We May See Moon and Mars Colonies in Our Lifetimes

 

In my novella, Olympus, I describe a domed city where survivors of Earth’s apocalypse live to preserve the human race from extinction. The technology and world created borders on science fact rather than science fiction.

Some people may not realize how close we are to colonies on the Moon and Mars. We may see a Moon colony within the next five to ten years. Planning for a colony on Mars has already begun. NASA is involved, of course, but much of the technology and funding will come from private enterprise. This photo shows a vision of a Mars colony as designed by SpaceX, the company run by Elon Musk. If you are still asking the question, what for? Go to Google and enter the search “Why is space exploration so important?”

Social Media is important for branding an author, but...

It's nice to have crossed a threshold on Twitter with 2,000 followers. Social media for an author is not about selfies and what I had for lunch (tuna salad, dry toast, a Duck donut--haha!) Seriously, the friendships gained and nourished are certainly important to me, especially my longtime friends. Love is a good word. In addition, it's about the brand--the more people who notice the author, the more likely they'll consider what I've written. Social media is absolutely critical during a pandemic when many bookstores are closed. But even better advice is, the best way to get one book noticed is to have more than one out there. So it's back to my writing desk to write the next sequel, or brand new story. I hope you take a look at my novella Olympus by Fred J. Lauver on Amazon Kindle Reader or through a free app download to your device.

The Blacklist Offers New Screenwriters A Better Spotlight

Photo Credit: Pretendagers movie

The word for today is meritocracy.

Some writers in the workshops I've attended have been working on screenplays. Getting a screenplay noticed in Hollywood is a very daunting task, but there is one private group founded by Franklin Leonard called The Blacklist. If you listened to National Public Radio this a.m., you heard this story's broadcast. The Blacklist was named in honor of the blacklisted members of the film industry during the McCarthy era. This blacklist is a very good list for screenwriters and started as an anonymous project. Leonard was reading thousands of screenplays in an exhausting effort to recommend the best of them to a film producer. Most of the scripts he read before the Blacklist were terrible, to be honest.

He said, "There has to be a better way." He said wading through scripts was like walking into a bookstore in which there are no book covers, no organization of books, and no reviews.

The Blacklist is a meritocracy, which to a new screenwriter helps level the playing field. In other words, industry professionals may read a handful of submitted scripts instead of thousands. However, the professionals who do read vote for their favorites. Your screenplay is not read by everyone, but when a screenplay receives enough votes, it floats to the top of the pile out of thousands. The result so far has been several Academy Awards for previously unknown screenwriters.

The catch is, there is a monthly fee of $30 per month per script that allows your script to be downloaded and read by industry professionals (non-professionals are not give access to your script). Someone has to pay for the web site and associated professionals. If you feel you're not quite ready for prime time, they also offer a professional EVALUATION of your script, presently at $50 per 1/2 hour pilot, and $75 for a feature-length screenplay.

The Blacklist is a legit submission industry group. There are underhanded "Hollywood" agents out there who will charge a "reading fee" your work with no intention of submitting a good script, or even reading it. Franklin Leonard took a brilliant, why-didn't-I-think-of-that idea and turned it around for the benefit of both Hollywood and screenwriters.

Plagues Have Always Been With Us

Plagues have been with us since the beginning of life on Earth. Archaeologists have uncovered a devastating plague from 5,000 years ago. Hopefully, a vaccine will be ready within the next year to end the pandemic. All historic plagues eventually do, but some have been unbelievably devastating. 

HIV/AIDS continues as a threat and has killed 25 to 35 million people. The Spanish Flu of 1918-19 killed 40 to 50 million. The Plague of Justinian in 541-542 AD killed 30 to 50 million and hastened the fall of the Roman Empire. Smallpox killed 56 million in 1520. Black Death was the giant of plagues in the mid-1300s. Bubonic Plague wiped out 200 million people and 30% to 50% of Europe. It took 200 years to recover the population lost. If they had known that it was fleas on rats that brought the plague, they might have prevented much of the catastrophe. 

Covid-19 evolved from the SARS-COV2 virus (Any claim that Covid-19 was manufactured in a lab is total nonsense. Microbiologists cannot outdo nature in evolving the structure of the virus at its current ability to infect humans). There are strange diseases in the animal world. In 1968, I picked up a lung infection in the jungles of SE Asia. I was quite sick and coughing blood, followed by hallucinations and being unconscious for three days. No doctor was able to identify the infection, but fortunately, I recovered. Some of the symptoms were not unlike SARS/Covid. I'm convinced that when the balance of nature becomes severely out of balance and civilizations mistreat their environments, nature fights back through evolving organisms.

When I watch news reports, it's almost like they are treating it like a contest. Who is number 1 in cases? America is number 1 in the world.  They count the daily totals as though they are counting telethon donations. But, unlike the Black Death, we know what can stop this virus. We know that masks, disinfectant, and staying home can prevent deaths and prevent the spread. The science wasn't sophisticated enough in the Middle Ages to understand how disease spread. What is lacking in sophistication now is common sense. When future generations look back on us, will they shake their heads and say, "They just weren't smart enough to stop the epidemic"?  

Dreams Can Inspire Your Next Work of Fiction

I'm thinking about dreams this morning because last night I had a very strange dream. Often I may have a nightmare about being lost, or someone with a weapon is after me, or being funny enough to do stand up comedy. I once dreamed of hosting Saturday Night Live. I've also dreamed about writing a hit song (that was lost after awakening), walking on the Moon in which I remember being in a domed city, how the artificial atomosphere felt to breathe, and the crunch of the surface under my feet. That very dream was turned into a short story to be released July 15, 2020, by DLG Publishing as a short story titled "Olympus."

I've met Cleopatra in dreams, as well as sailed on a 19th-century ship across the Atlantic. Six months before the Three Mile Island accident, I had a dream that mirrored the actual accident. In waking life, I was in the same exact place and time in Middletown as events unfolded as I had in the dream. In 1971, I had the most emotional dream of my life. After a former fiance died, I was grieving to the point of reckless abandon. I had taken ownership of her sports car and nearly wiped out while driving. The thought of taking someone else with me scared me into being more careful, but I was still a mess. The dream was as real as they get.

The woman I almost married came to me in the dream dressed in white, and said in a firm tone just sort of scolding, "Your grief is well taken, but your place is among the living."

Dreams have found their way into my writing and a new twist on time travel is planned for a future novel--all because of a dream. Dreams can be wondrous, frightening, or so beautiful that you hate waking up. As a teenager, I chronically dreamed of being romantically involved with a movie star upon whom I had a hopeless crush. It was very innocent, but overwhelmingly captivating. In those dreams, when I realized I was awakening, I was greatly disappointed and struggled to go back to sleep, determined to resume that dream world. I succeeded only once--the rest were over faster than a Hollywood marriage and I had to face my day in reality. Still, dreams have offered me a rich source of material to where I can go back and live in them through written words.

Often, dreams symbolize our worst fears and others are just plain stupid. We find ourselves in the middle of a plot or story for which we have no clue how we got there or how we became involved with strangers in their drama. There are those who believe we are interacting with the Astral Plane while sleeping, but I cannot say I am aware of any such ability--with the exception, possibly, my late fiance coming to me. I have not yet hosted Saturday Night Live or felt the lunar regolith beneath my feet.

As for the dream last night, in case you are still interested in this tome (by Facebook and Twitter standards), I dreamed I could levitate off the ground and float along in any direction quite easily--as I decided to do so for no other reason than to show off to a group of people seated at a picnic table just before I entered a public restroom. When I came out of the men's room, I realized I had encroached upon enemy territory and a huge warrior about a foot and a half taller than me grabbed me by the shirt collar and raised a sword big enough to cut off the head of a dragon above my head ready to strike me. In the dream, I was more powerful. I easily overtook the man, broke free of his grip, blocked his sword and disarmed him, and picked him up off the ground by the neck and tossed him to the ground. I didn't harm him, but he was completely disoriented. I just walked away. No one said that dreams have literary merit, but who knows what could end up in a story after plugging holes in the logic. The rest of the dream morphed into a bloody battle of ninja like soldiers armed with automatic weapons, but I'll save the rest of the story--not for the couch of a psychiatrist, but for some work of fiction.

What crazy dreams have you had?   

Revisiting My Blog

 I've decided to give my blog another go, in case you've had anxiety over my lack of posts. Since the last time, I've had two short stories published and a new short story about a post-apocalyptic city on the Moon, "Olympus," about to be published. I actually completed three novels, but my original intent was to publish them as a trilogy. I decided instead to publish each to stand on their own, so I'm starting a rewrite of the first book. Authors, like painters, often take a longer look at their creations and decide it's just not good enough. In the meanwhile, I decided it was a good idea to raise my appeal among publishers by publishing some short stories. A mentor, author Catherine Jordan, whom I admire, accused me of not writing enough. Catherine's workshops are the reason I've become a better writer, as has my wife Carol, now published, and my daughter, Amy K. Lauver, whose novel Soulbound, will be released on September 20. Catherine was correct about my productivity. I could claim I write a great deal if I include Facebook and Twitter, but I have no chance of a Pulitzer Prize in social media. Which is the reason I am returning here. I have no problem turning a 280 character opinion into a 5,000-word essay. My posts are often way too long on Facebook. I prefer a more leisurely stroll.

I tend to become distracted by multiple interests, including an in-depth examination of my family history. I've discovered a few very interesting stories in my family tree that I may turn into books or short stories. They include such tales, all verified as true, as my 5th-great-grandfather who lived to age 124; my 10th great-grandmother accused of being a witch in New England in the mid-1600s; my ancestor who slew the Prince of Wales and became knighted; my grandfather who survived near death wounds on a French WWI battlefield and married the nurse who cared for him.

History is also full of interesting ideas for fiction or nonfiction, including a young woman who was born in my county of residence and, at age 29, was the last woman hanged in Boston in 1789. Rachel Schmidt Wall, if indeed that was her real name, is part legend and part tragic figure. She was hanged for "highway robbery," pleading her innocence to the end. But the legend of her being America's first lady pirate has far exceeded the evidence. Her story will either be an exoneration of her alleged crimes and history corrected, or it will turn into a novel of piracy. It's an interesting quandary. 

I have more to say, but that's enough for your reading endurement.

Stay healthy, my friends,
The Time Voyager.

New Tool in the War Against Robocallers and Phone Scammers

I'm not posting this as an advertisement. I'm posting this as sweet revenge against telemarketing scammers (TMs) and robocallers. And there's something new that's FREE. Since I work at home writing, researching, and catching up on your latest Facebook news, interruptions from illegal TMs have driven me crazy, despite being on the Do-No-Call (DNC) list. Now they're starting to call cell phones, so dropping the landline is not an answer. TMs ignore the DNC and use fake caller ID numbers.

 

I've tried taking advantage of Verizon's call management to block specific numbers from TMs and annoying "surveyors." I posted a complaint on Verizon's community bulletin board, which, at the time, they only allowed up to 10 blocked numbers, a very silly limit with millions of illegal scam calls out there. There was a storm of agreement in public comments. Soon afterwards, they raised the limit to 100 numbers. Using that, aside from wasting my time, cut the number of robocalls in half, but it did not stop them. They change their fake numbers frequently.

The federal government has received hundreds of thousands of complaints over violations of the DNC. So, they sponsored a contest to reward the first company to come up with a better idea using technology. The winner was this company, Nomorobo. Dozens of landline, wireless, and internet phone companies are participating, including Verizon, AT&T, Xfinity, Skype, etc. And the great thing is, it's free. It should be. The phone companies have failed to stop TMs.

I installed Nomorobo this morning. It's easy if you can access your phone management on the web. I tested it and I'm ready to see what happens. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how it's working.