’s moving ahead of him, and then there’s the ghost of Johnnie, everyone’s hero, who just won’t leave the northern lights. And to top it all off – the longest night is just around the corner. Cast features Kevin Barr, Boyd Benjamin, Jared Lutchman, Rae Mombourquette, Sean Smith, and Ciara Stick. Reading is directed by Mary Sloan,” says Sarah Moore, Gwaandak Theatre’s publicist.   

The second (July 7) is a play from Kenneth T. Williams called Bannock Republic, using characters from his earlier play, Thunderstick.

Bannock Republic tells the story of Jacob, a videojournalist for APTN, Isaac, a new chief—both friends in the earlier play– and introduces Destiny, a woman and third party representative, who comes to financially take over the reserve drowning in debt.

The third play (July 14) is Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters featuring “seven of the greatest roles ever written for women,” Flather says.  Highway’s work, probably the best known of the four playwrights, was produced in Toronto, earned several Dora awards for theatre, and featured a hilarious knock-down drag-out fight between all seven women. 

Gwaandak Theatre believes all of the plays capture the strength, resiliency and humor of aboriginal culture despite adversity, the affects of colonization and discrimination.  “And these plays, they don’t hold anything back,” Flather says.  “They celebrate the human spirit.”

Linklater and Flather formed Gwaandak Theatre back in 1999 to remount Sixty Below for a millennial production.  They felt like there was a need for a company that would focus on underrepresented groups—specifically First Nation groups—and give them a professional theatre company to tell, and produce, their stories. 

Williams believes that what Gwaandak Theatre does is extremely important for every community. 

“There are only a few professional Aboriginal theatres in Canada,” he says.   “Yet, there are many exciting young Aboriginal playwrights in Canada like Tara Beagan, Waawaate Anishnaabe Fobister and Kevin Loring who are shaking things up in the theatre world.   Mainstream theatres are paying attention to us, and that’s great, but it would be unfair and unrealistic to ask them to program an entire season to just Aboriginal writers. It’s about showing the diversity of writing within the Aboriginal community, it’s about sharing stories and learning from one another.  The other benefit is to inspire young Aboriginal people to be theatre artists. Theatre is a great profession. And we need more Aboriginal theatre artists.”

The plays are for everyone—both First Nation and non-First Nation.  They do contain mature content so parental discretion is advised.    Come to the Old Firehall downtown at 7:00 (doors open) for a 7:30 start:

June 23:  Sixty Below

July 7:  Bannock Republic

July 14:  The Rez Sisters 

(part of this post comes from an article written for What’s Up Yukon, slated for Wednesday June 30–“pre”-printed here with permission)

“The Song of Sasquatch” up at Joyland

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“The Song of Sasquatch,”my poem/story of bigfoot romance in the style of Song of Solomon, is up at Joyland: a hub for short fiction.  Joyland is unique as an online fiction magazine. It has editors associated with a certain geographical place and all the stories come from writers associated with that place. Occasionally, editor Kevin Chong says, they like to pull a few writers from outside.  Thanks, Kevin, for pulling me in!  Enjoy!

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Flash Fiction Challenge: Inhuman

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INHUMAN:  Absolute Xpress, owned by Edge Books (the makers and owners of the Tesseracts series of science fiction and fantasy anthologies), have announced their fourth flash fiction challenge:  1000 words on what humans are like from a non-earth based, non-human perspective.  The title of the anthology is called “Inhuman” and details are here

In their words:

The Theme: InHuman

There are other beings out there. Demons, fae, aliens, robots and more. Creatures that have been watching us for a long time. They know us. For this challenge, write from the point of view of something “Inhuman”; an exterior point of view that is able to see what it really means to be Human.

You now have 6 weeks to answer this challenge. Flex your fingers and get typing. This challenge closes on May 15th at Midnight Pacific Standard Time (PST). For more details on how to submit check out the Flash Fiction Challenge page.

So what are we really looking for?

We want you to write from the point of view of a sentient, intelligent life form (no earth-based animals please (pets, birds, fish, etc.)). Perhaps they have been impacted by humanity, or visa versa. Or maybe they’ve been watching us from a distance. The big thing is that who ever these beings are, they have an insight into what it means to be human. This perspective is the key thing to highlight in your stories. It doesn’t have to be profound but these inhuman persons should notice something about what makes humanity human.

 

1000 words, one week left.  You can do it.

When Both the US and Canadian National Anthems Mean a Lot, You Sing Them Both With Your Hand On Your Heart

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I’m really proud to have been asked to sing the national anthems of the US and Canada at the Yukon Quest Banquet held in Whitehorse, this past February, 2010.  As an immigrant to Canada, it meant the world to sing both anthems–they have a special meaning for me.  

It was a race from the US to Canada that we were there to celebrate this year.  So I could relate.  

I also like how much the Canadians like to sing along when we start “O Canada”.  

My Story, “Et Tu Bruté,” Makes the Longlist for the GEIST Postcard Story Contest

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My story, “Et Tu Bruté,” was just chosen to be on the longlist of finalists for the GEIST magazine Postcard Story Contest.  Out of over 500 entries across Canada, they choose 15 stories for readers to read through and make comments about and vote on.  And then they choose winners.  Thank you, GEIST, for the exposure!  It’s a prize in itself to be on their website and to have my work being read.

So, go by the site, give the story a read.  Keep Brutus company.

UPDATE:  The site for “Et Tu Bruté” was retired, so I brought him home to my site.  So, while you can’t read it at Geist, you can read it at the new link above.

For more postcard stories, Geist is a wonderful spot.

 

Mac’s Fireweed signing of EVOLVE, Canadian Vampire Anthology, Friday, 4-6pm

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I’ll be at Mac’s Fireweed, Friday April 23rd from 4-6pm signing copies of EVOLVE: Vampire stories of the new undead–an anthology edited by Nancy Kilpatrick, where I have a story, “How Magnificent is the Universal Donor.”  It’s all-Canadian (or in my case, landed immigrant), all vampire and the theme is the evolution of vampires.  As far as I know, this has never been done.  Shaking up the old rules.  These are new kinds of vampires.

Come and find out how vampires have evolved and what they’ve become.  Or just come and say hi.  I’ll be behind a lonely desk, and will want company.  

This is the YUKON launch of the book–and we’re planning a reading in Tagish–sometime soon.  It’s been launched now in Brighton, UK at the World Horror Convention in front of other horror writers; it’s been launched in Toronto in front of fantasy, science fiction and horror enthusiasts; and it’s being launched in Winnipeg, Montreal and Vancouver as well.  

YUKON launch: Mac’s Fireweed, 4-6pm, Friday, April 23rd.  

See Reviews here at Innsmouth Free Press

Bitten by Books

Blog with Bite

Scifiguy.ca

The Librarian’s News Wire–an interview with Nancy Kilpatrick, editor

Gingrich cast as dreaming D’mi in new Star Trek Series

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As a follow up to my last post about Star Trek: Reckoning, the hot, new, nearly top-secret co-produced ST series from Paramount and Fox, none other than Newt Gingrich has come aboard!  It’s very rare for working politicians to take time out to create good television for honest folks in the Midwest and the Plains, but it looks like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich will be on board.  

From my insider at Paramount, “The producers had actually wanted an actor, at first.  Sarah Palin’s the one who pushed the idea of Newt, saying in effect, that he ‘has the chops’.”  

I have to say, it’s an inspired choice.  Not an actor, but a politician—those are close, so I can see Paramount going for that.  But Gingrich is, shall we say, kind of from another era.  Most popular from the 90s and the man who brought us the doomed “Contract with America” and subsequently hijacked the presidency of Bill Clinton.  Now, I remember that.  But I don’t think most people actually remember Newt Gingrich, so it might not be a problem.  They won’t confuse his character with any thing of substance he might have done in the past.

Sometimes actors on Star Trek have such long-standing previous sci-fi characters (I’m looking at you Scott Bakula) that viewers can’t see them as something new.  I know this hindered my viewing of ST:Enterprise—kept waiting for Al to pop in (although watching Dean Stockwell in BSG, i completely forget he was ever Al on QL).  So, it may be that no one actually remembers anything important that Gingrich did, allowing him to kind of slip into this role and establish himself anew.  I mean, did anything he did really amount to much?  So that might allow him to start over as a character!

Just to recap: Palin will play Capt. Nalia Fergus of the USS Steadfast; she’s part of a group of rogue commanders who believe the dream prediction of the D’mi, that “the Reckoning”  will destroy the Federation.  Seeing a Federation President they don’t trust, nor believe he can protect everyone, they form an alliance to counter the Reckoning before it happens.  

Gingrich will play the D’mi (unnamed as of April 8) on-board the Steadfast, who lives in two worlds at the same time.  One is the dream and one is reality.  He is constantly unsure which reality he is living in.

“Which makes Gingrich perfect,” my writer friend at Paramount said, “He has a bit of experience nowadays with living in both fantasy and reality.”  He’s referring, of course, to Gingrich’s latest gaffe, putting words in Obama’s mouth that he never said.  Gingrich’s character will try to give advice to Capt Fergus (Palin) about how to avoid the Reckoning.  But he rarely ever sleeps—sleeping triggers the shift to the other reality–and so when he sleeps in one reality, he awakens in the other.

A great tension that the writers are building in is that he will begin to give information that proves false—about halfway through Season One.  He will claim that something Fergus has done has altered the future so that a “certain” event won’t happen the same, but in effect, there’s an idea that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  I don’t even think that he knows that he lies; he’s a bit overwhelmed by the attention, by the focus, and by his power to direct Fergus, and the ships that follow her.  

I’m excited by this new Series.  I asked my friend why Paramount is delaying the formal announcement of Star Trek: Reckoning.  I’ve already had several people ask me when there will be more confirmed reports–and several people are searching on google for it.  

He says, “They’re testing the market right now, seeing what Red State America thinks about the idea.  They’ve never done a conservative focused Star Trek like this before.  They don’t know if they’ll have the audience.  But they’re basing it off of O’Reilly and Beck, Hannity and Coulter, and the current Tea Party constituency.  They figure people are tired of the way things have been done–and in that way, might be tired of Star Trek the old way—and want to see an overthrow, a rebellion—at least in science fiction, if they can’t have it in fact.”

I wonder if TV can play on that desire, that hope, of a people to want change so badly that they will accept the fictionalized version.  

“Well, you’ve seen The West Wing?  That was a George W. Bush era show–don’t tell me that wasn’t fantasy aimed at folks who wanted change!”  

He has a point.  

What I’m really interested in is this:  if the rogue group actually overthrows the Federation, will they make it more vulnerable to everyone else?  Will they make alliances with the Romulans?  The Borg?  Or will they naively think they can do better?  Fergus isn’t a seasoned captain; the D’mi doesn’t know what reality looks like; and they’re following a culture that believes in a bad dream….  they are hyping a monster that doesn’t exist.  

…will watching ST: Reckoning be akin to watching a train wreck in slow motion?

Young Yukon Writers Think About the Evolution of Vampires

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Wouldn’t you know that 11-18 year olds have plenty of reasonable, thoughtful ideas about the evolution of vampires?  Because of the anthology I’m a part of that comes out next week (Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead) I threw out the question —where do you think Vampires are going–or should go?— to my writing students.  They are all voluntary writers who stay after school to work on their own writing (which usually has a horror-tinge to it) and they were freakin’ brilliant.  I LOVE these guys.

Imagine them sitting around a grouping of four tables shoved together, in the French library of FH Collins.[Just gonna use their first names–they’re cooler that way]  I didn’t do any editing to this dialogue.  I have some pretty smart high school kids.

Here are their thoughts:

Santana:  I’m looking for more variety in vampires.  I think vampires have to move away from being either completely evil or sparkly good.  

Franz:  They used to be the icon of horror.  I think people forget that vampires used to turn into bats.  

Erin: They’re vampires.  They have to eat.  They’re not going to drag the carcass of a deer into the forest so they can revive it.  They aren’t going to be helpful.

Zeb:  They need to go back to the basics.  They’ve moved from Dracula to whiny good guys, and I think they need to swing back to Dracula.  I’ve seen quite a few vampires in between good and evil:  Dresden Files has multiple “courts” of vampires.  Some of them bad and some of them really bad.  

Franz:  Yes, I’m tired of angsty vampires.  I read about this one vampire who was all angsty and then he was bloodthirsty and killed people, but he was a lot more interesting when he got older and more complex.  He wasn’t as angsty and he wasn’t as bloodthirsty.  He was light hearted and pretty hilarious.

Santana:  Authors shouldn’t be afraid to expand the genre–to have vampires that are neither good nor evil, but neutral.  I want them as complex as real people.  I want them in modern day settings dealing with our own vampire crazy culture.  

Zeb:  Terry Pratchett had some really cheerful vampires called Magpires who wore bright clothing but they were really evil people!  

We all started citing some places that vampires still haven’t gone yet….

______________

And then …. they started to come up with ideas about what THEY would write about these vampires.  And they were such fantastic ideas, I can’t write them here… I have to let these kids tell them.   But they are brilliant.

I’m hoping that they read Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead and give us a review of the book–to see if authors were able to “expand the genre” as Santana mentioned.  I’d like to see how this meets their expectations of where Vampires should be going…