{"id":73,"date":"2012-12-30T12:12:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T17:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.budsparhawk.com\/?page_id=73"},"modified":"2020-03-02T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T16:00:00","slug":"1976-1995","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/?page_id=73","title":{"rendered":"1976 – 1995"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0SAM BOONE AND THE THERMAL COUPLES<\/strong> is an examination of translation of alien speech, particularly with whom we share few physical attributes, was an\u00a0idea that I had been considering for years. This particular piece was\u00a0inspired in part by the old Freas drawings of whacked-out aliens.
\nWhile I was attending ConFranCisco I attended a seminar featuring Stan Schmidt, who said that he had been trying for years to write an alien translation story. When I got home I decided to see if I could bring the\u00a0idea to life, but inject a little humor as well. The aliens just sort of popped up as the writing went along. The Rix is my favorite, and I made them quite different from the Rix in ETIQUETTE<\/b>. I requested Freas as the illustrator and was so pleased by the result that I bought the lead illustration, which now hangs on my wall.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG, October 1995 – page 106 Created : June 1994 (Revised June 2004) Sold: December 1994 Words: 11,300 Illustrated by: Kelly Freas<\/i><\/p>\n

ETIQUETTE<\/strong> was inspired by the style of C.J. Cherryh. The driving, internally absorbed, consciously thinking narrative taken to extremes. The story\u00a0supposes a galactic culture that is casually vicious, largely\u00a0uncaring of humanity, and doing things that are beyond understanding. It\u00a0seemed appropriate that the protagonist be a woman. I have Jeff Kooistra\u00a0to thank for the image of the huge spaceship. Some aliens and settings were later used in SAM BOONE AND THE THERMAL COUPLES.
\nAppeared in: RADIUS, April 1995 Created : February 1994 Sold: April 1994 Words: 4,500<\/i><\/p>\n

RATE OF CHANGE<\/strong> began when I tried to imagine what it would be like as the final hours of the singularity approached. In it I make reference to Vernor Vinge, who originated the idea of the singularity in the PEACE WAR. It seemed to me that the rate of implementation would increase as well as the speed of development and, given the growth of the internet, would be facilitated by worldwide communications. My experience as an independent contractor\/consultant gave me the idea of the transient company, created for a specific task, and then going out of business. While I was writing this I spread my expertise among three companies.
\nAppeared in: RADIUS, November 1994 Created : October 1993\u00a0Sold: August 1994 Words: 3,000.
\nAudio (CD) version\u00a0in Frequency Magazine #2, \u00a0January 2001 Cover from the Ackerman Collection.<\/i><\/p>\n

THE LAST GREAT MAN<\/strong> was written in\u00a0honor of John Campbell and some disgust at the direction I think\u00a0technology and our educational system is taking the fiction market.
\nConsider the advent of word processors, grammar checkers, spelling\u00a0checkers, and language translators and you will see that this crazy idea\u00a0might not be so far in the future at all.\u00a0This was to have appeared in SPECULATIONS anonymously, but I let the cat
\nour of the bag before publication and embarrassed a few people as a\u00a0result, for which I am sorry, but unrepentant.
\nAppeared in: SPECULATIONS, March 1995 – page 35\u00a0Created : December 1992 \u00a0Words: 4,300<\/i><\/p>\n

CHILDISH THiNGS<\/strong> is highly autobiographical and includes various members\u00a0of my family, albeit thinly disguised. The genesis of this is the concept of\u00a0transience. Stories about this subject have always fascinated me,\u00a0especially those by Lee Cory.\u00a0This story appeared side-by-side with another one about an alien message\u00a0by Jerry Oltion. It was interesting to see that, while I was more inclined\u00a0to welcome the gifts from beyond, Jerry was not. The two stories make\u00a0an interesting counterpoint. Neither Jerry nor I knew about each other’s\u00a0story in advance.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG, December 1994\u00a0Created : October 1993 Sold: February 1994 Words:3,900 Illustrated by: Nicholas Jainschigg<\/i><\/p>\n

HURRICANE!!<\/strong> came from a chance conversation while I\u00a0was standing in line, waiting to get in to ConFrancisco. The guy ahead of\u00a0me was talking about the effects of hurricane Andrew, which had just\u00a0ravaged Florida. The connection with parasailing and sport jumping was\u00a0immediate. I wrote the outline for the story that very night, sitting in the
\nbathroom so I wouldn’t disturb my wife’s sleep.
\nThis story required a lot of research, during which I discovered that not\u00a0much is known about the internal structure of hurricanes. I expected to\u00a0get a lot of comment from meteorologists and was surprised when the\u00a0only criticism I got was that I depicted kayakers as daredevils when\u00a0everyone knows that people who take a teeny little boat in white water\u00a0are usually conservative cautious types — sure they are – HA!! I also\u00a0worried that someone might actually try to do what I described and put a\u00a0line in that the editor later removed: “This story is narrated by a\u00a0professional. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME!” This was the cover story\u00a0for that month.\u00a0In case you are interested, compare the opening of this story with that of\u00a0HUGO AND ME.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG, September 1994, Created : September 1993 Sold: January 1994 Words: 14,300 Illustrated by: George Krauter\u00a0Cover by: John Maggard<\/i><\/p>\n

MARY’S PRESENT<\/strong> was written because\u00a0I was dissatisfied with JAKE’S GIFT, since
\nthere were some long term effects of Jake’s invention that were not\u00a0discussed. I wrote Mary’s Present to describe some of these\u00a0effects. In this story I described my first sailboat, a Wesort, in some\u00a0detail. This is a twelve foot wooden boat that weighs about one hundred\u00a0pounds and has about 120 square feet of sail (main and jib). It is exciting
\nto sail, but tips over very easily when the wind shifts suddenly.\u00a0I received some favorable comments from biologists about the accuracy of\u00a0the descriptions of vegetation that populates the edges of the bay in this\u00a0story. I did a lot of research on that feature and, when I heard that I got it\u00a0right, I was very pleased. Most of the story’s place names are fictitious,\u00a0but have an affinity to actual locations.\u00a0A third installment of the story, tentatively named “Simple Gifts,” was\u00a0being written when my computer was stolen in 1995 and I didn’t have the\u00a0heart to recreate it. Fortuitously, as I was moving in 1996, I discovered\u00a0the outline and an earlier fragment in my files. I am now considering
\nwriting it to complete the Jake and Mary story.
\n“Mary’s Present” was reviewed in both LOCUS and TANGENT, neither of
\nwhom liked it particularly well, probably because they didn’t understand
\nthat it was a sequel.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG, May 1994 – page 82 Created : May 1993 Sold: August 1993 Words: 6,400\u00a0Illustrated by: Christopher Bing<\/i><\/p>\n

EVE OF FEAST<\/strong> is the result of a whim. I was thinking of how I’d\u00a0done ALBA KRYSTAL when I started this. ANALOG originally wanted to buy\u00a0this seasonal piece, but already had R-TRNRD in hand, so it went to other\u00a0markets. \u00a0Somehow I think that it might be even better in verse, but I\u00a0don’t have that much time ( or skill).
\nAppeared in: RADIUS, December 1994 Created : May 1993 Sold: October 1994 Words: 2,400<\/i><\/p>\n

PERSISTENCE<\/strong> was written while I was in the depths of depression about my writing ability. On the afternoon of\u00a0the day I wrote this, I received five (5) rejection notices in the mail. \u00a0This, by itself, wouldn’t have been so bad, but I’d also gotten disgusted and\u00a0trashed 10,000 words of a novel I was writing. I wrote the story in four\u00a0hours (2000 – 0200) and swore that it was the last thing I’d write. I\u00a0mailed it the next day. I was chagrined when Stan Schmidt told me that he\u00a0thought that it was the best thing I’d done.
\nOn reflection I realize that there is a lot of autobiographical material in\u00a0this story. The woman who was the model for this story told me that she\u00a0cried when she read the draft, so I guess it I did something right. It also\u00a0made the preliminary ballot for the Hugo that year, which means that it\u00a0also touched a few fans’ hearts as well.
\nThis issue of ANALOG also contains a bio of me by Jay Kay Klien together with an absolutely ugly picture of me.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG,, May 1994 – page 82, Words: 7,200 Created : April 1993 Sold: July 1993 \u00a0Illustrated by: Todd Cameron Hamilton<\/i><\/p>\n

IRIDIUM DREAMS<\/strong> is a complex story that works on many levels. \u00a0This received some good press from the reviewers and was given an
\nhonorable mention in Dozois’s YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION – 1994. I
\ncombined information from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN,
\nand TIME magazine articles to provide the details of the story. There were
\nabout six drafts before it was submitted, and two thereafter. I even made
\na few revisions on the galley proofs!
\nThis was composed with a Hypercard scene development stack I created to
\nallow me to shift scenes and text around. After I was satisfied with the
\nsequence of the basic plot, I went to word processing and smoothed the
\ntext. \u00a0The working title for this piece was A JURASSIC LUCY, but was changed
\ndue to the appearance of the movie, Jurrasic Park.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG,, April 1994 – page 117\u00a0Created : February 1993 Sold: April 1993 Words: 7,200<\/i><\/p>\n

JAKE’S GIFT<\/strong>\u00a0contains scenes from my childhood haunts, my sailboat, my sailing instructor, and my dog, Chessie. \u00a0It is mostly a love story about the Chesapeake Bay, but also recalls the floating farms I saw in Burma several years before. The Rhode River facility is a real place and wonderful to visit when you are in the area. \u00a0There was some research interest in the floating platform idea from Exxon, but it never came to anything, as far as I know. In 2009 I discovered that someone had taken this idea and made it a commercial venture.
\nI wrote JAKE’S in a single afternoon while my wife and daughter went shopping (OK, so they REALLY went shopping!) It was written on a portable Macintosh that I had borrowed for the trip.
\nAppeared in ANALOG , September 1993 Words: 6,200 Created : October 1992 Sold: November 1992\u00a0Illustrated by Christopher Bing<\/i><\/p>\n

RTRNRD:\u00a0<\/strong>Sometimes you have to have some fun. I decided to do a riff on a popular Christmas tale and R-TRNRD is what came about. I won’t speak too much of the story and ruin the jokes that populate this piece.The story pretty much wrote itself, after the basic idea was laid down. At the insistence of Stan Schmidt I had to research infra-red wavelengths to get that aspect right. Surprisingly, there was some fan mail on this. One fan wanted to know what the final words were and that letter, and my answer, appeared in the Brass Tacks section some time later.
\nAppeared in ANALOG,Mid-December 1992 – page 72\u00a0Created : August 1992 Sold: March 1993 Words: 5,700 Illustrated by: Dell Harris<\/i><\/p>\n

DAD<\/strong> was the first science fiction sale after I decided to return to writing SF and was written as a father’s day gift for my son. In this I recalled the white-water canoe camping trips we had taken on the Shennandoa River, near Luray, VA and Harper’s Ferry, WV.
\nThis is really a story about coming of age, when every boy realizes that he has become his father. I often think that this would make a wonderful story for The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone, were they still around. My mental image of the protagonist was a black boy, not the white one that illustrates this story. Jeff Kooistra, who has become a good friend as a result, was given credit for this story in the Table of Contents. A very large box containing an apology for the mix-up appeared in ANALOG two months later.
\nAppeared in ANALOG, June 1993\u00a0Created : June 1992 Sold: August 1992 Words:5,500 Illustrated by: Broeck Steadman<\/i><\/p>\n

THE HAT AND THE DRAGON:\u00a0<\/strong>After the local reaction to HUGO I decided to try something more difficult, quite out of character with the normal stories that appear in this magazine. The editor asked me to heighten the fantasy aspect while reducing the word count. I was quite surprised by the reactions to this sort of story by everyone I encountered. The editor\u00a0was so taken that she graced the article with a photo of yours truly. The story was featured as the central piece in the 1992 Annapolis Boat Show issue. This appeared just one year after I bought the hat featured in\u00a0the story.
\nAppeared in CHESAPEAKE BAY MAGAZINE, October 1992 Created : October 1991 Sold: March 1992 Words: 1,500 Photos by: John Sparhawk<\/i><\/p>\n

HUGO AND ME<\/strong> was my first writing submission after a thirteen year hiatus. This recounts, with slight exaggeration, my flight from the Severn River to the South River to protect my boat from hurricane Hugo. This is a humorous piece that shows what an inept sailor can encounter when confronted with the simplest of navigational problems.
\nAppeared in CHESAPEAKE BAY MAGAZINE, April 1992\u00a0Words: 1.500\u00a0Created : December 1990 Sold: January 1991\u00a0Illustrated by: Cindy Fletcher-Holden<\/i><\/p>\n

ALBA KRYSTAL<\/strong>\u00a0arose from three factors. First I had just taken my kids to see Disney’s SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS and thought that the plot could be easily converted to an SF theme. The\u00a0second factor was my anger at the untimely death of my dog. Apparently, some of those emotions bled through in the death scene in the latter part of the story. Harlan Elison contends that the tropes come through in the\u00a0language, even if the words aren’t there and I guess that happened here. Finally, I wondered if it was realistic that seven dwarfs could really be celibate around a sexy young woman. Ben Bova bought LIZARD’S CHILD\u00a0and changed the title. Because of the pressures of grad school, and the need to support my family, I stopped writing for thirteen years after this piece saw print.
\nAppeared in ANALOG, January, 1977\u00a0Created : June 1976 Sold: August 1976 Words:4,200
\nIllustrated by: Mike Hinge<\/i><\/p>\n

THE TOMPKINS BATTERY CASE:<\/strong>\u00a0Prior to this sale I’d written about 20-25 non-salable stories. The origins of this story were melodrama and\u00a0the song “Father, dear father, come home with me now…” which described a child begging his drunkard father to return to their sick mother. I guess the Six Million Dollar Man also had an influence on this in a weird way. \u00a0There must have been a run-in with some bureaucrat as well, and that came out in the last part. This was written on a plane trip out of Okinawa.
\nAppeared in: ANALOG, August 1976 – page 123\u00a0Created March 1975 (Revised June 2004) Sold: April 1975 Words: 4,200\u00a0Illustrated by: Doug Beeman<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0SAM BOONE AND THE THERMAL COUPLES is an examination of translation of alien speech, particularly with whom we share few physical attributes, was an\u00a0idea that I had been considering for years. This particular piece was\u00a0inspired in part by the old … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.budsparhawk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}