Time Travel: Tears In Rain by Stewart Stafford

Blade Runner (1982), set in November 2019, came of age this week. In the closing moments of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic, Rutger Hauer, in a soliloquy he wrote, uses the last moments in the life of replicant Roy Batty to compare life memories to drops of water: “All these moments will be lost like tears in rain.”

In the week a classic time-travelling franchise returns to cinemas with “Terminator: Dark Fate,” let’s delve deeper into this common science fiction trope.

Time is similar to a body of water with its own ecosystem composed of elements that are not interchangeable or what I call a “Chronosphere”. I define Chronosphere as “an infinite time superhighway containing chronological and coexisting past, present and future timelines and the wormholes within and around them where the theoretical possibility of time travel can occur.”

The elements of an ecosystem are in delicate balance with each other, and tinkering with any of it, like reducing the number of bees or trees, can have a devastating knock-on effect on all life on our planet. Similar to wading into a body of water, entering time’s Chronosphere is where humans frequently could find themselves out of their depth.

The three stages of time are:

1.              The Past – concerned with mistakes and regrets and reliving past glories or the past glories of others.

2.              The Present – concerning reality or our conception of it.

3.              The Future – encapsulating all our hopes and fears of the unknown.

I propose a possible fourth stage – Alt-Time, an overarching concept that can involve all three stages of time and any possible combinations of the triumvirate or in the isolation of future time.

If I may take the aquatic analogy further, time also possesses a density that counteracts attempts to instigate propulsion through it. Wormholes are the water spouts of the time-space continuum, but unlike water spouts, they are theoretical portals to other dimensions.

If you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter, you get Pi or 3.14. If you don’t get that calculation, you don’t have a circle. Time itself is circular: a clock face, the circle of life, the great wheel of Time, or a wormhole itself. Even the symbol of infinity is a snake swallowing its tail.

Visionary sci-fi author H.G. Wells first proposed time travel in his 1895 novel “The Time Machine.” “The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time,” according to Wikipedia.

As with any invention created by humans, we never see all the consequences of our actions. We see some of them, and that is where my quote about human knowledge can come in.

Again, another water analogy, just as the level of our knowledge is only at the surface, so we cannot see all the ripples emanating outwards from discoveries or of time travel.

If the future has not occurred yet, then how could you time travel there with no coordinates? To travel forward in time, it would appear to be necessary for the future to be coexisting with the past and the present and happening simultaneously. How can it be preexisting when it has not happened yet?

Let us introduce a hypothesis.

Stafford’s Hypothesis on The Transference of Existence

Even if you self-isolated, stood still, and held your breath after traveling into the past, you would still be a pebble diverting the flow of time in some way. The very transference of existence via wormholes, not interaction with past actors or events, creates paradoxes.

Time Transference has three stages:

1. The distance traversed between the origin or starting point of the wormhole and the rip in the Chronosphere (Space-Time continuum).

2. The transference of biological material through the rip in the Chronosphere without damage to or mutation of the genetic code of the chrono-commuter.

3. Arrival at the endpoint of the time transference – the reconstruction of the chrono-commuter’s genetic material and the sealing of the rip in the Chronosphere.

Some people believe time travel to be an impossibility. Others think it has already happened. Remember that American Civil War-era photo of Nicolas Cage that went viral a few years back?

Fortunately, time travel does not exist. With it, the human race would try to solve past mistakes in isolation, erase any knowledge gleaned from making them, and create a chain reaction of unforeseen consequences. These could destroy the past, along with the present and future simultaneously. Time itself could become the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

If/when time travel ever happens, no doubt Richard Branson will corner the market and get in there first. If you’ll excuse me, I must go, I have a time travel blog to write. (Or do I?)

© Stewart Stafford, 2019. All rights reserved.

If you’re a generous person who believes writers should be paid for their work, all donations are gratefully accepted here.

To read more of this author’s work, check out his short story Nightfall and novel The Vorbing.

Stewart Stafford’s Quotes

On Defining Literary Fantasy

A rather interesting interpretation of fantasy. See what you think.

Mitriel Faywood

Recently I created a new Facebook group that I was hoping to focus on the more literary fantasy works of SFF. Mark Lawrence humorously named it as Literary Snobs of Fantasy.

If I’m not mistaken literary fantasy isn’t clearly defined anywhere however, which provided some uncertainty within the group when it came to book recommendations. I’m usually against labels and trying to shoehorn books into boxes but will endeavour to provide some guidance on what my views on the subject were when I created the group, hoping to spur and invite thoughts from others, rather than lay down rules set in stone.

To illustrate my point, I created this little scale here. The underlying principle is that books which are not literary have a strong focus on the first element (plot) of the novel or the first two (plot and world building), while literary books concentrate on the last…

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2017 – Read the best of FANTASY Novel Stories from around the world:

WILDsound Writing Festival

Browse through these best of stories in the FANTASY genre and see where you can read the best of new novels from around the world. 

THE DRAGON OF TIME: GOD’S AND DRAGONS, by Aaron Dennis

HE WALKS WITH DRAGONS, by Stanley S. Thornton

THE DREAMWORLD, by Yehuwdiyth Yodhhewawhe

THE BREDE CHRONICLES: BOOK 1, by P.I. Barrington

THE HIDDEN ABBEY, by Jodine Turner

THE VORBIN, by Stewart Stafford

BAD ELEMENTS BLOOD FOR BLOOD, by Lynn Mullican

DESTINY CALLS, by Kathryn Heaney

THE PRINCESS MAN, by Deborah Jay

THE FULL MOOD PRIESTESS TALE, by Pen Augustin

THE LAST DAYS OF PLANET EARTH VOLUME I, by LJ Hick

TEMPEST MAKERS, by KL McKinley

MAVEN FAIRY GODMOTHER: THROUGH THE VEIL, by Charlotte Henley Babb

ANNIE GOMEZ AND THE GIGANTIC FOOT OF DOOM, by Jay Cutts

THE LAST TRAIN, by Richard Alan

ORDOWAHL THE HUGE AND UGLY, by Joel Hinrichs

EVERYTHING WILL FALL INTO PLACE…

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The Vorbing – Fantasy Novel of the Day

Originally posted on Novel Writing Festival: PITCH: Title: The Vorbing Written by: Stewart Stafford Type: Novel Genre: Fantasy/Horror Logline: The Vorbing is a fantasy/horror concerning Vlad Ingisbohr’s struggle to free his village from the reign of terror of vampires and avenge his father’s death at their hands. Interested in this logline, please email us at…

via FANTASY Novel of the Day: THE VORBIN, by Stewart Stafford — WILDsound Writing and Film Festival Review

Story: In The Beginning…

Where do you start your story? A key question and one of hundreds if not thousands to be answered when writing and publishing a book. Do you start when your character is born or before? When they are a child? A teenager? An adult? When they get married? When they are old? Do you start at the point of death or after and tell the story in flashback?

If you were telling the story of your life, where would you choose to start and why? Looking at your characters in the same way and treating their lives as real can be hugely beneficial. When you start treating them seriously, they become more realistic to you and hopefully your readers.

When a potential reader opens your book, how do you pique their interest? Your first sentence is crucial. The point you choose to start the story will determine that first sentence. The whole structure is like a line of dominoes (no, not the pizza place); set the first one right and the rest should stand. Get it wrong and they all could topple.

It took me many years to publish my book The Vorbing and, during that time, I wrote many different versions of it. I went through a city map of blind alleys but it taught me what worked and didn’t work each time and sharpened the story. When the time came to pull all the strands together, I could use all the best bits from all the various drafts to come up with a kind of “greatest hits” version of the story. All those ideas gave the whole thing a fast pace and fresh perspective. I won’t have that luxury on book two, but such is the challenge of writing.

This is where a fresh pair of (preferably experienced) eyes on your work can pinpoint a loss of initial focus. Even if you need to lose earlier material, you can use it later in the story or in a sequel or even just as backstory to help you know your characters better. No piece of writing is ever really wasted. You can cannibalize it later or even combine bits to create a new story (Anne Rice was writing a book set in Atlantis and hit a dead end, so she put her vampire Lestat into the mix and, hey presto, got a new Vampire Chronicles book out of it – Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis.)

That old cliche “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” is doubly true for writers, especially in the internet age. If someone is viewing a preview of your book using the “Look Inside” option on Amazon, that mouse button is right at their fingertips and they are ready to click off if you fail to hook them. So think carefully about that first sentence. Be original. Be surprising, but be true to your characters, your story and yourself above all.

© Stewart Stafford, 2016. All rights reserved.

 

Imagination Vs Technology – The Writer’s 21st-Century Faustian Pact?

Imaginary things take time to write. Fantasy and horror and, to a lesser extent, science fiction can be among the toughest genres to write as they are works of pure imagination. Science fiction can be slightly researched and current trends can be followed to their logical conclusion. Educated guesses can be made as to what direction science will go in. Fantasy and horror mostly comprise world-building from scratch and, depending on the writer, the concepts can take time to generate.

Added to that, readers want new product yesterday. They’ve become ultra-impatient in the internet age. Some of them even refuse to read the first book in a series as they are unable to wait for the other books to be written and published. “Am I going to have to wait years for you to finish your Vorbing trilogy? I’m an impatient bitch,” one of my readers helpfully explained to me.

In their book, The Neuroscience of Clinical Psychiatry: The Pathophysiology of Behavior and Mental Illness, Edmund S. Higgins and Mark S. George note: “People who can delay gratification and control their impulses appear to achieve more in the long run. Attention and impulsivity are opposite sides of the same coin.” This is especially true of all those internet babies who have grown up in the technological age. So the internet is a bit like Brexit; we don’t know what the full implications of its arrival are yet.

The web has its advantages. It’s a phenomenal communication tool. Twitter has definitely made me think faster and streamline messages better, that is certain. As a way of quickly disseminating a message or a product worldwide immediately, the web takes some beating. The net is like a giant synthetic brain our thought patterns are connected to (a strength and a weakness that can be exploited). There are concerns over privacy and who is doing what with our data and those worries will only increase as time goes on.

Back to the writing. This awareness of the disintegration of attention spans has unquestionably changed both the method and style I employ when writing books. I started writing my first book when the internet was in its infancy. I was able to remain in the world I had created all day interacting with my characters. I was totally immersed in it and wouldn’t notice hours passing. Now social media, that great thief of time, eats up chunks of my day without me noticing hours passing. I mostly interact online with people I don’t know instead of my characters. I’m totally immersed in the internet. Writing is done now in feverish bursts to meet my daily word count so I can get back online. Experience has enabled me to do much more in less time though. I no longer need to spend all day going down blind alleys trying to find myself creatively. So perhaps there is no damage done there.

There are writers who have given up social media for a month to get books out there. I’d be concerned about losing half my hard-earned followers. You can’t expect people to continue following you if you’re offline for weeks. Especially if you’re a self-published writer dependent on social media to market your books. It appears to be a 21st-century Faustian pact with the web.

Then there is the pace of the novel itself. I am only too aware that if you fail to hold the attention of your readers, social media is tickling their ears non-stop to woo them away. So they’re dealing with getting their electronic fix too (especially if they’re consuming your book on an e-reader or smartphone app that’s connected to the internet and the ejector seat button for your novel is half an inch away). The pacing of a novel has to match the online frenzy going on out there or you’re toast. Then again, if the flour is going rotten to begin with, maybe the quality of the toast isn’t so important these days. We shall see.

So the internet has rewired our brains, changed our expectations and how books are written, edited, sold and read (or not as the case may be). What form will books take in 2026? 2036? 2066? Will we be taking downloads directly into our brains as in a William Gibson cyberpunk novel? I have a saying: “The possible is just the impossible that we’ve come to accept.” It will happen.

My novel “The Vorbing” is available here

© Stewart Stafford, 2016. All rights reserved.

“You Can Quote Me On That” – The wise ramblings of Stewart Stafford (Slideshow)

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H P Lovecraft and the Foundations of a Mythos

An excellent appraisal of the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Enjoy

Flynn Gray

H P Lovecraft is famed for his creation of what is widely known as the “Cthulhu Mythos”, a term used to describe the intricate fictional universe constructed by Lovecraft that was gradually expanded upon through successive stories. This fictional universe became so influential that it continued to be widely referenced, utilised and expanded by other authors even after Lovecraft’s death, and still is today.

Even outside of the direct use of the Cthulhu mythos, Lovecraft’s influence can be found across modern horror literature, films, and music, such as the Evil Dead franchise (1981-2015), songs such as Metallica’s “The Thing That Should Not Be” (Master of Puppets, 1986), games such as Bloodborne (2015), and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

During his lifetime, Lovecraft’s contemporary authors also referenced his fictional universe, just as Lovecraft referenced the creations of his contemporaries. For example, Lovecraft wrote in a letter to William Anger, in 1934…

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R.I.P. David Bowie: From Space Oddity to BlackStar

David Bowie died of cancer yesterday aged 69. I’d like to pay tribute to him in some way.

Where on earth do you start with the legend that was and is David Bowie? You don’t, as he was not of this earth. His first hit was “Space Oddity” in 1969. At a time when people were writing hippy-dippy songs, Bowie was thinking of space travel and the future. Nobody else was doing what he was doing musically at the time. He truly was a visionary.

Despite that first hit, he struggled in the very early 70s to find another one. When he hit upon the persona of Ziggy Stardust, his fame exploded. “I’m going to be huge,” he said in 1972, “and it’s quite frightening in a way.” He went on to dominate the 70s the way Dylan had the 1960s. I can’t think of another performer who challenged himself and his audience as Bowie did, drastically deconstructing every successful look and sound and rebooting it with the next album. Something was popular? BOOM! He’d moved on to something else. Oh, you like that now? POW! He did it again. (Bowie said the one thing he hated journalists saying was: “You’re a chameleon that’s always ch-ch-changing.”) In an age of one-hit-wonder X-Factor wannabes, he looks even more of giant.

Nicolas Cage: “You have to stay uncomfortable. I learned that from David Bowie. I said, ‘How do you do it? How do you keep reinventing yourself?’ He said, ‘I just never got comfortable with anything I was doing.’ I knew those were words of wisdom from a great artist and I took those words seriously.”

My favourite Bowie story is the time he went to see Elvis Presley perform at Madison Square Garden in 1972. Bowie arrived late to his front row seat in full Ziggy Stardust gear as Elvis and the band were powering into “Proud Mary.” “He must have thought Mary had arrived,” Bowie joked. Yes, he was weird and wonderful, but people forget how funny he could be. (Just check out his “Chubby Little Loser” song from Extras with Ricky Gervais)

This is how he recalled writing the classic Life On Mars: “I took a walk to Beckenham High Street to catch a bus to Lewisham to buy shoes and shirts but couldn’t get the riff out of my head. Jumped off two stops into the ride and more or less loped back to the house up on Southend Road. Workspace was a big empty room with a chaise lounge; a bargain-price art nouveau screen (‘William Morris,’ so I told anyone who asked); a huge overflowing freestanding ashtray and a grand piano. Little else. I started working it out on the piano and had the whole lyric and melody finished by late afternoon.”

Queen gave what is generally considered the greatest performance of all-time at Live Aid. Bowie had to go on after them and he was still magnificent. That’s a true testament to how good he was.

Bowie At Live Aid

It’s a cliche to say when someone famous dies that there will never be another like them again but it’s true in Bowie’s case. Not just because of his groundbreaking, daring abilities but also because the music business he became a superstar in during the 1970’s just doesn’t exist anymore. Albums were king then but not now with music sales dropping. Live touring is where the money is. If Bowie was starting out today, he would never be given the time or creative space to develop even one of his personas let alone the many he did (can you imagine One Direction ever tampering with their smash-hit formula as drastically as Bowie did even once? Nope, neither can I.) Nor would Bowie be given a chance to come back from less successful albums. Presently, if you’re not an instant success, you get dropped by your record label. The patience of executives and their belief in the artist is gone. Young Bowie in this world would have to lower himself to entering reality talent contests like X-Factor or American Idol where his baritone wouldn’t be appreciated. He would probably be eliminated early in favour of the glass-shattering screamers who tend to win. I can’t see how Bowie or anyone else could have a 47-year musical career starting in  2016. It’s all about making a quick buck and moving on to the next teeny-bopper sensation before the kids get bored.

“Who wants to drag their old decaying frame around until they’re 90 just to assert their ego? I don’t,” he said in 1977. He didn’t, he left us at 69 with a staggering, diverse body of work. Hard to believe one man came up with all that but he did. The world was lucky to have him as long as we did. Go, David, fly Starman beyond the bounds of time and space to your true place in the Heavens.

© Stewart Stafford, 2016. All rights reserved.

If you’re a generous person who believes this writer should be paid for his hard work, you may donate here.

To read more of this author’s work, check out his short story Nightfall and novel The Vorbing.

 

 

“I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.”

Clintington on Film

I have to do a “two-for” every now and then.  These are definitely worthy.

The evolution of this story, like so many others, started with my mother.  I remember her always referring to the first movie in the series as the “scariest movie” she’d ever seen.  She mentioned it in passing when I was about 5 and I never forgot it.  I was not allowed to watch it at that time given my age.

Approximately 6 years later, the sequel was the Sunday Night movie on ABC (I think–one of the big four networks, anyway).  My father was very excited when he found out and started queuing up a tape.  I remember the ominous score at the beginning as a very small spacecraft was docked onto a larger one.  The speed with which the engineers cut through the metal doors is an image I will probably never forget.

This was…

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