The Monday Updates: The Writing Front

The Writing Front
A Forlorn Harvest
WC: 23,000 first draft

After a few days away from the manuscript I came back today and put in 2200 words, bringing the total to what you see above. I won’t claim that this isn’t a problem riddled document or that it reads terribly well. Right now I am just trying to get words onto the page.

Even though I am 2K short of the minimum 25K goal I do believe that I’ll try and print this manuscript out tomorrow. Then I can sit down and see what is going on with it. It has always been difficult for me to edit on the computer screen. I find I do a lot better if I have the document right there on paper where I can see it all at once.

In somewhat related news, I spent part of last night working on a creation story for the Limb Knitters. I’ve always had a vague idea about their origins but nothing firmly set in stone. It turns out that the exercise was useful even though I am not sure that the Limb Knitters will make a major appearance in A Forlorn Harvest.

We’ll see.

As for other writing efforts, once can peek in on some of my homework for the World Building class over at Playing with Genesis.

Other Fronts

So far the main effort has been devoted to housework and writing for the novel. Here in a bit I’ll hit the gym for the first workout of the week followed by lunch. For some reason I feel a bit weak and punchy today, not sure what is causing that.

Aside from that, not much else to report.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

The Saturday Morning Fitness Ponderings: Process of Elimination, and other non-fitness ponderings.

The Student Front: Writing Your Own Creation Myth

The latest entry is up at Playing with Genesis concerning the issue of the Creation Myths. Feel free to drop in and comment, or perhaps even write your own.

Research Project Number – 05

To date, I have read all of the current documents from the Client. I have reworked one chapter to date leaving the others for later. I plan on focusing on the remainder this week.

The Fitness Front: Process of Elimination

So I hop on the scale and it still says 210 pounds. I’m working out. I’m doing the cardio like I am supposed to even though the knees protest. I’ve been hitting the pool. The only real obstacle has been the cold or the snow depending upon which one you want to blame.

I’ve changed my consumption habits for the most part and I have been keeping a food journal. In looking over that journal, while I have my binge days, my consumption isn’t that much different from what it has been over the last ten years. My pants are loser around the thighs which is probably the combined result of cardio and the walking prior to returning to the elliptical trainer. My strength gains are nominal or better depending on the muscle group.

Yet the stubborn three extra inches is still there.

There can be only two factors left to examine.

First, I am approaching forty. I’m not inclined to experience a great deal of angst over the advancement of my age though I felt a whiff of that the other day after having a talk with a teaching peer. My age is my age.

That said, my metabolism, which has always been on the slow side, may be getting even slower. If I am on a reliable elliptical trainer with a working heart monitor I can tell how much effort it takes to nudge my heart rate up into the training zone. In my case, it has always taken a great deal of effort. If one is looking for a mechanical example, consider the difference between a diesel engine and a gas engine. The diesel has power but tends to build it slowly. The gas engine builds power quickly.

The only solution for the metabolism is simply to keep working out. I don’t know what more to do for it.

The other issue is one that I am reluctant to blog about mainly because I am a college instructor. It pertains to alcohol.

I have acid reflux/GERD and often, at night, it keeps me up. I lose a lot of sleep and my meals do not always remain my meals as a result. My primary medication is prilosec, which helps to a degree but not as much as it once did. The folks at the Veteran’s Administration do not seem inclined to suggest anything else.

I found, recently, that if I had a night cap, my stomach settled down. This sets what some might consider a dangerous trend toward alcoholism. I freely admit that I worry about that too. However, my greater concern is my weight.

The weight climbs with alcohol consumption. I figure part of the reason is that I get to keep more of what I eat, which adds calories to the spread. I also suspect that it slows the metabolism down and finally given that I consume it right before bed the alcohol is probably converted to sugar.

Which goes straight to the gut. Also toss in the fact that your body will burn the alcohol first before it burns anything else and I think, at the end of the day, I have an answer for the three extra inches. To put it another way, it is not much different than drinking a can of soda prior to bed in terms of effect on my waistline.

So, starting Sunday night, I’ll cut back to weekends only. That is Friday and Saturday nights. I’ll do this for a month and see if there are any results. If I don’t see anything after two weeks, I may cut the weekends out as well.

If that doesn’t work, then I am officially baffled. It is going to take something radical to effect weight loss, perhaps a total overhaul of my consumption habits.

The Reading Front

I’ve read three books to date this year.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
World War Z by Max Brooks

At some point this week I’ll write reviews on the latest novels. I’m not sure what my next reading project will be yet. I suspect I’ll return to the history stack for awhile.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Game Review: Mass Effect 2

The Review Front: Mass Effect 2

I’m relatively new to console video games. When I finally got old enough to purchase such devices back in the early 1990s it seemed to me that the better bang for my buck was to buy games for my Dell 386 computer. So I invested in the Wing Commander Series and the very first edition of Civilization by Sid Meier.

For the most part, I am a PC gamer.

That changed this summer when the Woman I Love purchased an XBox 360 for my birthday.

Now I’m hooked.

So that is how I got here. Let’s talk about the game.

Mass Effect 2 is the second installment in what was originally planned as a trilogy. The protagonist, Commander Shepard, rises from the dead courtesy of a pro-Human organization known as Cerberus. The leader of the organization, known only as The Illusive Man, has a job for Shepard.

Find out why entire human colonies are disappearing.

The main character can be customized by the player. Not only can you customize general physical characteristics, you can also decide the gender of the character. The gender you select does provide opportunities for different types of interactions with various crew members.

The visual effects are stunning, going for that sense of wonder which drew so many to cinematic science fiction films. From time to time the cut scenes showing the storyline and the action are a bit jerky, but not to the point of distraction. It does remind me a little too much of arcade laserdisc games like Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair. However, if you look past the jerky moments, you are rewarded with a stunning vistas of interstellar space as your starship, the Normandy carries your team through the storyline.

One task is to assemble a team of specialists, soldiers and technicians to assist you on your mission. Your choices throughout the course of the game are made in the form of dialog selections which prompt other characters to respond. Sometimes, if you put some thought into it, the characters respond favorably. Other times it can lead to conflict among the various team members, not all of whom see eye to eye.

The dialog choices can be difficult to discern on a standard television set as the text is so small. When I played the game for the first time this lead to my character taking the wrong side in an argument between team members. It was an irritating quirk which had ramifications on the resolution of the plot.

An additional option is the opportunity to make good or bad decisions which are indicated by flashing paragon and renegade symbols on the screen. These choices might include whether or not to use an intoxicated alien as cannon fodder or save a specialist from babbling on too long about the scientific details of the mission. They have an effect on the overall plot of the story, dictating who will survive the final sequences of the story.

This paragon-renegade system is a variation of a similar system which was featured in Wing Commander 4 The Price of Freedom. If you made an “evil choice” then it would shape the ending of the narrative. The same is the case with a good choice. Perhaps my only objection about this is that good and evil are slippery, difficult concepts to define which keep philosophy students busy throughout the course of their careers. However, the value choice are pretty clear unless you happen to be a sociopath.

The combat system places the player behind the main character. It is possible to swivel around the character but I found this to be distracting. Perhaps this is designed as a way of compensating for the lack of true peripheral vision, a flaw of all shooter games. I usually found it easier to swivel the character as opposed to swiveling the camera view. This has the benefit of focusing the muzzle of your weapon on any targets you happen to find.

From time to time, especially under heavy fire, the character was less than responsive. I know to take cover when I am under fire but the commands often confused the character, prompting him to stand up in the middle of a firefight. In reality this sort of thing probably happens as well, the difference is that in the game it is merely irritating.

As for actually shooting a target, in this, I was most frustrated at first. I was spoiled by the combat system in Battlefield Bad Company and Bad Company 2. In those games, it is possible to bring the sights of the weapon up to the character’s eyeball, which is the most realistic application of the shooting process. While there is a similar option in Mass Effect 2, it still feels entirely too much like shooting from the hip. Even using the sniper weapons proved to be frustrating.

Thus Mass Effect 2 is very much a volume of fire game and I would advise players to take advantage of the adrenaline function of their character to slow down time and insure that your fire is used to maximum effect.

The adrenaline function, along with a number of other options, can be selected using the right upper button on your controller. This brings up a visual display that allows you to select ammunition options, medical options, and special abilities.

It can also be used to employ the options of your team members. On any given mission you will be allowed to chose two members for your own team.

The left button allows you to select weapons for yourself and your team members while in combat. Since I went with the soldier class (no surprise there) I had the greatest option for weapons. There are a number of different classes, each of which provides your character with special abilities and skills. I went with what I knew.

Overall, the game play grows on you. At first I wasn’t certain if I was going to like the game or not. However, the story and the graphics eventually won me over. There is a strong sense of character development which takes place among your team members, especially if you take the opportunity to help them with their various personal problems which form the core of their backstories.

In conclusion, as a science fiction writer and a veteran of the United States Army, I found myself wondering why I do not see more of what I saw in Mass Effect 2 in current books and short stories. Everything that drew me to science fiction is here. We have an impossible quest, a starship, robots, mechs, strange aliens, artificial intelligence, stunning visuals and the realization that space will probably kill you if it can.

I have my nits with the mechanics of the game, but I came for the story.

Thus Mass Effect 2 has my recommendation. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on Mass Effect 3.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

One, Two, Three Pondering Trees!

Admin Note

The Pondering Tree is now triple posted for redundancy as well as to post on certain blogs.

There is the Primary Blog at wordpress, http://sfmurphy1971.wordpress.com, the reserve blog at blogger, and now a return to livejournal under the user name The Limb Knitter. I’ll update links shortly but for now only the wordpress blog actually accepts comments.

I felt the need to use livejournal again to provide some cover fire for Doug Cohen over at his livejournal blog concerning the cover art fracas. Since I have it, I’ll cross post there as well.

Sometimes there will be a delay at the reserve blogs. For instance I can’t seem to post to blogger at Panera’s and I’m sure there will be issues with livejournal at various locales. For the most up to date information, the wordpress blog is the best source.

The Teaching Front: Spinning Up for Fall 2009

I assume that I will be teaching American History this fall so yesterday I began the process of prepping course material. The syllabi were first with a few minor mods. First I included a drop due to tardiness policy (because it was a problem last semester and most of my other tactics had limited effectiveness depending on how hard headed the person was). Second I include a strong recommendation that students purchase a dictionary. I’ve lost track of the number of times students have asked me to explain certain basic vocabulary words. Finally, I went to so far as to suggest that they purchase paper, pens, scantrons and pencils for the course.

I am again looking at my eight week class with an eye toward solving the perpetual problem of exams. It is impossible to wedge in four exams. It doesn’t work using a midterm and a final (it was a disaster in last semester AH Two course). I may try take home exams to break a few things up but those will have to be graded under a higher standard than the in class essays.

And finally I started looking over the notes. I broke the new textbook down into sections I actually care about and assigned readings accordingly. This means I threw out a lot of the social history that is so trendy these days. Given that our students do not know anything at all in most cases I feel that it is more important to lay the basics of political history first before we get into anything else.

Social history really ought to be relegated to the 300 plus courses. I get awfully tired of dealing with it. It bored me when I was a student and it bores me even more as an instructor.

At some point I’ll have to see about revising my 1920s lectures yet again. Still looking for the magic touch there. My Nazi Germany lecture needs some modifications and fact checking. I should polish my Rise of Japan lecture again with an eye toward throwing some more material about MacArthur and possibly Australia onboard.

And lastly I may try to revise my World War II lectures to emphasize the Big Three Conferences which transpired during the war, deemphasizing many of the military aspects. I’ll still cover the military operations to a certain degree, but I find I do less and less each semester.

I refuse to do the home front on general principles excepting the issue of Japanese Internment. Anyone who thinks that Americans at home suffered as much as those on the front are smoking some really good shit.

Later I’ll start on American History One prep.

Other Fronts

Trinity finishes her finals today and is at the Pod right now fighting with that. Her shoulder is bothering her again and there is some concern that the surgery may have missed something.

Planning continues per her upcoming birthday party. She did most of the details but I am in charge of invites and whatnot. We’ll be holding this party out at Sunset Acres Bed and Breakfast out in Odessa, Missouri. It’ll be good to see Brenda again.

There is a Murphy Family Dinner this Sunday. Trinity and I may attend, contingent upon other obligations and her health. If we go, I’ll get some pictures of places which inspired Tearing Down Tuesday. I’ve been meaning to do that for quite awhile now.

And so it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Keep on the Sunny Side, Always on the Sunny Side.

The Writing Front: Working on a Story Bible

I started work on a story bible for The Limb Knitter universe today. I suspect this is not the first time I’ve started on one but maybe this rearranging of the deck chairs will help on the writing front. Right now I am writing out the definitions and info for terms such as, what do you know, the Limb Knitter. As such, there are things in the story bible that have not hit the public and so I can’t share it.

Sort of like writing a story.

There is this one character who keeps coming back to me, a bitter sort of Christ figure (hmm, I sense a theme) and I suspect I probably need to tell his story first.

Maybe.

The Teaching Front

We’re still waiting to learn exactly what we’ll get for the Fall. That is fair since the cut session is floating around out there as well as late enrollments. I could get three to four courses if luck holds out, probably American History again. Preferably they’d all be American History II as, to be honest, I really do not enjoy American History I all that much. Oh, I can teach it and the lectures do need work, but I’d rather cover the second half.

If I could get the Civil War included in AH-II, I’d be a happy man but it wouldn’t work out. You have to lay the groundwork for the war which can take weeks.

I did mention to The Boss that I’d very much like to teach Western Civilization I. A senior adjunct peer has most of the availables sewn up (this is partly because I fucked up back in 2007 and passed an opportunity when it was available). Still, I’d like to spend a semester working my way from the dawn of Western Civilization through the Greeks and the Romans. I suspect I would not spend as much time on Egypt as some people would like (that would not make Trinity happy) but I’d enjoy myself.

Hell, it is what I trained for in the first place. And I’d like to get the experience.

Anyway, we should know in a few weeks.

Fitness Front

I’ve been to the gym three times in the last four days. My weight has dropped down to 195 pounds, which is a good thing if you ask me. I need to get back to the cardio (always with the cardio) but I never do it. How am I going to get a ripped body if I won’t do the cardio?

I’m getting older and the body is changing again so I suspect I need to do some research on workouts for forty year old men. Since I am signed up for body building this Fall, I should be able to try some of those new workout tips on for size and see what kind of luck I have.

I’d like to look better at forty than I did at twenty, which shouldn’t take too much effort given what I looked like at that age.

Student Front

Speaking of Fall classes, I have signed up for three hours of PT classes, Body Building, Fencing and Karate. Why not get credit for time I spend in the gym anyway?

The Fencing might run over a possible teaching opportunity so I may have to replace it with something. We’ll see how that goes.

Finally, I’m signed up for Terri’s Online Creative Writing course. This will be a first and all of these courses should free me from being present in a classroom. Terri’s class, hopefully, will spur me to get some writing done.

Other Fronts

Not much else to report. Made blueberry pancakes for the Woman I Love this morning. She dragged me out of bed at Oh My God Thirty to do it (somedays, God help me, she is a morning person and I, my friends, am NEVER a morning person).

So it goes.

Political

Oh, by the way. What’s this shit about making it mandatory for everyone to buy health insurance? I thought that (numerous expletives considered and deleted out of fear of losing the teaching job) of ours said he wasn’t in favor of that during the primaries but now his party is going to cornhole me with another fucking bill I can’t afford to pay.

To the folks on the Blue Team, quit trying to help me out. You want to help? Throw $65K at my student loans. Get the VA fixed so it isn’t a festering cesspool full of morons. But chucking another god damned fucking bill onto my plate IS NOT HELP!

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

A Bright Shiny New Sunday.

New Readers

Seems I have new readers. Ah, such is the danger of hotlinking to my blog.

Anyway, I’m Steve Murphy. Here is a list of labels that apply.

1. Honorably Discharged Veteran, US Army
2. Unrepentant Veteran of the Persian Gulf War
3. Published Writer (two stories to date, both with honorable mentions)
4. Research Consultant
5. Historian
6. College History Instructor
7. Missourian (while I don’t like the state per se, I’m unrepentant about my Midwestern roots as well).
8. Decidedly NOT politically correct.
9. Definitely NOT a liberal.

Just a few things. If you are looking for examples of my writing, you can find both of them at Apex Online Magazine. Tearing Down Tuesday originally appeared in Interzone Magazine, Issue 210 back in June 2007. Apex picked her up for republication. The Limb Knitter appeared in Apex Online back in September 2008 and was recently converted into a podcast at Paul Cole’s Beam Me Up Podcast. You can buy a print edition of The Limb Knitter when she appears in Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One. Just click the link over to the right.

Finally, I usually do not discuss it much, I am the research consultant to John Birmingham. I have two novels to my credit on that front, Final Impact and Without Warning.

Umm, I know a thing or two about science fiction. Some detractors do not care much for that.

So, welcome to the Pondering Tree. Assholes really aren’t tolerated and if you’re all about political correctness then you are probably in the wrong place. But otherwise, folks are pretty well tolerated around here.

Research Project Number – 04

While Trinity was sleeping last night I completed one chapter and got half way through another. This leaves me with two and a half chapters in the hopper to polish up.

For the benefit of the new readers, just what am I doing? My primary job is to work on the military, historical and tactical issues in this project. However, over the course of time, my role has evolved. I will make editorial changes, add details (especially if I have been to a particular place but the client has not) as well as modify dialogue to a degree. The relationship I have with my client is one akin to the apprentice working under a master. I’m very fortunate to have this relationship and as such I generally tend not to toot my horn about it. These RPN updates are more for the client’s benefit and my own than the general reader who might drop by.

But my basic job is to make sure everything is dress right dress. And when in doubt (which happens) and I can’t find answer(that happens to) I blur things just enough so that most readers won’t be able to tell the difference.

Details can be a double edged sword, I find.

Other Fronts

Pretty lazy day yesterday. Trinity and I went to see the latest Transformers movie with her ex-husband (who seems nice enough). The film was okay I suppose. An enjoyable way to spend a cloudy Fourth of July.

We had dinner at the Pod and a quiet night after.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Pimpin’ Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One

In December of this year, Apex Book Company will publish an anthology containing my short story, The Limb Knitter. The anthology is Descended from Darkness: Apex Magazine Volume One and it contains a number of notable stories from the print and online versions of Apex Digest and Apex Online Magazine.

You know the sales pitch is coming, right?

Why buy?

Reason One: Apex has been supportive of my fiction. Jason Sizemore and his crew purchased The Limb Knitter when other publications passed on it. The story did pretty well to judge by the comments thread and it also did well on the review front. If you ask me, that means Jason and his folks are pretty good judges of fiction.

Reason Two: Apex is a professional paying market. They pay five cents a word which means I was well compensated for a story that is available to you online for free.

Reason Three: The purchase of this anthology will support the continuation of Apex Online Magazine as a going concern.

Reason Four: The cover rocks. Have you seen the cover art?

Reason Five: Apex not only purchased The Limb Knitter, they also republished Tearing Down Tuesday.

Reason Six: You can have a print copy of a story that received an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 26th Edition.

Reason Seven: You can get a great collection of Apex Stories besides my own.

But the best reason of all?

Well, if you click on the link below this sentence, you’ll give me a tip of sorts. I get a small cut of the profit from each purchase generated by this link.

http://www.apexbookstore.com/products/murphy-descended-from-darkness

Or let us look at it like this.

If you ever wanted to buy me a beer or a box of tea bags to support me in my endeavors, this would be a good way to help out.

So, go order your copy today. Chop chop. Support the starving writer.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Honorable Mention for The Limb Knitter, Al Reynolds hits the Big Time, a theme change, teaching and a shit load of other stuff on this Heavy Hump Day.

Summer Theme Change

You know, sometimes black with white text is just too depressing. Good for winter and fall, not so good for summer and spring. So after a stroll through the templates I ended up with Tarski, which has a handy dandy tree no less.

Feel free to comment on the new template. Like it, love it, want more of it or hate it, want none of it.

The Limb Knitter receives an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Edition

Well, the anthology which taught me about the short story market is out with the latest release. Gardner picked Tearing Down Tuesday for an honorable mention in the Twenty-Fifth Edition so I was interested to see if The Limb Knitter would have the same luck.

Published by Apex Online Magazine, The Limb Knitter received an honorable mention and my name was mentioned as one of the prominent SF writers to appear in that venue.

So, that was a welcome spot of good news after yesterday’s bad news (so bad I couldn’t even blog about it).

That’s two for two. Now I just need to figure out how to crack into the anthology itself with a story of mine.

Oh, and I’d need to write a story and sell it in order for that to happen.

Research Projects Number – 04 and 05

I sent the bulk of Version One of the draft back to the Client last night. I feel like I could have done more work on it but the various disasters and meltdowns have impeded my progress. I suspect there will be opportunities to make additional mods. From now forward I’m to work on Chapters 31 to the Last Chapter. I have 31, 32 and 34 on hand. I’m currently on standby to receive follow on chapters.

As this is a three book series and my summer is (supposedly) clear, I suggested that I might do the ground work for RPN – 05. We’re cleared for that as of this writing. So I’ve started pondering those issues even though I do not know how RPN – 04 will end.

I didn’t know how RPN – 02 would end either (last few chapters were never sent, which is cool) nor did I fully know how RPN – 03 would end. Some bits were modified after I had worked on 03 which made it a better novel in some respects.

So it goes.

Kudos to Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds picked up a 1 million pound novel deal which will see one novel per year for the next ten years. I’m probably one of Al’s Biggest Fans (no, that is not a sledgehammer behind my back) so it gives me great pleasure to see him achieve a level of security most writers only dream of.

So, a blog shout to Al. Good on you, man.

The Teaching Front

Busy today. I was called in to cover two classes this morning. The upshot of that is this means August (when I will see this paycheck) will be pretty good. I had a choice between The Great Awakening and the French and Indian War.

That was an easy choice. I skipped the Awakening (which often puts even me to sleep, it is worse than Reconstruction) and started the French and Indian War.

After class I was incredibly hungry so Trinity and I hit the campus mess hall (Army habit, can’t break it) for taco salad that was a bit iffy.

So it has been a busy and far better day than yesterday.

SHINE: Optimistic Science Fiction

Jetse de Vries announced that he has extended the submission deadline to SHINE until August 1st. If you are an optimist, then this is probably the anthology you need to submit your work to.

Strangely enough, Jetse once said that Tearing Down Tuesday was optimistic and hopeful (which, while appreciated, confuses me to no end as it seems awfully bleak to me). I’ve got one submission to him right now. I’ll cull through my stockpile and see what else I have.

I am seriously thinking of deploying the following:

Entangled, the earlier version from 2007.
Fishin’ Fer Tuesday, a Tearing Down Tuesday prequel.
Healing Hands of the Killer.

So it goes.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

A Discussion of the Use of Forced Sexual Acts in Tearing Down Tuesday and The Limb Knitter.

I’ve been following some ongoing discussions that pertain to the use of rape as a tool for storytelling in the science fiction community. Some of the discussion is going in what I consider to be a rather disturbing direction. Basically, as I understand it, there are those that argue that the depiction of rape revictimizes survivors of the act and empowers those who are inclined to engage in such behavior. As such, we, the writing community, should not write about rape.

Perhaps that is an oversimplification, but that is how I presently understand the argument.

Spoilers of my work ahead for those that haven’t read them but I assume readers of the blog have read my material by now. Both Tearing Down Tuesday and The Limb Knitter feature scenes of forced sex acts. One could split hairs and argue that in both stories the acts are consensual.

In TDT, Kyle engages in his act as a means of earning enough money to save his childhood friend, Tuesday. On the other hand, I think it is clearly obvious that Reverend Robinson manipulated him into the act. The Reverend probably doesn’t know much about Kyle’s previous childhood trauma but he would have heard the rumors floating around Circeville hinting to it.

In TLK, Delauchen is given a choice which is supposed to heal the wounds he incurred on the battlefield. He really doesn’t have any idea what he has given his consent for. To be honest, when we agree to let a doctor perform a procedure, do we truly understand what we are getting ourselves into? Delauchen certainly couldn’t have known that the healing process used by the Limb Knitter entails sexual intercourse. And if he did, would he have made a different choice?

Kyle and Delauchen’s experiences are universally unpleasant. When I conceived of both scenes, I wanted to convey something that I often felt was lacking in all of the depictions of male sexual behavior in literature. The notion that sex is not always pleasant, desireable or even wanted by a given male character. I know from my experience at science fiction discussion boards that the female members and many male members of these boards often reacted with bemusement at the notion that a male might find sex unpleasant.

I also wanted shoot down a few myths about male sexual behavior in general. One of the most pervasive is the notion that if a man has an erection, he is interested in having sex. Actually, and my research bears this out, direct stimulation will generate a physiological response in the male which has NO CORRELATION on actual desire.

I can not emphasize this point strongly enough because the counterargument in such cases is, “He had a hard on so he must have been turned on. Therefore it was consensual sex.”

I have a personal interest in this subject. I was sexually abused at age six in my neighbor’s basement. In fact, a fair amount of that material makes its way into Tearing Down Tuesday, though so many of the baseline facts have been changed that I would argue it is not a Mary Sue story. I also know that I am not the only man who suffers lasting effects from this type of incident. One of those lasting effects is that I have had my share of unpleasant sex.

Both of my published stories are attempts at examining those issues, which is part in parcel what literature is supposed to be about. They aren’t therapy per se, especially given that Kyle and Delauchen both make decisions I, Steven Francis Murphy, would not make. If the critics of using rape as a storytelling device in science fiction had it their way, neither of my stories would be in print right now.

The topic would be taboo. Indeed, at several venues, the topic is forbidden in their submission guidelines.

This is unfortunate. Science fiction especially used to be about exploring all aspects of the human condition in an effort to understand it. Indeed, this is what literature in general is supposed to be about. Instead, there are those who would take tools out of the toolbox for fear of causing harm.

I argue that the best way to prevent harm is with knowledge and understanding, not sweeping the subject under the rug in much the same way the Victorians might have done.

Ponder on it.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri

Sunshine in my Friday Beer

I’ve been a little busy of late. More on that in a bit. As for what I’ve been up to, the only thing worth pointing out is that this is the first full week of gym time I have had in months. I have made it into the gym four times this week so far, Trinity has popped in for three. We are already seeing the results and the heavy fiber diet doesn’t hurt either.

I’ll spare the details.

I also received the contract for Descended from Darkness, which will feature The Limb Knitter in 2010. I signed said copies and sent them back today. Hopefully that will satisfy the good folks at Apex.

So it goes.

Research Project Number – 04

I’ve been busy, as I said. I finally printed out a hardcopy of the client’s work as of 05-27-09 for review. However, that is on the backburner while I work up some tactical material for the project. I sent one batch of 1600 words yesterday. Chances are that I’ll try to send another 1500 to 3000 later today. I’ve also got a chapter to review which incorporates some of the research I sent on a location the other day.

I enjoy this sort of work to be honest. Sometimes I honestly think I should push for more such work. Granted, I get requests for research projects ever so often, but there usually isn’t any pay tied to them. A blurb in the forward, maybe a tuckerization (I’ve been tuckerized so many times over the last five years that I think I’ve lost track). That said, maybe if it was paying work I’d do more of it.

As it stands, I should be concentrating on my own writing when not working on RPN-04 or the probable RPN-05 which will most likely follow.

The Writing Front

Yesterday I came up with a possible story idea. The goal, if I try to exploit it, is to have this story written, revised, prepped and ready for submission by the end of the month. I will probably sit down and try to push it around today, maybe over the course of the weekend.

If I go with the idea I am considering, I might write a story about one of Tuesday’s friends from Tearing Down Tuesday. A stuttering Bobcat Construction Robot named Thursday.

We’ll see.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
North Kansas City, Missouri
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday